Manny

It's interesting that Chelsea now know what they need to bid to have it accepted but by all accounts haven't raised their offer. For what it's worth I think Chelsea have a cash issue due to their insane spree they're on; they can afford the £80m they've bid so far but to bid higher will crash them on FFP or whatever, so they'd need to sell more players (Hudson-Odoi, for example, is in talks with Fulham) - so they need to stall the deal for a few days or, ideally for them, get us to walk away and hope they can haggle down Brighton back to closer to their original bid. Brighton though presumably have made their peace with his exit and just want him gone for the best offer asap so they can start recruiting a replacement. I don't hugely blame the lad, to be honest. He's gotta fuck someone over here. If he goes with what Brighton want and joins us, he has to fuck over a club that's been interested in him for months. If he insists on going to Chelsea and doing so now, he fucks over Brighton (and us). And if he decides he wants Chelsea and doesn't want to fuck over Brighton, he probably moves in January and fucks us over. He's faced with a completely different set of circumstances than he was just 24 hours ago, so it'll take him a bit of time to work out what to do.

Twitter ITKs now rowing back on him saying he only wants Chelsea, but saying that he'll join Chelsea if Brighton accept bids from both them and us and if it comes down to only having an offer from Liverpool he's more than happy to come here. Fuck knows what's going on.

Or they've made things worse for themselves by getting beaten on a transfer, which'll rile up a section of the fanbase. Or they've made things worse for themselves by showing we've got >£100m to spend on a single player, which will lead to more calls to spend money. They don't give a shit what fans think about their tenure, they never have; this is just a case of trying to leverage an opportunity and then a rival (who've put more legwork into the deal than us so far) sticking to their guns. I just don't think there's a conspiracy here.

For what it's worth, despite saying I fucking hate the transfer window, I could see a move for Caicedo over Lavia happening. We no doubt would be willing to pay more for Caicedo as he's absolutely first team ready - whereas Lavia is a project with slightly more experience than Bajcetic (2,200 career minutes vs 600 for Bajcetic; Caicedo has >6,000). So it might be that we see £50m for a punt as bad value, but £95m for a player with ~100 top flight appearances as something better approaching good value. On paying £100m for Caicedo after pulling out of £100m Bellingham, there's probably a couple of other considerations. Bellingham probably had more 'behind the scenes' fees (like agent fees etc.) as he's the Next Big Thing. But mainly I'd say it's wages - no doubt Bellingham, as the Next Big Thing and coming from a CL regular side, would command wages in excess of £250k per week, probably more like over £300k. On a five year contract, for £100m and with £300k per week, we'd be looking at a total annual cost of just over £35m. Caicedo is supposedly now on about £60k per week (up from something mad like £5k per week), so we could give him 2.5x his current salary and still have a total annual cost of ~£28m. It doesn't sound like a lot but with our lot in charge, it's a gulf. I'm not convinced it will happen, but it doesn't seem outlandish that we thought we could get a rawer version of Caicedo for £35m or so, which represents a significant saving on Caicedo himself - but if the raw version costs £50m then the better value is in the more expensive player. As ever with the owners, it'll come down to value (and their own strict - too strict - criteria) rather than money per se.

I honestly couldn't hate transfers or the transfer window any more than I do. Top to bottom dripping in cuntery.

They need to crack down on game sabotage, not just farting around adding time on. Newcastle won't give two shits about playing until midnight when they come to Anfield, as long as they get to stop play every 15 seconds with absolute impunity. We'd do all the running and they'd just break the game up like it's a training exercise. If the referees used the tools available to them - like booking players for time wasting in the first 20 minutes when they're already committing the offence of time wasting, and then had the balls to follow through with second yellows if it continues - and if they had the power to book captains for rotating time wasting, then you'd get most games completed with 5 minutes of time added on for subs, goals and injuries. This is pure baldy manc PGMOL bullshit, designed to look tough and hard and sound spectacular, but actually not really confronting the issue so they won't have to actually make any big, tough decisions. Unless it's us, probably.

I have no doubt that a Starmer-led government would be an improvement on the current shower because I'm 100% convinced that the current shower are actively running the country into the ground for the good of themselves and their mates. We've got a crooked, corrupt government at the moment that uses populist rhetoric to gain power and the illusion of legitimacy, and then basically rules on behalf of a handful of wealthy individuals and their companies and wider industries. Starmer's Labour wouldn't be like that, I'm certain of that - so at a really base level things would undoubtedly be better. But my concern is that they've become so close to power now that they're utterly terrified of missing out on it and they seem to be far more worried about old attack lines that have proven to be effective over the past decade than they are about providing a genuine, total alternative. The two-child limit, the rowing back on green policies - it's depressing stuff because to me, it shows a party which is more obsessed with trying to position itself above the "magic money tree" attacks rather than backing itself to have the initiative with the public and trying to argue in favour of alternatives. It's like they're deliberately tying their own hands at every turn. People are sick of the Tories and Labour have them on the run. I just wish they'd embrace that more and therefore offer genuinely alternative policies rather than be frightened of its own shadow and play it too safe. The rowing back of green policies is a classic of it now - allowing the Tories to steer the narrative towards something divisive (as is their style) like ULEZ, and then allowing yourself to be cowed into a change of policy off the back of that to appease 500 voters in Uxbridge. You're in the lead. People hate your opponents, and are willing you to succeed and provide an alternative, so provide it.

Yeah. There's no doubt in my mind that this is entirely a self-engineered problem for 'us' all to obsess over: run up a backlog of asylum applications, reframe it as a "swarm of migrants" and a national fucking emergency, and get their base energised into thinking this is the first and only problem that needs fixing. If they did actually fix it (or, rather, didn't deliberately sabotage it into breaking in the first place) then their base might start asking difficult questions like: why is everyone I know who isn't a millionaire Tory donor fucking poorer than they were 13 years ago? Why doesn't anything work? Why can't I see a GP or a dentist? Why is there shit in the river and on the beach? Why is my mortgage 200 quid more expensive than it was two years ago? Why is my gas bill like paying a second mortgage? And so on. Much better to have them thinking that there's an invasion in progress and the Labour party, in cahoots with the shadowy cabal of the Lefty Lawyers and the Anti-Growth Brigade, are trying to sabotage the defences. Fucking sick of these cunts just trying to divide us at every turn so they can cosplay at being the opposition whilst simultaneously having their hands on the steering wheel. After 13 years it's just soul destroying.

Get paid to create problems. Get paid to find the solutions to those self-created problems. Get paid to create problems with the self-created solutions. Ad infinitum.

Apparently the Aussies tried to go to the England dressing room for a get together and it was indeed locked - but Stokes has since said they were having an extended wrap as they were giving send-offs to Broad and Moeen ahead of their retirement. The teams came together for a drink in a bar afterwards instead.

Was just listening to the podcast and agree that sometimes he’s lackadaisical with his own work which might make handing out bollockings for other’s failings a bit hypocritical. But hopefully getting the armband might make him consider his own standards and have that extra desire to hit them 100% of the time to allow him to have proper moral authority on the pitch. I’m optimistic this might lead to a renaissance for him, basically.

Christ, Howard fucking Webb resonates such small dick energy. Prickly entitled bastard can’t stand being pulled up or held accountable. Wonder how he didn’t end up more senior in his side gig to be honest.

Greatest wicketkeeper of all time for me, Clive.

For what it's worth I don't think he's dropped it in the act of throwing it in the air in celebration as some people are suggesting, that his hubris has made him prematurely celebrate and that's what made him drop it. I think his arm comes round in a circular motion and his thigh, which is in the air as he jumped to catch it, gets in the way and he fumbles it. I can't argue with the fact that he hasn't landed on both feet and steadied himself before he drops it, so it goes the same way as the Duckett non-dismissal earlier in the series. It's poor fielding but Stokes is normally reliable, and he's one of our best and most athletic fielders. Shit happens - unfortunately usually when fucking Smith is batting.

Smith is one of the jammiest fucks to ever walk the earth no doubt, but I can't argue with the decision, especially after the decision earlier in the series to rule that Starc dropped that one mid-catch.

Yeah I reckon they think that as soon as the last lightbulb gets screwed in then that's it - the cash just starts rolling in.

As it happens I reckon England are trailblazers for a new era - but not because of some amazing crusade to save the old form of the game, rather that in 10 years time there'll be franchise cricket everywhere and the pool of players will play accordingly and this style will just become the norm as a result. 'Mystery' bowlers and see ball / hit ball batsmen. It's shit but the horse has bolted as you say. I'd still rather watch this form of Test cricket than frankly soulless franchise cricket though, so maybe they are saving the game if they can bring some spectators through with them. Shitty compromise though.

In fairness, I think most of the smelling and the Bazball stuff is from the media. Stokes and McCullum seem to roll their eyes at the phrase and always have done. There's a bit of funky chat from them both no doubt, but I do reckon most of the hyperbole is at least as much foisted on them as it is self-generated. That said, I've always thought this impression that it's all about hyper-aggressive batting is slightly missing the point; my take on it is that it's about encouraging players to play a game that feels natural and just being a bit less critical of dismissals. England have a team of batsmen who like getting bat on ball and Stokes and McCullum have basically run with it: reckoning it better for attacking batsmen to play their shots and accept the risks that come with it, rather than getting those batsmen to play more defensively in a style which they're fucking shite at. Basically they're trying to bend the game to the limited overs cricketers they have rather than trying to adapt those players to play Test cricket. I dunno if it'll work, like. It probably will against most sides but that says more about the state of Test cricket than it does about the style.

LIV. They want to be culturally embedded into the world's collective view - in the same way that most of the world's population have a reflexive knowledge and opinion about Spain or the UK or France, and some of that comes through these countries' visibility through their cities and their football teams. They'll chuck loads of money at players to level up their league rapidly, and destabilise the European game in the process, and possibly even start angling for a competiton against Europe's more impoverished clubs. They'll also pick up a load of playerfans along the way, the types who switch alleigence to their favourite player's new club as soon as he signs a contract. Uefa will be forced to respond somehow for fear of the European game having a schism that leaves them with half the glamour clubs they hadpreviously and soon enough you'll have Saudi clubs competing in the Champions League. Nothing like putting your cities on the same level as European capitals than having them face off with their expensively assembled glamour sides in the most watched competition in the world. They'll likely have the World Cup going on in tandem as well. All part of a soft power project.

Could be that the club is satisfied with the payment terms and there's adequate proof of funds - but there's more worry coming from Fab's camp, who want more long-term assurances. We just need to get paid once; he needs (well, not needs but you know what I mean) to get paid monthly - and the SPL clubs aren't without their visits to CAS to arbitrate with unpaid players.

Another of Johnson's peers getting sworn in today - can't remember the cunt's name but he's the one who's 31 and his main contribution to society was working at Guido Fawkes and doing an interview where Johnson waffled on about toy buses in an attempt to change the word association between himself and buses. Anyway it got me thinking about just how much I hate the massive fucking cunt, and also how his corrupt resignation honours list is basically him in a nutshell, which I just fancied writing down. Firstly, it's an example of how he's quick to claim the rights of a position, but much less keen on the responsibilities. There's an option to delegate COBRA meetings - there is precedent to delegate in certain circumstances, but generally the PM is expected to chair. Johnson looks at the COVID one and thinks, "can't be arsed with that, it's optional, some other fucker can do it." Equally, there's the option to pass on resignation honours - Blair didn't bother with one and neither did Brown - but despite the optionality of it, he's quick to claim that as his right and use the chance to pay back a load of favours at someone else's expense. Doesn't cost him a penny of time or money, just a bit of embarrassment that he literally doesn't give one solitary fuck about. Which is the second way this corruption is a neat example of the cunt's behaviour: running up a favours tab with other people, then using other people's resources to pay them back. This Guido Fawkes cunt goes easy on him with some friendly interviews and press coverage, and when the time comes to reward him for his service to Boris Johnson, does Boris Johnson pay for it? Does he fuck. He'll use his opportunity to make a few life peerages and get the taxpayer to pay him £300 a day for the rest of his life. No doubt that the girl he's put in there at the ripe age of 28 or whatever is one of his illegitimate offspring, and again - why pay for her upbringing or give her time as a father when you can get someone else to set her up for life in a job? He's a massive fucking cunt who's done so much damage to this country that I will literally shit and piss on his grave when he goes. Fucking cunt.

Winning the running > Winning the transfer window