So Wenger says that we were 'very, very close' to signing Mbappe. Isn't it annoying

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

I suppose Antonio Conte could win the league with this team though, just as Wenger could with Chelsea's current mob. Again, normally a squad is the fruit of several (often very different footballistically) managers' work. Rarely is it put together by just one bloke over such a long period of time. It's almost against football nature.

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Poch could possibly win the league with the Arsenal squard too. I think Tim Stillman recently asked the question: "How many / which PL managers would have done a worse job with this group of players this season than AW has?"

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Originally Posted by Ash

Poch could possibly win the league with the Arsenal squard too. I think Tim Stillman recently asked the question: "How many / which PL managers would have done a worse job with this group of players this season than AW has?"

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Sorry, but I'm not having you refer to the manager of our deadly local rivals as 'Poch'.

Straight :redcard: Off you go.

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Originally Posted by Burney

Sorry, but I'm not having you refer to the manager of our deadly local rivals as 'Poch'.

Straight :redcard: Off you go.

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Well done, b - firm, authoritative action. Would like to think a was already walking off the field even before the card was out

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

Well done, b - firm, authoritative action. Would like to think a was already walking off the field even before the card was out

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Agreed. Considering thew sevrity of the offence, the boy could be looking at a lengfthy ban there. :judge:

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Originally Posted by Peter

But that is earning the money, we are talking about spending it. When your manager is signing a striker that he clearly doesn't rate it suggests you have a problem.

Remember, of the four summers since we have had money to spend we had one where we didn't sign a single outfield player, another where we would have signed nobody is Ozil hadn't fallen into our lap at the last minute and then last summer where it almost happened again. We have been left short in midfield into two seasons and horribly short at centre back in another.

It hasn't been smooth sailing at all.

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How many games have we started with less than 11 players, p?

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Originally Posted by Ash

Poch could possibly win the league with the Arsenal squard too. I think Tim Stillman recently asked the question: "How many / which PL managers would have done a worse job with this group of players this season than AW has?"

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It's a fair question, I think. There's a reason all the greyhounds in a race look the same; they're all selected by the same type of people who all have the same priorities. None of them are any good at all though, if you've got a herd of cattle that needs shifting.

We mustn't forget though that Veng was the one that paved the way for all these foreign coaches and managers and methods. Forgetting league titles for a moment (as we must, I suppose :-| ) maybe if He'd been more like a George Graham or even an Antonio Conte, none of us would've been so impressed?

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

Well done, b - firm, authoritative action. Would like to think a was already walking off the field even before the card was out

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Token "I dunno how to spell his name" defence before disappearing down tunnel with head hanging down.

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

How many games have we started with less than 11 players, p?

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https://68.media.tumblr.com/f6cda0b4...76wxo1_500.gif

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Originally Posted by Ash

Token "I dunno how to spell his name" defence before disappearing down tunnel with head hanging down.

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Took me ages to remember whether it was Pochettino or Pottechino - kept getting it wrong. Son of a whore is of course the right pronunciation

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

How many games have we started with less than 11 players, p?

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'Less' than 11 players, la? LESS?

I'm reaching for my top pocket again, here. :-(

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

https://68.media.tumblr.com/f6cda0b4...76wxo1_500.gif

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An Italian team is three centre backs and who cares how many others (as long as one is the referee)

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Originally Posted by Ash

Token "I dunno how to spell his name" defence before disappearing down tunnel with head hanging down.

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Tell it to the FA Panel, son.

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Originally Posted by Burney

'Less' than 11 players, la? LESS?

I'm reaching for my top pocket again, here. :-(

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Germans, you see. They've no word for "fluffy" either #AnglerOut

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Germans, you see. They've no word for "fluffy" either #AnglerOut

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Yes. I'm starting to worry about la. Do the Germans have an equivalent phrase for 'going native'?

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Originally Posted by Burney

'Less' than 11 players, la? LESS?

I'm reaching for my top pocket again, here. :-(

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:shrug: It's perfectly acceptable to say that whatever the dwindling band of pedants who wish to appear clever would like to claim.

"Less has been used with countables for about a thousand years — pretty much the entire history of written English. The very notion of a neat distinction between fewer and less according to whether the noun is countable or not is a myth. It was invented out of whole cloth by an ill- informed 18th-century pedant called Robert Baker in his book Reflections on the English Language (1770). He proposed this distinction not as a hard-and-fast rule of grammar, moreover, but as a tentative suggestion with caveats (“I should think . . . it appears to me . . . ”) that you won’t find in modern style guides."

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Originally Posted by Peter

But that is earning the money, we are talking about spending it. When your manager is signing a striker that he clearly doesn't rate it suggests you have a problem.

Remember, of the four summers since we have had money to spend we had one where we didn't sign a single outfield player, another where we would have signed nobody is Ozil hadn't fallen into our lap at the last minute and then last summer where it almost happened again. We have been left short in midfield into two seasons and horribly short at centre back in another.

It hasn't been smooth sailing at all.

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If you have the money, you *must* spend it. I just said :shrug:

It doesn't much matter what rubbish you spend it on, because merely spending it is "like a trophy". Wives use this reasoning while visiting manoloblahnik.com

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Originally Posted by Burney

Yes. I'm starting to worry about la. Do the Germans have an equivalent phrase for 'going native'?

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Yes but it takes 14 hours to write down

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Originally Posted by Burney

Yes. I'm starting to worry about la. Do the Germans have an equivalent phrase for 'going native'?

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:nod: Ichglaubeichbindeutschichdenkewirklichso

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

:shrug: It's perfectly acceptable to say that whatever the dwindling band of pedants who wish to appear clever would like to claim.

"Less has been used with countables for about a thousand years — pretty much the entire history of written English. The very notion of a neat distinction between fewer and less according to whether the noun is countable or not is a myth. It was invented out of whole cloth by an ill- informed 18th-century pedant called Robert Baker in his book Reflections on the English Language (1770). He proposed this distinction not as a hard-and-fast rule of grammar, moreover, but as a tentative suggestion with caveats (“I should think . . . it appears to me . . . ”) that you won’t find in modern style guides."

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:-| You are dead to me, la.

And now I'm going to have to turn my back on you.

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

How many games have we started with less than 11 players, p?

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Fewer, but that is not the point.

Is that really the measure of success for our transfer activity? We were able to field 11 players every week?

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Originally Posted by Peter

Fewer, but that is not the point.

Is that really the measure of success for our transfer activity? We were able to field 11 players every week?

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See my reply to Berni on the former point.

On the latter, I assume that is a major purpose of the squad - you were speaking numerically by saying we were short, which isn't true :shrug:

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

An Italian team is three centre backs and who cares how many others (as long as one is the referee)

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Right. And in Catalonia, the referee tends to occupy the midfield ball-winner role.

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

See my reply to Berni on the former point.

On the latter, I assume that is a major purpose of the squad - you were speaking numerically by saying we were short, which isn't true :shrug:

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Even if it weren't wrong (which it definitely is), it would still be ugly. 'Less people'? Fûck off imo.

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

:shrug: It's perfectly acceptable to say that whatever the dwindling band of pedants who wish to appear clever would like to claim.

"Less has been used with countables for about a thousand years — pretty much the entire history of written English. The very notion of a neat distinction between fewer and less according to whether the noun is countable or not is a myth. It was invented out of whole cloth by an ill- informed 18th-century pedant called Robert Baker in his book Reflections on the English Language (1770). He proposed this distinction not as a hard-and-fast rule of grammar, moreover, but as a tentative suggestion with caveats (“I should think . . . it appears to me . . . ”) that you won’t find in modern style guides."

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How about plurals taking apostrophes? Is that acceptable in your Neuesweltordnung, la?

Don't think I'll forget. I'll never forget what you have done.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

If you have the money, you *must* spend it. I just said :shrug:

It doesn't much matter what rubbish you spend it on, because merely spending it is "like a trophy". Wives use this reasoning while visiting manoloblahnik.com

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Point of order; wives are different in this matter. The money must be spent whether you have it or not.

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Originally Posted by Sir C

Point of order; wives are different in this matter. The money must be spent whether you have it or not.

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No different to football supporters, imo.

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

See my reply to Berni on the former point.

On the latter, I assume that is a major purpose of the squad - you were speaking numerically by saying we were short, which isn't true :shrug:

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I will accept your pedantry on point 2 if you accept mine on point 1. Sound fair?