Geordie_once_removed

Very poor today. His tendency to flop to the floor in a most unconvincing manner cost us a goal and a pretty good penalty shout. He needs a rest, I would be curious to see Anderson in the middle.

I wonder if with teams increasingly having a more holistic style of play and coaching at all levels we'll see a few more of these semi leftfield appointments. DofFs may increasingly identity managers who match this style over ones who have higher profiles but are stylistically less good fits. Especially at successful clubs whose style is seen to be yielding results. For example there were a few pieces saying Alonso was a stark contrast to Klopp in key areas. If so perhaps Liverpool weren't that interested in the first place or didn't really go all guns for him.

I hope not, that's very bland.

Based on the fact that they haven't won the league in ages and they have built towards their current position really wisely through good appointments, buying well and being patient, I want to want Arsenal to do well. But then I remember "It's a disgrace..." and how so, so many of their fans reacted and I just want them to get humped every game. It's a real Id Vs the Superego struggle for me.

I thought the exact same. How did they get the colour so wrong? The thought of Hendrick playing football in it is enough to really put you off the game for life.

Here is another thing that pisses me off about PSR rules. As fans we suffered for years under Ashley's penny pinching regime. The only "benefit" of this was that the accounts were in decent order for the new owners to be able to initially spend when they came in. Now they can't do that any more. But Chelsea were heavily in debt to their owner because of heavy spending on their squad and they would have been heading for trouble under the current rules, but as they were bought they got a free pass to wipe all this debt out. The rationale behind this has never been clear to me, but it has clearly allowed Chelsea, who were already had a stronger squad to build upon, to vastly out spend Newcastle and give themselves a big advantage with no PSR punishment. Yet.

I can help but feel were going about this all wrong. Why aren't we publically saying we'll take an employee off a rival club before any contact has been made with that club? Why aren't we complaining how people won't just release their contracted employees to us for nothing? Why are we being discreet, diligent and professional?

There is a total disconnect between the current cost of so many aspects of modern football, from player fees and wages to compensation for sacking coaches/managers, and the PSR limits that the rules are potentially pushing more clubs towards insolvency. There is a potential case study of this with Everton but even more so Leicester. They were on the cusp of Champions League in 19/20 and 20/21. Last season they were surprisingly relegated and weren't financially set up for it, you can't be if you are ambitious and looking to reach Europe. They now look like they might go up but they could be immediately given a points deduction due to Premier League PSR rules. This would make them highly like to face another relegation and that could result in them getting even more points deductions and you can see the situation spiralling from there. This for a club that for several years was held up as a model for how to be responsibly ambitious.

Based on my vague recollection of an Athletic article I read ages ago he did. But then I did just (briefly - it was just a brain fart, honest) confuse his nationality with Nobby .

I'm not so sure. For someone who grew up with the poverty he did, the thought of personal financial security a move to Saudi could bring as well as what he could do with some of that money in Peru would be hard to say no to. He could easily do 2 years in Saudi still close out his career in the US.

I think that, due to a general abatement of some initial caution and a growing sense from both the club and other clubs around them that the current financial rules really are just the big 6 pulling up the drawbridge after them, well see the club using the Saudi "cheat code" more this summer. I still don't think the club will overtly take the piss but just a few more of the ASM type situation but this time while he probably went for a fair to cheap price they players will go for a bit over their market price. I'm not sure how the League could even stop it, all the club needs is two of the 4 teams it owns to enter into a mini bidding war and then how could you say it wasn't market price? Not saying I approve of this, despite my frustrations with PSR et all I'm personally not disposed to a "if you can't beat them, join them" mindset, I just can see it happening.

His most effective games are much further forward and less central. I was thinking about someone who is comfortable in the middle and further back. Anyway not a hill I'll die on, mainly just a thought.

You're probably right, I was thinking more as squad depth as opposed to a starter. Miley aside do we have any other promising CMs coming through the ranks? As in an ideal world they fill this role but my impression was that we're still a couple of years off being able to do a City and having this conveyor belt of talent from the academy, so I wondered if he could be a stop gap solution.

Barkley on the relative cheap if Luton go down anyone? Or is he too similar to Bruno and Tonali in that he's more of a playmaker who can defend since he went to Luton.

I hadn't realised that until you pointed it out. Don't MOTD normally do a short none game related segment per episode? That was perfect for it. Also the hearing impaired kids the camera cut to living their best life after the first goal was the highlight of the whole game for me. I watched that several times today to avoid the BBC newsfeed about the Iran missile strike.