stevegrant

I thought that in the first half we did play very well up until the point at which we needed to be more clinical with the final pass. I suspect that were it a qualifier, we wouldn't have been quite so keen to try to walk the ball into the net and play pretty triangles around their 10 defenders on the edge of the area, and we'd have carved out enough openings to be 3 or 4 up. Rooney is going to be a massive problem, though, as everyone expected. If we're going to play two up top, which I've no real issue with if it suits the rest of the team, he needs to stay up there, not continually drop deep in an attempt to get involved all the time, as it just leaves Sturridge isolated. Second half was garbage until the last 20 minutes or so when Sterling moved a bit more central and caused them loads of grief. Thought Delph looked good when he came on, Milner was solid as well (except for that one hilarious shank out of play which has been Vined to death already ). Defence remains a concern, largely because of the lack of protection they're afforded by the midfield. The 4 picked last night of Sterling, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere and Henderson has no defensive strength at all, Xerdhan Shaqiri will have a field day in that space on Monday night

I've just gone onto the ticket sales website and can get tickets in all price categories (£30,£40,£50,£60), as well as the family section (£20).

OK, own up, who's hacked alpine_saint's account?

Yep. They (rightly) decided it was a potential conflict of interests to let a loan player play against the club that owns his registration as he might not try hard enough etc, but I think it's a bit of a sham anyway. Take Chelsea loaning Lukaku to Everton last season, they could do so safe in the knowledge that he can't hurt them because he couldn't play against them, but he can do so against all their rivals. Loans between clubs in the same division should be banned, if a player's not good enough to get games for you, loan him to another country or division, or sell him.

Overnight declaration after scoring 449 runs in 95.5 overs yesterday, 194 ahead going into the final day. You'd have to think that a win here would more or less seal promotion, putting us 32 points ahead of Surrey with two to play.

People apparently care so little about the England team that they'll start threads about it on internet forums...

I think if we take the (pretty reasonable) assumption that the players who were released were deemed not good enough to play for a team competing in the middle third of the Premier League, we're at least no worse off. The likes of Barnard, Fox and Sharp weren't going to be getting a game in a month of Sundays, so they might as well have not been there last season either, while Guly and Hooiveld, as much as I liked both of them during their time with us, were players who wouldn't get a start now unless we had an injury crisis of biblical proportions. There's probably around £5m worth of wages saved there, which can be invested elsewhere. Our bench on Saturday at West Ham: K Davis, Gardos, Hooiveld, Ramirez, Cork, Wanyama, Mayuka Swap out those who have since left with those who have arrived, and even our bench looks really strong all of a sudden. Potentially a subs bench of Boruc, Gardos, Yoshida, Mane/Long, Cork, Wanyama, Rodriguez. Throw in the likes of Targett, Reed and Gallagher, maybe Isgrove as well, who have at least held their own when called upon, and there does have the feeling of more quality waiting in the wings than at any time last season (hopefully with Ramirez to return full of confidence after a season of actually getting regular games).

Apparently they expected to be able to announce the return of Luciano Becchio on loan at the same time as Smith and Poleon were being sold, but they did the outbound deals and then Becchio told them to **** off and went and signed for Rotherham instead

Well of course, you do it often enough.

Potentially a record for us, but almost certainly not for other clubs.

He's certainly able to do so. At times this summer, my opinion is that he has chosen not to, having been swept up by the apparent negative momentum over much of the summer. He (and the BBC in general) has been unable to break exclusives as he has in the past, often being beaten to the scoop by either Gordon Simpson or Simon Peach, the latter of whom was barely in the country for most of the summer, so it's understandable that he's been frustrated by that.

Arsenal have hidden behind "safety reasons" for not giving the full 9,000 for cup games against both Spurs and Chelsea. Seems like a load of ******** to me, but I guess we should bear in mind that around 3500 of the 9,000 allocation would be in the upper tier, which potentially makes segregation difficult.

It's worth bearing in mind that Blackmore's thoughts over the summer have been "angled" to an extent by the fact that nearly every one of his close sources within the club has been sold this summer. The only one that remains is one whose contract situation is yet to be resolved...

There are the written rules, and then there is "what actually happens in real life". This isn't a computer game. Just like with transfers, clubs aren't allowed to contact players or their representatives without permission of their current club, and yet strangely it happens all the time

That's not really how it works. The home club says to the away club "this is what we plan to charge", the away club either accepts it or can take it to the competition's organisers (in this case the Football League) and contest it if they think it's unfair. To suggest that both clubs sit down and discuss the pricing (when Arsenal ALWAYS charge £10 for home league cup games) is simply wrong.

I don't know whether this is an initial allocation and we can get more if required or not, but I suspect the club may have one eye on the Arsenal cup game three days later, where tickets are a tenner and it's a much easier trip for most people.

In May we were all paying a fiver. £35 this season...

My interpretation is that he assumed he was guaranteed a start without having to actually earn it. Meh, hasn't cost us much, next!

An interview he very soon afterwards said was basically made up.

I assume Craig is just reporting what he's been told/leaked by Spurs, rather than actually checking whether it's factual or not. Top top reporting

Arsenal have been a bit sneaky with away cup allocations in the last few years, seeking to hide behind "safety concerns" with giving teams the full 9,000. They played Chelsea and Spurs at home in cup games last season, and on both occasions the away team were only given 6,000 instead of the full 9,000 (which is split 6,000 lower tier, 3,000 upper tier), which caused a bit of a backlash. The Chelsea game in the league cup was still priced at £10 for lower tier tickets though, which bodes well.

Who values him at £5m? I've not seen any club offer that sort of money for him, or indeed any money at all. The only supposed offer came from Palace for £3m, news of which was met with utter confusion by those at SFC as no such bid had been made.

I've seen nothing to suggest that doesn't still happen. It's also nothing especially new in professional sport, happens all over the place but most people don't feel the need to shout about it.

In what bizarre world is it where it makes the slightest difference? They get the train to London, stay in a hotel and the coach takes them from the hotel to the ground.

So both clubs were lying in their official statements confirming the deals, then?