yellow jumper

yeah, sorry, not very clear. turnover has become better indicator of league position than wages recently. clubs overspending on wages as proportion of what they earn generally seeing less/no gain for it.

the thing there isn't much correlation between is spending beyond your means as a way of bridging the gap to richer clubs.

it's all that matters if you're silly enough to assume that whatever comes next will be much better.

don't mind him. was good in one of sunderland's great escapes. the poyet one, i think. but he's obviously not worth anything like that. they've been getting quoted even more ludicrous fees for centre halves. so probably it'll be a way of moving ivanovic inside.

i'm just not looking for one as desperately as you.

the fuss made about who gets to calls heads or tails before a game is remarkable.

agree with plenty of that. probably we needed owners to come in and just be in a position to fix a catastrophe (which is what the end of that last era was), when what we've got are owners who wanted to develop their way out it with all the ups and downs that was always likely to entail. as well as the luck and patience etc. it requires. and in many ways they've compounded those problems with a palpable lack of expertise. we might need more of a kick than they're ever prepared or able to give, but i'm not as fatalistic about the premier league arms race as some appear to be. i think actually the field is more even now (although still dominated by money) and in those circumstances there can be extra value in consistency and development. and we have a manager, who at least, has obviously worked in this way and committed to it here.

there's also part of this that is about thinking managers must want and need to operate like rafa does, though. understandable given how successful he was. but look at him at newcastle now, a huge amount of business... part of how he operates is just about having big numbers and regularly refreshing. and given how imperfect that ownership is there'll probably be tensions down the line. i'm not saying that's wrong, in many situations it'll be 100% right for him and the club. but there are also just other ways of working successfully.

chilwell's a full back with almost no top league football (so as you say). zielinski moved for less than we paid for wijnaldum, and was all over twitter in a liverpool shirt, not sure that one was just about the offer. goetze and dahoud, fair enough.

he's a footballer with many of the attributes klopp looks for from that position, bar, perhaps a really good left foot (and that'd be my main concern). he may get caught out here and there, but i think how much he's not a full back in name or experience is a little overstated really. more about attitude than how complicated it really is for a top level player to adapt to the role. he's done a job as a hard working and disciplined wide player for much of his career. there are players all over this league and others being asked to do very different things by new managers either in their so-called natural position or completely new ones.

gaucho/a is, in this context, anything from rio grande do sul. lucas leiva is gaucho, ronaldinho is literally known as ronaldinho gaucho in brazil (ie. not ronnie cowboy) in the same way juninho (the lyon one) is juninho pernambucano. it just refers to where they're/it's from. more like texan. it has also come to mean cowboy/girl, but doesn't here. the actual literal translation of cowboy/girl in portuguese would be vaquiero/a or boiero/a. pint?

thought you knew something about Brazil? obviously not.

luan bid is being reported by futebol da gaucha. don't know their reliability, but they're basically regional sports media for state in which gremio play. not a bloke in his pants.

i've made the argument too at times, but must say we're generally much better against sides who actually fancy themselves and want to compete in that area of the pitch.

we'll decimate the mancs home and away. got to stop dropping points to the alehouse.

. debatable, given we've struggled as much against sides that given absolutely no space behind and have no interest in ball or territory.

the biggest difference between hart and mignolet is hart is more convincing at the shouting and standing tall and acting like a personality that many seem to think is critical to being a good keeper.

quick feet. but he's more like goetze or someone like that from what i've seen.

movement generally very good, even if he doesn't see ball or is giving it away loosely.

you may well be right. hard to argue it isn't a fairly weird situation. and perhaps we're now short. assuming no one else comes in. i just think in most scenarios where you're relying on new options or old ones that have been inconsistent there will be question marks until they're proven. matip may not have performed in PL, but in other senses as proven as any centre half signed this summer.

think that's often as much to do with the players as the clubs. know, for example, arsenal were keen to send ramsey on loan after his leg break, but he preferred to stay at club.

he got injured.

not sure he's being entirely f***ed off, is he? all the talk is about a short term loan to help him get match fit.

sakho hasn't played for 6 months and struggles to stay fit in shape anyway, without all the fat burner/preseason nonsense on top. not hard to see why he's seen as being back of the queue in terms of reliability right now.

how these things get to press is part of why people get pissed off. hardly the same as milner answering a question in a mixed zone after being told he's now a left back. and gerrard got plenty of stick. and i defended sturridge after the game. i understand he may be unhappy. but this is s***house.