Southampton 2 Liverpool 3 (Nov 24 2024)

Dave would it be so hard for FSG to come out and say "we would really like Mo to stay" or "yeah he's off"?  It's posturing for sure and negotiating parties won't play their hand i get that, but we will end up with Lambert, Borini and Ballotelli again

I've just been sick on my mouth

Cant agree with the take on the interview from Mo.

He really want that contract sorted, he is desperate to stay here. 
 

He’s got every right to use every way possible to make it happen, this is the oldest trick in the book for those of us operating in the public spotlight.

Get your position out in the media in a favorable way, and put pressure on the opposition.

The club are doing the same thing through their “club friendly” journalists and it started to happen before the weekend. Salah obviously needed to respond to the nonsense leaks from the club, and ge got the perfect opportunity after two new goals had saved the day and given us a eight point lead after just 12 games, with him having 10 goals and six assists in those 12 games. 

Their second goal was a gud ‘un but Connor showed his inexperience. Loads of energy trying to cancel the danger but slowing down to cover fernandes was the better option. 
 

2pts a game gets us to 83 which might be enough this season. 2.25 gets us 90 that will be. Arsenal and Chelsea need 2.3 to get to 83 and 2.6 to get to 90. Citeh will have a few deducted so I exclude them from my calculations. Looks promising although I’m still to see a “convincing” performance. We just seem to do enough but, as the arsenal fan said on talksport Sunday evening, that is likely to blow up. 
 

We’ll know more after the derby. 

9 hours ago, Code said:

Cant agree with the take on the interview from Mo.

 

He really want that contract sorted, he is desperate to stay here. 
 

He’s got every right to use every way possible to make it happen, this is the oldest trick in the book for those of us operating in the public spotlight.

 

Get your position out in the media in a favorable way, and put pressure on the opposition.

 

The club are doing the same thing through their “club friendly” journalists and it started to happen before the weekend. Salah obviously needed to respond to the nonsense leaks from the club, and ge got the perfect opportunity after two new goals had saved the day and given us a eight point lead after just 12 games, with him having 10 goals and six assists in those 12 games. 

Not going to properly get into this too deeply now, but my main problem with it is how disingenuous he was with what he said.

"It's not in my hands". Yes it is Mo. You can accept what the club want to pay you or you can refuse it. I'm not saying you should accept it, you're entitled to ask for whatever you like and if you don't get it here then you can choose to take it from elsewhere as that's your right. Be honest about it though and stop with this they don't want me to stay nonsense.

"It's December and they haven't offered me anything". Technically true but still hugely disingenuous as that's implying that the club aren't trying to get him to stay. They are talking to his agent and clearly they aren't close to an agreement, hence no offer. Offers are only made when terms have been agreed. 

If he'd said "I want to stay but at the moment we're too far apart in what I want and what they are prepared to pay" I'd have been 100% good with that. It's a negotiation and both parties will set out their position and then hope to find common ground. That's how it works. All of this "its not in my hands" shit though, please. It is in your fucking hands. You can choose to agree to whatever terms are being offered or you can tell the club to shove it, but either way it is in your hands.

I'm not saying we should or shouldn't pay him what he's asking, because I don't know what he's asking for. I'd need to know that before having an opinion on it, but you can be sure his agent is asking for a significant payrise otherwise this would have been done already.

It doesn't sit well with me that he only ever talks to the media when he's got a message he wants to put out there, and when he puts it across is the massively slanted way he did this one. In a week when we're playing Real Madrid and Man City too. 

That interview was an abomination as far as I'm concerned, but we've seen it before as this is how him and his agent operate. The whole thing is distasteful but this is football now. Too much money in the game and too many greedy fuckers (players, agents and owners) scrapping over who gets the biggest slice of it. 

I'm confident a deal will get done eventually because there's no way he's lowering himself to go and play in Saudi. He's got records to break here and he won't walk away from that, but him and his agent may well run it right down to the wire until they get close to what they're asking for. 

And if he does choose to leave over money then that's his choice. 

2 hours ago, dave u said:

It's not in my hands"

I suppose he refers to the missing pen from summer 2004, the one Owen could not find and sign up his new contract. Little things with huge consequences indeed ….

Dave, give Mo a TLW pen for god’s sake please!

I see you have just teased us up with a new product for Christmas, the hidden midweek diary. It’s good for business, Dave.

1 hour ago, Arnaud said:

I see you have just teased us up with a new product for Christmas, the hidden midweek diary. It’s good for business, Dave.

And we're not even in September yet (according to the report)!!

Agree with Code on this one.

The club hierarchy push their shit constantly via their patsies in the media, so can't get too sniffy about Mo trying to twist their arms a bit. 

6 hours ago, Arnaud said:

I see you have just teased us up with a new product for Christmas, the hidden midweek diary. It’s good for business, Dave.

5 hours ago, piphomer said:

And we're not even in September yet (according to the report)!!

No idea what's going on here but I assume I've fucked up again?

26 minutes ago, sir roger said:

Agree with Code on this one.

 

The club hierarchy push their shit constantly via their patsies in the media, so can't get too sniffy about Mo trying to twist their arms a bit. 

For me, I don't think there are really any "goodies" here. One party bought a club for 300m and have spend a decade bullshitting the fanbase while their investment increases in value 10 fold. The other party is presumably insisting on being paid the thick end of 20m quid a year to play football. *Shrugs*

Of more importance, is just how fucking stupid the club has been to allow it to get to this point. A deal should have been done 18/24 months ago. If not, we might as well have taken 150m from the Saudis. Why are we trying to sabotage yet another position of strength (against the odds it should be added)? Another shot at the title, and we've got this fucking nonsense going on.

I don't really care what Mo says in public, as Dave says he only does it when he wants something. Fine, footballer looks after their own interest. 

But how are we here? And with an academy product in his peak years, and the best centre back in the world facing the same situation.

Said to my lad 10 minutes in that these are the worst team I’ve ever seen. They just looked like a bunch of misfits out there making up the numbers.

Then we decided to have a mental breakdown and do everything in our power to gift them it. 

Thought Szoboszlai could've played Nunez in twice, there was a similar chance in either half. Both times it's a pretty easy pass, but he goes to the wide player instead. Dunno if it's by design or team mates just aren't looking to him, but I reckon Jota gets at least one of those passes slipped in to him.

The second one when Mo eventually hits the post is an absolute disgrace. I'd honestly fine him for that level of negligence.

I've noticed it a few times though, he hardly ever passes to Nunez. It's starting to feel like it's deliberate.

Let's be honest that pass was to go to nunez pic.twitter.com/9MiWkT44bG

— BIG CHRIS (@chrisarife) November 24, 2024

Maybe he felt there was a big chance the pass would be intercepted or Nunez running into offside.

This freeze frame could back something like that up.

36 minutes ago, dave u said:

The second one when Mo eventually hits the post is an absolute disgrace. I'd honestly fine him for that level of negligence.

 

I've noticed it a few times though, he hardly ever passes to Nunez. It's starting to feel like it's deliberate.

It looks like he’s just happier taking the easy pass out wide. It happens quite a lot. 

53 minutes ago, Code said:

Maybe he felt there was a big chance the pass would be intercepted or Nunez running into offside.

 

This freeze frame could back something like that up.

 

Ignoring this then?

Or even a little reverse ball here....

8 hours ago, dave u said:

 

Ignoring this then?

 

 

 

Or even a little reverse ball here....

 

That bottom one had me shouting at the tv. He was making runs like that all game.

10 hours ago, dave u said:

 

Ignoring this then?

 

 

 

Or even a little reverse ball here....

 

In the first one you don’t see the keeper in that picture, once you see him in the video you will notice that he is running backwards. He could have been in a position where he most likely would have intercepted the early pass, I don’t know.
 

In the second picture the pass is off as Nunez had already stopped his movement. 
 

Salah would have been able to pick Nunez out though, but Dom is not at that level yet. 

Not at that level! Frode, I've seen you play and YOU could have played that pass. 

4 hours ago, dave u said:

Not at that level! Frode, I've seen you play and YOU could have played that pass. 

It was a bit in jest, but I could absolutely have played that pass, but when it came to passing I was on the Alonso/Kroos level. 

On 26/11/2024 at 09:59, dave u said:

 

Not going to properly get into this too deeply now, but my main problem with it is how disingenuous he was with what he said.

 

"It's not in my hands". Yes it is Mo. You can accept what the club want to pay you or you can refuse it. I'm not saying you should accept it, you're entitled to ask for whatever you like and if you don't get it here then you can choose to take it from elsewhere as that's your right. Be honest about it though and stop with this they don't want me to stay nonsense.

 

"It's December and they haven't offered me anything". Technically true but still hugely disingenuous as that's implying that the club aren't trying to get him to stay. They are talking to his agent and clearly they aren't close to an agreement, hence no offer. Offers are only made when terms have been agreed. 

 

If he'd said "I want to stay but at the moment we're too far apart in what I want and what they are prepared to pay" I'd have been 100% good with that. It's a negotiation and both parties will set out their position and then hope to find common ground. That's how it works. All of this "its not in my hands" shit though, please. It is in your fucking hands. You can choose to agree to whatever terms are being offered or you can tell the club to shove it, but either way it is in your hands.

 

I'm not saying we should or shouldn't pay him what he's asking, because I don't know what he's asking for. I'd need to know that before having an opinion on it, but you can be sure his agent is asking for a significant payrise otherwise this would have been done already.

 

It doesn't sit well with me that he only ever talks to the media when he's got a message he wants to put out there, and when he puts it across is the massively slanted way he did this one. In a week when we're playing Real Madrid and Man City too. 

 

That interview was an abomination as far as I'm concerned, but we've seen it before as this is how him and his agent operate. The whole thing is distasteful but this is football now. Too much money in the game and too many greedy fuckers (players, agents and owners) scrapping over who gets the biggest slice of it. 

 

I'm confident a deal will get done eventually because there's no way he's lowering himself to go and play in Saudi. He's got records to break here and he won't walk away from that, but him and his agent may well run it right down to the wire until they get close to what they're asking for. 

 

And if he does choose to leave over money then that's his choice. 

8 paragraphs later!

I know, but that wasn't deep!

 "hoist by our own petard"

Bit of Hamlet sneaking into our match reports.... 

I'm positively dripping in culture, me.