shurlock

How did you get tickets in the end?

Because he's not very good? And people usually refer to him in the context of taking the pîśś -how for some quality goes out the window as long as a player bleeds red and white.

Rightly or wrongly, Koeman has shown very little interest in a strategy, however defined -he's not a project man. Only difference is that last season the club was happy to turn a blind eye while he was successful; now results have gone against us, it's seemingly digging it's heels in. It's also overlooked how much our strategy and ability to showcase players depend on us consistently doing well in the league: the only reason we make profits on players -and thus can strengthen the side- is because top 4 clubs want them. But the idea that will continue in the future is a very strong assumption. If players, even ones with potential, are in a struggling side or even a side that seems streaky, we're far less likely to attract such interest -all while those players are one year closer to being free agents.

I suggest you step and actually watch him play, pal. He will never be a high energy box to box midfielder. If he does become that, it'll be contrary to everything he's done in his career so far.

Oi Richards, you're f**king s**t.

Clasie had a Yoshida moment. Maybe these are terms you'll find easier to understand.

I'm talking about our line-up (Mané and Long).

To be fair it's not that much different from the Arsenal line up (in which only 2 attacking players featured). Today we effectively played with only 3 at the back, so if anything it was more adventurous than 4-4-2. And Mane and Long played much closer together down the middle as they did against Arsenal.

Today notwithstanding, I disagree.

Sounded like we created and tested the keeper much more today than against Wham and Norwich. Can count ourselves very unlucky.

We played 3-5-2 when we comprehensively beat palace last season too.

Relax. You're trying too hard.

Oh yeh, your argument is that there are likely to be more Hillsborough victims in the Liverpool end. (Quite apart from being possibly false), that's a proper moral and ethical clincher. Maimonides would be proud. You ever thought of going on the Moral Maze and dispensing your wisdom there. Fact is you couldn't give two shîts whether we're talking about victims of Hillsborough or the Holocaust and are only taking sides to the extent you think the reaction to the incident is over the top and unjustified. No luck needed.

So they were 'referencing' a historical massacre now? And by massacre, I guess what you really meant to say was the systematic, industrially organised extermination of six million people, right? Just in the same way you about to point out the difference between a hate crime and nonhate crime. And why the former impinges on basic human values that might concern the rest of us - and only utter c**ts put this down to faux outrage. Without wanting to put words in your mouth, I assume you were going to acknowledge that there were probably a fair number of Jewish supporters in the Spurs end, that even if one supporter was offended (much in the same way as any Hillsborough survivor/victim), that was one too many -and anyway such bean counting is macabre, disingenuous and ultimately futile. Thanks for putting me at ease, pal.

Kuenssberg is a woeful journo -shrill, reductive and trite. Almost miss Nick Robinson.

Not really. There's an investment lag - it takes time to see results. Remember many of the kids reaching maturity now would have been found and trained over the past 7-10 years ago, basically coinciding with our lean period. I don't know if investment in the Academy will have direct, linear benefits but this cohort or crop of players can't be used to evaluate it either way.

Good lad. Love your enthusiasm.

I know as the Nick Clegg of the mboard, you make a living out of chopping and changing your views to be appear right-on. But you were a massive fan of Gallagher, telling us all how, having followed his progress, you had no worries about starting him and thought he was very classy for a big man. What's changed -it's certainly not a surfeit of opportunities.

Hesketh started against Burnley, not Everton.

MP played Ryan Mason in 2014/15, preferring him over Dembele and Paulinho among others. Previously, Mason had been on loan to Orient and Swindon. In the main, he's a bang average player -arguably not that much better than Reed- but was nonetheless given a chance.

Less than a game = point proven ?????

Or simple mean reversion.

If they're not good enough for the first team, they're not good enough. End of. That said, it's slightly surprising that the likes of Seager don't train regularly with the first team squad -Koeman implies it happens only occasionally. I thought uncle Les' vision of love, peace and happiness was that youngsters, whether they were first team/squad or not, would train with the first team on a regular basis. Guess that, in part, explains why another one of Les' sacred cows -keeping loans to a very minimum- seems to have gone the way of the dodo. There's less point developing the likes of Jack Stephens and Jason McCarthy inhouse when they're not facing Pelle, Mané, Tadic et al. in training.