Billy Talbot

Let's Röhl another number for the road.

There was some stuff a few weeks back about us getting encouragement to go back in for him. Sociedad offered him a new contract and he turned it down.

I'm not having the homesickness thing. Sociedad is clearly a tight-knit club and he's been there since he was a kid. I bet all his family are Sociedad fans too and I bet his other-half's family etc, etc. Sociedad wanted to keep hold of him and his agent's job is to keep things smooth if no deal could be done thus all the mountains and food BS. I reckon he would have come but he didn't want to have to go through the rigmarole of turning up in Madrid with £51m in cash. Now they've all had a bit of time to think about it, probably including Sociedad who will have been told there's little chance of Zubimendi signing a new contract worth less than half that which we're offering, I would think there would be some scope to sort something out. It's all very reminiscent of the Ander Herrera to Man U saga. He actually did end up paying his buy-out in the end. In cash, in person, at La Liga HQ in Madrid, and it was the window after Bilbao refused to take the buy-out fee from them directly.

do you find them difficult to swallow?

I want their titles stripped, a points deduction that guarantees relegation and them being barred from promotion until their owners sell up.

TBF they've not won at Anfield for over 50 years, so yeah, he's right to be disappointed to do so and nothing wrong or disrespectful saying he is.

Yeah I don't like it either.

Was always close enough to clatter him and take a yellow.

Well yeah, he makes a piss poor attempt to show him outside and given that he must know that Hudson Odoi is desperate to come inside it's a really bad bit of defending. Either show him outside or flatten him. Don't try to stand him up, he'll just cut inside. That's not hindsight either, that should have been their specific instruction for that situation.

What annoyed me specifically about the goal is that is what Hudson-Odoi does. Does no-one watch football? Why is Bradley showing him inside and why isn't Ali expecting him to curl it into the far corner?

Ah fair enough. As part of the bass players union I always paid more attention to Powers. I don't know any of them or looked too deeply into it. John (Jon?) Powers always came across as red though.

"I see many colours but the only one that's coming through is red" is a bit bold for an Evertonian. They'd have him drowned or hung or locked up in that little prison for that by now.

Just imagine. Him or Chiesa.

After offering £15m last winter.

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He can't tackle and he knows it. He disappears once he's been booked.

I think they need to be put in the championship and barred from promotion for multiple seasons. I don't think relegating further than that is fair on the clubs and towns that will have to put up with their ****head fans coming and filling their grounds and "doing the poznan" which is exactly what I see happening.

Yeah, I'm starting to think this way. Either Darwin gets with the program soon or I think we'll have to find someone else.

I seem to remember the consensus was he's a bit too short and too slow to make up for it. He'll have to be a hell of a player to get away with both of those as a defensive midfielder in the PL. Whenever I watched him he got booked for things that looked like they were rooted in either of those things and I didn't watch that much of him and that was in the Confeds Cup. And he's a nark. Nothing wrong with that but from what I've seen he's not for us right now.

Yeah clearly. Although days missed are heading in the right direction.

The U21s are playing Crewe away tonight in the EFL Cup. That might be worth a watch for some potential incomings to the first team squad. It's live on Sky Sports+

The U21s are playing Crewe away tonight in the EFL Cup. It's live on Sky Sports+

I sort of get the Chiesa thing. He wouldn't come expecting to be picked every week. He'd offer some cover for Salah and would be able (if fit) to play in the early rounds of the cups. He'd also cover for 10, so would allow at a push for Dom to play 6, same as Elliot does. So it does, in a roundabout way add another body to midfield. Essentially replacing Clark but with more versatility. Still doesn't mean we shouldn't be signing a 6 though.

I'm sorry sir, we've just run out of Zubimendi. Would you like some more time to decide?