goodrobotusses

He apparently wants to go to England, to a club that plays good football and has French speakers. Said Spain would suit his style but he wants to play and would be less likely to at Madrid or Barcelona.

How would you have got the message out without Twitter, though – chain emails? The petition is exactly the reason Twitter is so powerful and useful.

Think you missed the point. I'm not saying players who've done well in this division can't be successes, I'm saying they're not guaranteed successes. Yet every summer when you've got Foreign Player X and British Player Y linked, a bunch of people always make that same point: "But British Player Y can step straight in and be a success because he's PL-proven, whereas Foreign Player X might need time to adapt or might not adapt at all." Six months later, what do you have? Straw-clutchers saying, "Well, Downing/Carroll might just need six months/a year/a lifetime to get used to life at LFC." It's not an exact science either way, but the PL-proven myth is one of my biggest bugbears when people are assessing potential signings.

Aye. As if the Keane deal didn't already highlight this. Please, this summer, can we cease peddling this bulls*** 'PL-proven' myth?

Gerrard, Spearing and Henderson in midfield with Kuyt and Bellamy either side of Suarez for me. Maxi on the bench.

Both. He didn't really develop as an all-round player until Hughes gave him that free wide-left forward role at City. He'd always kicked up a stink about playing wide before then (like when Souness put him on the right at Newcastle), but he seemed to realise that being a wide attacker was different to being a 'winger' and his game really came on. He learned how to stop, pause and think as much as anything, whereas before I think coaches wanted him to always be using his pace.

Hasn't Bale been given more licence to drift inside in recent weeks? If so, it won't just be a challenge for Kelly, but for the central midfielders also.

He wasn't kicking around, but the museum dude said to just come find him if I want tickets sorting in future. Might see if I can wangle something for Serbia-Wales at the Marakana in September. And then die. And thus the mystery is solved.

I was talking to the museum guy at Red Star Belgrade the other day and apparently it costs teams €250,000 to enter this tournament. Obviously he could have been talking out his hole, but thought that was interesting.

That sums up my thoughts on Charlie too. Good assists tonight though.

No way he's as thick as Riise. I think people are forgetting how bad Riise was with the ball if he didn't have a clear straight line to run into. Jose's had a dip in form and made a mistake, nothing else. Happens to everyone.

The Henry/Downing video thing is originally from David Conn's big two-part piece when he went to interview JWH in Boston ages ago.

That's my view too. One swallow doesn't make a summer and all that. They'll be fine.

I always maintained that theory, based on our attempts to sign Alves and eventually getting Johnson, whereas we were after left-back-c**-centre-backs such as Heinze and Kaladze. Versatility of the players we didn't sign suggests Rafa wanted 'possibilities' as much as anything, mind. I like Glen and have been a long-term defender of the lad, but he was poor today. His attacking game isn't as sharp as it was when he first came to the club, which is unfortunate given our complete predictability in the final third.

This. This is part of the reason I don't trust these statistics. A cross that's just a little too high but is made contact with and goes over the bar is still considered both 'chance created' and 'cross completed'. We have missed a lot of sitters this season, yes, but we're not always producing a great quality of chance. Most of our attacking play either comes through a piece of Suarez brilliance or a cross into the box, neither of which is indicative of a genuinely creative team. The capability is/was there, because in the second half of last season we looked very creative. Here's a question: with the full-backs we have, do we actually need wingers in the traditional sense?

Meant to be? It was funny.

I'd love it if Hendo pulled off the sensational bass toss. He could try it with Spearing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8oT9ag631Q

Reminds me of the Blizzard #3 launch when Philippe Auclair was discussing a Comolli interview in France where he talked about the things he looked at when signing Suarez. I paraphrase… "So we looked at his appearances record over the past few seasons and he played a lot of games, so we knew he didn't get injured much. And then we saw his goal stats and assists and they were very high…" Let's just hope you're right; that he just plays a straight bat in public and there is a lot of deep-level examination of statistical stuff beyond The Completely Bloody Obvious.

Presumably that's what Comolli is for. He's FSG's appointment as an expert in player recruitment, as recommended by Billy Beane, etc.

That's a good point. If the council are so adamant on the club doing its part in the regeneration of L4, they should be willing to stump up to improve transport links, etc. Does anyone know if work is being done to that effect? Obviously, it's not a great time to be demanding the council cough up millions, but if they're strong-arming the club over this we should be looking to get something back.

Aye. The owners admitted they knew zip about football when they bought the club and are playing catch-up, something that probably influenced the hiring of Comolli. They are in no position to question targets, lest we wind up walking in a Purslow wonderland again.

Good, these stats. Do they factor in the player's club's style of play when they look into this, I wonder, or just assists, key passes and the like. Because if Downing has loads of space to run into – as a counter-attacking side like Aston Villa is likely to utilise – he can look handy. Stick him up against a massed-ranks defence and he starts to look like England's Stewart Downing. Odd, that.

(Helmet on.)

I think we've made some very good signings in Comolli/Kenny's time here: Suarez, Enrique, Bellamy, Henderson (based on potential shown so far), Coates (based on potential shown so far). Adam's an alright squad player signed cheap too. Transfers are never a sure thing, but it's just unfortunate that our most conspicuously poor ones in this time have been our first and third most expensive: Carroll and Downing. Switch those for two players who are actually worth £35m and £20m and we'd probably be in excellent shape. But, as noted elsewhere, it's very difficult to get the required quality when you're outside the CL (though not impossible, as Juve signing the likes of Arturo Vidal and Andrea Pirlo highlights).

But both Kenny and Comolli say that Kenny has final say on deals. The story goes: Comolli's team compiles a list of players based on the qualities the manager wants. The manager then then chooses from that list. But how are we to know who else was on the list? Seems like a big leap to make.