Big game after the international break. Watford away, we struggled there last year even playing 10 men. Watford are the type of midtable team we’ve routinely been losing to away from home. If we want to convince people we can make top 4 then we need to win this.
Then it’s villa at home and Man U away. I’d want 7 points from those 3.

After that we have a tremendous run of 9 games where only Leicester away would be a game we weren’t very heavy favourites for

If we get those 7 points from the next three fixtures we've set ourselves up to make a big statement for a top three finish. During that 9 game run Tottenham has to go to Anfield and Old Trafford, and United go up against Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City. Chelsea have a decent run as well, but I think they're a lot more likely to cock up "easy" fixtures than we are.

I met Paul Merson at a gig I played at a few years back. He was shitfaced, cocky and a bit of a prick. Kind of broke my heart a bit.

Merson is Sky's resident village idiot. He's there for Stelling, Le Tiss, Thompson and Charlie to take the piss out of on a Saturday.

Maybe he should be posting on here then ?

Haz said he was likeable though..

Saw that too. It's the absurd over-rating of English players. Sky had the dream team of Tim Sherwood and Andy Townsend last night. Jesus wept. Kane's dive at the end of the NLD was a definite penalty apparently.

Such a shame we signed Emery as manager and not one of the English guys. They're top blokes and would've made sure we signed Delph and Gary Cahill to really take the club forward.

It seems we have named Saliba in our Premier League squad for the season, because he's 18 and if he's registered for three years before he turns 21 he'll count as homegrown. Didn't realize the system worked like that, but good for us if true. It means both Saliba and Martinelli will count as homegrown in the future.

I like the way the club is now starting to think like a business and make decisions which take account of every loophole out there. I have no confidence that this was previously the case. As An example We always seemed to have problems getting visas for South America’s etc while other clubs seemed to make it happen.

Ceballos starts for Spain against Romania. Live in Sky Sports now........................

Sporting Lisbon chairman aimed a great dig at spurs. Spurs bid £40m for Bruno Fernandes with an extra £20m in add ons if spurs win the league or champions league. Lisbon’s chairman laughed off the idea of the offer basically saying that part was worthless as they’ve never won it and won’t ever win it

Spurs got to the top of their cycle just as Liverpool finally pulled their finger out after 25 years and Man City amassed the largest points total in history. It’s a crying shame. Now they’re hitting the first bump in 3 years with Eriksson and Alderwierld leaving on free which seems minor as I type it but the first time Levy hasn’t squeezed every penny out of someone.

Hopefully we can peak in two years as some financial or human rights scandal finally catches up with City and Klopp is head hunted by Real or Juve. And also hopefully we’re a bit good.

Many sperz fans are turning on Poch. Also, its tough to maintain a high level and finish top 3 in a league such as the PL without spending. While at the same time holding on to good players. It was a matter of when not if they start to slide as players get older, more expensive to keep with new contracts and no one of quality coming through or bought to replace them. Its amazing that they are the best consistent sperz side for some time and have not won a trophy, not even the League Cup.

Going forward we are looking good and dangerous and have the quality to score on almost any good defense. That said, its obvious our biggest problem is our central defense. When Tierney and Belllerin are back, we have a couple of find book ends at fullback.

I'd love for us to get back to a George Graham mindset and look spend on the best central defenders we can afford and even a bit above what we are budgeting for.

Although his career has been marred by injuries, Kompany was immense at times for City. Liverpool spent 75 million for van Dijk which seemed insane to some but many would now he has justified his fee. Obviously we shouldn't be spending 75 million but he was a known entity for a while, Celtic, Soton, and we should be finding great young defenders early on. Spending a bit over the odds if necessary. Searching for the best defenders in the lower division. No more stop gaps. Lets give the position the same respect we have given targets in the attack. Tierney is a start. A quality, young defender from what we know so far.

Decaf, condolences on the loss of Mugabe

We are in a very good position to get top 4 and if we can either play better team defense, get a quality central defender in January or beat teams consistently Kevin Keegan style, we may...just may even get 3rd. No one is going to touch City or Liverpool. They are on another level. They could easily compete in La Liga at the top of the table, same in France, I think either would beat PSG to the title as well as Juve to the title and push Bayern if not beat them.

I don't know what a lot of fans were thinking we would go to Anfield, when they are firing on all cylinders, us having to accommodate new players, weak central defense, early days and expect a draw or win at Anfield. I'm starting to question the sanity of some of our fans and its not a small minority either if media and even this forum is anything to go by.

That said, Man Utd are looking ordinary with OGS as manager. They have good players, Martial is finally feeling free not having Mourinho sap his confidence. Pogba is a bit more settled as well for the same reasons as Martial (Mourinho) and their new boy is scoring, something he wasn't known for. However, they are dropping points in matches one wouldn't think they would normally drop points in. Chelsea are not looking good at all. Lamps isn't exactly lighting the world afire. Tottenham also don't seem as strong as they were last season. Poch fatigue is setting in there.

All this may culminate in us getting back to to CL football and if Emery can manage that it would be a huge boost to the morale and in getting players in.

Ceballos had a great performance for Spain last night, topped of with this through ball in the buildup to their second goal:

https://twitter.com/afcDW/status/1169784990202286080

Watching the news

Brexit is going superbly over the last 48 hours

Finally real progress being made

Really good game between Germany and Netherlands. Great seeing two technically skilled sides go at each other. Interestingly enough, I often see a lack thereof when Brazil and Argentina play each other but I digress. Both sides in this match showed a lot of class, enjoyable. One of the main reasons I got into this sport.

Nketiah with 2 goals for England under 21 last night, Nelson also scored as England won 3-2 against Turkey

England sh*tting their pants again in the cricket.

Maybe you can explain to me what BJ is trying to achieve.

Indeed, I'm devastated ...

that the mad old tyrannous *%^@** didn't keel over 30 years ago.

He’s standing in a field with a bull talking about cows

Is that not enough for you ?

Ah...a quiet place here. So I'll do this.... Terrific soundtrack. Liked movie as well.

Could it be a simple marketing message. If you see this man - there will always be a lot of bullsh@t around. I haven’t seen the scenario yet.

My favourite soundtracks are The Ipcress File and Get Carter. Two Michael Caine films and my first and third favourite films.

I can’t leave that hanging. And your second favourite is ?

The Wicker Man with Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward. It also had some great music in it as they actually made a CD of it. I just didn’t think the Wicker Man’s actual soundtrack was as good as that of The Ipcress File and Get Carter. Thought the remake of The Wicker Man was rubbish though.

Interesting I enjoy both your 1 & 3 movies & they are probably in my top 10. I enjoy Russia House as well. Which movie has windmills of our time or some name like that & did Dusty Springfield sing it? One of my favourite singers of all time.

Couldn’t agree more about Dusty Springfield. Fantastic singer, and that isn’t a view that comes from me getting older. When I was a kid I liked Alice Cooper and heard or read an interview with him when he said Burt Bacharach was his favourite songwriter. As a result I listened to Bacharach’s stuff, which inevitably meant listening to Dusty Springfield. Not only were the songs brilliant but her delivery of them was in my view perfect; absolutely beautiful.

I say my liking of her isn’t down to getting older because when Alice Cooper released School’s Out, which is the song that lead to me liking him and no doubt taking notice of what he said about Bacharach, I wasn’t even a teenager.

Get carter is a brilliant film but I can’t recall it having much of a soundtrack apart from the classic theme song at the start.

Windmills of your Mind - 1968 - Thomas Crown Affair - Steve McQueen & Faye Dunaway.

Sung by Noel Harrison and later covered by (amongst others) Dusty Springfield.

Congrats on the cricket, btw Gaz. Better team won.

Sorry, that’s what I was calling the soundtrack.

Superb performance by Leo Varadkar this morning in the press conference.

Just revert the backstop back to NI only as originally intended. This allows the rest of the UK to diverge as they wish in the next stage of the talks whilst protecting the GFA and maintaining a friction-less border. The majority of people in the north of Ireland voted to remain and are content with the backstop as a solution to the problem. The DUP do not speak for the majority here (albeit it seems that way in W'minster due to SF not taking their seats) and really should not be allowed to hold Europe, the UK and Ireland to ransom any longer.

Thought the movie was just ok, was disappointed with it tbh, but must check out the soundtrack as there were some cracking songs played in the film.

He’s fantastic, our politicians couldn’t hold a Torch to him

Can’t think of a better ambassador, he’s also a very good communicator and always speaks well

Varadkar to Johnson:

“Securing the ratification in less than there years is going to be a Herculean task for you.

But we do want to be your friend, your ally, your Athena”

When Hercules went mad and killed his children , Athena stopped the disaster from getting worse .





...that’s totally brilliant. Love that