Spike

Having read Epic Swindle over Christmas I can't but help to get a gut feeling of deja vu. Stadium? Leave it with us. We have plans and we know we'll need it to compete - this time though we're realists, no spade in the ground faux pas. Growing commercial revenues - yep we've done that. Appease the fans? Lots of mentions of history, engagement of fan groups, attending of big games and then a slow withdrawal of the love. Buying big and early gets goodwill - For Carroll, Downing, Adam etc read that first summer and Jan with Skrtel, Masch, Torres, Babel et al Long distance love - yep, pretty much the same. To quote the Bunk from the wire: n****r we don't know how far we done fell

Playing it short out from the back is killing pepe's core strength as much as anything. As is playing it out quickly. He's a forgotten man in our possession play. The lack of pressing higher up is also exposing him. Lest we forget, this lad was f***ing ace until we switched how we played 3 years back. Maybe it's exposed a weakness in concentration and positional adaptation that we and he wasn't exposed to before. Patterns of play and that

Ha ha ha. Martin you've lost the news

You see, and this isn't a go at you, this is symptomatic of our reduced mindset. We've become a club who'll settle for selling to restructure, reduce wage bills and fund new investments when the issue is really about strengthening. Strengthening with suarez in the side is a much more positive proposition (considering he can play all along the front line) than replacing and restructuring without him. The latter requires hands in pockets though and there's no evidence that FSG will do that. Ever decreasing levels of expectation and tv revenues to offset commercial partnership growth . It takes ages or a monumental f*** up for a brand to really devalue. Also, apparently one of our main issues in terms of the 'transition' is that several of our first team are still in the 4-4-2 way of playing but are skewed into a 4-3-3 formation. I wouldn't be shocked to see Rodgers hedge his bets and sell Suarez to get a short term fix into his way of playing if that's his only hand. The best way of showing commitment to Rodgers is to fund him properly in January and the summer. At the moment, to paraphrase an old quote about Michael Owen, Suarez really is a mortgage on our future.

I genuinely believe that I could do that comms director job.

The cynic in me can't help but think that this story comes out on the day that I've booked my tickets for the second half of the season...

Danny agger's place is expanding into temporary body art

Meanwhile... still no footballer is prepared to publicly stand up against homophobia within the game.

How many degrees of separation are we talking in terms of your source and the owners nyr? Also what size stake does this persons contact(s) have within the ownership group? Just need to get a handle on how momentous this could be. Thanks for sharing by the way

God and keown calling out the leniency of the ban on football focus

I can only imagine that retiring from international football negates an element of reputation and representation from any ban. He may be a c*** but he's only Chelsea's c***

Fact is that they didn't know enough about the game to see the value or lack of. Even how it would fit beyond a very superficial level. Comolli in as the money ball dude based on spurs and arsenal. Kenny, the trusted legend. the plan seemed simple. Two of the top assist providers, an up and coming capped international that the mancs were sniffing around, and a young, in form top English scorer. The fact is what we paid for off the pitch couldn't be made to work on the pitch. I don't blame them in a way for feeling burned but I also reckon Rodgers sang to their tune when he was interviewed. Doubt he knew how strongly they'd take his word or an idea of the task in hand.

Kenny waived his payoff didn't he? I'm not saying they all did but I'm positive he said it was better spent on the team

Yep. Grey areas. Particularly in the generational sense. Older people not as au fais with the correct terminology, or were exposed to the immigration post war and lived in areas where it was culturally quite a shock. Even then it's only marginally understandable. For someone who integrates and helps black players, charities etc like terry claims, this makes his racial labelling all the more inexcusable. He would surely know the weight behind the word.

that courtroom sounds like Derek and Clive

I like hendo. He obviously has energy and will toe to toe when trouble flares or we need a gee up. Need to see him take that attitude to when he is on the ball though. I sometimes think he's too overawed or perhaps respectful of some of the older heads and would rather give it them to have a go rather than think 'f*** it' and have a go, or a drive himself. I think he has it within his character for that to come in time though.

He likes to keep the ball moving but our problem is we don't move to create enough angles. I think a lot of his game is about having players moving around him and creating space for him to move into. It's where he seems to energise. When we dont move so much he seems to play very tidily but also very much within the unit. Also, if you look at his defensive game you see that a lot of the time he's as much about closing down the angle of a pass than putting his foot in.

Yeah I noticed him geeing the lads up with a few minutes left. Thought he was very good today. Plays with his head up and tidy, rarely wasteful

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Sam Allardyccio, he of 'beyond the pale', and awaiting the job at Milan or Madrid cos he reckons he'd walk them through to trophies is not far off