Football

Boro have had a terrible window, we are a far worse starting 11 and squad than last year. The only thing that will save us now is Pulis Ball...

Oh, and loans

We've managed to hang on to our best players (apart from Rondon) but have looked bang average in our first two games.

Away to Norwich tomorrow won't be easy either. I'll be there to watch...

Loans are the only thing that will save us now too. I'm hopeful for a right back and an attacking midfielder.

Also, Pulis Ball didn't save us...

We've signed whichever players Jorge Mendes wanted us to sign and spent a fuckton of money in the process. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

What the fuck is going to happen if Kane gets injured?

Re: Grealish - glad we weren't held to 'relative' ransom. Levy said this is what we'll pay, Villa said this is what we want - they weren't the same; decent business by both and they'll both feel vindicated; nothing worthy of fuss, prejudice, mockery or even much discussion.

Well kind of, by the end...but if he'd put in an actual bid of £12-15m a month ago Jack would be yours. That was already a bargain. It was holding out for an even cheaper deal (rumoured to be £3m + Onomah) assuming we'd have no choice that scuppered it when we then got rich again.
Hey ho - if we don't go up this season there'll be a release clause so he'll be off anyway.

328091-896234

Code for Pisti's Last Bleach Cocktail - in case anyone fancies joining

You get to experience Norwich, what could be better! :)

Dwight Gayle had one of the best xG's outside of top 6 - was a pretty good deal for you guys

Same as last year when he was out. son to the rescue

Impressive business from Fulham for once, have become a bit optimistic for the season ahead. The only bit of business I'm not sure about was singing two keepers, Bettinelli had a decent season last year and would have expected him to be fighting Fabri for the number one spot so not sure why we needed to sign Rico, maybe just to annoy Chelsea

Fantasy football help needed. Is Pedro going to be selected for Chelsea? Dembele at Spurs? Mata at United? Delphi at city ? Are these guys looking at some game time this weekend ?

Spurs didn’t sign anyone because of Brexit;

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/brexit-part-of-the-reason-we-did-not-sign-anyone-tottenham-boss-pochettino-says-11468247

That’s going to go down well with all their racist, taxi driver supporters.

I agree with you, I am sanguine about our lack of transfer activity, even though I’ve been wanting us to improve the squad with new faces since the sheriff’s “let’s be brave” chat.
We’ve got a young squad, improving year on year (Sanchez/Dele/Trippier/Kane/Eriksen), the return of injured impact players (Lamela/winks), signings from previous years you hope hit the ground running (moura/nkoudou/aurier), and a manager who knows how to get the best out of his players.

I don’t agree because football is an arms race and league position is usually dictated by how much you spend. The teams around us spent to improve/fill the holes in their teams and we are rolling back out the same one that solidified our challenger status last season.
We spent the money holding onto what we have, giving improved terms to our important players and for whatever reason, levy brinkmanship, fall of the pound, being priced out by early transfer moves by our rivals, we haven’t brought anyone in. Which worries because ultimately I don’t want to see the improvement and impact we’ve had over the last couple of seasons lost.
But whatever fears I have are allayed by the fact that Pochettino knows what he is doing, is working closely with levy and isn’t doing a mourinho. So fingers crossed we challenge for the league, win a trophy and get into the semi’s of the champions league..

Not sure what is happening at old Trafford. Mourinho seems hell bent on being fired rather than quitting. And Woodward seems to only now be coming to the realisation that mourinho doesn’t give a damn about the future health of the teams he leaves behind, and is only concerned about short term trophy accumulation. Would it not have made more sense to think about this before appointing the manager?

They were desperate, trophies at any cost...

Case of be careful what you wish for.

Will be interested to see how West Brom do this season. They turned down a decent chunk of money for Rodriguez and Dawson when the players seemed keen to leave. It will be interesting to see if that works out and the players perform for West Brom now they're staying there.

Tell us about Spurs' plans for trophy accumulation.

Let’s put it this way. Jose thinks he needs >£20m per year for a defender in order to be able to compete for the PL.

Is that considered good value for money?

It's all about big money goalkeepers these days. Spending big bucks on defenders is so last season.

I play darts with (against) some racist cabbie spurs supporters. They are all well yaxley-lennon.

I am not sure if any of you are old enought to remember but once upon a time, many years ago, Arsenal used to challenge for trophies every year. They won the Premier League a few times and at one time they and ManU seemed to have the Premier League sewn up.

And then they decided to move to a shiny new stadium.

Instead of buying the best players around from their rivals, they started to sell their star players. They brought in young untried players. Some succeeded; others didn't. They stopped winning trophies.

They stuck with their manager because he was a good manager who knew a thing or two about winning the league.

So Tottenham have had a great deal of success in recent years. They have won a league cup or two and have finished above Arsenal. They haven't won the league but they have challenged.

And now they are moving to a shiny new stadium albeit one that looks like a khazi.

And they are not participating in the transfer window.

And they are sticking with the same manager who has brought them such success.

Or looked at another way. Man Citeh walked it last year. Man Citeh have strengthened their squad. Tottenham keeping the same players and the same manager appear destined only to do worse than last year.

Has to be said, I'm happy with that and am pleased that Tottenham supporters are. At least they share the same lack of ambititon as their team.

Oh and they're going to get American football.

Talking of Yaxley Lennon, a friend and fellow Chelsea supporter who happens to be a black woman, tells me that at Tuesday's friendly she was sitting near a twat who started a solo chant about Yaxley-Lennon. She was far from happy. Only one person but these things can spread.

Why don't they all go off and join their leader watching Luton (or has he received a banning order?)

The worst I have seen in recent times was a gammonesque person at the Community Shield last season singing loudly to the National Anthem while making a Nazi salute.

And, yes both of these stories involved Chelsea supporters but if you think that you club is immune, you have your head in the sand.

Fairly well summed up and I largely agree but genuinely think that 'success' is relative; what fan feels the most pride? The Huddersfield fan whose team vastly exceeded expectations or the Man City fan whose team walked the league largely thanks to Saudi billions (in no way a dig)? Or the Spurs fan whose team have, despite seemingly adhering to a much more frugal transfer and wage policy than others at that table, for most of the last decade, dined at the top table of domestic and European football and provided a big chunk of the national team?