TCO

That's obscene value for Partey. I said it before but if he's keen then there's no way Arsenal shouldn't be jumping at that.

If he played with a Premier League team and/or were English his price would be double that. 

18 hours ago, DavidMarrio said:

 

Lol. Imagine expecting loyalty out of Declan Rice of all people. 😂

A non-red one can definitelywork, I'm just a traditionalist with international tops so think they should always stick with it. If it's not your historic colours then I struggle to like it. England's red jersey is probably more iconic than their white one really!

The home kit is lovely, very 1998! Central badges should be more common than they are nowadays.

That away kit is horrendous though. England's away kit should be always be red!

Did everyone enjoy the Community Shield?

Remove the blue and that's a lovely away kit, add more blue and it's a perfectly good bonkers 3rd kit. The way it is, it's neither!!

I still think the idea of Messi living in Manchester as more absurd than playing football there. Even with Aguero there and living in complete luxury, the overall quality of life will be a bit of a shock to the system. This being a South American who's lived basically his whole life in Barcelona!

So they were "battering his legs"? Why is he wearing shorts and his legs don't have a single bruise on them or have any injuries of any kind?

3 minutes ago, Lineker said:

Very Harchester.

I really regret not buying one of those when they were on sale. Would never still fit now though I suppose!

Betis Away

I love this! Nice colour, unique design and it has the Betis' colours as an accent so it keeps something related to the club. Having the primary colours mixed in like that is something more clubs should do. 

1 hour ago, Lineker said:

iirc Doherty only had one year left on his contract and wasn't necessarily making the right noises about signing a new one.

He signed a new 4 year deal last year until 2023 so it's not that!

I assume a case of him really wanting the move, Wolves having a younger replacement lined up and accepting an average fee as a than you to the loyalty to the player. Win for all parties.

1 hour ago, Baddar said:

Love things like this.

Small clubs need to do this as much as possible when young players are moved on. You never know just how big they could become.

I think pretty much every Irish talent that comes from the LOI has a sell on attached. Cork City had 10% tacked on to Shane Long and Kevin Doyle too but had to sell both clauses for a combined €300k to stop from being wound up.  Would have worked out to be £1mil if they could have waited.

These clauses can save clubs from the brink sometimes. Sligo Rovers missed out on a lot of money because Seamus Coleman never left Everton unfortunately!
 

Good for Doherty getting that move and the payday but it's risky considering how effective he is in Wolves system. It could go either way at Spurs I reckon.

Apparently Bohs are getting 10% of the fee too which is like winning the lotto for them. It would be the equivalent of the prize money of winning the league 15 times if it's the rumoured £16mil.

42 minutes ago, MadJack said:

Maguire's legal team has launched an appeal, which under Greek law nullifies his conviction and means he no longer has a criminal record... so expect a call up from Gareth I guess?

Do you honestly thing this is all one big conspircay and the Greek police all came from nowhere and arrested poor Buddha quoting pacifist Harry Maguire? At the very best he was a mouthy shit who antagonised the police an got himself arrested while hammered drunk. That's not befitting of an England player of Man United captain and he should be punished.

I have no idea why you're defending him so much because he kicks a football for the team you like.

8 minutes ago, Adam said:

Glad we can agree on some of it. He did subsequently beat Spain and Croatia to reach the Nations League finals but I accept that is not as big a competition as the World Cup.

In terms of tournament expectations, he far surpassed them at the World Cup. Nobody touted England as contenders and most in England had an unusually low expectation despite the favourable group draw, simply because the team had been in decline for several years and we didn't appear to have as many star players of the highest calibre.

He finished 2nd in his group and won two games that they'd be expected to and were favourite to win before losing to the 2 decent sides they played.

I don't think he surpassed expectations. That's meeting them. He had one of the best strikers in the world and a world class winger too. You can't look at semi-final in isolation. The only commanding performance, apart from Panama where England were comfortable in that tournament was against Sweden. Not to mention all the penalties and set piece goals. It's not like England were playing beautiful football throughout the tournament.

Again, it's good to reach the semi final but everything else needs to be considered. England's squad is only second to France in Europe at the moment IMO. How he performs at the Euros will tell all and I'll be happy to admit I'm wrong if they win it.

19 hours ago, Adam said:

He's not a "wanker" though, is he? I know you're obviously not an England fan but he's our best manager since Eriksson, I think that is not even in question at this stage.

I think there is a question. That World Cup run was great until you look at the actual results. What game in that World Cup did England win that they weren't expected to win comfortably? The Colombia game maybe?

He beat Panama,Tunisia with a last minute winner, Sweden, Colombia on pens and lost to Croatia and Belgium twice. Yes fair play to him for reaching the semis, that is an achievement in itself. However I think England will be limited by him as they're seemingly coming into a golden generation of attacking players. With the squad he has, I would expect them to win the Euro or come very close. We'll see how he gets on.

1 minute ago, MadJack said:

If he was going to drop him if he was found guilty he shouldn't have picked him in the first place. Either he accepts Maguire's side of the story - which he said he did several hours ago - or he doesn't, in which case he, again, shouldn't have picked him.

Dropping him now, after what was essentially a show trial where the defence didn't get to see the evidence until late in the day the night before the trial, is just throwing his player under the bus unnecessarily.

He got handed a suspended sentence hours after the squad was named. Debate the validity of that all you like, but that's the facts of the matter as of now.

Southgate fucked up by picking him in the first place but he did what he could to correct that error now. You can't have him rocking up to England camp fresh out of a Greek jail and conviction to represent the country.

19 minutes ago, MadJack said:

Gareth Southgate has now withdrawn Harry Maguire from the England squad.

Good job supporting your players Gareth.

C'mon now. The man just got convicted of assaulting and bribing a police officer. There's no fucking way he should be near the squad after his behaviour. What do you want them to do? Come out wearing Suarezesque t-shirts in support of him?

Defend him all you want but if he played for any other team, there'd be no way you'd be doing the same. Even if he's completely innocent as you make out to be, he was a fucking idiot who deserves to be punished by his manager. Lets see if Ole or Man United have the stones to do the same.

32 minutes ago, Jericode said:

Ebere Eze is heading to Palace for 20m, personal terms to be finalised.

Eze is a fantastic player! Looked a level above whenever I watched him last year. He's a similar type player to Zaha too so I wouldn't be surprised if this clears the way for him to leave.

Also that Messi news is huge. Either it's his biggest and last political move yet or he really wants out. The list of clubs he'd go to has to be tiny. Seeing him and Ronaldo in the same team would be huge. Like when Pogba left, the Adidas sponsored clubs are the ones to look out for!

3 minutes ago, Rich said:

Is she? P sure she and his father are both English, though his Grandparents were Irish, huh.

"English-born Smallbone - whose mother is from Kilkenny - has been on Southampton’s books since he was eight."

https://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/ireland-youth-international-smallbone-signs-22170363

24 minutes ago, Rich said:

Would you want another plastic Irish player to play for you?  Given the lad is born and raised in England?

His mother is Irish and he's a citizen, if he wants to play then of course I want him to play for us. 

The Irish dispora is massive in England in particular and I wouldn't be for telling anybody whether they are or aren't Irish. I especially wouldn't call them plastic. There's going to be a lot of players playing for countries they either weren't born in or aren't of ethnic origin there and that's great. 

Southgate et al. promising the world to youngsters isn't helping anybody. Marcus McGuane is another one who was happy playing for us, played well against England at u17 and had his head turned. He's now ineligible to play for us and will likely never play international football again.

20 minutes ago, Rich said:

Dirty Leeds player

Except the rules are likely changing on the capping part

They don't apply to Kalvin Phillips. Only applies to players who were capped at most 3 times before their 21st birthday. Any competitive game after the age of 21 does the trick.

It's definitely a case of getting him cap-tied I reckon.

Ironic thing is that Southgate was the U21 manager when Grealish made the switch and likely would have played a key part in getting him to declare for England. I'd imagine that waist-coated wanker is coming for Will Smallbone next.

That's not a good squad. Spineless decision to include Maguire and has no left backs for some reason

No Jack Grealish is a bit of a joke at this point too. Southgate must not like him for some reason or another. Still wonder what if for him. He'd have 50 caps, played at the Euros, potentially a World Cup and would likely be our next captain. 😭

It even has a Bitcoin logo in the corner for extra dodginess. They've also had to recall all the shirts they sold with the Chinese old sponsor that pulled the plug. At least we know what this company supposedly does.

It was pretty hard to figure out what LD Sports actually do.

1 hour ago, Twist said:

Id be interested to know if these companies see an increase of bets in the areas of the team they sponsor.

Are fans more willing to bet on games, etc. if they can justify by reasoning the money ultimately ends up in their club?

Most of them are Asian betting companies that have very little presence in the UK. Their goal is to target their own market through the Premier League's global appeal to circumnavigate the their local advertising rules.

It's why you see shirts with random Chinese symbols and numbers from a company you've never heard of.