craig

It is a valid point. We went from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1 and we also caw folks like Conte bring a 3-5-2 back into fashion.

This is nonsense man. A throw-in coach is absolutely OTT. Throw ins arent rocket science - the important thing with throw-ins is to have movement and rotations, dont need a throw-in coach for that. That said, my kid played a league decider last night and his left back had THREE consecutive foul throws.... apparently my kids language was colourful, lol

Nah, he just knows his stuff and has been around the game a long time.. Took a shitshow in the Watford Academy and got them to the Youth Cup semi final and also got them multiple six figures transfers for teenage kids. Playing nice means shit if you aren't doing anything with it. The Tims love to talk about their passing stats, I mean they eulogise about Scott Brown having the best passing success rate in CL (not hard when your passes are 5 yards sideways or backwards), and Swansea may be playing nice football, but they arent getting results from that.

Wonder if we have done a cost v benefit analysis on increasing the stadium size.

Interesting example to give.... because the Watford guy I had beers with also used Russell Martin as an example... but not a good one - he watched an interview and Martin kept spouting stats (sound familiar Rousseau, lol) about passes etc.... having been pumped 4 or 5 nil. Watford guys point, rightly, was that stats can matter, but if you have 500 passes and they are all across the backline and going nowhere then they mean nothing, particularly when you get beat

Swansea also did similar back in the day - didnt matter who the head coach was, the philosophy was the same - it can be argued that Swansea created the managerial careers of Martinez, Rodgers, even Laudrup

This is an interesting philosophy, and one that I subscribed to as well. However, I was having beers with the former Watford Academy director last week (now the Wales women's assistant manager) and he actually disagrees with this approach and his reasoning is compelling. For a player, and even a team, having the same philosophy only works so long as the first team has the same philosophy and, when it doesnt, those players now need to be re-trained in differing formations and tactics. If you look at us, that is true because GvB's style differs from Gerrard's. And is probably true of all clubs. The Watford guys reasoning is sound in that players need to be flexible to different approaches and by not having that flexibility will hurt players when a change inevitably occurs. By contrast, my son's head coach at his Academy was brought onto the Leeds payroll by Bielsa to do what we have done, Leeds didnt have a consistent philosophy from Academy to First Team - so he was brought in to put into place a structure that saw the Academy play the same way, same philosophy as the first team. When Bielsa got fired, he got fired too because Marshe doesnt want that or isnt interested in it - the coach got picked up immediately by Peterbrough for the U18 & U23 coaching role. So it is clearly a subject which is torn, even within the pro ranks.

Still in Bermuda mate. Not enjoying the force just now then ? Yeah, I think we will probably see the best of him against the Tims and in European games. Hopefully a lot more than that though

Yeah he will mate (good to see you back bud - still in the force ?). Youtube is no place to judge (as we learned with Sebo) but he has blistering pace (fastest 20 metres ever recorded at Man City, beating Sterling, Sane and Walker and, funnily enough, quicker over 20 metres than Usain Bolt - true story !), tricky, direct but definitely needs work on his decision-making when either shooting or delivering the ball in. My fear is whether he will be able to use his pace given how deep teams sit against us - however, if he is deployed on the right wing then it also should mean that Kent isnt double-teamed on the other side, which should open him up to be able to contribute more as well. He signed for Schalke for 11 mill from Man City and was part of their first team. The Tims were after him as well apparently.

As strange as it sounds. I am glad we lost - without losing it is highly unlikely we end up in the Europa League final. Wouldnt swap that experience for anything (except either winning said final or making a CL final ).

I'd expect it to be given Kent isnt a striker

That one I thought had already been rubbished on numerous occasions

Yeah but I guess it all depends on how deals and contracts are structured. They got more than that for Edouard but also had to stump up 40% sell-on fee to PSG - admittedly that would be the contract between clubs rather than between player and club. But as has already been said, we may not have gotten Aribo in the first place had we not agreed to a sell-on clause being inserted into the contract.

I did too - when I saw Aribo play the League One play off final for Charlton he looked an absolute baller - wanted us to sign him when I saw him and that summer we did. I had no doubts the boy would be great up here and, largely he has. He is worth way more than 10 million, of that I have no doubt - but last year of his contract dictates what we can do - and the answer is largely nothing. If he isnt signing we have to get the best we can.... so to get his release clause value is pretty solid business

They dont need to be - but it is no coincidence that we are signing 2006's when that age group has been largely a failure for us. It isn't anywhere close to a sign of changing recruitment.

Was probably the best keeping performance I have ever witnessed.

And the same dross at least 4 times a year.....

It isnt. This is being done out of a necessity. Of the 2006's only 6 have been handed contracts in the last two years. The desired quality isnt there, hence the mass influx of 16 yr old kids into the U18's. It isnt a change in direction of recruitment, it is a necessity because the locally sourced 2006's werent good enough.

There is no doubt in my mind that for that period there wasnt a keeper in the world as good as him, including the oft vaunted Schmeichel. Goram was untouchable at times. That performance at Elland Road will live with me forever !

Exactly this mate

Only brilliant in the sense we needed them. See my previous post as to why it isnt as good as you may think

There's an alternative view to this though.... the talent they are hoovering up is because the 2006's that we had weren't good enough. Only 6 have been offered contracts in the last couple of years apparently. So hoovering up talent, whilst appreciated, appears to be because the players we had at that age group werent good enough

Actually one game mate. Had we got, and converted, the two stonewall penalties we were denied against Celtic at Ibrox in March we would have won the league. Completely agree about some of the histrionics in here. Should we strengthen ? Yes. Will we lose the league if we don't ? Absolutely zero guarantee that happens if we keep this squad together. Some observations with respect to last season and our squad : 1. We were still very close to winning the league (see point above) 2. Our squad quite possibly were complacent last season - unacceptable, but understandable given the prior season invincible league campaign 3. Celtic benefitted more than us, by far, with "honest mistake" officiating. Aside from the 2 stonewall penalties that would have won us the league you can count a bunch of times they got a large slice of the "benefit of the doubt" 1. They scored an offside goal against Hearts to turn 1 point into 3 2. They scored another offside goal against Hearts that turned 1 point into 3. 3. They should have had a penalty given against them in the last minute at home to Livingston which would have turned 3 points into 1. 4. Then we have the penalty we should have had at Ibrox against Dundee Utd when Sakala was pulled back, that would have turned 1 point into 3 5. Then we have the draw at Tannadice when we were denied a stonewall penalty for handball which would have turned 1 point into 3 These are just off the top of my head and provide a 14 point swing (10 points for points 1 to 5 and 4 points from the OF game at Ibrox). The suggestions that we are way behind them if we go with this squad is quite preposterous IMHO

Basically, yes. Both the top two have died a death recently too. The rest tank when Bitcoin tanks and surge when Bitcoin does. There are some other good chains like Solana and Elrond. Solana has speed problems though Elrond is solid but new. Plenty other chains out there but they all basically follow bitcoin

Cardano is literally a pile of shit. How it is still a top 10 crypto I will never know. It is an awful alternative to Ethereum. Ethereum has had smart contracts for years and has migrated to a second, enhanced version of their smart contracts..... whilst Cardano still can't get their first version to work.