80

Are these videos popular? They better be, because they don't half do a lot of them to the exclusion of anything else...

He's an interesting boy...

Trying to use Rice and Saka as makeweights?

That's my gut feeling also. Given what's going on there it sounds like this is a joke. Saying that, supposedly we have been in a decent amount of contact with 777 in the past. There were rumours of us buying their group to fast forward the multi club model. So it's plausible we've got a relationship with him, and I don't suppose I can be too prejudiced against him without knowing more...

Yeah... There's every chance I'm talking shit, of course!

No idea but from what we've heard, I'd take a punt on it being Mourinho's guy from Napoli.

Better make sure he reads the small print on his cone-tract, first.

Reminds me of late '21...

It is striking how many decent foreign managers have really humble, journeyman backgrounds compared to what clubs here tend to go for. Maybe drifting around at unfashionable clubs, maybe retiring in their late 20s through injury in the lower leagues. The closest British comparison I can think of is our very own Eddie Howe And he basically dragged a tinpot club kicking and screaming into the big time to make any mark in this country. And still had the media laughing at the idea we'd hire him rather than someone who knows what it takes like Frank Lampard.

At least you recognised it

To be fair that's a bit of a disease we have in this country. If he was foreign we wouldn't think twice about his background being in Series B or the German third division. But because he's a Brit we naturally expect some star power like Gerrard.

You're making a valid point, and it raises an interesting prospect - it's possible Eddie still doesn't consider him ready because of his off pitch habits, and is still only playing him through necessity, rather than because form dictates it. I suspect not, but we'll see.

...And people would be confident that he's still not ready and wouldn't be any help in matches.

Yeah, it's a fair argument. Specifically re: Burn, rather than another tall CB/LB, the counterpoint is how much weaker in various other areas he and we are when he's out on the left, though. If size is the killer point for Howe though it's going to be a struggle for Hall as the one thing he probably can't do is grow...

https://archive.ph/9hWyt Thought this was worth posting. In relation to Salah and Klopp, Shearer talks about the end of his time with Robson. Never really seen him reflect on his behaviour in that time e.g. the Valerenga match the season before Robson was sacked. I remember that being especially destabilising. To be honest, in this article he still doesn't seem to really grapple with the rights and wrongs of it, given the context of his stature at the club back then as Mr NUFC, which he'd never shied away from.