He’s on 12 goals in the league this season which is one more than Darwin Nunez. If he had been playing all season up front it would be likely he’d have netted 18-20 without penalties. Isn’t that the requirement for a premier league striker. I don’t think he’s perfect and could understand why we want an upgrade but he’s done incredibly well. He reminds me of Smudger but with a bit of a lesser eye for goal.

I think there’s no chance of us going big for a striker this summer spending 80m plus with the current options. We will replace Eddie and sign a promising back up from somewhere but there’s not going to be a marquee type incoming centre forward.

Blimey Rog!

Is this costing you money mate?

Leicester back up. Well done to them.

No just time. The guest count has dropped back to normal today (and I don't know why yet). This forum software is also quite old now and is no longer updatable easily. It will eventually need to go to a newer version. Thankfully, the hosting people still accomodate the older software and can run old versions of their backend so our forum still runs ok.

This may have been some sort of AI scraper possibly. The web hosts may also have been running a process on it of some sort. Either way, it appears to be back to normal. I will monitor it and also look into trying to update this software seamlessly into a newer version. I tried it a few years back but the database didn't want to integrate into the latest version at the time.

In the meantime, I have optimized all the DB tables, cleared the cache and logs, and culled some very old data so it should be much more responsive now.

It could be at least 5 of the 6 who came up and down last season exchanging places again which will give more weight to the argument of the growing gap between the prem and the rest.

I’ve never really understood the parachute payments clubs get when they get relegated from the prem. it’s like the authorities are saying don’t worry about you increasing all your costs on the assumption you’ll be staying in the prem for a long time here’s some extra money to help you get back there. Just manage your money better in the first place

It’s always funny reading Garth Crooks BBC team of the week when he has to through gritted teeth put an Arsenal player in. How is this pundit still drawing a wage to talk about football?

He's such a boring know it all type; best thing to do is ignore and not click on his 'contributions'.

It’s always funny reading Garth Crooks BBC team of the week when he has to through gritted teeth put an Arsenal player in. How is this pundit still drawing a wage to talk about football?

Hi TG. Absolutely. I don’t think there’s value in those kinds of signings, I know it might sound daft, but if Haaland had actually gone on the open market it would have been north of 125m and every time his name appeared in print it would have had most expensive player in British history next to it and then what he’s achieved would be par for the course for the price. And he maybe feels the pressure a bit more.

We sign, say, Osimhen for 80-100 if we can rustle up the cash and he has to score 25+ goals and stay fit for the majority of the season or he’s bad value . I don’t think there is the profile of player on the market to go marquee on a striker.

Zirkzee, a 6’4” 22 year old doing well for £50m is probably as big as it’s going to get. And 50M isn’t chicken feed. There isn’t a no brainier like Haaland on the market (for us - we can’t sign Mbappe) so that’s absolutely the right thing to do. We need a midfielder.

The web hosts have said that the forum is filled with bots (automated computer programs) that are living in here now.

"Looking into this I can see there is quite a large amount of traffic being received to 'stevegleiber.com' which appears are mostly bots. "

They have upped the memory limits and done some other things and they are going to deny access to these crawlers for a few days and monitor the place. I asked them which bots are doing it. Might be some sort of AI trainer maybe. We'll see.

Rog ...

What's in it for the bots?

The bots have been reined in now and the good bots have been allowed back in. This has stopped the large amount of guests.
Unfortunately it is due to what I suspected - that being a security hole in this old software we are using. I tried updating the Php version to a newer one but the old software didn't work properly with it. When I tried updating the entire site, the database didn't import over properly.

Anyway, it's fixed for now. I'll continue monitoring the site in the meantime.
If anyone notices anything unusual like any errors or bugs or City drawing a game, let me know.

He’s on 12 goals in the league this season which is one more than Darwin Nunez. If he had been playing all season up front it would be likely he’d have netted 18-20 without penalties. Isn’t that the requirement for a premier league striker. I don’t think he’s perfect and could understand why we want an upgrade but he’s done incredibly well. He reminds me of Smudger but with a bit of a lesser eye for goal.

I think there’s no chance of us going big for a striker this summer spending 80m plus with the current options. We will replace Eddie and sign a promising back up from somewhere but there’s not going to be a marquee type incoming centre forward.

The web hosts have said that the forum is filled with bots (automated computer programs) that are living in here now.

"Looking into this I can see there is quite a large amount of traffic being received to 'stevegleiber.com' which appears are mostly bots. "

They have upped the memory limits and done some other things and they are going to deny access to these crawlers for a few days and monitor the place. I asked them which bots are doing it. Might be some sort of AI trainer maybe. We'll see.

Rog ...

https://x.com/blackscarfmarc/status/1784897434725781553?s=46&t=fkwaCrtFB5yR-j6VVZXEoA

There are a few videos going round of the spurs fans filming our goals and posting them on social media - not sure why - but obviously Arsenal fans keep sharing them because it’s funny to see the abuse they give our corner taker to then just go silent as the ball hits the net.

The best thing about this video is how effortless Rice makes that corner look, on the higher tv angle it looks whipped in flat with serious pace - and it was - but you’d expect Rice to be kicking it with more effort than he did. Elite technique on those corners just like Saka

These set pieces were so good at, for me it’s
50% delivery
20% movement
15% desire to want to get your head on it
15% the planning behind the scenes

Not to downplay any part but the pinpoint deliveries whipped in flat and at pace in the perfect area contribute most to these goals. The own goal by Hojberg is the perfect case in point - the delivery creates the panic and the mistake

Gary Neville in pre season
“At this moment in time, the ones who’ve proved it over the last five, six years are Liverpool. I know Arsenal have run City close this year but the only team I can say that have demonstrated they can get close to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City is Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool

Gary Neville last week
‘they’re (Liverpool) not on Arsenal and Man City’s level, we knew that at the start of the season. Not a failure to finish behind them’

Aren't Villa considered big 6 yet?

Anne Hathaway reacting to Arsenal scoring during a press interview

Yeah. Can’t see myself getting this one

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/27616571 ... it-leaked/

Aren't Villa considered big 6 yet?