Premier League 2016/17

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

It was weird because I always felt like we were going to come back into it but it got later and later and I had to turn it off to watch telly with the mrs. Was checking the BBC feed for the last 20 minutes but still nothing and then they scored the equaliser which made me a bit happier....and then the second so I scrambled to turn my laptop on just in time for the third. These days I always feel that if we can score one we can score a second quickly after, especially in the second half of a game. Our fitness levels are brilliant, the players just keep running.

[DavidMarrio]

Two totally avoidable goals. Honestly don't know why we changed to 532 / 352 so early on. 

Should have scored twice of corners and Klavan should have buried the header at the end 

[stokeriño]

45 minutes ago, Lineker said:

we anti-Spurs'd it.

Srups'd?

[Gorka]

Gutted.

[Gazz]

4 hours ago, stokeriño said:

See, you read the first paragraph and assume the issue is the classic (conspiracy theory of) 'tapping up', i.e. Liverpool talked to a player while he was under contract with Stoke, but upon reading further it isn't that at all. It's about offering cash-equivalent incentives to school kids. 

I know 'tapping up' is a favourite emotive phrase of the papers, but they really shouldn't start using it for everything a club does wrong re: acquiring a player. It just gets confusing.

In any case, it gets a bit hazy for me when the rule 299.1, which reads like a fairly standard anti-corruption rule, is placed alongside the ruling requiring clubs to offer education. Is the problem that they offered private education rather than public? But apparently the ruling specified that it should be private education?

I don't bloody know.

The rule is basically if you offer private education to one player in your academy, you have to offer it to all. So that's for existing players. The other rule is for players you're trying to sign, you can't offer them any sort of incentive (schooling, cars, houses, cash etc.) at all. But you could slip into negotiations that from the start of next term, all players will be getting private schooling. It's a loop hole basically, you can't offer them anything to sign, but once they've signed, you can give them anything you like.

I should probably tell my players parents about this since I've got Burton sniffing around one and West Brom around another.

[Nerf]

All for the ban if it curtails the weird, creepy way football clubs approach kids.

[MDK]

28 minutes ago, Nerf said:

All for the ban if it curtails the weird, creepy way football clubs approach kids.

So cant lure them in with a pack of pic n mix and a nytol and coke? Balls.

[stokeriño]

Quote

CHL 2-1 MCI (FT) - Chelsea is the first opponent to beat a Guardiola's side home and away in the league in a single season.

lol

Although really the only club this might reflect poorly on is Real Madrid.

[MDK]

10 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

lol

Although really the only club this might reflect poorly on is Real Madrid.

So Conte is the only manager to beat Pep at home or away in a single season? Unless a manager beat a Pep side at home before getting sacked and then beating them away in the same season?

[Lineker]

Watford will host Aston Villa in a memorial game for Graham Taylor this summer.

Former England boss Taylor, who had two spells at both clubs during a 31-year managerial career, died in January at the age of 72.

Watford plan to face one of Taylor's former clubs annually, competing for the Graham Taylor Trophy.

The match will take place at 15:00 BST on Saturday 29 July, with profits split between two charities.

The National Memorial Arboretum and the Watford FC Community Sports and Education Trust - two organisations with which Taylor had a close connection - will benefit from the fixture.

[Colly]

I forgot Graham Taylor died.

[DavidMarrio]

Jese Lingard must have some serious dirt on the high ups at United if he's getting a new contract supposedly worth 100k a week...

[Baddar]

Lingard celebrates signing his new contract by having a night out with Ibra. 

 

[Gazz]

35 minutes ago, Davidmarrio said:

Jese Lingard must have some serious dirt on the high ups at United if he's getting a new contract supposedly worth 100k a week...

[MDK]

40 minutes ago, Baddar said:

Lingard celebrates signing his new contract by having a night out with Ibra. 

 

Is that a pic of Shaq and his bird?

[TCO]

If this was 10 years ago at United, he'd be a squad player at West Brom by now.

Its pretty hilarious that this is the calibre of player United are signing to 4 year deals at 24 now!

[The Lusophone]

You guys are joking right? Lingard's a really good player - and his goals have literally won United three trophies in the last 12 months.

[MDK]

They brought back the inter toto cup?

[The Lusophone]

5 minutes ago, MDK said:

They brought back the inter toto cup?

Community Shield totes counts. 

[MDK]

1 minute ago, Mad Jack said:

Community Shield totes counts. 

I was struggling to figure out if that was an anagram