egg

Probably because he's ended up at Villa and ain't overjoyed that having aimed for the moon he's landed on a cloud.

Nketiah would be a very good shout, but where did you get that price from? Arsenal would want serious money for him - they dismissed £25m out of hand for Smith-Rowe and this lad is just as much a talent.

Fantasy

Case was close for me. I loved watching him play. Made the game look easy.

Yep. It's obvious that villa were never on his agenda, he probably wanted Spurs or City. They didn't want him, or at least not at our price. Once we knew what Villa were willing to pay I suspect we've been tough with him, possibly "stay and you ain't playing so good luck persuading anyone to take you next year". We've done well here and I couldn't give a monkeys which club gave us the money.

I agree with that, although I wander if the whole thing came out of discussions about JWP, ie Villa enquired about him, we said he ain't available but offered Ings, and it went from there. I think the Minamino deal happened in a similar way last season. The weird thing is I can't see where Ings will fit into their system, unless Watkins gets benched. Guaranteed starts here, a longer contract on the table, but he goes where he has competition and a shorter contract.

Here's a thought, why not ask Hypo whether he accepts that racism still exists rather than assume that he doesn't? I say that as I've followed the thread, and he hasn't said what you think he's said - his point was that the UK is not institutionally racist. That has nothing to do with organisations who have had racism issues. Regardless, sadly we'll always have racists amongst us. On the actual subject of the thread, the point many make is that footballer players taking the knee won't stop those racists from being racist. It's not doing any good, and it won't change the mindset of an idiot. Against, that background, what's the point of keeping on with it? What good do people think it will actually do?

Van Dijk and Shearer. Best defender and best centre forward I've seen in a saints shirt.

Rugby

You're a properly shit troll mate.

I haven't looked at other clubs accounts, but I'd hazard a guess that if incomes are similar, the difference will be our wages. We've been paying a load of deadwood players (and ex management / staff) for ages and that's dragged us down. Shocking decisions have hurt us.

Other clubs finances are irrelevant to ours. We could have shit players on £30-40k PW and be OK financially but not compete. However we have better players on £60k + PW so are more competitive, but that comes at the expense of having to sell to balance the books. It's crap, but it's where we are sadly.

I get all this, and what SKD says, but economically we had to sell this summer as we can't just bin off £30m. As Villa were the club offering the money, we had to take it. As hard as it is to stomach, Villa are no longer at our level. They're propped up with money, and we're treading water.

Behave. It was a simple choice of taking £30m and replacing as best we can, or getting fuck all next year and having a half arsed player coasting through that year. And who gives a shit what club gives us the £30m. Cash is cash. Shambles of a reaction.

£30m is decent but where the fuck did that come from?! Must have offered him some crazy dollars, perhaps to jump ahead of Spurs. I bet you there'll be no signs of "long Covid" now he's got his move.

Yep. A half arsed player who could walk free next year is no good. Take the money and reinvest.

Cheers. Wasn't Tchaptchet rumoured to be on his way? Shame if so.

What's happened to Ramelo Mitchell? Seems to have disappeared.

You still don't get it. Objective people can see that this particular protest isn't working, or even helping. Comments in this thread, and others like it, prove that. I don't have an issue with the knee, I just can't see the point of doing something that isn't doing any good. A lot of people also think it a shame that players and clubs feel compelled to do this. I've heard it from the horses mouth. Hypochondriac has said the same above. If anyone doubts that players don't have a choice in this, just look at Brentford. Last season they (probably the most inclusive club btw) decided that this was a load of bollox and ditched it. This season, they're joining in.

He's been back a while Weston...too early to tell if Warriorsaint is yet another login.

Slightly surprised by that, but he's not first team ready (or material) but regular games at a higher level than u23's won't do him any harm. The u23 side is looking very weak this season, and if we plunder the u18's again they'll struggle as well. Will be interesting.

Ha!! I'll divide myself equally between the left door, right door, and all the others on between. On one knee. I think that covers it.

You know what, grand idea. I'll exit left.

That's the sort of lazy comment my last post was alluding to. Not one person has said that they are enraged by it. Read what people are actually saying. Considering it a pointless and unhelpful exercise is not being enraged by it.

I was just allowing some tolerance mate. I'm not sure that racism was a necessary part of our evolution, but sadly it's not going away. What the solution is I don't know, but the knee isn't it. The sad thing is that we'll soon have people piping up with accusations that people who don't believe the knee is productive are "racism apologists", or worse.