Football

Tougher than Burnley?

Barkley is another in the long line of English midfielders who have been overhyped and start to believe their own press. Don't get me wrong he is a talented player with pace has two good feet but his decision making has not improved in the four years he's been playing with the first team. Martinez tried the gentle approach encouraging him to make mistakes and try things and that's fine if you are playing in a winning team but it doesn't work so well when you start losing games and start to analyse why? He bulked up too much last season and that impaired his fitness. He still isn't as fit as he should be and still doesn't know when to pass, dribble or shoot. He often overthinks things and then get's dispossessed. I've said it before on the forum I would have much rather taken the money for Barkley if it was ever offered and kept Stones but after last season his formed dipped and so there wasn't much interest. I think Koeman will give him a season to prove his worth and it hasn't started well. After getting dropped from the English squad Koeman challenged him to show what they were missing out on and that didn't seem to work. I think a loan move away from Goodison would do him the world of good as he's been too comfortable too long playing at his boyhood club. If he doesn't improve I can see that happening at the end of the season.

That Gana looks like a good player. Wonder how much he'll go for next summer.

Hopefully for more than we paid, which is better than villa managed. Who writes in a transfer clause for less than they paid? Rather sums up Villa's last few seasons.

They were part of the relegation clauses which meant that we could get players who otherwise wouldn't have wanted to come. Gana said we were a stepping stone from the outset. If we'd stayed up, the release clause would not have been as low.
But still - shit business all round - thanks fuck they're all gone now. Dr X has said we won't have any release clauses written in again and we've done sell on clauses for a couple of others - though I don't think we did for Gana.

Relegation clauses in the Championship? You're not that bad are you?

I hope not...

But we had release clauses (Benteke, Delph) without relegation. Though arguably Tekkers' was high enough and Delph's was only because he signed a new contract so we got something rather than him leaving on a free. We were just being run by a bunch of amateurs and idiots.

Which big match is on the telly tonight?
I want to slide out of my conference dinner early.

Depends which bt sport channel you have, they have barca v Celtic, psg v Arsenal and it was going to be man city v munchengladbach but that ones been postponed - rained off who knew it rained in Manchester, not sure what they're going to replace it with..

Classic Arsenal

Also a massive fan of watching Celtic get tonked.

£7.5m. Buy of the season

This ^

How are Derby getting on this season?

Applying the model you only ever ask about other teams when they're doing badly, or talk about your own team when they're doing well, or point out when you go to a match vs people not going to matches, or make wild proclamations about transfer targets, I'm guessing we got tonked. And I'm guessing we're not in the top 3 like plucky little Everton and their band of true scousers who definitely don't have any away fans.

i'm waiting for someone with a better education than me to correct my "," for ";" in the list up there.

taps nose

Also: why is Ross B not doing so great at Everton?

Because, John Stones has left.

taps nose
wild accusation

True Scousers is right. Just under 4,000 away fans there and I only heard one cockney accent all night. Oh and there were two Spanish fella's sat a few seats away

Barkley is playing shite cos he's not learning

I only heard one cockney accent

when you started talking?

spanish

how does this sit with your distaste for norwegians?
are you pro EU / anti EMA?

Fella got chatting to them and apparently they were two students from Barcelona, studying at Liverpool. Taken a shine to us with the Deulofeu connection and presumably now Koeman

Who said I had a distaste for Norwegians? I love the Scandi's, great bunch.

How are Derby getting on this season?

How many goals have Derby scored this season?

They'd be top 3 if they'd kept hold of Connor Sammon

They've run out of bleach down my local tesco...