Manny

His whole coaching staff as well, Lijnders keen to pursue a coaching career elsewhere, apparently. I knew this day would one day come but I honestly thought he looked like he was re-energised. Obviously he isn't, and he's more than earned the right to leave on his own terms. But I am utterly, utterly crushed by this news. Devastated.

The budget has gone up, but the cringeworthiness is the same as ever.

Oh and he mocks the idea of balance sheets on an open-top parade and it shows what a fucking demagogue simpleton he is. Aye, none of us are in this for the accounting - but at least in his analogy there's an actual fucking club to parade the balance sheet, instead of a hollowed out ghost that's had to restart in the fifteenth tier. Fucking idiot.

As shit on Israel / Gaza as Biden has been, Trump would be even worse. He moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which utterly delighted and emboldened the right in Israel, and he loves Benjamin "dismantle the courts" Netanyahu - as he loves any other 'strongman' leader who basically shits all over the idea of governance and accountability (Erdogan, Kim Jong-un, Putin, Xi etc.). Basically whatever flaw you land on with Biden (and he has many) - Trump is even more flawed.

I've said it time and time again until I'm fucking blue in the face, but Samuel's point is absolutely nonsensical unless you want to live in a completely dystopian footballing future. It's like, I get it, there are successful clubs, success increases profile and increased profile leads to increased income, and increased income increases your chances of success. There is an element of unfairness there, with success and income being so closely intertwined that it leads to too much monopolisation of both. But you can't declare that and then at the same stroke argue that the solution to it is to allow state funds into the game, because that link between income and success remains unbroken - it's just that the key to income is state wealth not success. You'd still have a group of clubs entrenched at the top, plus then all the former giants some way behind them, and then the smaller clubs behind that. Success is still monopolised, and you've still got fuck all chance of glory unless you can get the income. Fatty Samuel thinks it's both more likely and more fair if your increased income is gained through flashing your knickers at the next state investors in town, rather than through being able to build up your squad and climbing the table. It's fucking bullshit - and recent events (e.g. the rise of Spurs as a Big 6 team, the clown show at Old Trafford, the canny operations at Villa and Brighton) show how PSR can make the league a far more competitive place as a whole rather than just randomly and arbitrarily elevating a couple of non-clubs into the stratosphere with Middle Eastern oil money. He's a fucking idiot.

Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see how it goes. Does that answer it?

Progress tonight and I think that's our 10th final in the FSG era (not including the Club World Cup): 3x Champions League (Real Madrid, Tottenham, Real Madrid) 1x Europa League (Sevilla) 2x FA Cup (Chelsea, Chelsea) 4x League Cup (Cardiff, Manchester City, Chelsea, Chelsea?) That would be 6 of the last 10 against either Chelsea or Real Madrid - and 4 of the last 6 domestic finals against Chelsea. I'm sick of the fucking sight of them.

Yeah, it's his son. Never realised Jason was in the same academy year as Steven Gerrard.

That plane losing power 1,000 feet lower is the worst thing to happen to the country in a century. Genuinely wish the horrible cunt had been scattered across that fucking field.

I really can't stress enough how much I fucking hate international football, and in particular this season-wrecking farce of a biannual competition. Put it all in a fucking big bin. Nationalist rubbish.

Was just about to say the same thing - in defence of UEFA, they can't really issue points fines. Their only 'sporting' sanction is to bar a team from their competitions, but that's more akin to relegating a team out of the league. They've therefore only got a punishment that's quite lenient - a fine - and one that's quite draconian - expulsion - but nothing in between.

I always assumed that the reported £700k salary was a net vs gross thing, i.e. that he'd have to be paid £700k p/w by a UK club to get the equivalent take home salary that he was getting in Saudi, so presumably around £350-400k p/w. There's no way we'd have offered him that and at his age, there's no other club in Europe that would either. All moot now, of course. He's made himself look a right tit - even more so if he's having to largely forego any financial benefit of the move. A sour exit and all for what? Six months running around in the desert and going to brunches in Bahrain, and that's about it. As annoyed as I am with him I suspect I can't be arsed holding onto a proper grudge against him forever. But I doubt I'm alone in thinking I'll also never be able to look at him or his Liverpool career in quite the same way again either. Silly, silly fucker.

Spot on Barry. Exactly the same as the little jolly boys outings to the UAE. Even if it isn't directly or indirectly influencing their decisions - the idea that these little 5-star corporate trips might come to an end if you go against the interests of those paying for them - then it certainly encourages those kinds of arguments to come about and puts PGMOL in a position where they can't really counter it apart from a throwaway "hahaha, of course we're not corrupt, what a tinfoil hat suggestion." But the cunt is arrogant enough for that to be enough. If him and his mates want to go on their little midweek breaks then they will, and nothing about what it looks like nor what anyone will say will stop that.

On a scale of 1 to 10, just how fucked are Everton?

We need that Tintin cunt nobbled for the rest of the season, fucking pronto.

Yeah, it's a bat signal to the likes of that fat fuck Samuel and our Evertonian brethren to pipe up with "it's not fair that well intentioned owners can't invest to help their team take on the corrupt Sky 6" etc. Ignoring the point that it's all well and good your owners doing that if they can afford it, but what about owners who'd borrow money at way more than they or the club can afford to fund it - who or what is going to stop them doing that and jeopardising the very existence of the club? Because it sure as fuck won't be the fans, as Everton are proving around 777.

It's pretty simple with Nunez I reckon. He's been here long enough now for us to have seen that, for Liverpool, he's a forward who gets/makes a lot of chances, but converts them at a pretty low rate - so a high volume-low conversion forward. That means simplistically one of four things can happen: He keeps his chance volume high, but increases his conversion. Even just a move to 'normal' conversion would see him become a leading scorer; if he could go higher than that he'd become a goal monster like Haaland. His conversion stays low but his volume goes down. Say, if his confidence evaporates because of his low conversion. He increases his conversion but at a cost of volume, to become more of a ruthless "not many chances but when he gets one he tucks it away" player, like Bowen or Son. He carries on being the striker he is now: high volume, low conversion. I'd say 3 is the least likely as we'll always be a fairly attacking team regardless of Nunez, 4 is probably the most likely as he's been like this for us for ~15 months now, and whether it's 1 or 2 depends on your belief in him. I reckon 1, personally, because that's who he was for Benfica before we signed him - but I guess 2 isn't impossible either given the pressure on him.

Possibly. We'll obviously never know I guess. For all his faults, McNulty is an experienced, high profile journalist who's never tweeted (to my knowledge anyway) anything remotely so obviously partisan. It seems odd that the incident that tips him over the edge into "fuck these RS cunts" territory in public is a deflected equaliser at home to Fulham in the first leg of a League Cup semi final. Why he would feel the need to have a burner "Bitter1878" account is beyond me, but he's an Evertonian. They must all need a safe space to be able to call the redshite cunts, amplify Sky6 conspiracy theories and fantasise about the effects of the new stadium?

It absolutely reeks of someone who's got a 'work' Twitter account and an anonymous personal one, and he forgot which one he was logged in on. Worse things happen, but he's looking a bit of a tit now.

It's been said loads but the thing about Nunez is that he gives defenders so much to worry about. It's easy for rival fans to just think that "he's shit at finishing, so what's there to worry about?" - but I can imagine on the pitch you're just thinking the next one will be the one that goes in: letting him keep having chances isn't really a tenable plan. So having a guy who is just a chance machine, a guy who keeps getting shots away and repeatedly proving your defence against him isn't working, is probably a torturous thing to have to face. Even if he doesn't convert as many as the attacking side would like. I'd much rather see him in the side than out, especially in the absence of Salah.

Already seeing TNT Sports tweeting that him, Rice and Bellingham will be England's midfield for the next decade, apparently. A decent showing against a rank Everton, and a good game against an even ranker Wigan: that's enough for manc players to be elevated directly to the level of "international mainstay for the next decade". Embarrassing.

I suspect if anyone turned up with a transit van full of urinals they'd have a decision to make.

Bobby Clark getting back to the dressing room... Klopp: I'm not mad, I'm proud of you. You took your first booking like a man and you learn two great things in your life. Look at me, never let anyone get a run at your defence and always hold your hands up and make it look like you were trying to get the ball.

He’s not pissed. He’s another one who’ll happily divide and burn society so long as he gets paid; he’ll be doing GB sports news or some such within a couple of months off the back of this. He’s too fucking talentless to succeed any other way so like many others he’s just jumping on the right wing grift wagon, waiting for some shadowy funded opportunity to talk divisive shite on air and get paid a shitload without doing any proper work. Horrible little cowardly cunt.

They've happened in the same season within about 7 weeks of each other. If the PGMOL deem a less dangerous challenge (Curtis') to be a red, then Calvert-Lewin's absolutely has to be as it's the more dangerous challenge on the face of it. I get the argument that neither should be (although I'm more of the view that Curtis' is never a red, Calvert-Lewin's is a possible red), but based on decisions we've seen this season then Calvert-Lewin's is a red all day long.