By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions. We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Yeah, I don't understand why Cook starts when there are two fit centre backs. Yes, he could beat blokes who challenge him on Twitter in a 100m race. But, sadly, that's not who he's up against in the Championship. I presume he's there for knowledge and experience – maybe Stephan just doesn't trust Morrison and Mbengue together – but his slowness is a real problem.
Koné is starting to worry me. When he joined – yeah, no preseason, he'll get the weight off and get fast, and in the meantime he seems to be scoring anyway. But it's November and he looks, if anything, even less fit. His lack of pace today was embarrassing at times. And he doesn't look like scoring at all at the moment.
I've seen a lot of comedians complaining about the rise of crowd work – they have to do it because it what gets attention on socials. They feel it rewards the quick insult rather than the well-worked joke.
Paradoxically, it's a maths game rather than a words game. You win by assessing probabilities of your opponent having the letters to exploit what you lay. The best Scrabble players are often mathematicians whose knowledge of the words extends no further than their application on a Scrabble board.
The reason teams are happy without possession – at least this was the Pulis and Mourinho logic, when they started doing it 20 years ago – is that you can't make mistakes on the ball if you don't have possession, and it is mistakes that are more likely to result in goals – misplaced passes, caught in possession etc. The logic behind Stoke's willingness to go for throws and take them long was not just about attacking threat, it was about using up time. If you are an underdog team, the less time the ball spends in play, the better it is for you. I remember being appalled when I read a book about coaching that went into it all.
I truly think a big part of it is simply that he now has a quick, mobile set of players around him, which enables his biggest strength – his range of passing – into play.
Obviously, he's more confident, but he was also not the right player to be paired with last year's forward line.
Madsen induces madness in some people in a way I have never seen before with one of our own players.
Last season, in one game where he was subbed off, he walked around the edge of the pitch back tp the dugouts, past us in the West Paddock. A fella from a row or two back ran down the perimeter wall and walked alongside him for 10 yards, screaming filth at him from a foot away. Spittle flying out, cheeks purple. My son got up to try to calm him, fella pushed him away. I got up and had a word. He pushed me and sent me staggering.
Is that worth it because a midfielder had a bad game? Really?
He doesn't wear the poppy for reasons he has articulated clearly. By doing so he has shown he has thought more clearly about its meaning than any of those people who insist everyone must wear one from the start of October and shouting at those who don't that they hate Britain.
[Daytime. Kevin McLeod standing in South Africa Road, the West Paddock turnstiles behind him]
KM [to camera]: In 2023 we came to west London to visit Christian Nourry, who had an ambitious plan to turn a rundown council house into a state-of-the-art eco-friendly town home, with the potential either to be a lifetime home, or a hugely profitable resale.
[Cut to VT from 2023. CN is briefing his Spanish project manager, Marti, on his plans as they survey the site. Marti is seen shaking his head repeatedly.]
KM [voiceover}: Not everything has gone to plan. Marti, who was in charge through the first year of the project, has left.
[Cut to pitch, present day, KM and CN walking together]
CN: There were some unforeseen setbacks, it's true.
KM: Marti left? What happened there?
CN: I heard he'd given a quote for a job in Solihull.
KM: But didn't he start camping in your garden?
CN: That's true.
KM: Where is he now?
CN: Gone to live in Leicester.
KM: Why did he want to go to a different job?
CN: We disagreed about the project. He felt his experience in preparing homes for Scandinavian winters was relevant. I didn't.
[Cut to VT from 2025, Marti and CN at site]
Marti: I told you, I have to be able to hire brickies taller than five foot two.
CN: These brickies fit the profile. They've got the potential to work on really big jobs in the future.
Marti: And your design can't work. It's no good having two fortified wings, if the body of the house has no glass in the sliding doors. Just let me make sure it's waterproof and insulated, then get someone else in.
[Cut to present day, CN and new project manager at site]
KM [voiceover]: Now Christian has doubled down, hiring Julien to work for him. Julien oversaw the award-winning new model home in Strasbourg, which recently suffered subsidence issues.
[CN and Julien in conversation]
CN: That storm last night was disappointing.
Julien: It blew right through the centre of the house. Destroyed the living room and dining room and kitchen.
CN: How are the wings looking?
Julien: The west wing is going to take a few weeks to repair, the east wing we're going to try to shore up with some buttressing.
CN: But do they still look nice?
Julien: Well, it depends what you mean by nice, boss. But, I guess so. There's still some detailing.
[Cut to KM and CN, with CN smiling and giving cakes to his favourite small brickies}
KM: But don't you think, even if you don't stay here, then any future owner will want a living room and a dining room and a kitchen?
CN: I really don't think houeses in the modern age need that. What do you do at home, really? You sleep. That's it. Everything else you do outside. You eat, you see friends.
KM: What about watch TV?
CN: On your phone, in bed. Honestly, you talk to anyone under 30, they feel this way about architecture. This is the process.
KM: But most people like a living room and kitchen, at the very least.
CN: Well, people are always disappointed when they don't get to sit in their favourite rooms …
I guess the logic would be that if Derby are willing to pay £5m for him, then there's an expectation that he'll have rapid resale value. So, yes, he is not worth £5m now in terms of his contribution to the team. But he's the kind of player who might well be worth £15m in 18 months' time.
I don't think that can be right. Take Caicedo. Allow six months for scouting and all that. Then he was at Brighton for two and a half years. The notion of targeting specfic players to sell to specific clubs would then depend on Brighton at some point in 2021 knowing exactly what kind of player Chelsea would need in 2024.
Even Chelsea didn't know what kind of player they would need in 2024. In 2024.
Because it's lose-lose. Every half-decent Premier League team can field 11 reserves who'd beat almost all Championship side. Twenty years ago, when the Premier League was not so much richer, you might still have a shot. Now you might go on a bit of a run, but you're never going to win the bloody thing. You'll just get injuries and then you'll get knocked out.
Even these "upsets" like Palace winning the Cup – it's still a team with several astounding talents. That's the bar now. It's an upset if your best players are only worth £60m.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
