Grabber and Lobster

This is it. When we make a mistake in the transfer market, we've had to live with it for a year or 3. When they have, they've just gone out and bought another 3 players for £60-80m a pop. Infinite money makes all the difference - the media makes out their recruitment is amazing, while airbrushing out the huge money lost on Kalvin Philips, Mangala, Savinho, Marmoush, Reijnders etc etc

And blackmail, as Redwire just mentioned. Don't forget that, to complete the trifecta of c**tery. Actually might be coercion. I'm a little hazy on my mobster behaviours.

Superb. Obvious comparison is late 20s Virgil. Was brilliant at just shutting down danger repeatedly - Belgium had a fair amount of play but very few obvious chances as Jacquet & Lacroix just shut down their forwards when the ball got into their defensive third.

Luckily there's no precedent at the club for highly talented but injury-prone full-backs not being able to contribute for half a decade (Not a dig at you FNB, just we've been here before with RJ, MB, FA etc)

Damn, knew I'd pick a new forum name too soon.

S'alright it shouldn't trouble you too much, seeing as I post about 5% as often as the forum all-stars/secret-email-ring-members

Yeah when you compare our summer to many of our rivals, it seems our lack of 'headroom' stems directly from letting 4 of our best players leave on frees in the last year, rather than getting the thick end of £150-200m for them.

Thanks! had been struggling for a new forum name.

FTFY

Being ultra cynical for a minute: nearly winning lots of stuff might be our owners ideal model. Keeps win bonuses right down (which we're led to believe are a big part of our player contracts), and fan interest right up. Things only start to fall to pieces if we miss out on CL (more than once in a while).

Nah I just have a very slow running brain at the moment. Maybe I could apply for Hughes old job?

Thanks, I'd been trying to write exactly that post earlier today. Hughes & Edwards were such frauds. Utter "work smarter not harder" bell-ends (people who say that tend to do neither).

And Bluesky feels like Twitter from about 10/15 years ago. i.e. far fewer turds (and a lot of people who've migrated there from X)

Well I guess he'll come watch young Florian play every now and then. Be brilliant to have him in the ground.

Well Hughes was a youth player on Arsenal's books for 5 years... But yeah this is all a bit Football Manager where you start as the Manc's manager and release all their players & sign donkeys until you're sacked. Checks out, apart from the last bit.

Beat me to it. 100% that. Or "spoofer".

Record revenues though FY 2025. All that matters. Pr**ks.

"Is this fix in the room with us now Arne?"

You've said the magic words. It's exactly what I see when I watch him play, except we paid 25 times less for Vlad. Really hope this is entirely down to the Slot effect. One of the biggest fears with this team is that youngsters are having their self-confidence wholly eroded by the poor coaching & tactics. I can see him & Isak taking 6 months to sort their heads out even after he's gone.

I think it's actually 5 wins in 4 months. (our 5th win was 20th September). Which is better, but only like a giant pile of turd is worse than a merely big one.

Late contender for post of the year

Have also been thinking of a new forum name. Concrete Wirtz Refresh Button was a classic Fall B-side, reverse of Draygo's Guilt, I believe.

Catching up on 4 weeks of the transfer thread / fish puns / boyband puns / Greek philosophical references is what I like to do instead of working. Likes may be somewhat anachronistic, but I also enjoy the rollercoaster of "oh f**k, I liked this bloke's post 150 pages ago, and now he's been cancelled. Better keep my head down in case the mob is still carrying torches & pitchforks".

For some reason, this is ringing a bell. Can't quite place why.

Baleba at Brighton. He's 20, an absolute colossus, excellent dribbler & passer, and a one man defense & midfield. Only *slight* problem is they'll want more than they got for Caceido I reckon.