Sciatika

I have increasingly come to the conclusion that if I were in charge of a top-level football club, I would not have a clue about what to do. This is probably because my engagement with football is what happens on the field rather than running it as a business. Consequently, I have no idea if we would be better off with Boehly or Eghbali (if that is even the choice). Come to think of it, if I were the coach, I wouldn't have a clue what to do either (or the DoF), but I would enjoy it a lot more.

I can dream 🙂

I want the joy brought back. Bans on celebrations should be removed, and time added on. I'd like the VAR to be told to only call decisions where there is a clear error. There should be no marginal decisions, and in the event of confusion, the benefit of the doubt should be given to the attacker. That will make it more beneficial to pass out long because we would not be so fixated on whether the attacker is offside. If play is stopped for injury, the game should be restarted where it stopped, with possession in the hands of those who had it when it stopped, not handed over to the goalkeeper. Also some measures to punish wasting time. We don't pay to see people spend 2 minutes taking a goal kick.

I was lucky. Working on farms was a summer job while I was at uni. I wanted money to supplement my grant but knew I would be all right without it. It was warm, there was fresh air, and I felt young and alive. Chiefly, though, I knew that it would end soon. The people who had it hard were the ones, men and women, who needed the money to get by and who didn't have an end in sight. They had no alternative. Most farms where I grew up used convertible husbandry based on arable crops (wheat, barley), so the main harvest was mainly mechanised. However, fruit and veg picking, a supplementary crop, was manual. I never did strawberries because that's in term time, but, as Mrs C. says, they are supposed to be the pits. Apart from the spuds, it's mainly about veg and fruit picking. Note: It's essential to wear gloves for gooseberries and other berries with thorns. Pea-picking was quite fun because it's mostly standing up. The workers were mostly middle-aged and lived locally. Some of them were my relatives. They moved from farm to farm, either walking or on bikes. It could be a long day. They were a happy bunch for the most part, and the women were really lovely and kind, though, being a young man, they would spend most of their time pulling my leg about stuff. I liked them. Later, in winter, the men would look for manual work. They used to stand in groups on the corner of roads, and people would stop and pick out one or two for the day. This was a tricky time because, generally, women couldn't get those jobs and would have to live on what they put by at harvest time (and "the social").

Hardest day's work I ever did was bringing in a potato harvest. You start walking behind a farm vehicle bent double picking up the spuds and when the cwt sack is full, you set it aside and start the next sack. At the end of the day you could barely move your back. Next day you would start again. 😱 It went on for about two weeks .

Quite a lot of ex-hoddies in football. Ossie, of course, and Ramires are two that come to mind. I suppose, in the days when we built large numbers of houses, it must have been a common occupation for a young man.

This might encourage them

Why not play Acheampong?

As they say: "Dover for the Continent, Bournemouth for the incontinent."

Happy to be wrong but I think Thiago, Maatsen and Hall wanted to go,and Ziyech was sorted last year. I think Guiu might have a higher ceiling than Broja.

I doubt that the quality of a squad can be assessed in isolation because so much of it is down to what you do with them. Only in retrospect, by looking at results, can we truly know. As I said, I have no idea if it is a good transfer window or not. We should have a better idea by Xmas,

€23m, so the Summer transfer window is now down to a net outlay of €-40m (at least according to transfermarkt). Pedro Neto €60.00m João Félix €52.00m Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall €35.40m Filip Jørgensen €24.50m Mike Penders €20.00m Aarón Anselmino €16.50m Renato Veiga €14.00m Caleb Wiley €10.10m Marc Guiu €6.00m Tosin Free Jadon Sancho Loan Total In €238.50m Ian Maatsen €44.50m Conor Gallagher €42.00m Lewis Hall €33.00m Romelu Lukaku €30.00m Omari Hutchinson €23.50m Ângelo €23.00m Diego Moreira €2.00m Total Out €198.00m Was that a successful transfer period? No idea.

The premier league squad hasn't been updated yet (unless we have decided to leave out Sancho).

Especially if fifth and sixth are occupied by their favourite clubs from North London and the North-West.

The transfer window is like a game of chicken. Parties try to delay as long as possible to force the other side to given them their desired deal. There is not much you can do about that. It is built in.