Window Cleaner

And John Barnes now weighing in. Seems that some think that you just have to have a regulation dose of BAME (whatever that means) people in football management. Nothing to do with ability or results or whatever you've just got to have the right number (or more)...

So they like you to think!!

Troy Townsend, whoever he may be.

Perhaps it's something to do with the number of Sky Subscribers in the Newcastle region. I mean if they were on 19 times that's half of their games isn't it.

Kind of makes sense then. If we were an "eyesore" last season you can understand why we weren't programmed so much this season.

Ah right, way back in September, must have been on holiday then.

Can't be much more dodgy than some of these 3rd world betting companies that seem to be flourishing on shirts nowadays. Much rather have a sponsor that's trying to sell clobber in China than one who's trying to encourage people in the Congo and Uganda to bet.

Did we have any Monday night games at all ?

Now Everton's shirt sponsor aren't they ? Think I've seen the name on some Formula 1 car or other as well.

They turned up for 60 minutes! That's a positive then.

They'd have been better placed if they'd had been able to beat fellow strugglers, Burnley, Huddersfield and Fulham. Therein lies the secret of Premier League survival.

So Hants are a bit bogged down chasing a pretty reasonable total. Must be tricky batting today. Vince and Rossouw had us back on the required rate after 26 overs or so but since then Vince has been run out and we're not scoring very quickly again. Predictably Alsop and Donald contributed very little to the total and Northeast made 0 (or 1) can't remember exactly.

Don't see why not, other poor teams seem to be able to sign good players. Just need to pay them enough money.

Not looking like a great start for Hants today. Lancs 126/2 after 21 or so. 2 batsmen moving on to big'ish scores. Donald and Alsop will be opening for us later....hmmmm Well Crane bowled Jennings but we're still getting tonked. Might not end well. Markram looking like a big miss already. And as I write, Crane gets the big tonker Vilas.

So if those figures are anywhere near accurate we're getting less than last season by about 5 million. Strange.

Nah, they don't pay a lot of money for defenders. They want goalscorers and flair players for their money. Spanish football innit.

Now I'd say that Ajax didn't know how to defend a 3 goal lead against a side full of good players that had nothing left to lose. Spurs came at them and they just didn't know what to do. Looked like they were still trying to score more goals. Barca just cracked from the start, played rough and got done at their own game.

Doubt if any other team but Liverpool would have given us 70 million or so for him either. They needed a CB of his quality, can't remember who else did at that time. Still they made the ECL cup final in his first season there so it paid off for them, and has done again this season. The extra money from 2 ECL finals will have just about covered the sum they paid for him. If only we'd used the money more wisely instead of squandering it on garbage like Carrillo, Elynoussi and the yet to come 20 million for Ings.

Perhaps we could give them Ings in part exchange once we've given Liverpool whatever it is we have to give them for him.

They surely are but with Blind at CB and Schone as a DM they are fragile if the opposition have the right kind of players. Llorente is kind of an old fashioned CF, he's a bit past it but he stood on Blind and let the rest of the Spurs side surge forward. In short he used his experience. Didn't Ajax come from behind to beat Juventus ? Maybe Real as well. Perhaps they've not yet learnt to handle being ahead.

I'd have thought so as well. Ajax cracked pretty easily once Spurs rattled their bars a bit. Vastly overated by some because they have weaknesses that can be exploited by experienced players.

So you get a divorce, which is kind of what Virgil did...

Here I'm referring to the 2014/15 season, we were still 3rd after the 24th round of matches and eventually finished 7th, 2 points behind Liverpool in 6th. We seemed to be going somewhere, Koeman was doing a pretty good job and we would have been a attractive proposition for Virgil. Then in Virgil's first season we signed some good'ish players and made 6th. Then suddenly it all fell apart, Koeman left for Everton, good players were sold and the club was reportedly up for sale, with the consequences we've seen of late.

I've always suspected that Les Reed had a sort of England mania. If you were playing for the England Unders at some level or other you were like a magnet to him and he'd offer you shedloads of cash and a long contract just to have you in the club. Whatever happened to all those lads who were top dogs in the England U17s and all that? Did any of them ever make good?

Not really. We were no longer the club for which he signed. Same is probably true for most of the others.