Lighthouse

Not all £15m strikers work as hard as he does, bring others into play and score 7 league goals a season, scuffed or otherwise. For reference Ollie Watkins cost £33m and has 13 goals so far, that’s the current exchange rate. Low double figures is £25m+ these days.

Adams may well be a limited striker but until we’re willing and able to spend more than £15m on one, whilst our mid-table rivals are all spending £25m+, that’s what we’re going to get. Anyway, daft from KWP playing himself into trouble there.

If we sold Ings and didn't sign Walcott, that basically makes up the difference. Either way, we can't just not spend because we're skint, it'll eventually relegate us like it did in 2005. If Gao doesn't want the value of his asset to collapse, he's going to have to start financing these kind of deals one way or another. Having said all that, I can't say I can recall watching AA play for Blackburn so I'm not endorsing him personally.

I’d get that, if fans were attending but they aren’t and surely that’s what 90% of the logistics are all about. I have seen games, even with fans, moved at the last minute before. Liverpool played a game against one of the Israeli teams in (I think) Kiev because of a flare up in Gaza one year.

Is it just me or has Rooney picked up a whiff of a Dutch accent somehow?

It’s more the fact that two English sides would be flying to the other side of Europe to play one match in an empty stadium, in a country with high Covid rates. It’s completely needless and doesn’t benefit anyone. I’m the owners of the Atatürk would much rather host it in 2025 with a capacity crowd and no Covid restrictions anyway.

Shapps mentioning the possibility of the CL final being moved to UK somewhere. It'd be bonkers not to do that IMO; two English teams travelling to the other side of Europe, to play in a COVID bubble in an empty stadium in a red list country would just be madness. Give it to Wembley and let some fans in.

At least we're agreed on something on this thread whelk. I think, "you need to think critically and not listen to MSM," is the conspiracy theorist equivalent of, "I'm not racist but..."

As did Davenport, Jakobsson and Hooiveld. It can’t hurt to have a bit of experience but it wouldn’t be my criteria for Vest’s replacement. If it’s a straight choice between a 22 year old and a 32 year old of similar ability, I’d go for the younger one every time.

I think a few people are overthinking the whole age/experience situation with CBs. I don’t think it matters, simply put the players we bring in just need to be good. Svensson, Lovren, Toby and Virgil all came to us not having played a minute of English football and were immediately excellent. Stephens and Bednarek have both played for us for several years now and no matter the manager, formation or the player combination at CB, both regularly look capable of basic errors and lapses in concentration. They are cheap, okay players who will continue to be cheap and okay for the rest of their careers.

I agree it was poor but to drop a player for an incident is daft. Imagine if we did that for an attacking player; KWP scoops one cross into the car park and gets dropped for the next game.

Yes but we play Liverpool next and if you speak to any of their fans, there's also a massive super-conspiracy against them. All the lock downs are a huge Anfield, Kop End, Man City, 6 defeats, The Sun, Tories... something something...

When you consider just how horrendous the air they’ve been breathing for the last few decades really is, as well as how large and dense their conurbations are the true numbers must be horrendous. Especially as their health system has basically collapsed and the ratio of cases to deaths will be much, much worse. People who would have survived easily with oxygen and treatment are dying, something we thankfully never saw in the UK. Some of those make-shift crematoriums looked like they could incinerate a couple of thousand corpses each, every day. Not a nice thought.

I know you didn't ask me specifically but I'd have Pope, Mee, Tarkowski and probably McNeil over Redmond. Also if it's a squad game, I'd rather have J Rod and Vydra on the bench than Walcott and Obafemi.

I'd have gone Bielsa instead of Dyche. No denying the Leeds media love in has been excessive but they've played well, battled Arsenal for a top half spot and left the other two promoted sides for dust.

I’d rather be stood near 100 people holding flares than have one chucked at me. Nelson Dida got quite a nasty burn in that Milan CL semi.

It’s not exactly a difficult system to get around either, for all the reasons I mentioned. As for making the platforms liable, they’ll just put a bunch of guff about abusive and offensive behaviour in their T&C which you have to click ‘I agree’ and that’s it. Sure they can delete offensive posts but only after they’ve been reported and by then the horse has bolted.

Yep. Full crowds at the crucible. Boris reckons SD could be gone next month Potential foreign travel in 2 weeks. EU planning to restart leisure tourism. Fewer than 200 people on ventilators Lots of good news today. Our Covid strategy has clearly been highly effective since January.

What about all the countries where governments try to control and censor their SM? Or people who don't have passports or drivers licenses? Or simply the fact that this will just hugely inconvenience the 99% of (relatively) well behaved users and that the wrong-uns will just use fake I.D. and addresses? What about the gigantic logistical task of cross-checking the I.D. and addresses of every SM user in the world? Or the fact that people could basically just log in at some random location, do whatever they want and if they get caught say their account was hacked, or they left their computer logged in?

I’m surprised this hasn’t been proposed or implemented yet but Twitter (or some rival platform) should remove the ability to @ someone and send DMs. Simplify it to you being able to tweet and whoever chooses to follow you being able to read it. I’ve never understood the desire for celebrities to open themselves up to every whack job on the planet and then complain about the strange messages they receive.

03/04 was the last time I remember. We'll do it this year, match abandoned and Saints awarded a 3-0 win.

Nope. Toodles!

If nothing else, I actually think it's kinda cute that you think the Glazers are watching. Or care.

On 29th March restrictions were lifted on outdoor meetings and sports for up to 6 people. On 12th April most non-essential retail was reopened along with establishments serving food and drink outside, gyms, nail and beauty salons and other premises. On 18th April fans were permitted to attend an FA Cup match in limited numbers This weekend up to 5,000 people were allowed to attend a trial music event with no masks or SD. Hope this helps.

I was thinking about formations the other day and how 4-2-3-1 was always robust if not spectacular. Perhaps a front 6 something like this might suit Minamino, if (hypothetically) we were to sign him. Romeu - JWP Tella - Minamino - Armstrong Adams Ignoring any other potential recruitment and who might replace Ings etc. I don’t think that team would be on the wrong end of so many spankings as with the 4-2-2-2