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Kealey Adamson?
at 12:53 21 Sep 2025

My mistake!

You're right. Adamson is not in the Aussies U-20 squad

https://footballaustralia.com.au/news/commbank-young-socceroos-23-man-squad-unve
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Kealey Adamson?
at 12:33 21 Sep 2025

Our young Australians are in Chile for the U-20 World Cup

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That Mbengue tackle
at 09:48 21 Sep 2025

Despite the poor refereeing and Stoke's spoiling tactics we still managed seven shots on target, which in the circumstances is outstanding.

With that attack creating chances up top and Mbengue taking no prisoners at the back, it's not going to be a boring season

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That Mbengue tackle
at 23:23 20 Sep 2025

Mark Robins probably learned all the tricks of the trade playing under Fergie at Yanited.

But Fergie and Yanited in their day were the biggest power in the land. It would be a brave ref who stood up to their pressure or held a grudge and waited to settle the score.

Preston and Stoke in the Championship are a completely different kettle of fish.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few refs out there yearning for the opportunity to get one back on Pearson.

What goes around comes around :-)

- Allegedly
[Post edited 20 Sep 23:24]
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That Mbengue tackle
at 22:49 20 Sep 2025

Ben Pearson was the chief goblin at PNE and is now the chief goblin at Stoke.

If you devote your career to working the refs and making them look weak and stupid you will find karma bites you in the arse once in a while 🤣
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Is Saito a future 10?
at 13:31 18 Sep 2025

Your criticism of Chair seems a bit harsh.

He missed most of last season yet still managed the most assists for us.

Season before that he was top for both goals and assists.

And look at the strikers he has had to work with. Xavi and Iniesta at their peak would struggle to register many assists if they had Lyndon Dykes and Sinclair Armstrong waiting in the box to finish off their hard work.

I agree with you that he dwells on the ball too much and doesn't play many incisive through balls. But has he had the players around him who could make the runs or see the space for him to play those passes?

Let's see how he slots in with Kone and Burrell before we judge him too harshly.
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Removals companies
at 11:45 12 Sep 2025

Wales might be a bit far.

They'd need to set off very early in the day for that.

But it's a nice short journey home for them at the end of the day.
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Removals companies
at 10:03 12 Sep 2025

If you are moving out of London it might be worth getting quotes from firms local to the area you are moving to.

They tend to be a lot cheaper than the London firms.
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Eliminator Playoffs
at 08:56 12 Sep 2025

So a Championship which is full of clubs who sack off the cup competitions because of "too many fixtures" now want more fixtures!

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Julien Stéphan talks dreams, transfers, and that Coventry game – Interview
at 21:22 11 Sep 2025

That was a dig at Redknapp rather than JS.

Not like I accused him of saying "turp, turp" or sounding like Clouseau or Officer Crabtree!

Lighten urp!

[Post edited 11 Sep 21:33]
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Julien Stéphan talks dreams, transfers, and that Coventry game – Interview
at 09:09 11 Sep 2025

Great piece Clive.

Got all the key questions in there. And I thought JS came across really well in how he answered those questions.

But I wish he would stop saying "top, top"

It triggers my Post Traumatic Redknapp Syndrome.
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Unwelcome Statistics
at 11:34 7 Sep 2025

Overall we're not as bad as that looks.

The results are from January 1st 2016, so not quite ten years.

If you look at the number of games played in that time we have 440 which is quite a bit more than some of the teams around us.

Huddersfield are given as only 427 games in that time!

If you calculate the percentage of games lost we're 19th at 42.7%

Table with loss percentages here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VKpnH70jG6Jaube7JgDnED1WrVma1KTyI4e1k6IO

A few highlights:

- Southampton 7th with a 45.8% loss rate

- Watford 11th @ 44.1%

- Palace 22nd @ 42.3%

- Stoke 26th @ 41.3%

- West Ham 28th @ 41.2

Of 105 clubs on the list 36 have lost at least 40% of their games.

Dagenham & Redbridge the worst @ 63.6%

Liverpool the hardest to beat @ 13.2%
[Post edited 7 Sep 13:23]
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CONTRARY to FIRM BELIEF
at 16:45 5 Sep 2025

I forgot Wicks ended his career at Chelsea. But he also started his career there so they had him first:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wicks

In between he had two spells with us and finished his career with more league appearances for us than anyone else.
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CONTRARY to FIRM BELIEF
at 14:08 3 Sep 2025

So you're not bothered that Gerry Francis grew up supporting Brentford?

"Personal life
Francis was a Brentford supporter as a youth and his father Roy was a professional at the club in the late 1940s and early 1950s."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Francis

Not having a dig - honest!

Just think our players and managers should be judged just on what they do for us.

Their personal belief, motivations, affiliations etc are their business.

I agree with you about Wilkins not being our best ever, simply because he was too far past his prime and we had to build the side around him.
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CONTRARY to FIRM BELIEF
at 13:22 3 Sep 2025

Agree with all of that.

He was brilliant at Chelsea. Debut at 17 and Captain at 18. But Chelsea were fairly rank in the seventies and I think he was relegated at least once during his Chelsea playing career.

Ironic that we got more out of him than his boyhood team did.

Man United did not get the best out of him.

Hard to believe now but he was nicknamed "The Crab" during his time at Old Trafford because he was always passing sideways.
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CONTRARY to FIRM BELIEF
at 11:20 3 Sep 2025

Ray Wilkins didn't just play for Chelsea, he was Chelsea to his core.

So was Terry Venables.

Dave Sexton was arguably our most successful manager and he came to us from Chelsea.

Dave Webb who was at the heart of that '76 defence came to us from Chelsea.

Paul Furlong is still with us but he was previously at Chelsea - and we let him know what we thought about that when he joined us.

There has been a lot of overlap between us and Fulham Broadway FC.

Yes, there have been a few knobs along the way (Hughes, Bosingwa, etc). But some of the biggest names in our history worked for both clubs. And like it or not it has usually been us taking their sloppy seconds.

Off the top of my head the only player who started with us and went on to play for Chelsea was Clive Allen. And Clive seemed to be on some sort of mission to play for every club in London (Us, Arsenal, Palace, Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham, and Millwall)

EDIT -

If we stretch a point Raheem Sterling was with us before joining Chelsea late in his career. He never got to play for us, but he's not likely to be playing for them much either this season.
[Post edited 3 Sep 14:47]
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3G artificial pitches
at 18:50 2 Sep 2025

The fact it's an old story doesn't mean there isn't anything in it.

The risks of smoking and secondary smoking were known for decades before strict bans were introduced on smoking in public places.

The dangers of asbestos were known as far back as the 1890's but it was still being used in construction up until the 1960's.

In Italy there has been concern about the rates of ALS in former professional footballers whose rates of ALS are double the expected average and where the average age of onset is 45 compared to the national average of onset at 65:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32321311/

There has been a lot of speculation about what is causing this. One theory suggested it was down to players being given banned performance substances, with or without their consent. Obviously the Italian clubs didn't like that idea and scratched around for other possible causes and came up with fertilisers as a potential cause:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/oct/08/europeanfootball.serieafootball

Whatever the cause Italy does have a big problem with this.

So it might just be a slow news day on the Daily Mail. Then again.....
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Out of the darkness – Report
at 22:55 31 Aug 2025

Great report Clive.

Very fair all round.

One very small quibble.

Madsen's pass completion of 26/40 is 65%. Bit harsh to say "nearly half his attempts went to Charlton players", especially when he's knocking balls forward and not rehearsing Russell's Martin's "Strictly" routine.
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Rest of the Championship thread 25/26
at 18:13 29 Aug 2025

Leroy Fer made a career out of PL relegation scraps.
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In Advanced Talks With Edwards
at 13:00 29 Aug 2025

Much as I like WLS it can be a bit "clickbaity" at times.

If David McIntyre puts his name to an article I tend to take it seriously.

He didn't put his name on this one

https://www.westlondonsport.com/qpr/southampton-reject-offer-from-qpr-for-edward
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