genghis

I can vouch for the quality That's a ridiculous thing to sit through. I think he has the best first touch of anyone to ever play for us, and the accuracy and calmness of his finishing is... not normal.

Three. Well Crystal Palace have tried it this summer, let's see how that pans out for them. And to think I had "zero net spend" in the predictions and was too optimistic!

This is literally accurate. We got 0 free kicks in the 2ns half, which you'd think is a bit weird when you're 11 v 10.

Like selling a Rolls-Royce and buying a wheelbarrow.

People will say the most ridiculous sh*t to try and sound like they have some kind of insight. But yes, I prefer "By fans..."

Yeah 7 defenders, 3 attackers sounds about right for Southgate, especially given England's strongest suit is fast, technical attackers.

It's only like this because we're all so tench and nervous about our aging squad.

That would all be very Football Manager 2001/2.

Will depend on how much of a grouchy mood I'm in when I place the bet Was feeling mardy earlier, not so much now. Fickle you say? True.

I'm still f**ked off about it. After Jurgen's won them a CL and a PL, you'd think they could back him in the market a little bit when we're up against it. Instead we loaned a kid from the worst defence in the Bundesliga, and got a kid on the cheap Jurgen hadn't ever thought about or seen play. Luckily he's such a bloody amazing manager he managed to make it work with what we had, just about.

And I'd bet even money right now that's what happens. It's not easy making ends meet when you're the 5th richest football club in the world, dontchaknow. We literally didn't find the money to buy Jurgen a proper centreback, when we were down to putting people on the bench we found sleeping in Stanley Park.

I'd be in favour of Southgate not picking him. A fully rested, angry & motivated Trent would be genuinely terrifying next season.

Christ that'll teach me to post and not come on for a few days. Right... Yep. sadly no, very much a real g/f and daughter, both of whom were lovely. As Jones said, Caerleon was the place - was unmentioned by name on the forum (might have been KT not this place) back then so that it remained somewhere you could get affordable hotel rooms before a cup final... Secret Email Rings indeed (one for the really old f**kers there). Yep. Not quite, but not far off...see below... From memory 2 or 3 of the photos were in his office, some others dotted down the hall outside it. One was him & his daugher Katja seemingly with Parry, but those two were at a different scale to the main pic so it looked really daft. It wasn't even like a plausible fake, more like a parody of one. And yeah remember that huge house and the cordoned off thing now you mention it - I think it was because much of it was unrenovated. And as you say he was a lovely bloke to chat with, just a little odd because of the sheer quantity of stories that were...dubious.

Yeah, twice. He turned up - with his girlfriend and kid - at one of the pubs in the Town With No Name near Cardiff for the one of our cup finals there, and then a couple of months later I dropped in on his house in Chepstow on my way back from Cornwall. In real life was mostly sound. Bit of a hippy, he liked his weed, worked as a teacher (I think), but clearly also a fantasist. His house full of framed and obviously photoshopped pics of him and his family with Houllier, Parry etc. An odd but harmless Walter Mitty, until Twitter came along and...boom.

Yeah, puts the Premier League into the same boat as the Bundesliga, which I guess was always a possibility given the unmoderated wealth allowed into the English game.

Oh I'm pretty sure there's no advantage to be taken. Just recounting how certain I was that a silent Anfield explained our end of season drop-off, and would harm us this year. And by the same token, if the crowds are back for 2021-22 we'll be rocket-fuelled again. Very true. West Ham's season is even weirder than ours I reckon. Their contrast with the preceding year isn't very far from Leicester's when they won the league. Their home crowd must be f'ing poisonous!

This, massively. They haven't quite got a galacticos team, but they do have 2 x £40m+ players for every position on the pitch. Makes a huge difference in an intense season, and is the diametric opposite of our squad. I said to my other half before the season that I feared we'd have a much crapper season than most because of this. While every clubs' fans thinks they help their team, our crowd truly do - hence why almost every player on the planet talks about how special playing at (normally full) Anfield is. The bond between LFC players and the supporters is something very special.

I would be aiming that punch about 3 feet lower.

Yep, agree with all that. It's not that Maguire is terrible, he's just nowhere near being an £80m centreback. Man U were completely mugged off - he wasn't even the best centreback at Leicester in 2019.

I genuinely don't see anything Maguire does that Lewis Dunk doesn't do just as well, or better - both big, fairly immobile centrebacks with giant foreheads. Dunk seems like the better passer.

Think that's a given. #1 on Jurgen's coaching to-do list will be "stop diving into tackles quite so hard or so often" but better he starts too aggressive and needs to be calmed down than starts like Naby...and gently disappears.

I know it's just a YT highlights reel, but he looks strong AF for a 20 year old. Number of times he just holds a forward off and brushes past them. Like.

Worst version of Championship Manager ever.

Beglin in defense. Murphy on the bench.