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Reply | Possession…. Can do one?
at 22:33 22 Sep 2025
The reason teams are happy without possession – at least this was the Pulis and Mourinho logic, when they started doing it 20 years ago – is that you can't make mistakes on the ball if you don't have possession, and it is mistakes that are more likely to result in goals – misplaced passes, caught in possession etc. The logic behind Stoke's willingness to go for throws and take them long was not just about attacking threat, it was about using up time. If you are an underdog team, the less time the ball spends in play, the better it is for you. I remember being appalled when I read a book about coaching that went into it all. |
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Reply | Madsen
at 16:52 21 Sep 2025
I truly think a big part of it is simply that he now has a quick, mobile set of players around him, which enables his biggest strength – his range of passing – into play.
Obviously, he's more confident, but he was also not the right player to be paired with last year's forward line. |
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Reply | How did Madsen play yesterday?
at 00:51 15 Sep 2025
Madsen induces madness in some people in a way I have never seen before with one of our own players.
Last season, in one game where he was subbed off, he walked around the edge of the pitch back tp the dugouts, past us in the West Paddock. A fella from a row or two back ran down the perimeter wall and walked alongside him for 10 yards, screaming filth at him from a foot away. Spittle flying out, cheeks purple. My son got up to try to calm him, fella pushed him away. I got up and had a word. He pushed me and sent me staggering.
Is that worth it because a midfielder had a bad game? Really? |
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Reply | Summer Transfer Window - Patreon Podcast
at 20:11 6 Sep 2025
One incident, reported back by someone who knows someone, is a very long way from "by all accounts". It's "by one secondhand account". |
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Reply | Repugnant footballers
at 23:31 3 Sep 2025
There's nothing repugnant about James McClean.
He doesn't wear the poppy for reasons he has articulated clearly. By doing so he has shown he has thought more clearly about its meaning than any of those people who insist everyone must wear one from the start of October and shouting at those who don't that they hate Britain. |
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Thread | Grand Designs W12
at 11:55 24 Aug 2025
[Opening titles]
[Daytime. Kevin McLeod standing in South Africa Road, the West Paddock turnstiles behind him]
KM [to camera]: In 2023 we came to west London to visit Christian Nourry, who had an ambitious plan to turn a rundown council house into a state-of-the-art eco-friendly town home, with the potential either to be a lifetime home, or a hugely profitable resale.
[Cut to VT from 2023. CN is briefing his Spanish project manager, Marti, on his plans as they survey the site. Marti is seen shaking his head repeatedly.]
KM [voiceover}: Not everything has gone to plan. Marti, who was in charge through the first year of the project, has left.
[Cut to pitch, present day, KM and CN walking together]
CN: There were some unforeseen setbacks, it's true.
KM: Marti left? What happened there?
CN: I heard he'd given a quote for a job in Solihull.
KM: But didn't he start camping in your garden?
CN: That's true.
KM: Where is he now?
CN: Gone to live in Leicester.
KM: Why did he want to go to a different job?
CN: We disagreed about the project. He felt his experience in preparing homes for Scandinavian winters was relevant. I didn't.
[Cut to VT from 2025, Marti and CN at site]
Marti: I told you, I have to be able to hire brickies taller than five foot two.
CN: These brickies fit the profile. They've got the potential to work on really big jobs in the future.
Marti: And your design can't work. It's no good having two fortified wings, if the body of the house has no glass in the sliding doors. Just let me make sure it's waterproof and insulated, then get someone else in.
[Cut to present day, CN and new project manager at site]
KM [voiceover]: Now Christian has doubled down, hiring Julien to work for him. Julien oversaw the award-winning new model home in Strasbourg, which recently suffered subsidence issues.
[CN and Julien in conversation]
CN: That storm last night was disappointing.
Julien: It blew right through the centre of the house. Destroyed the living room and dining room and kitchen.
CN: How are the wings looking?
Julien: The west wing is going to take a few weeks to repair, the east wing we're going to try to shore up with some buttressing.
CN: But do they still look nice?
Julien: Well, it depends what you mean by nice, boss. But, I guess so. There's still some detailing.
[Cut to KM and CN, with CN smiling and giving cakes to his favourite small brickies}
KM: But don't you think, even if you don't stay here, then any future owner will want a living room and a dining room and a kitchen?
CN: I really don't think houeses in the modern age need that. What do you do at home, really? You sleep. That's it. Everything else you do outside. You eat, you see friends.
KM: What about watch TV?
CN: On your phone, in bed. Honestly, you talk to anyone under 30, they feel this way about architecture. This is the process.
KM: But most people like a living room and kitchen, at the very least.
CN: Well, people are always disappointed when they don't get to sit in their favourite rooms …
[CONTINUES FOR 45+4 MINS}
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Reply | Saito
at 15:00 22 Aug 2025
I guess the logic would be that if Derby are willing to pay £5m for him, then there's an expectation that he'll have rapid resale value. So, yes, he is not worth £5m now in terms of his contribution to the team. But he's the kind of player who might well be worth £15m in 18 months' time. |
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Reply | Analytics
at 01:36 15 Aug 2025
I don't think that can be right. Take Caicedo. Allow six months for scouting and all that. Then he was at Brighton for two and a half years. The notion of targeting specfic players to sell to specific clubs would then depend on Brighton at some point in 2021 knowing exactly what kind of player Chelsea would need in 2024.
Even Chelsea didn't know what kind of player they would need in 2024. In 2024. |
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Reply | Taxi for Marti
at 23:10 13 Aug 2025
Because it's lose-lose. Every half-decent Premier League team can field 11 reserves who'd beat almost all Championship side. Twenty years ago, when the Premier League was not so much richer, you might still have a shot. Now you might go on a bit of a run, but you're never going to win the bloody thing. You'll just get injuries and then you'll get knocked out.
Even these "upsets" like Palace winning the Cup – it's still a team with several astounding talents. That's the bar now. It's an upset if your best players are only worth £60m. |
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Reply | Walsh v Nardi
at 11:45 10 Aug 2025
Well, let's hope so, because he barely got a kick right yesterday. |
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Reply | If Celar is the answer what's the question 🤔
at 11:44 10 Aug 2025
I thought Celar was often very bright yesterday, but lots of people don't want to see it. There was a header he won in the first half that had everyone around me groaning because they wanted him to flick it on, I guess, into nowhere. Instead it was a perfect cushioned header for Chair to run onto and put the ball behind their defence. There was a disguised backheel in the second half that did the same thing – put us in behind the defence. He was not good last season, at all. But he did well in the first half yesterday. |
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Reply | Walsh v Nardi
at 00:30 10 Aug 2025
If Walsh kicks all season like he did today, he is going to cost us a load of matches. Never mind the actual goalkeeping, his distribution was absolutely awful today. |
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Reply | Kelman:Here We Go
at 14:24 28 Jul 2025
I had hoped we'd give him a go. But if he didn't want to stay – and it's hard to blame him – then we have obviously done the right thing. And £3.5m plus add-ons for a striker with one good season in the division below strikes me as a good bit of business: we've absolutely maximised the potential of that signing. which is what a club like this needs to do.
Look at this way. If he had in fact been a reasonable squad player for the last four seasons – say 30 goals in 100, which we would all think had been a good return on a punt from Southend – we would have been dancing in the street to get £3.5m for him. And that is *probably* what he'll turn out to be. [Post edited 28 Jul 14:26]
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Reply | Reggie Cannon/QPR update
at 17:25 11 Jul 2025
And he may have said kittens, but he didn't specify what sort. Don't be surprised if they're rabbit kittens. |
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Reply | 25/26. New kits
at 09:40 24 Jun 2025
There are around 9,000 Jews in Iran now. There were 100,000 before the revolution. It is not a happy place for Jews, though they are tolerated. Jews remain only because Iran, unlike most of the Arab world, did not expel its population. |
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Reply | "If Dixon Plays For England So Can I..."
at 22:46 14 Jun 2025
TBF you're also missing out a succession of Rolls Royce defenders from that list – Thompson, Hansen, Lawrenson. And I think you're underrating Hughes, who was really a half-back – a "CDM", as the youth say – who converted to centre back, and was important going forward, not just hoofing it out. But I know what you mean about it being less than the sum of its parts. Though those were the days when there were very few undoubted superstars, so every British team had its fair share of journeyman. Combine that with players not leaving relegated clubs (Brooking staying at West Ham when he was the heart of the England midfield!), and it meant the good British players were spread a lot more widely. |
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Reply | Season perspectives
at 23:13 4 May 2025
First time poster, but longtime fan! I remember the great team with the four sets of twins – the Morgans, the Ferdinands, the Allens and who can forget Gerry and Trevor Francis! I can even remember when Matrade Loftus Road was called the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium!
Anyway, some fans complain that the ground isn't all it could be, but my info is that the club are right on top of it. Some people might think it's controversial, but I think their plan – it's only a plan! Don't get your knickers in a twist! – to move the ground to Guildford is inspired. Great transport links, and a real football town with close links to London W12!
What's really exciting, though, is the youth programme. The info I'm getting is that Nourry, love him or hate him, has really worked on getting that up and running, and we're really seeing the results now. There are four management consultants doing internships right now, and the talk is three of them could turn pro in the CEO's office. |
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