Trumo

Rodrygo seems like the sort of player City might go for, while pretending they don't splash out on players.

The jabroni feedin', toddler yeetin', money trail-blazin', cuckoo clock praisin', all around, snot down People's Pub, The Brick! Nil Smell Nisi Cooking.

Work-rate. Incisiveness. Nous. I don't ask for much. This is how it's gonna be. Build from the ground up. Please note the date and kick-off time. This one's live on TNT Sports. On the face of it, this one should be a gimme. Sheffield United have been poor all season, and taken some absolute hidings as the worst side in the division, especially at home. Chris Wilder returned to the dugout to replace the sacked Paul Heckingbottom earlier this season (I think the return fixture was his first game back), and his time is memorable only for the rant he detailed in a post-match interview after one of those aforementioned hidings, which only served to show that he has an ego far outreaching his ability. I don't knew who they have available or how they will set up, but my feeling is that Wilder will want to keep the score down and keep the game scrappy. No doubt the ref in charge will oblige by penalising every attempt of ours to win the ball back, and overlook their timewasting antics. We've seen this show before. Speaking of things we've seen before, we had to come back from a goal down at Anfield in October 2020 to claim the points. Sheffield United were helped by the VAR awarding a penalty for a challenge by Fab tat took place just outside the box (Mike Dean was the ref, and he initially awarded a free kick). Only Fab's heel (if anything) was touching the 18-yard line. The opponent wasn't in the box or on the line. Bear in mind this was one week after Virg was put out for the season by a reckless lunge that the VAR somehow forgot, plus Hendo having a derby winner ruled out because Sadio's elbow was deemed to be offside earlier in the build-up. No I'm not letting those go! Berge dispatched the penalty for the Blades, and it was almost half time before we got a leveller. Sadio's far post header was kept out by Ramsdale but he could only palm the effort into the path of the unmarked Bobby, who buried it (a little awkwardly it has to be said) from a yard out. Mo thought he'd put us ahead with a wondergoal in the second half, when he killed a high ball into the area with one touch, and fired a volley into the net with the second. Great goal, but ruled out thanks to VAR finding an offside. No matter, Diogo later buried Sadio's left wing cross with a textbook header to claim all 3 points. Mo nearly scored a cracker again, this time being denied by the woodwork. Both City and Arsenal play the day before so we might be off the top spot before our game kicks off. I'd expect City to beat Villa and I don't see Luton getting anything from the Emirates. Availability-wise, the likes of Ibou and Curtis might be involved in this one. Trent and Diogo may or may not be available for the weekend trip, but I would guess that this game is a little too early for their involvement. Baj might available again after missing most of the season. Ali is still at least a week away, and Joel and Thiago are done for the season. Regardless of availability, we need to make sure we approach this game with the perfect mentality, displaying both intent and patience and a complete absence of complacency. Maximum motivation, concentration, attitude and application from first minute to last. 3 points please and get back on top. Get it done!

She's never shy in airing her opinion whether it is wanted or not. Recently waded in on the player/coach debate only to bang on about player/player relationships, and then having to backtrack as a significant number of players in the game (some in her Chelsea squad too) are in a relationship with other players. Now she bangs on about the Arsenal coach and his 'male aggression', only to act aggressively towards him yet think that is OK. Mind you, the Arsenal coach looks like a Strictly Love Island gobshite, so there's that.

No way!

One of those game where the work-rate and commitment are unquestionable, but at the same time we leave enough out there to give the opposition a glimmer, purely because some of that work-rate and commitment plays into the opposition's hands. Brighton are a difficult side to play against for us, and have been ever since they ditched Chris Hughton and went down the route of playing controlled football and being better than the sum of their parts. And yet we still managed 30-odd goal attempts (most of which were off-target) and could have had more if only our players had brought their shooting boots. There was a lot of wastefulness with our finishing and the game wasn't nearly as close on the balance of play as the commentators were making out. A word on the referee Coote, who was in full dickhead traffic warden mode. Not a chance that was a game of 8 bookings. The first yellow card brandished, for Macca, was just the first of many soft as fuck decisions. The exact same much ado about nothing involving Darwin in the box was shrugged aside as exactly that, and yet this warranted both a free kick and a yellow? And what was that stupidity with the balls behind the goal, neither of which had any impact on proceedings. As for VAR Tierney, it was never in doubt that Lucho's second goal would be ruled out

Using him in his best/preferred position would require playing with 2 holding midfielders so as not to compromise defensive shape when the team is out of possession, and to have enough attacking options around him for him to link up with when the team is in possession. I think that's one of the reasons it worked well for him under Marco Silva at Fulham, as Silva seems to like having 2 holding midfielders in his teams (Palhinha and Reed being his regulars).

Mesh-backed office chairs. Barely any weight saving compared to a solid-backed chair, and the plastic behind the mesh is merely a dust trap as they collect an impressive amount of clothing fibre.

The BBC and Sky are going with the 'Xabi staying at Leverkusen' angle, and the only person they are quoting is Bayern's Uli Hoeness, who is one of those who talks way too much.

A key part of Shanks' rebuilt side as the replacement for Ron Yeats. Scored what proved to be the winner in a UEFA Cup final, and went on to win the league plus Big Ears twice after joining Forest. RIP Larry.

Get Josh Widdicombe to check.

Work-rate. Incisiveness. Nous. I don't ask for much. This is how it's gonna be. Build from the ground up. Note the kick-off time. Also note that the clocks go forward by 1 hour on Sunday. It's all club football now until the end of the season following the latest needless international break. I understand that international coaches want to have time with their players as they plan their squads for the Euros, but these games are usually a mish-mash with loads of players dropping out, others getting a game due to recent form/hype, and the debut of a new kit or two. More importantly, these games come at exactly the point where clubs look to knuckle down for the business end of the season. In our case, we always seem to lose a player or two in completely avoidable circumstances. Look how many City and Arsenal players have either cried off or picked up a 'knock' in the last week or so. No doubt they will be 100% come the weekend. The corresponding fixture last season was De Zerbi's first game in charge, after Graham Potter left to take up the big money and set up his peculiar brand of controlling football but no goals at Chelsea. At this point it's a wonder why Boehly and co. just didn't buy Brighton rather than Chelsea, given that they've single-handedly ensured that Brighton don't fall foul of PSR. Jurgen's Reds were sloppy all day at the back (none more so than Trent) so whatever we did at the back was negated by our defensive frailties and lack of energy in midfield. Trossard had put Brighton 2-0 up in the first half, and we got one back before half time through Bobby, but only after a lengthy VAR check. Bobby danced through in the second half to find an equaliser, and we had our tails up for the first time all day. We took the lead when Brighton keeper Sanchez made a right hash of punching away a corner kick. The ball ricocheted off Webster into his own net. We should have used the momentum to make certain of the points, but more sloppy defending led to Trossard firing in his third for a hat-trick. 3-3 it finished, and Brighton were full value for that. Under their Italian coach, they've largely resolved the issue with a lack of goals that Potter never managed to rectify, and they've done it with most of the same squad plus a few more previously unheralded players. They struggled to balance domestic and European commitments earlier this season, but now they only have the league to focus on. Two players that have been a thorn in our side, Mitoma and March, will both be absent with long-term injuries, and they have doubts over the availability of Joao Pedro (who's scored a lot of goals, mainly from the penalty spot, this season) plus Big Game James, who might miss out on a return to face his former club. They use Estupinan and Lamptey for width, and Adingra has emerged as Sadio-lite in recent months. Not just the streak in his hair, but the mix of pace, strength and goal threat from out wide is very reminiscent of our former No10. For us, Robbo is a concern after twisting his ankle in midweek against Northern Ireland. Curtis, Trent and Diogo might be available again. We've heard nothing about Ali so I expect him to be unavailable. Joel and Thiago I don't think we will see again this season. Mo and Darwin didn't feature for their national sides this week. Hopefully we are starting to see an easing of the availability issues that have hampered us in recent months. While it has provided opportunities and experience for the Academy lads, you still need know-how at this stage of the season. Hopefully the training sessions this week are fruitful and effective in getting us prepared and into the right mode for the run-in, as we still have 2 trophies to compete for. City and Arsenal face each other this weekend so there will be dropped points either way. We have a great chance to capitalise, but we will require maximum motivation, concentration, attitude and application from first minute to last, as always. 3 points please. Get it done!

His kids got served better breakfasts than the shit Fuge gets delivered, so he might want to rethink his plans.

We've basically got everything we expected from Thiago. Technically and tactically astute but injury-prone as fuck. Naby had the attributes to be an absolute dynamo in midfield, but we only got sporadic glimpses. All too often he wasn't up to the task physically, and it didn't appear to bother him too much that his time at Liverpool was so underwhelming.

I'd rather wait until the internationals are done with so I know who will be available missing.

Imagine if Barnesy hadn't shown up for the recording of 'World in Motion'? Either there'd have been no rap, or maybe Beardo would have done it!

And what happened in the U21 game? Rhys' biggest issue is a lack of pace. He needs to go to a team that defend in a low block and doesn't need defenders to have a good range of passing. Similar to Nat, although Nat has the ability to absolutely dominate in the air that I didn't think Rhys quite had. The pair of them helped us out hugely in Spring 2021 but were never suited long-term to what we need from our players for our approach to be effective. I expect Nat will move on in the summer too. Best of luck to the both of them.

Octopussy used to use them as guards.

Not a first they can claim, considering our two stand redevelopments have seen off Carillion and Buckingham Group.

Our lot played like this was March 2023, just like the error in the thread title that I asked to be fixed! Bournemouth 2016 all over again. Complacency pure and simple. As as collective but more so from our forwards. Lucho tried hard and was the best of the attack, but even he was guilty of making poor choices with those numerous counters where we had numbers. Darwin was out of steam before their first equaliser, and gifted them their second. Mo, goal aside, absolutely stunk the place out. Cody just never got going. I add complacency with the coaching staff too, particularly the multiple substitution with the decision to remove Robbo, Dom and Mo. I know that you don't want to use up too many sub windows by changing one at a time, but that set of changes meant that we had to take some time to figure out what everyone's role is. What it did was check our momentum because defensively we'd looked fairly comfortable, and the midfield of Endo, Mac and Dom were looking quietly effective in getting the ball, moving it about and keeping things simple. The lack of effectiveness plus too much complacency up front was our main problem, but now we compounded that by losing effectiveness further back too.

A cracking idea for this morning, using leftover roti as we had no bread left. Grill some bacon. Dip the roti in beaten egg. Put one of them in a pan with butter, lay a couple of rashers of grilled bacon and a little sprinkle of cheese (comte in this instance), a little splash of Lea & Perrins' finest, lay another roti on top, then cook on both sides. Slice into quarters and serve. *Chef's kiss*

In that case, why not grow them yourself?

Brentford seems to be in the sort of tailspin that might not matter this season, but could continue into the next and see them drop.

What the fuck was the commentator on about at the end, about Wales finishing above Italy thanks to a losing bonus point? Did he forget that Italy won the match and got 4 points anyway?

I'm still younger now than Teddy Sheringham was when he was playing for England.