Numero Veinticinco

That seems a curious distinction to make. While I have seen him beat people with skill, I'm not sure I care how he beats people as long as he does beat people. I think he would give us what somebody like Robben gave Chelsea against weaker teams. Yes, he's not a polished player in the way a Robben or Ribery or even Mane is, but he does have the vital attributes, and they stretch beyond pace and industriousness; he certainly has shown enough end product. Now, will we have to overpay for him? Sure, but that seems to be this transfer window's cost of doing any business at all.

TorrentLeech was accepting new accounts last time I searched for torrent sites to report to the police out of a sense of civic duty.

There's a disconnect, I believe. The fans are paying the same - too much - regardless of whether we spend or not. We get so, so much front sponsorships, European Cup involvement, the League place finish, etc; I don't think it should be thought of in the 'buy big, pay more at the gate' type of way. Plus, we have spent a fraction of our income these last few years. Ticket prices aren't falling because of that, unfortunately. At least matchgoing fans will have something decent too look at for the money going forward!

The fee is patently ridiculous, but the days of big clubs and football in general not being ridiculous are well gone. I am stuck between despising the way we pay so much for players that we could've had for much cheaper a season or two before, and just wanting to win and thinking, 'well, it ain't our money, so fuck it'. In this case, we get a leader who can organise and control the others in the box. We have needed a player like him for a long, long time. So, you know, fuck it. *Wince*