Can Leicester City really win the Premiership 2016-17?

Summer's over.

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/624/cpsprodpb/C8E7/production/_90713415_mike_phelan_reuters.jpg

GOD HOW HE WISHES HE WAS READY

I'm looking forward to seeing how Musa and Kapustka get on at Leicester.

Have Hull literally bought nobody? Livermore at CB vs Musa and Vardy will be interesting.

Yeah but

but thudd....

Imagine being in that Hull squad and not getting a game.

is navix no longer showing streams?

I can feel my excitement ebbing with every minute of this match.

bit of a premature answer to the thread title

Phelan good

Thudd making an impact already.

Vardy's having a shocker. On the basis of today Arsenal must be relieved they signed those other strikers instead of him.

yeah i havent noticed him at all

i love tigers pls

Hope he sends Fergie out to face the media afterwards.

haha
synchronised double bicycle kick wonderful way to start the season too

Lukaku isnt on the Everton team

Cracking start to Wanyama's Spurs career there.

Hiya

Lol

I just caught the score what stupid cunt did what now

Not sure what wanyama is "for" btw

Can we talk about the successful Kevin De Bruyne cloning experiment at the Stadium of Light?

daniel levy will be stroking his white cat with interest after kenny mcevoy, moussa dembele ii, kyle walker-peters, and caulker-vickers

farewell, lynden gooch

Amazed there are empty seats there fwiw.

Extraordinary Exodus ‏@exzeebit 15s
Pep welcome to BPL

Benjamin Smith ‏@bensmith3287 15s
Welcome to England you slimy twat #pep #PremierLeague #MUFC

Taff ‏@euan_powell 2m
Pep Fraudiola

Perfect Pass ‏@PerfectPass 1m
One of the most consistent, underrated Premier Leaguers of all time. Jermain Defoe. 1-1. Welcome to the EPL, Pep.

He's a Yiddo ‏@awwwsid 2m
Fuck off Pep

Can we talk about the successful Kevin De Bruyne cloning experiment at the Stadium of Light?

Watmore? I like him

"The deal is close and he will go with my best wishes. It's fair to say we know his heart and soul may be elsewhere," said Pardew of Bolasie's prospective move.

typical graceless prick. he's in for a shock if he thinks they only need a striker

Should have trotted out the 'Bolasie come home' line beloved of SE London fantasy league managers everywhere.

Mourinho looking good again. The slow descent to tracksuit and stubble starts here.

<3 Moreno

thats a perfect free kick

oh my, that finish

Shit we look pretty good here

Wenger deserves every pissy hashtag rant he gets for even being in the situation where he's had to play this XI in the first place.

Oh I say.

WTF is happening here?

the PL is back baby

love these wacky end of season games

Arsenal TV should be fun

It would be insanely typical of Coutinho to put in a performance like that and then knacker himself for months.

Hockey score.

second 10/10 freekick of the game there

Can we have a defender or two please

Coutinho isn't often injured

Again I join the conversation to say

Lol

Just thinking of his general flakiness rather than his injury record per se.

shhh, you're not supposed to say that

peak epl panto shambles

am deadly srs when i say i genuinely would not swap either defensive unit today for qpr's

well why would getting injured have anything to do with flakiness? he scored two goals.

doesn't like it up him

i was over-optimistic about lpool though. can say karius matip sakho anyone-but-moreno will come in but where's the evidence klopp takes it seriously

suggest we do a kickstarter to see who out of coutinho and van der vaart will kick the most balls into a skip

yeah at 4-1 I was excited - at 4-3 hanging on it's just same old same old. And arsenal are one of the easier teams to turn over - they always let us look good.

Arsenal Liverpool of late has this kind of gentlemanly advert for the game feeling, let's both be loose as hell and make all our brittle attackers look beautiful. Bet Wenger says it was a great game, or certainly would have if it was 4-4.

yeah it feels super fake. clattenburg and scudamore gonna run on and and hit ppl with fold-up chairs next year

I thought Wij and Mane were pretty great mind. The Karius injury is a disaster.

welcome antidote to all that boring competent defending during the Euros

Petr Cech 'crashes car into pillar' after Liverpool beat Arsenal 4-3

Onlooker described vehicle as a 'write-off' in incident in car park after the match at Emirates Stadium

Cech is believed to have walked back into the ground immediately after the accident.

Bad news for Viktoria Plzeň

btw rooneys postmatch interview was revolting, what a cunt

MOTD should have shown a clip of his dive when they were making Olympic jokes at the end of the programme

Danny Murphy's "Rooney was superb" even more despicable

Jesus, Dalian Atkinson has died after being tasered by police.

wtf

holy crap. was just having a convo about him (and other players of that era/team) the other day w/ a Villa fan

RIP Dalian. I hope the circumstances of your death are thoroughly investigated.

def fit & proper:

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/who-are-the-chinese-investors-leading-hull-city-takeover-talks/story-29606329-detail/story.html

In early 1992 the Chinese government began to look for alternative uses for a number of huge Cold War-era underground bomb shelters which were gathering dust. Joining forces with her younger brother Dai Yongge, Mrs Hawken formed Renhe Commercial Holdings, an investment company which started to transform several former military bunkers into shopping malls.

RIP. The 94 cup final was the first final I remember watching. Remember his goal pretty clearly.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cp5r_NeXgAEVq5r.jpg

what is wrong with these guys

great quote from Lacazaette, which the daily mail claims "opens the door" to an arsenal move

'If there are offers that can't be refused, I'd like to not refuse them'

This Chelsea West Ham game is a snoozefest

A 48-year-old man who died after being tasered by police in Telford, Shropshire, was repeatedly kicked by officers who used the Taser on him “four or five times” after he had been apparently subdued, an eyewitness has alleged.

The man, who has been named by the witness and local media as former Aston Villa footballer Dalian Atkinson, was tasered by two officers outside his family’s house on Meadow Close, Trench, at around 1:30am Monday.

“He was staggering, and as he staggered towards them they opened fire with the taser and he fell to the ground like a lead balloon,” Paula Quinn, who lives opposite, told BuzzFeed News. “I could actually hear him hit the ground and as he hit the ground the two officers just piled in on him and started kicking ten bells out of him.

“That probably went on for a minute or two, it seemed quite long at the time, everything appeared to be happening in slow motion.”

According to Quinn, one of the officers then told his colleague “back off, back off” before they ordered the man to put his hands behind his back. “But I don’t think he was conscious,” she said.

“They reactivated the Taser about four or five times on him while he was on the ground,” she said. “I could see it very clearly, there was absolutely no threat to him whatsoever and I am absolutely shocked.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37094111

don't know who's in charge of trolling at Liverpool but kudos

well that went well 4 Pardew

i don't get why liverpool are hauling palace over the coals for a 2 or 3 million in a summer where they've barely spent any money, for a player they have no need for. 30m is a p great return on a bad signing.

as i say, i don't know who's behind this, you have to assume it's some obscure moneyball ish rather than Klopp's doing

yeah i can see how it's amusing to just screw over pards, but i reckon we already won this by getting them to offer 30 fucking million for chris benteke. it's like that trial by combat ep of game of thrones, we've already killed them, we don't need to risk it all by taunting them.

supposedly they see the 7m add-on requirements as unrealistic

have probably assessed palace's bargaining position correctly tbf

i'm guessing if he does go lfc break even for the summer? v nice

spurs and bournemouth next for palace so could conceivably be bricking it come deadline day

Lloris our for 4 weeks

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/first-team/general/hugo-lloris-injury-update-160816/

Palace offered an initial £23.5 million with a further £7 million in add-ons. Those additional clauses included £2.5 million should Palace qualify for the Champions League with Benteke scoring 20 goals and playing in 70 per cent of the fixtures of such a top-four campaign. These three conditions formed part of the same clause.

Ayew out for 4 months

oh and Mahrez has signed a new contract

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-accept-27m-benteke-bid-11770163

clearly Fenway knew their market

tbf once i'd seen how much of the original offer was just hot air it did make sense to play tough

it was worth a shot!

well sure, nobody goes in with their best offer first

good to see us at least trying not to be the buy high sell low twats we've been over the last six or seven seasons, in general at least

taking a big loss on Balotelli looks inevitable, might've helped motivate the Benteke negotiations

https://twitter.com/YannickBolasie/status/169402392712982528

nice of pardew to do social media for him.

Rooney vs Bournemouth

https://streamable.com/fu20

Wow thats shit. The MOTD crew said he had an excellent game iirc

just editing a dozen or so absolutely shit moments together like that would make anybody look bad

thx yala 4 softening blow by tweeting like a knob

just editing a dozen or so absolutely shit moments together like that would make anybody look bad

i was thinking this but like, it is a dozen of them.

i may have been gently lampooning TWP

that's a significant proportion of the times he's gonna be on the ball in an average match

haha i should have known

a few of them are genuinely comical.

feel like it's near impossible to make a serious case that he has his place at the club on merit, never mind starting regularly

mourinho seemed to hint at ditching him but it never materialised.

62 minutes is something else

The (hopeful) theory is that it's a give him enough rope scenario

Mourinho's already said he's not playing in midfield so one of his bolt holes is closed

Also, I watched the game and I can assure you it's an accurate representation. The shield game was actually worse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwqh9Dw0FPo

Man Utd: de Gea, Valencia, Bailly, Blind, Shaw, Pogba, Fellaini, Mata, Rooney, Martial, Ibrahimovic
Southampton: Forster, Cedric, van Dijk, Fonte, Targett, Romeu, Hojbjerg, Davis, Tadic, Long, Redmond

my tip top predo is twp to score gots before pulling out a handgun and blowing his brains out in the endzone

u watching The Last Boy Scout on telly last night too?

"That’s what I’m saying, I need September because the relation can be good, the players can be good professionals, they can feel I trust all of them, but when a player doesn’t play one, two, three games, the frustration comes and it is difficult to play well,” he explained. “And when they start not training well is I have a reason for not selecting them and they go down the hill."

Nicely warned imo

really enjoy listening to English pundits getting butthurt over the dropping of Joe Hart

It's a beautiful thing.

https://twitter.com/chrisbenteke/status/766967260120543232

Benteke, whoah-oah
Benteke, whoah-oah-ah-oah
He plays for CPFC
But thinks its Burn-ley

the selhurst bard

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/512/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2016/8/20/f32a9029-b056-4252-9792-f23e367f3f26.jpg

bilbo still wants his precious ring back.

Sparky doin' the mobot in the background there.

Two-nil Burnley. The first goal was very well taken.

ah well - enjoyed this season while it lasted.

Woeful

They just ran straight through Liverpool for the second. Terrible defending.

I think Liverpool might need to buy a left-back

Klavan at fault for both goals tbh

https://twitter.com/search?q=andre%20gray&src=typd

Phelan continuing to show his disdain for ILX snub

that winning phelan

juve lost that

I know possession stats are a scoundrel's refuge but Burnley winning 2-0 with less than 20% of the ball is... something

Credit ref for shawx pen call

Possession is for hipsters

Liverpool has something like 26 shots, 5 on target. Coutinho alone blazed 7 over the bar or wide

Neville still a moron

Arsenal were incredibly fortunate with the late penalty appeal. Musa looked great when he came on.

Lol gomes wtf capoue htf does costa stay on pitches

Courtois shouldve saved that Watford goal too

htf does costa stay on pitches

his immense personal charm

Clattenburg is just a stinking cheat

credit shawx for being more dismissive about the one given to him than the one against

"hopefully i can rectify that in the future and not get done again" otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_WIWbDBfbQ

fully deserve the bictory.... appy for bincent and bince...

Fuck this "The London Stadium" bullshit.

naming rights placeholder (to whu's profit no doubt) but yeah

West Ham Football ‏@westhamfootball Aug 20
Sinclair: How important is it that working class feel welcome at the new stadium? Brady: This stadium offers us a different kind of future

still wince at that idiotic new badge every time too

HERRERA: VALENCIA IS WORLD'S BEST RIGHT-BACK

He's been surprisingly great so far. Fellaini too

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37150006

this is what i missed most about moyesy, the pr masterclasses

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqdaU4JWcAAknKm.jpg

Moron

Surely fake.

If there's one club that could have come out of

hope so for his sake cos the dole really love it when you make yourself unemployed

hopefully he writes his CV in Comic Sans too

I doubt it's real. Wenger's 600 staff comment was utterly laughable though

http://thesetpieces.com/features/sweeper-steve-bruce-review/

Discovery of the day.

It’s like a pound-shop Westeros, only made up entirely of places you imagine voted for Brexit despite being largely dependent on EU funding.

I've tried and failed to track down a copy of Striker for years but this goes into an admirable amount of detail.

He reviewed the other one as well at some stage.

There's a link to the other one from that article.

I'd like to read Mike Phelan's novel.

A la recherche du Tom Huddlestone

*yomp perdu

IDS still makes Bruce look like a slightly better writer.

Those books weren't actually by Steve Bruce, sadly. From the comments section here: http://thinkofengland.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/book-review-sweeper-by-steve-bruce.html

All 3 books (Striker, Sweeper and Defender)were published by Paragon Publishing in Huddersfield. They were written by the owner of the company a guy called Reggie Sharpe. A former headmaster, who was trying to make money as a publisher. He was an obnoxious man, who bordered arrogant to most people who met him. He wrote each book in about 3 days, and then had them printed. Steve Bruce had nothing to do with any of them, I doubt he even read them cause they really were drivel. I think he got paid £2000 for having his name and image on each book, and attending a book signing at Waterstones in Huddersfield. I know this because I played a part in converting the text files from M.S. Word format, which Reggie Sharpe wrote them in, to Apple Mac formats for printing, which at the time was the only way most print houses worked. On the second book cover, Reggie appears in the picture as the janitor with a sweeping brush. The whole affair was a money making scheme, designed to sell Paragons books. Bruce was nothing but a paid figured head who’s fame was used to create awareness. But I think that the sales were poor, with only a few hardened fans parting with their money. The rest of the copies were pulped I believe. Sorry to shatter peoples images of Steve the author, but he wasn’t. You were all conned.

Venables keeps his place at the top of the literary manager's league then.

He wrote each book in about 3 days

Writers' Block, eh? (Trad. arr Hislop)

Unsung Hero - a novel by Mike Phelan.

Every Holmes has a Watson... now meet Mick Feelgood

The air caused goosebumps on his skin, his thighs had become flabby and weak since the days when he roamed the midfield for Fellowcheshire United. But it didn't matter. Shorts again. On the pitch. In real boots. "You look ridiculous," she said, with a smirk, patting his knee. Alexa Featherington. The gaffer. Harder than any man who ever played. But did she have a soft spot for Mick? Sometimes, he liked to think so. Sometimes too, the lines in their professional relationship blurred, became more fluid, like a fancy formation deployed by a foreign coach, but never feeling quite so wrong.

haha

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/steve-bruce-cringes-laughing-stock-novels-122106485.html

You've got to admire his commitment, he was still claiming in 2013 he had written them.

Robbie Benson for Dundalk vs Legia Warsaw

https://twitter.com/888sport/status/768172176562413568

Warsaw player sent off. Big chance for Dundalk here

That is some goal! Only five minutes left though? They'll never get as close as this afaik

1-1....

ah nuts. Sucker punch

Xpost 1-1 in the end. 3-1 on agg to Warsaw. They tried, oh they tried but they just didnt have the fitness level in the end.

still, they could get Utd in the Europa

Will start a CL thread proper tomorrow probably but Ajax currently 4-0 (!) down at Rostov, who will be CL debutantes. Ajax playing their worst game in probably ten years. They are being demolished. Loving every second of it, not sorry,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3758071/Tottenham-consider-15m-Crystal-Palace-winger-Wilfried-Zaha.html

lol wut

Daily Telegraph Joe Hart deserves better from Manchester City than to be imprisoned by Pep Guardiola

banning pizza is one thing but pep's taking things too far now surely, wherefore gordon taylor??

Can Leicester City really win their Champions League group?
Leicester, Porto, Brugge, FC Copenhagen

Man City Barcelona was always going to happen.

Leicester already half won it iirc

We've got Bayern, Atletico and Rostov. Oof.

If you want to judge a group on the attractiveness of the away trips then that Leicester group is the fucking jackpot.

and the other teams all get to visit leicester. everyone wins.

We always get fucking Barcelona. Ours is not so much the Group of Death as the Group of Murder, and we're the ones getting murdered.

They've taken the massive picture of Poor Joe off the side of the Etihad, thus literally tearing the Hart out of the club.

honestly these are the best cl groups i've ever seen

simone zaza for £25m caps a horrible summer's work for london's west ham united of london ingerlund

Rollin' in that Green street

Anyone know anything about Arsenals signings? I like our continued attempt to get parts of the German team in Mustafi, but Perez doesn't seem a step up from Giroud, more of the same old same old.

you should announce your resignation from supporting them in comic sans

Perez is pretty good but the stats from last season are slightly misleading. He scored 10 goals in 11 games before Christmas and 5 in 21 after. That might explain why Everton were after him.

A run of scoring games followed by barren times again seems very giroud

https://moarfootball.com/2016/08/25/a-deportivo-la-coruna-fan-on-lucas-perez/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37200647

BREXIT NOW

Fuck Joe Hart.

http://soccer.nbcsports.com/2016/08/26/report-liverpool-offering-14-million-for-usmnts-pulisic/

huh

i'm into it

Spurs haven't started, Vorm has been their best defender, Mane shd be off, pen to Liverpool while I was typing that

This is pathetic

very harsh pen tbf but spurs haven't been great.

mane is so much fun to watch. sad for him he's going to be the latest can't-get-injured messiah figure.

None of our attacking players have taken a significant touch

None of our defensive players are in any way dealing with fairly simple runs

Vorm and wasteful finishing the only reason this isnt three nil

Walker a turd. Hope his ankle twist proves fatal.

Full back positions are total shit, have been since minute one

stats at halftime made it look p evenly matched lol stats

Mane and rose are gonna get double second yellow in the same incident

diddy dirty mané

every spurs game without dembele should just be played behind closed doors with the cameras off

Didn't seem any reason that was disallowed

We are outnumbered by three midfielders here.

yeah that looked onside to me.

deffo

this is better from Spurs but still sloppy and the high line is making me jumpy

liverpool's final ball gone to shit the last few minutes.

can never back our defence in a situation like this. scary few minutes left.

onoma's hair looks like those helmets worn by ancient greek soldiers

that's a penalty

Iffy, id be shouting for it certainly

Onomah the worst sub cameo since the days when harry Kane was shit

the hand ball?

Awful stuff. Defence looks a total fuckin mess

thought enema was good, he had two decent spells on the ball.

good performance by liverpool. should have won. still can't score goals. passing the ball nicely. i'll stop this series of nult-esque fragments now.

Dele alli oh dear

Spurs were lucky, they only started playing 60 mins into the game after that disallowed Mane goal

Yeah. Take nothing from that but the point. Liverpool should be raging at the draw tbh.

Hull City riding on the possibility of a massive double

i can't be the only londoner wondering what country this filthy weather game is being played in

oh that's mean

you lucky fuckers, i had it all cued up and ready

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf4yHgXdjPY

is the rest of the country not experiencing a monsoon then?

Rashford and Mkhitaryan HAVE to start against City. Completely changed the game

game won by twp emerging from another dementia fugue with a bewildering one second robben impression

nice to see BBC's website pundits discovering brash newcomer Curtis Davies

https://twitter.com/MatthewStanger/status/769596983443124224

xp like

yeah the prick does have an annoying tendency to pop with one quality moment a game though

nice to see BBC's website pundits discovering brash newcomer Curtis Davies

― Len Bincowank (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 27 August 2016 19:26 Bookmark

come on now. if u didnt know the miraculous power of PHELAN you'd think these were all alien ringers

always rated Davies, almost always rock solid under Bruce too

as soon as the football's finished the storm's blown over

It has started raining in that there London tho

Rashford and Mkhitaryan HAVE to start against City. Completely changed the game

Yep. That last 20 minutes or so felt like the old United piling on the pressure.

looks like Aguero will be suspended for the derby

City should've won this by 6

What's going on with Fabregas; plays a blinder against Watford and now theres rumours of a big bust-up with Conte

picked up each others wigs in the changing room by accident

only two of seven remain. bye nacer

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BUC7XxtCAAAaGC_.jpg:large

Strange imo. Always did a good job and covered a few positions we're not exactly bursting with performers in

Where's he off to?

I know the perfect replacement for you guys, Hakim Ziyech from Twente. 14m. Swansea, Fenerbahce and Ajax trying to scoop him up from Twente now, but he'd be perfect for you guys. Surely one of you Spurs-ilxors has a land line connection to the bosses right?

West Brom paid 13M for him. So Spurs made a profit and may still bring in N'Koudou who I assume Poch prefers for his pace. Stranger to me is getting rid of Clinton N'Jie after one season.

pulis and chadli kinda makes sense. pulis and camacho, er

p easy to interpret some spurs/southampton/levy/mitchell resigning nexus fanfic... would certainly have been much better off with hojbjerg and boufal than wanyama and nkoudou/zaha imo

Arsenal have made midfielder Jack Wilshere available for loan, Sky sources understand.

also Joe Hart to Torino is pretty wtf

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrG8dBHWIAAhmiG.jpg

Remy to Palace as well. Love this whole supermarket sweep of unwanted strikers that Pards has got going right now.

https://twitter.com/WatfordFC/status/770648308846956546

...

their transfer policy makes way more sense when u realise they're really a pokemon gym

fly amrabat

holy fucking shit £13m for ryan mason my eyes

not sure who's buying City but they appear to need a competent translator prestissimo

Transfer fees got big, the chadli/mason money is a long way from vintage levy imo

You could argue that buying middling single-digit-capped Spurs cast offs has worked out ok for Hull in the past. £8m for Prichard seems more ridiculous.

reminder: Brad Smith went for £6m this transfer window

liverpool basically broke even this window. i guess that's good, except they still need a left back, a central midfielder, perhaps a central defender, and a striker. which they needed at the start.

srsly?

i guess it's not worth spending for spending sake - i just kinda think the owners are quite happy (and lucky) to have klopp as a lightning rod. i mean if nobody worth it will join the club then it makes sense. but left back in particular seems fairly bad business. like, not having a left back, basically.

yeah no the left back for sure, and no sakho means faint risk until gomez is back. midfield seems over-reliant on can (or the wishful idea of can) so far, u might need different players but not more on top. and a striker!!! havent u had enough!

also grujic ejaria ojo woodman did ok pre season aiui. might as well

£8m for Prichard seems more ridiculous.

― On a Raqqa tip (ShariVari), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:01 Bookmark

this is kind of depressing. he and mason barely play the same sport

already i weep for the colossal tragic waste of human activity that is to be expended until spurs confirm moussa sissoko at 1am

yeah no the left back for sure, and no sakho means faint risk until gomez is back. midfield seems over-reliant on can (or the wishful idea of can) so far, u might need different players but not more on top. and a striker!!! havent u had enough!

also grujic ejaria ojo woodman did ok pre season aiui. might as well

yeah i mainly agree. the sahko thing is weird but presumably he's been a massive dick. can seems to be injured again, that's a big issue. agree some of the kids look good but that doesn't solve central midfield. i guess watching the spurs game at the weekend i thought "this team doesn't have goals in it" - it still needs one lead-the-line 20 goals a season striker who'll play in the klopp way. maybe that's origi. it doesn't seem like it's going to be sturridge. it's not firmino. erm, danny ings? i've been having sad daydreams about how amazing this team would be with suarez in it.

i mean basically - won't score too many, concede too much = 7th or 8th at best. you prob need to be better than that for 7th or 8th.

idk i think if klopp felt a focal striker was the idea we'd have seen some indication. seems to me he just wants a swarm of buzzy buzzy bees in attack (ings is a pressing maniac), and defensive midfield by proxy

wijnaldum looks a, maybe the, serious issue so far and if can doesnt finally kick on past injury and ambiguity this season he can be written off as a bum imo

i am sympathetic to klopp's vague strategy though. more risk more reward compared to say tottenham who went for the most literal possible destroyer, paceman, #9 shopping list

i thought he showed promise against arsenal and was okay v spurs. my fear would be that none of those buzzy bees actually score many goals. like you'll get about 10 or 12 each from coutinho, mane, and firmino. it's hard to see how you get more than say 60 goals with no one player who is lethal. they should have won like 4-1 on saturday and actually only scored a penalty.

xpost yeah i'm not in a furious hurry for him to do well either, i just think it seems clear enough this team isn't going to score often enough, not when they're on top, and certainly not when they're in need of a goal. it's like they need total chaotic dominance to get the number of chances they'll waste before a goal goes in.

totally yeah i get it but... well i don't think u need me to describe the vast empty distance between 'i miss suarez' and 'this'll work instead'

as always would be v interested to hear pandemic's transfer window shoulda coulda wouldas

xpost haha - i just feel like suarez can't be the only decent striker. i mean it's not like suarez or bust. is a good striker that rare? maybe it is actually in the modern game. i was thinking at the euros the days of every country having a striker are kind of gone.

#oldfashionednumber9 #dyingbreed

i will be so, so disappointed in berahino if he doesnt stay strong until he can leave on a free

already i weep for the colossal tragic waste of human activity that is to be expended until spurs confirm moussa sissoko at 1am

'Arry Redknapp: "If Newcastle are asking for £35 million Daniel (Levy) will bid £5m."

I'm a bit worried about cover in out midfield now - it's not like we got much out of Mason and Bentaleb last year but we're left with just Dier, Wanyama and Dembele in the centre and maybe Josh Onomah on the bench. Which is fine except we only have three CBs so Dier may end up covering there as well.

xpost haha - i just feel like suarez can't be the only decent striker. i mean it's not like suarez or bust. is a good striker that rare? maybe it is actually in the modern game. i was thinking at the euros the days of every country having a striker are kind of gone.

#oldfashionednumber9 #dyingbreed

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 31 August 2016 10:30 Bookmark

not with suarez's skillset, leaving after probably the best individual season in epl history

i mean again if it was just about a lethal striker you could re-revamp the side around sturridge but clearly klopp isnt into it regardless of his fitness

i think it's also that sturridge won't ever be able to do the pressing so intensely. i still think you prob want someone lethal. it doesn't even need to be a striker. just one guy who can fucking score a goal without needing six one-on-ones to do it.

maybe that's mane.

Suarez just had so much more to his game than 99% of other strikers in the world though, he's virtually irreplaceable. You need two or three players to replicate that, which I suppose is where the aforementioned swarm of buzzy bees comes in.

i guess we're just talking about whether a team can do really well with loads of 10 goals a season guys. i'd say probably not. kane and vardy aren't suarez but i still reckon that sort of form striker, even if not suarez, masks so so many other problems. draws become wins. losses become draws.

maybe that's mane

I doubt it. I think he's a great player but his career to date suggests consistency is not a strong point

i guess we're just talking about whether a team can do really well with loads of 10 goals a season guys. i'd say probably not. kane and vardy aren't suarez but i still reckon that sort of form striker, even if not suarez, masks so so many other problems. draws become wins. losses become draws.

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 31 August 2016 11:46 Bookmark

masks is the word though. take it from a former supporter of 10 dickheads & charlie austin

also leicester will be saying the exact same "but surely can't be the only" re kante

speaking of whom wtf is this £55m for late-20s slimani and silva business

brahimi, bolasie, and pre-hinchcliffe club history makes everton 2016/17 the ultimate big ron amusement arcadia. needs to stop scouting the efl for leipzig and come home

as always would be v interested to hear pandemic's transfer window shoulda coulda wouldas

― r|t|c, Wednesday, August 31, 2016 9:21 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

afraid i'm gonna disappoint you, most of my lfc musing has been about players that are already at/have just moved to 'bigger' teams than us which isn't much use frankly

i'm a big fan of emre can but at the same time if lfc have any aspirations on finishing top 3 then i very much doubt he can be your best central midfielder (which he is imo). the obvious player i'd love would be krychowiak or nainggolan both of whom we had no chance of getting.

the lack of a LB is scandalous really, especially when you consider that milner is the best available option. i like wendell at leverkusen although he's p much attack minded like a certain moreno though probably not quite as stupid. thought ghoulam at napoli might be worth a punt but napoli are p hard to get players out of without spending over the odds. oscar wendt is solid enough as well but he must be pushing 30 and is at a CL club so i dunno. tbh i'd have probably been just about okay with playing flanagan there and letting him play quite defensively whilst encouraging clyne to take more chances to go forward down the right.

seem short at CB if things between klopp and mamasak are beyond repair. would have been interested in jonathon tah and if he was too pricey/uninterested in joining would have gone for Sule from hoffenheim.

i'm happy enough with our attack tbh

with pogba back to utd and luiz possibly back to chelsea bracing myself for klopp to solve our LB crisis with the long awaited return of konchesky.

will think more on the centre midfielders.

meanwhile gnabry off to bremen the poor bastard. thought he was an FM10 fiction until the olympics where he couldn't stop scoring. meyer was super sweet as well.

actually a guy who i really have changed my opinion on over the last 2 years is axel witsel, he must be bored of zenit by now surely?

I hope we're all suitably excited about Sunderland signing the incredibly-named Didier Ndong.

i have that poch can turn sissoko from a guy who looks absolutely world class 4 games a season to one who does so 10-12.

i have faith

By all accounts Levy is going to lowball Newcastle right into the arms of Chelsea who will happily turn him into the new Victor Moses or Marko Marin.

Anyone know anything about Nkoudou?

(As a player, not the transfer)

idk i read he was fast and dribbles but iffy end product. presumably more coachable upside to njie

glad to see pau lopez all set for the pochettino fucking wine mixer

I'd assumed all this talk of David Luiz going back to Chelsea was just his agent tarting around but wtf this might actually be happening?!

it's not like defending is a big deal in EPL1.0 any more

He can't really be thinking about playing Stones and Luiz together though?

let me get this straight...

Chelsea bought Matic. They then signed Luiz with Matic included in the deal. Then they re-signed Matic. Then they sold Luiz. Now they've re-signed Luiz

actually makes me feel slightly ill to see david luiz's face again let alone the prospect of the daft cunt being back for good week after week

no one ever really leaves chelsea. i myself attended a game at the bridge last season and eddie newton still calls me up once a month to see how i'm getting on

Bruno martins indi with the greatest in-car interview yet

Nkoudou confirmed

"Nkoudou be magic" chant incoming

Bruno martins indi with the greatest in-car interview yet

― poor fiddy-less albion (darraghmac), woensdag 31 augustus 2016 19:18 (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Need to see this tbh

Dutch transfer window mostly comprised of more than ten (!) ManCity youth players offloaded on loan into our competition, which highly annoys me. Three to NAC, several others to Heerenveen, PSV, Twente (some young schmuck who scored a hattrick last weekend). Eredivisie is rapidly becoming the playground for PL under 21, with MCFC and Chelsea in particular sending boat loads of young lads to our shores as if it were D-Day.

Enjoyed this read. "Trapped in the Premier League’s Golden Cage". This will be a bigger problem with every transfer window to come one reckons.

Also, poor Mario. And poor, poor Mino.

Bruno martins indi with the greatest in-car interview yet

― poor fiddy-less albion (darraghmac), Wednesday, 31 August 2016 18:18 Bookmark

what he do

GK NKoudou ‏@gknkoudou 36m
#NkoudouSigns but I'm 40 years old now so Im not sure to be as quick as I used to be 😂😂

gk chesternkoudou got jokes

Going straight for the Benoit Assou-Nkoudou role in the dressing room there.

I can't tell you how disappointed I am that Balotelli didn't end up at Selhurst by the way.

In a forty second clip he had no reason why he would have come to the club, cheerily squeezed his driver's thigh for an uncomfortably long time and finally acknowledged solemnly that he had come to give hope to the children. Emotional whirlwind

Also, poor Mario

off to Nice on a free

Lol did Everton gazump Spurs?

Was inevitable. Spurs aren't going to pay £30m for him and Everton are desperate for statement buys. Will be interesting to see if they go up to £40m for Brahimi as well.

I just hope Spurs have something more than Pau Lopez up their sleeves.

Pau city morelike

i don't think the term gazumping can really apply to spending tens of millions on moussa sissoko

not sure everton are "desperate for statement buys"... they're being bold but it's not completely haphazard like i thought it would be when it was just united rejects and russian binjobs linked

Stoking

xp i'm kind of into everton being healthy as A Good Thing so i'm probably being charitable

I'm sure Sissoko will be extremely motivated to perform for Everton

it's the move he's being dreaming of

been ugh

Everton have spent £60m on Bolasie and Sissoko.

Also Mustafi just got himself injured in a Germany friendly lolololol.

just turned on ssn for whatever reason. "will the player have forgotten how good he is?" lady presenter enquires of quinny and merson re wilshere

"it's like letting a herd of cows off into a field, he's got to relish it" advises quinny

Chelsea winger Juan Cuadrado has joined Juventus on a three-year loan deal until 2019, the Italian club have confirmed.

The loan deal involves a fee of €5m (£4.2m) and includes the option to purchase Cuadrado permanently for €25m (£21.2m) should certain appearances and results be met during the loan period of three years.

On top of this, Juventus may have to pay Chelsea a further €4m (£3.3m) should the club achieve "certain sporting results during the player's contract of employment".

spurs match £30m sissoko bid

ah, the rare reverse gazumping

Not gonna lie. I think in current market that's a good price and think he'd be a good performer in a non joke side.

well seems like it's done now. Bon chance

sissoko apparently went awol not returning calls on everton the last few hours

Thats the determined streak we've been missing

oh man, I've been there

betting he's been in the nearest hotel to whl all day on levy's dime

Robson kanu in to wba

Lee Sobot ‏@LeeSobotYEP 49m
Looks like Yaya Sanogo was indeed the striker that #lufc were chasing, on loan from Arsenal. Wenger said no, wants him staying with Gunners.

So no go

Graeme Bailey ‏@GraemeBailey 2m
Told Everton are raging about Sissoko saga. They had private jet landed and ready to take him to Liverpool but he didn't turn up.

James Horncastle ‏@JamesHorncastle 14m
Witsel underwent his medical this morning. He’s been at Juve’s offices since 10am. Juve furious with Lucescu and Zenit

Everton have completed the signing of Enner Valencia on a season-long loan from West Ham, according to Sky sources.

There is also an agreement in place for Everton to buy the player for a fee of £14.5m next summer.

yeesh

Wilshere to Bournemouth just reminding me of j Cole to Liverpool.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrN_ldzXgAArGDj.jpg

just think of the sissoko jpeg being dragged into the trash :(

Moussa tweets.

Just listening to a transfer window summary on BBC WS where all the pounds and Euros are disconcertingly referred in the US currency. Probably not a new thing, but it is the first time I have heard it.

Jeez I wouldn't dig that.

Cant even play champ man in euros..

Merse thinks sissoko is shit all a sudden. Syruped tart.

Lovely niall wants it acknowledged that players aren't robots tbf to the lad

Strangest story of deadline day comes from Italy's Rai Sport.

It claims that Serie A side Chievo tried to sign former Southampton and Juventus striker Dani Osvaldo, but he told them he had retired from football to focus on his music career.

https://twitter.com/JHunterChron/status/771109204031668225

Slimani to Leicester for £29m seems very high.

Genuinely amazed Levy paid £30m for Sissoko though.

I was all stoked for the Deems Sissoko vendetta so this new found magnanimity is a huge disappointment.

give it time

Psychologically Sissoko doesn't really seem like the Pochettino type so I dunno what's going on here. Maybe it's like Ben Arfa and he'll suddenly turn into one of the best players in Europe when freed of the yoke of Pardew and Newcastle. Either that or Poch will decide he doesn't fancy it within weeks and it'll be the catalyst for his and Levy's messy divorce.

Oh yeah I mean eithers likely tbh

“We hope that Nice, in a family atmosphere, will help him rediscover his joy for the game. We both know that nothing will be easy but with the desire and support of all our fans, we’ll help him to flourish and bring his talent to the service of the team.”

Reminds me of my favourite RAWK post of all time

Dear Mario,
In this crazy world we live in, someone you've never heard of or will probably never meet, feels, as a Liverpool fan, that its ok to write to you on an internet page to say welcome. But here I am, and there you are, somewhere, preparing for the Spurs game today.

But I'm writing this with real meaning when I say welcome, because you are now at a club that is different, and a club where the fans genuinely care about their team. Now I'm quite sure every fan of any team would say that, but at Liverpool, you're not just a player, you a Liverpool player and that means you're part of our family. You are now one of us, and you are now family (you're welcome round for tea anytime mate).

Welcome to a bond with a set of fans that will not just sing your name, but look out for you, welcome to a ground where the feeling is different, a sense of history, family and warmth, of times shared and where the outside world and press are invited in but never truly part of it, welcome to a place, a sense of place, a culture that sets us apart from the rest of them.

I've read about your upbringing, it must be very odd to have your everyday shared with millions, your history available for analysis and comment by strangers, and then to be called 'crazy' by these people who haven't a clue. They are the crazy folk, they are the ones who think its ok to write about other people as if they are professional pyschologists, mind readers and judges of character. Not you.

Well, welcome to a club that sets apart from that world. Liverpool is a club that does it differently, where the emotions are heartfelt not invented, the flags are fabric not plastic and the noise deafeningly sincere.

Liverpool's great players have all been special, and different and gifted and marvellous to watch, and all of them acknowledge the club has a special place in their hearts. You are brilliant at your job, wonderful to watch, and you arriving here has made a lot of people excited. You have the gift of creating emotion in men's hearts, that's the real meaning of football, and I hope I speak for all Liverpool fans when I say, have the best time of your life here, have a great career and score lots of goals sure, but really, truly, have a great life whilst at our club.

In some ways, Mario, welcome home.

Gawd

Re: Letter to Mario.

Well I haven't deleted any posts and I'm not really bothered about deleting them. However, I can only see a couple of posts deleted, one of which asked if my letter was a joke, and my answer is no, its not. I write from the heart about football, not from the factual world, nor am I a cynic and I will happily stand up for my thoughts and the fact I have the nerve to post them, up for ridicule or praise, frankly it really doesn't matter to me.

What does matter to me is that I'd like to welcome a player to our club who has been ridiculed by the press and say I'm glad you're playing for us and best of luck mate. Too many men are scared of being open with their emotions, that's a shame I think. Personally of course, just in my opinion..

a good potential ilf troll of the future

For the most part, the colossal sums spent by English clubs on new players are seen as something to be celebrated, evidence of the Premier League’s potency. Every year on deadline day, the television channel Sky Sports News keeps a tally of the 20 clubs’ gross outlay in the corner of the screen.

and sometimes a dildo gets rammed in a reporter's ear lol

transfer deadline day has taken on a kind of medieval fete feeling. like the running of the bulls or that other spanish festival in which people will have been known to throw tomatoes at each other.

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/revealed-how-much-tottenham-are-paying-for-moussa-sissoko-and-why-mauricio-pochettino-wanted-the-a3334451.html

conditional 30m isnt nearly so bad

"Similar noises were made about Nabil Fekir, the Lyon playmaker, and Ante Coric, of Dinamo Zagreb. A loan deal for Isco, the Real Madrid playmaker, was attractive [...] Yet all would need time to adapt to English football"

this is appalling though

Not sure where Poch wants him though. Some people saying the signing was a direct response to Poch's comments after the Liverpool match that Spurs needed a player like Mane, pacy and direct to get in behind. Prefer Jonathan Wilson's argument that he'll play in the central triangle: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2660959-tottenham-have-depth-to-compete-but-must-find-way-to-win-without-mousa-dembele

lots of stuff coming out this morning. Supposedly the deal for Sissoko is 6M a year up to 30 but only as long as he remains at Spurs.
And Farhad Moshiri has claimed that Everton pulled out of a deal to sign Moussa Sissoko because they did not want to 'jeopardise' James McCarthy's position at Goodison Park.

yeah a few years back i hooked up with an old friend and she said she didn't want to jeopardise our friendship, which in truth was on the wane like james mccarthy. that was a lie too.

sorry i've sailed us close to holloway's strait in the banter sea

more owen smith right lads

i'm a normal poster. i like football. i have a family.

Erikson has signed a new contract

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37290715

Excellent. Underrated imo.

amazing that he's 24. nothing about him is 24

def fit & proper:

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/who-are-the-chinese-investors-leading-hull-city-takeover-talks/story-29606329-detail/story.html

In early 1992 the Chinese government began to look for alternative uses for a number of huge Cold War-era underground bomb shelters which were gathering dust. Joining forces with her younger brother Dai Yongge, Mrs Hawken formed Renhe Commercial Holdings, an investment company which started to transform several former military bunkers into shopping malls.

― r|t|c, Monday, 15 August 2016 13:24 Bookmark

not fit & proper

David Burns ‏@bbcburnsy 3h
Source says @HullCity agreed deal with 2 people to sell club then when names were submitted to @premierleague there were 10 names #hcafc

At least 2 of those 10 weren't carrying backpacks that were clearly labeled: FUCKING SWAGBAG, respect to FA due diligence there:p

oops, i meant premierleague, although not like the FL are doing a good impression of The Untouchables.

Jamie Jackson...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/sep/08/bext-xi-united-city-manchester-derby

Lol @ Rooney in there.

Jamie Jackson belongs in the "Will These Idiots Never Learn?" thread as well

state of moyesy, the harbinger of doom. does he not realise how transparent this sort of expectation-dampening is. "you don't get it instantly in the modern climate" - what, the one where leicester city won the league? the most changeable top order in years? more money than ever at every club?

https://twitter.com/SkySportsNewsHQ/status/774269040986460161

lol how has no one taken him aside for a word after last time. after united even

Asked what his response would be to fans who fear another survival scrap, Moyes said: "Well, they would probably be right because that's where they've been every other year for the last four years, so why would it suddenly change?"

"People will be flat because they are hoping that something is going to dramatically change - it can't dramatically change, it can't."

IT JUST CAN'T

LARGE VENLAFAXINE FOR MR MOYES

best one was when they played the young lad pickford in goal the other week, had a blinder but for one decisive spill right at the end

“He did a lot of good things, but the goal that was scored was one of those things that can happen when a young goalkeeper is playing and when you are a manager you have that worry in situations like that.”

jermain defoe then came on after like "i fort picks done alright it was unfortunate!"

large ven la faxine does sound like some mediocre dutch reserve prospect he's pointlessly loaned in tbf

"Why would it suddenly change" is the money quote there. He might as well say "fucked if I know what to do".

TBF I can think of a time when Moysey has presided over a dramatic change in a team's fortunes.

He's self-knowledgeable. He's not a manager, just a caretaker. Seeing to it the status quo will be maintained. No ambition whatsoever: there's no telling what will come of it!

It's his face. Something has changed there since United and Sociedad. It used to suggest a sort of gritty resistance, even a sort of dour enthusiasm to "hold what we have" or something. Now he just looks like a doctor telling you you're dying, and when you tell him the other GP said it was just has a cold he just stares at you and asks if you know how many people die every day, before going back into his office, sliding back against the closed door and breaking down in tears.

It. Never. Gets. Any. Moyesier.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/07/23/15/3686C92A00000578-3703930-image-m-34_1469284246110.jpg

definite"old gill" vibe to him as well.

lol

the interview is also tragic in the way he just talks about everton as if that's the only job he ever had, like just keep walking around the bad thing david, keep walking around the edges of the giant chasmic disaster that will always define you.

football is so cruel sometimes.

sometimes it's just great tho

how dare cheating foreigner Fernandinho try to get England's finest deep-lying playmaker booked?

I used to think Rooney was a cunt diver but over a decade or so I realised hes just fat and has no balance or coordination

bursts of frustrated rage from Rooney as he loses his bearings and mis-controls yet again, he's like my Alzheimer's-addled grandad out there. i wonder if at a certain point Ibra will get fed up with it and say something to Jose

in 10 years' time Rooney's continued presence in top flight football with have the same thick miasma of conspiracy theories as the Kennedy assassination

10 years time gwan

well yeah but rhetoric

well that's the league sorted

never in doubt tbh

lol

was that not offside

fun ragging on Rooney ofc but this is p. pathetic all-round from Utd

ah muggins blind again

aw bollocks now we get the Joe Hart speeches all weekend

"can't understand why they let Joe go, he could've dropped that"

here we go, foreign keepers can't deal with the great british cross, which the eu tried to ban

that's a crazy good finish, should be a GOTM contender but won't

nothing wrong with that challenge, fuck off neville.

cruel

Rooney seems to be trying to win a penalty by hitting the ball against people

That's all on Mourinho, sadly. Lingard and Mkhitaryan in the starting line-up after being injured was stupid. Two man midfield was stupid. Rooney - stupid.

It's glaringly obvious to anyone with a brain that 4231 with Pogba and Fellaini is not going to work, especially against a Guardiola team. The fact that he changed things at half-time gives me some encouragement though I suppose

bottom line: we have to go 433, Rashford and Herrera (best player by far second half) need to start, and Rooney needs to be fired into the sun

Payet with the rabona assist. He's ridiculous

West Ham Watford sounds a lot more fun than this Spurs slog I'm watching right now. The Ighalo goal was terrific.

https://my.mixtape.moe/xdppyj.mp4

Also Son again!

https://my.mixtape.moe/mgssri.mp4

Beautiful.

I remember when playing Stoke meant resigning yourself to a guaranteed ignominious defeat. Hughes is tanking them so badly.

Capoue failed to score in 33 games last season and has three in four this season.

LOL Hammers

Three in four is amazing for a holding midfielder.

That Stoke squad isn't exactly short of good players and they were dreadful today once the first goal went in.

Arsenal got a last minute dodgy peno

Liverpool look fabulous coming forward.

Not so much at the back.

Why can't we just sort the defence? I hope Sahko did something awful.

That touch from Firmino was so cool. When he's on he's on

Leicester missing Kante dreadfully. Mane looking like the player Pogba thinks he is ...

So many positives, one big diff I notice is we seem to have been working on playing a more possession-based style, there were some really controlled minutes. Mane looks like a bargain but I fear his instant messiah status, already feels like Suarez or Torres or Gerrard hype.

Matip looks like a good signing

Yeah definitely, loads of decisive headers.

Mane looking like the player Pogba thinks he is ...

Mourinho's been using Pogba dreadfully so far, but it's not really an apt comparison is it

I think United need Mata to play but thats unlikely...

he started every game prior to this one. It's basically all fucked til we bin Rooney

Matip looks like a good signing

― Neptune Bingo (Michael B), Saturday, 10 September 2016 20:01 Bookmark

i did enjoy the sarcastic clapping to lucas

On Pogba, he does look about three times overpriced. Like he will never be as good a player as De Bruyne, for example. I mean this is "most expensive player in the world" and he is so so so far away from Messi, Suarez, Ronaldo. Has a Seba Veron feel.

Liverpool looked great going forward yesterday - love it when teams just swarm all over the opposition like that - but they also seemed to drift out of the game for substantial periods. Klopp needs to work on that midfield a bit, I think, you still get the sense that they are at least one powerhouse central midfielder away from really competing.

Watching Leicester yesterday really underlined quite how transformative Kante was for them - we rightly talk about Suarez having one of the best individual Premiership seasons but I don't think there has ever been a player capable of turning defence into attack so effectively and with such speed. Really apparent when watching the rest of them lumping balls forward in Vardy's vague direction yesterday.

they are under-performing all the same. lost a lot of focus in their general play even besides the ton of work kante put in. think if vardy had put in the chance circa 70mins they might have been roused to finish very differently

credit pool tho. big fan of him but studge is just sublimely irritating sometimes, u can't teach that. it's not even like he's stupid, quite the opposite compared to yr usual lethal striker category

kante dead to me anyway. just drifting off to chelsea like it was 2004 why man why

They were pretty good against Arsenal but spending £51m on strikers who are highly unlikely to start at the same time and not bringing in someone who can add immediate bite to the midfield was an odd set of priorities. Mendy looks potentially interesting for the long term but Drinkwater (who looks sub-par at the moment anyway) has far too much to do.

iirc mendy is p bitey but tends to just sit. wonder how far off the pace they think kapustka is cos he is maybe the one new koke-esque offence/press balance option. still should be going 4-3-3 tho

not for the first time under poch i watched the spurs game and found it odd. nowhere near the game before the first goal, shelling peas with an almost staged inevitability after. not impressed with wanyama, good cameo from sissoko if still lacking in dembele polish. dier's hair has changed him

s/o to the london stadium selecta dropping livin joy "dreamer" within a beat of the ft whistle. sensational

unfortunately all replays of payet's raboner must now include shearer on motd going "ho ho ho... sexy"

pearce was so bad commentating that game. tsatsa? "HOLEBAS OF ALL PEOPLE!" shut up

troy deeney's neutral's review should really be a regular feature though

also during whatever game steve wilson was on he came out with "well when this dropped into the food mixer it could have shot out anywhere" which upset me greatly. surely this is not the mixer

yes it's either 'the mixer' or 'the fackin mixer' . never 'the food mixer'

Took 55 minutes for Hart to gift his first goal against Torino.

Ian Wright looks like a minion

He was particularly insufferable on MOTD. "I was thinking, to treat Joe Hart the way they did, this Claudio Bravo must be brilliant", as if he was Championship twat and not a guy with 70 appearances for Barcelona.

https://twitter.com/philousports/status/775066717173248001

kind of miss gomis. kind of really don't

the interview is also tragic in the way he just talks about everton as if that's the only job he ever had, like just keep walking around the bad thing david, keep walking around the edges of the giant chasmic disaster that will always define you.

football is so cruel sometimes.

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Saturday, 10 September 2016 11:46 Bookmark

David Moyes believes he could have won the Premier League with Everton if he had been allowed to sign a striker like Romelu Lukaku.

“We had a great team at Everton but we were missing a centre-forward,” Moyes said. “I might be exaggerating, but I think with that we would have been close to winning the Premier League, we were that good.

“In the last two years, we finished above Liverpool in the league. You look at their spending over the years and that was a big thing, but we just couldn’t break the top four because we didn’t have the finances to buy a centre-forward.”

“Sunderland aren’t going to be the biggest spenders, just like Everton weren’t. It’s going to be tough and take time – at least three or four transfer windows – but I want, in my own way, to do a Leicester here. It might not mean winning the Premier League but finishing in a high position.”

moyes doing a leicester = not winning a league over a four year period

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130515150013/simpsons/images/5/5c/Sane_Planning,_Sensible_Tomorrow.png

his position seems to be: "i won't get you relegated. probably."

three or four windows is only 2 years tbf. nothing if not a realist.

He's basically saying he thinks the squad's shit, that must be going down really well in the dressing room right now.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/12/the-fiver-david-moyes-sunderland-everton-blaming-yourself

https://twitter.com/PremBible/status/775413913554935809

We're not bothering with a CL thread anymore are we? Mr. Atkinson thoroughly ruining our game against Atletico Madrid. Disallowed a perfectly fine PSV goal. Should've disallowed an Atletico goal but didn't. Gave PSV a pen that wasn't a pen in a million years (and we missed).

How I missed ye CL.

Barca v Celtic game is interesting only to see how many goals Barca will score. I'll say 5. Celtic player hould have stood over the ball til 95th min before he missed that peno.

does any elite striker miss more chances than Cavani?

https://twitter.com/PremBible/status/775413913554935809

― Number None, Monday, September 12, 2016 9:43 PM (yesterday)

He's seen things no man should ever see.

caught that lovely

https://streamable.com/ayel

Yeah

Celtic look alright is the thing, some of their breaks are p good

Annnnnd another 100% pen for PSV not seen by Atkinson nor his assistant Oliver. Bollocks,

Brendan saying things could have been different if they'd scored the penalty.

he'd've beat the spread?

How far into the 7-0 defeat did Deems make that comment?

Also someone start a fucking Champions League thread. I'm not having the competition devalued with us in it.

between four and five

Thread should have been titled Can Leicester City really win the Champions League 2016-17?

"Jamie Vardy's Having A Euro Party"?

Gazprom will be on dis ting

Racist Jamie Vardy's roids have wore off - Leicester lack of roids CL 2016/2017

hahaha

Woeful performance by ManU tonight. Just don't give a damn or just not mad(e) for the EL?

Someone please open a euros thread.

Liverpool dominating Chelsea here. Look like the home side

http://i.imgur.com/6q3dAIt.png

fucks sake moreno

oh ho hendo

omg

Stevie is that you?

lets not get carried away

that's a mantra I need to keep repeating to myself. tho let's be honest - Liverpool need 4 before a game is even close to safe

hendo, is it me you're looking for?

We're passing the ball better than we have in years.

does any elite striker miss more chances than Cavani?

― Number None, Tuesday, 13 September 2016 21:47 (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He must have heard you - four shots, four goals in the first half vs Caen tonight.

sure Ben Arfa tore up that league

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CsgB9UpXYAEvP-3.jpg:small

Liverpool can't play this deep without conceding

p clever passing there, even if it didn't end up producing anything

ffs

when will we learn to make a team apply pressure and earn a goal? when?

gonna lose this

hush

dying

didn't realize that mr. wint was managing chelsea

feels entirely possible that chelsea could still pull this off

whew

God my heart thumping - what a win. Frustrating cos we were way way better.

21:56

A reminder that Phil McNulty will be live on Facebook any moment now.

Catch up with our chief football writer here.

https://www.facebook.com/BBCSport/

I asked so many questions but no joy

I was full sure Chelsea were going to get a second when the inevitable slump came around but they finished strongly. Impressive.

rip west ham

Slimani has scored twice on his debut.

lol Chadli again.

Chadli and Rondon seem to find each other nicely.

headi slimani

gundogan!

Impressive how Pep has just immediately arrived and City look like theyre gonna walk dis ting. It's pretty much the same team as last year

Occasionally you wake up and life seems to get you down and then you read a story like Moyes making Ferdinand and Vidic watch videos of Phil Jagielka and you just want to thank the Lord that this man was sent to us.

lol, read that. he seems to be stuck in some sort of utopian loop about what went right at everton.

the fact that Mourinho seemingly can't do any better than a two-man midfield of Pogba and Fellaini is brutally depressing to me

Thing is that I can't remember Mourinho ever playing with a two man midfield before, not out of choice at least. Dunno what it is about Herrera that managers seem to take against but it seems like for the third or fourth year in a row the obvious structural problems within the United squad haven't really been addressed.

Probably good enough to beat Watford though.

Watford have been much better than United so far tbh.

Lol. Capoue is deadly this season.

seeing Utd getting bullied like this is a treat