joe_fishfish

It's a weird one this season, over the past few years there have been a queue of clubs seemingly desperate to go down, making all the wrong moves in terms of transfers and managers. But this time round a few of the smaller clubs have got their shit together. Early days yet but Potter looks an excellent hire for Brighton. Norwich seemingly aren't arsed about relegation, their manager seems very stable and they have some surprisingly good players. That sort of setup seems a bit less prone to panic and a bit more likely to stay up against the odds. Sheffield Utd play some really good stuff as well, they were seriously organised and impressive against Palace at the weekend. Pressed well, defended in numbers, attacked with good tempo and created a lot more than the 1-0 scoreline would suggest. I could see them struggling for goals as the season wears on though. The likes of Watford and West Ham will get another manager in a heartbeat if they start to struggle and they will have enough quality in their squads to not go down. The most shambolic club in the league is obviously Newcastle so I reckon they're nailed on for the drop. Palace could be down there as well, if they'd lost Zaha I would've said they're down for sure, but he's probably worth 20 points a season on his own to them. Villa look shit to me despite their summer spending. I'll go for Newcastle, Villa, then one from Palace, Norwich, Burnley and Southampton.

He made two saves in the first half that Mignolet wouldn't have made if his life had depended on it. Yes it was a bad error for their goal but I very much doubt he'll do it again.

Firmino is amazing.

This must be one of the minor competitions we don't give a fuck about this season. Struggling to find a positive to take from that half. Not seen us play this badly for ages.

This is a shocking performance. Be lucky to go in 0-0.

I've got a subscription to The Athletic and this pisses all over everything that's on there.

Can just see them doing shit like that all season. Play shit, get some large slices of luck, benefit from some "contentious" decisions, convert them into extremely jammy victories. I fucking hate the cunts and their seemingly neverending deal with the devil.

Yeah we're gonna have to agree to disagree here mate. The thing Lovren is best at for us is keeping Salah happy and i reckon we can find someone who doesn't earn £100k a week to do that.

Lovren was decent last season when he wasn't injured but let's not kid ourselves. He is a fucking liability. An eventual €20m is a really good deal for someone like him.

I love watching David Luiz play. He's really entertaining. Wouldn't feel that way if he played for us though.

I don't get why Everton were even after Iwobi, they don't have European football and already have four players who can play left wing. Heads falling off all over the place.

I'm not reading it like that at all. Looks like Barca want him off the wage bill cos they're after Neymar, and he wants to stay and fight for his place. All the shit we're seeing on Twitter about how available he might be is coming from Barca, not from Phil or his camp, and it's certainly not coming from us. There's no way in hell we're matching the £200k a week he's on at Barca, neither of Spurs or Arsenal could either with the summers they've had, so Barca are stuck with him.

Have to say I absolutely would have taken a punt on someone like Lozano, Ziyech or even Fekir rather than sign no one. I know there's no one out there who is realistically better than our front three and also available, but there would have been room for someone to get like 800 minutes as first reserve for any of them, who we could then punt on next year without losing out financially. Juve do that quite often, there's always someone who's in and around the squad getting minutes here and there simply so they can sell them in the summer. Players who are decent enough but never going to displace their starters. Lemina was one, Pereyra was one, Kean was likely another.

I bet he wouldn't. There's only one way to find out for sure, though. Let's make the signings and see.

That's why we're selling them all and getting Bruno Fernandes. Deals to be announced at 16:59 this evening precisely. Piece of piss this ITK lark.