stevegrant

Nope

Their problem is that sports news just doesn't happen 24 hours a day, so they either have to regurgitate the same news over and over all day until something new happens, or they create a false sense of stuff actually happening by reporting on what less-than-reliable sources are saying. Since they took the slightly weird decision to push SSN to the top of the sports section of the Sky EPG at 401 (thereby completely ****ing up the channel numbering for their actual sport channels ) they'd had to justify that by ensuring the content varies by the hour so people don't just switch on, see that the news hasn't changed, and then swiftly **** off to another channel. Hence why they have all these social media polls which Arsenal fans seem to strangely love rigging in their favour and continually refer to Twitter and Instagram when there's literally nothing else to say. They're catering for a certain audience, the short-attention-span monkeys who only want to hear stuff about what a big name had for breakfast #chilling. In summary: Sky Sports News

Wasn't that fee based on all the various add-ons being paid? For 3 goals in 13 games, I can't imagine we paid any of them.

I'd fully expect Sky Sports News to broadcast a "Sky Sources" piece if they told them the transfer window had suddenly been closed and Jim ****ing White had missed it. It seems it's not a particularly necessary part of journalism or broadcasting to actually validate and verify stories these days.

Is there enough pie ingredients in the world for this?

At least they've scored slowly enough to not come close to maximum batting points. James Vince as first bowling change is an absolutely terrifying state of affairs...

€75k, I suspect.

Why? No other club acts like angels when conducting business, it's a cut-throat world. By the sound of it Atlético agreed to a fee if we wanted to take up that option, which they could cancel by paying a fee by a certain date. They haven't done so. Why would we pay £5m more than we need to? We're not Man United, we don't have endless pots of money to not give a **** about the price of something.

My assumption is it was the end of June, considering this has only really blown up now, but for whatever reason those in the club have been very confident that he would remain here.

Everything I've heard for months is that those involved in the transfer are "very confident" of getting the deal done. It would appear that this is why...

His performances rather mirrored the whole team last season, excellent at the start of the season but faded badly after Christmas.

£10 a pop.

Tends to be Doctor Who enthusiasts, strangely.

Barcelona's financial reporting isn't known for its accuracy tbf In terms of this deal, I can only shrug my shoulders really. Strange one, he was a popular player and yet never had a song despite making 100+ appearances, and for me his attitude and performances in the second half of the season leave me feeling completely unbothered by his departure. Most of last summer's sales brought tinges of sadness for various reasons, but I just can't raise any particular disappointment here. Good player, certainly, but irreplaceable? Not a chance.

Reading between the lines a bit, I'm sure things were said last year along the lines of "sure, if a Champions League side comes in for you and matches our valuation of you, we'll let you leave, but you're not going to Spurs this summer". As things stand, none of the 4 clubs who qualified for the Champions League have made an offer that matches our valuation (whether that's £25m, £30m or somewhere in between, depending on who you believe) - hopefully he is a bit more measured dealing with the situation this summer, as I don't expect Man United to just hand over the asking price immediately. He's probably going to have to be very patient. In the meantime, I'd be very surprised if we weren't already setting up deals elsewhere - with the club's cashflow boosted in May with the PL prize money, it shouldn't be a case of not having the cash to do deals until we sell.

The top clubs, who are almost always the most popular...

Northants set a new record low of 79 last year, without winning a single game and only collecting 4 draws. I think even we will end up with a few more than that.

Sean Terry is our most in-form batsman. Never thought I'd ever be saying that...

That is not and has never been the way newspapers work, sub-editors have always added the headlines.

Generally, yes. He's one of the more respected journalist/pundits.

He used to use quotes taken from interviews in the Saints matchday programme and claim them as exclusives as well. Largely got away with it because hardly anyone reads the programme these days.

Ultimately if it's sent from Crook's email account with his name attached to it, he should expect to be on the receiving end of all questions regarding the quality of the work. It'll be him, through M&Y, that'll cash the cheque for it, after all...

Agreed. He's been one of our more consistent performers, which admittedly isn't actually saying much. Where's Dawson going? We really are an absolute shambles on and off the pitch at the moment

Apparently the Daily Star are the best payers for freelancers, which seems strange for a paper with such low circulation numbers. If I were them, I'd be seeking better value for money elsewhere...

Blind was already earmarked as his successor at the end of his contract after the Euros, all that will happen is that succession will be accelerated. I'm not in the slightest bit concerned.