shurlock

Clyne has been consistent in that he wants international football. He's got that with us. Liverpool is obviously a bigger club; but it's not a top club and nowhere near the top four. As long as he continues to be picked for England, especially with a major tournament around the corner, a move, in the short-term, might be less urgent. There are no guarantees that any move would be successful which would only upset his international chances at a crucial time for Clyne.

I remember them saying that Clasie was a bit lightweight and might struggle with the physical side of the english game. That was last summer, though.

It's more than an Altidore every now and again. Would say the failures outweigh the successes, or at the very least, are more evenly distributed than you suggest. Your point is weakened by the fact that you're citing players from a very different era -overmars, van persie, robben, van nistelrooy etc- when most observers will tell you that the league has fallen off in the last few years as other leagues have got richer and skimmed off players at an earlier age.

Its about finding hidden and sometimes unlikely relationships in large data sets that otherwise go unnoticed to extract value. But I've seen no evidence that those relationships meaningfully exist in football -compared to stats that everyone looks at (which are arguably not overvalued by the market). And even if Shane Long contributes to winning in other ways than just scoring goals -hence the dubious and illiterate references to MoneyBall (indeed I would argue Long's qualities are not overlooked by the transfer market, so again priced correctly), I've ultimately seen no evidence to suggest that contribution is worth anything like the £12m we forked out.

Not sure what's worse -ITK fantasists or the helmets who, in response, declare to the world they're 'out'. Its not Dragons Den.

That's not Moneyball, that's simple budgetary discipline. Shane Long is anti-Moneyball.

Don't remember Forster making many saves of note, though.

Edit

He looked very good at the World Cup. Certainly, wouldn't mind if we signed him.

United at home (unluckiest)

Thought it was very poor.

What is a moneyball player?

Whether they took their foot off the pedal or we bucked up, thought we deserved something in the second half. Mané was particularly dangerous and is going to be huge next season. We really need a striker who has a bit more burst in the box, that yard of pace to get a shot off. We threaded some lovely through balls today that another striker -dare I say it a Hernandez- would have lapped up - alas Pelle was either offside because he needed a headstart or he ran down blind alleys.

MLG at his irrelevant best.

If we didn't have Long, it would be a no-brainer. As it is, not sure he's quite what we need.

Not keen on the white stripes at the top. Some more black like the old Hummel kits would have been nice.

Think you're largely seeing what you want to see.

Vardy's playing through injury. Needs prematch injections in his foot.

Still too early to say as none of the candidates are 'ideological' in any real sense. For instance, it's not clear what Burnham believes in. For a prospective Labour leader, Cooper's article seemed more Tory than the Tories. It's quite possible to be for free and open competition while being slightly sceptical of the claims of big business which, understandably, has an interest in restricting competition. There are many practices that sophisticated businesses and businessmen are unhappy with -some with quite radical policy implications; rather than take these by the nettle, the tendency is for some on the left to be cowed into a corner out of fear being labelled anti-enterprise.

I find it superficial and little more than defensive sloganeering, myself.

Nor do you it seems. He started very well for us and showed real glimpses of class, that's why quite a few didn't go over the top when he hit a sticky spell of form.

Is a ref ever going to do something about Smalling?

I thought you 'loved it' when we got shane long.

Or gets a hat-trick at the backend of an absolute rout of the opposition. Celebrations are unnecessary and a bit tinpot.

Agree, all things considered, it would be a very good result.