Flinkers

At this stage you should probably just leave it on…

I’d do the same with Liverpool.

Kovacic officially gone https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/kovacic-moves-to-man-city

Honestly, we could say the same things about Lampard, Terry and Hudson-Odoi in recent past. All had varying degrees of the same accusations leveled against them. It’s probably not a good idea, you’re right, but he has been exonerated in one way or another.

True, but he’s not the first young gifted footballer who thinks he’s invincible and has overstepped the mark. if there’s a line, we need to know where it is.

No worse than what we get now

Would anyone else than me be looking to involve Mason Greenwood in any deal? Certainly knows where the goal is and there doesn’t seem to be a way back for him at United. Just throwing it out there…

Edson Alvarez from Ajax, who we were looking at earlier this year, can be had for ca. €40m. Dortmund are negotiating with them at the moment. Seems to to be a decent enough player.

Werner has always needed a huge amount of chances to score and plays better running off the shoulder of the defender - in the Bundesliga he got those chances and the space, in the Premier League he didn’t. He looks a shadow of the player he was though.

Is that wise though? I don’t watch enough football to know if he plugs the gaping hole in our midfield, but Rice might and would probably stop Mount from leaving. I’d be looking at the opposite arrangement.

One would hope so. He’s been a fantastic player for us but we can’t afford to carry him for another 3 seasons

My belated well wishes to you Richard! We’ve made some mistakes in the last year certainly, but I’m hopeful we’ll turn it around once we’ve lost the leeches and the fancy dans from the squad. I echo your sentiment though, Roman Abramovich was a godsend to our club.

Congratulations Noni! Someone who still wants to play for us. Did no one really go to congratulate him on his debut goal?

I think most of the blame lies with the players honestly. The decisions the owners have made haven’t been that bad and the signings have mostly been of players we’d all have wanted at the start of the season I don’t understand why though. They started doing it under Tuchel; they did it under Frank the first time and the first signs of this half-heartedness started with some of this group under Sarri and Conte. There is no accountability in the dressing room, there’s no one left to say what you’re delivering isn’t good enough and the players aren’t being punished for non-performance. It’s just empty platitudes followed by weekly pay cheques. We need to start hitting the playing staff where it hurts the most, in image rights, appearance bonuses and fines for poor performance.

Looks like my bet’s not coming in - this shower of overpaid, underperforming, empty platitude spouting wastrels have clocked off early. Up yours, I hope you all get sold.

I thought a few weeks ago we’d get 1 from Nottingham Forest and 3 from Bournemouth. I’m not so sure now. Right now I’d be happy with just one more!

The optimist in me thinks we’ll get 4 more points. We really need to get our players on incentive based contracts or fine the crap out of them for poor performance. It won’t change otherwise.

I have a theory - Mount is looking to see where his best friend ends up next year and will look to go there. If Rice signs for us, I think it’s pretty certain Mount will too. If Rice goes North, those Liverpool rumours will get louder.

I’m still of the opinion they need to be hit where it hurts the most - in their wallet

In honour of our season and transfer policy, I thought I’d change my profile pic to something more suitable.

In all honesty it probably doesn’t have to be as draconian as cards or sendings off - it could also just be an automatic free kick against for any backchat.

I’m fairly sure that if a few games ended with 7 or 8 players on each side, the disrespect would stop pretty quickly.

That whole troupe from the mid-late 70s were absolutely amazing climbers. Nick Estcourt, Doug Scott, Boardman and Tasker - what adventures they had and what a price they paid... I climbed a lot in my uni days, and had dreams of going into the mountains, but a bad fall, as well as the deaths of two acquaintances in an avalanche in 1997, scared me off enough to stop climbing regularly. Like you I've read a ton of Everest stuff as well as most of the classics written about the first ascents of K2, Annapurna, the Eiger, Nanga Parbat etc. Most recently I finished Bernadette McDonald's book on the first winter ascents of the 8000ers and have a soft spot for Ed Viesturs' accounts of his climbs. I find the self-rationalisation fascinating - being able to so fully concentrate on the moment/next move so that the fear impulse is overridden is, as you say, awe-inspiring. I've watched the two movies but will have to pick up both books - thanks! That Dawn Wall climb was epic! Another great book - how he managed to drag himself to safety is astounding. After my accident I could barely move... His book on the Eiger North Wall (The Beckoning Silence) is also a great read, as is Heinrich Harrer's The White Spider!

Welcome back @Asvaberg

I’m also partial to a good mountaineering book, Joe Tasker and Pete Boardman’s accounts of their exploits in the Himalayas and Karakoram particular highlights of mine. Andy Kirkpatrick‘s books on solo big wall climbing are also great fun.