Lighthouse

They were chances, not sitters.

😆 I didn’t need my Danish phrase book to translate that one.

Red Sea defending there from Leeds.

Good composure from Salisu there, then lost his man 30s later.

He did tire badly against Newcastle and if he still isn’t fully match fit he could fade again playing twice in four days. Overall it looks like a decent call from Ralph, likewise the decision to drop Ings.

The Simpsons - This one opens another unnecessary can of worms. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56166823

Palace really haven’t created much, which begs the question - Ayew Being Served. Edit: No sooner have I said, great finish there. Where was the marking?

I expect a St Mary's record attendance for our first pre-season friendly.

The whole black box thing is just a myth. Plenty of clubs have been using data analysis software to analyse players for years, we just had a period of generally good recruitment out of it; let’s not forget that we also churned out Osvaldo, Mayuka, Long (as you said), Gazzaniga and Forren in that period of time. We’ve had periods of good recruitment long before any of that too. Around the turn of the millennium we brought in Beattie, Pahars, Anders, Niemi, Tessem and Killer, despite being hampered by the Dell ‘s capacity and not having the black box. Being short term and reactive has never worked out well, like when we failed to replace our ageing defence in the lead up to 2005 and ended up with a bloated squad full of substandard stop gaps.

To me it’s more of a highlight of why we should be trying to trim the wage bill and not keep Bertrand. Let’s suppose, for the sake of easy maths, that he and Walcott want £60k per week and Forster and Lemina are already on similar. I make that around £3m each a year, or £12m total. So if we can offload those four, we could in theory sign a new LB for £18m (paid over two years) and a £60k wage packet, for exactly the same money. That should leave us with hopefully a younger, better LB and a saleable asset should the need for money arise.

That’s a pretty sad indictment of our recruitment and I’d like to believe it’s not true. There are plenty of decent young players out there not getting game time at bigger clubs. In the past we’ve done very well out of the likes of Bertrand, KWP, Romeu, Hojbjerg and Cork. There must be a player out there somewhere who is an improvement on a declining, slowing Bertrand.

The number of people in hospitals is dropping by around 1,000 per day and is currently around 15,000-16,000. If we stay like this for another two weeks, deaths and hospitalisation should be very low. I think we’re now in a position to reopen outdoor sports clubs to allow people to get out and exercise socially.

The original is now in Golden Posts, should anyone want it. Seems to be what’s making the lounge run slow.

Agree with that, went to Sharm in 2009, back before the Arab Spring and Sinai airliner bombing. Luckily, the ones in our hotel weren't that bad but when we went out into town and all the bars... f**k me.

I know, I flew you home. Ive heard good things about Agadir before, so it’s definitely on the list.

Well, we can either: Sign him on considerable wages, knowing we’re going to see diminishing returns on a player who was never anything special to begin with. Sign Minamino permanently, if Liverpool’s price is reasonable. Sign another player, from abroad or the lower leagues, who’s probably ten years younger - if our finances will allow for a reasonable transfer fee. Sign nobody and make do with Redmond, Djenepo, Armstrong and Tella in those positions. Obviously not a popular option but if finances are limiting it might be what we end up with.

That’s not the choice on offer. The other two players have contracts, plus they’re five and ten years younger respectively.

Apart from being 32, sporadic fitness issues, high wages, a significant lack of composure and poor decision making. There’s a reason a bottom half Everton squad didn’t have room for him. As he gets older he’ll just get more niggling injuries and lose his main asset - his pace. I’d prefer we didn’t sign our own version of Defoe or Gary Cahill. Put it this way, if Walcott had no previous connection to the club and had put in the same performances for Newcastle this season; would you be happy to hear we were signing him in summer?

It is if you go there alone but when I do I’m not paying for any accommodation and my friends all have discount cards for many establishments. It’s still not exactly cheap but in mid March, when I’ve had enough of the English winter and the med is still too cold, it’s a decent enough 10 days for me.

I’d say Dubai was more ‘yuppie’ culture than anything.

I’m not sure I get where the ‘it’s tacky, flash and not remotely cultural’ argument really comes from. I’ve never seen anyone trying to claim otherwise. I’m just not sure where you get ‘chavy’ from. That to me suggests people on low income or unemployed, Nissans with body kits and stupid exhausts, public drunkenness, smashing up bus stops and the phrase, "I swear on me’ nan’s grave!" I’ve never seen anything like that in Dubai.

That’s gotta sting. 😯

If Fulham were to win their three most winnable games - Palace, Newcastle and Burnley - That would put them a whole point ahead of where we are now. We would have four games in hand, including Fulham, Brighton, Palace, West Brom, Burnley and two games against Leeds. All their other games would be against 10 of the top 13, Saints being theoretically the worst. We aren’t in a relegation fight.

Can’t say I’ve really noticed chavs being there. When I said it’s cheap to get to, I didn’t mean EasyJet - €50 return to Mallorca - cheap. If I was going to complain about anyone it’d be tw*tty bankers in flash cars who think they’re the bee’s knees.

Sunshine, it’s cheap, quick and easy to get to and I’ve got 6 or 7 mates out there I’ve not seen for a while. Never been there for the culture.