Lighthouse

I think I will TBH.

A meal just doesn’t seem filling without meat to me. I don’t know how I could survive off 3 plates of hummus and veg per day. Morally I don’t object to meat, so long as the animals are reared and slaughtered humanely. The environment I am concerned about but like almost everything else, it comes down to overpopulation. If there are an extra billion Indians in 30 years time, me eating salad isn’t going to change much.

The best talent down there being the likes of Vydra and Sessegnon? There is no right or wrong place to look. You can go down to League 1 and find AOC or Gazzaniga, or look abroad and find Moi or Mane. Our scouting just needs to be a lot better. In Carrillo's case, 10 minutes on Google would have been a start.

We actually got one of our transfers organised nearly a year ago.

Not sure what you're getting at, these are the same players we had this season who were rarely demolished in midfield. I don't think he is suggesting an XI, just a squad of players to pick from. If we had a striker who was fit enough to play the games Ings missed, clinical enough to take the chances Long squandered or just wasn't Austin, we'd have another 10 points. If we didn't keep bottling it mentally, as a team and as individuals, we'd have another 15.

There will always be divided opinion over what is deliberate and accident and I'm okay with that as a matter of contention. Personally I think the ref. should have the authority to decide what he believes to be a deliberate act and what isn't, as there are too many variables to have a concrete rule. I'd much rather have that and some controversy, than the blatantly unfair situation of an attacker smashing a shot into a defenders arm, by his side, from a yard away and being given a pen.

Looks alright to me, Boufal aside. Depends how good Genepi is really, never seen him play. I don’t think we’re bad at creating chances. A decent striker would have scored 15 of the opportunities Long missed this season.

Again, borrowing from rugby but I think a penalty goal would be apt in some scenarios. If a ball is on its way in and gets blocked by a defenders hand, a goal is given instead of a penalty. I don’t mean for any old handball, I mean instances like Wan-Bisaka for that handball against us at Selhurst, or Suarez against Ghana at the WC. Any handball preventing 100% goal - penalty goal Deliberate handball otherwise - penalty Accident handball otherwise - nothing given Attacker hand balls in the box - Free kick

We do and probably will but Austin is worth nowhere near the wages we are paying him. At least it’s only for a year, unlike Carrillo or Forster.

Isn't it a legal requirement in the Portuguese leagues to have a release clause? Doesn't mean they can't sell him for less. Not sure I'm sold on a 27 y.o. striker who scored almost half his career goals in one season.

The ridiculous cost of sports tickets and merchandise and the knowledge that they wouldn't charge that much unless so many dimwits were willing to pay it. I remember Man City sending half their allocation back to Arsenal because they wanted £60 per ticket. They should have been sending the whole lot because there were no fans willing to pay it. Then there's replica shirts going for £55 each for something which costs less than £1 to mass produce (to a standard template). Other sports are just as bad; F1 perhaps the worst. I remember McLaren charging £45 for a souvenir T-shirt which didn't even have their logo on it. You were literally paying them to be a walking billboard for Vodafone and Mobile 1.

I know many footballers aren’t the brightest but I think even they can cope with that.

I think it's fair. For example if someone cannons a ball at a defender from a yard away and hit his hand, it shouldn't be a penalty (assuming arms aren't in an unnatural position). If a 'keeper makes a save, the ball rebounds off an attackers hand, a yard away from the goal and goes in (even accidentally) it shouldn't count. Agree, perhaps the rule should be that any suspected head injury should have to leave the field for 5 minutes minimum, in order to be assessed, whilst play continues. Not perfect but better.

All sounds sensible to me. If anything I think a yellow should be accompanied by a 5 minute sin bin like they have in rugby. Never liked the whole 'taking one for the team' by clearing a breaking player out on the halfway line. It's just cheating because the punishment is less than playing honestly; like if you robbed a bank and stole £1m, but the court let you keep the money and your punishment was a £100k fine.

Or at least not actually do that as an opening line. Seriously though, MB good luck. As a 30 something bloke with hairy tits I can't really help but there's someone out there for you.

He has been a bit Carrillo for Bournemouth. Lord help them if he's the replacement for Wilson.

Last I heard he joined Roath Ravers but that must have been 3/4 years ago.

We signed Moi and Juanmi in June and Toby and Mane on deadline day. Now that the window closes before the season starts it doesn't really matter.

If anything I actually like it. Seeing the rest of the top six b*tching about City is hilarious and hypocritical is roughly equal measures. "They bought the title!" scream fans of Utd, who spent £180m on two players.

I'd rather watch this than some gritty 1-0, even if an upset would have been nice.

Might as well have a thread for what everyone else is up to. Brighton haven't hung around in replacing Hughton, BBC reporting they're set to appoint Graham Potter.

Nice to see they're really trying to capture the spirit of Manchester with that kit. By which I mean the snake skin effect, 4 inch long, faux-leather skirt worn by a 55 year old, unemployed, chain-smoking, midday drinking Bingo player in Salford

Because he is neither.

I thought we were trying to offload old, injured, overrated, expensive players and cut the wage bill? Let me put it this way; if he was here already, I'd be trying to get rid of him. Not going to happen anyway, thankfully.

You know what, they're actually not bad. Certainly compared to that TGI Friday's nightmare I thought we were getting. I'd almost say I like the two away kits, I'd have to see them in the flesh to confirm. Don't like the black shoulder-blades, the button or the look of the logo; I'm hoping it's not as cheap and plasticy looking as the Flybe one we had in the Poortvleit season. Can't help but feel the charcoal away (probably my favourite) would look better with simply white text on the logo. Rather than dark text on a white outline on a dark background. Oh well.