HolteExile

Jarrod Bowen is on a free apparently this summer. If we were taking a punt, I'd sooner it would be on someone like him.

I'd be amazed if that was the case. Unless the £7 million we were quoted at the time was made up off add ons and we're preempting one of those kicking in.

The yellow 'W' on that brings back memories of the Dafabet kit. The second Macron one was actually alright, just ruined by a messy looking sponsor. This year's away has the sponsor the same colour, so they should have stuck to all white for the home kit n'all.

With Newcastle seemingly in the shit and needing money to pay Bruce's release fee, we could help them out and take Dubravka off their hands.

Of all the Brentford players touted for big moves over the last year or so, he's the only one I've seen who looks like he could genuinely step up. Can play on the wing, attacking mid or up top, as a stop gap.

Did Webster play when we hammered Ipswich 4-0 back in April 2018? I don't recall any Ipswich defender impressing me during that game. Or when we beat them 2-0 at Villa Park a few months prior to that. And aside from Max O'Leary and Jay DaSilva, none of the Bristol lot looked much cop when we played them either. But maybe Webster has looked like a cross between Martin Laursen and Paul McGrath in the 44 other games last season.

And how about for every year prior to that since 2008? In Citeh's case, if they turn a profit now I'm sure the owners won't mind. But the main motivation was (and still is) very expensive marketing for Abu Dhabi. And to stick it up to the other Gulf states.

One of the first things I read from them on taking over is that they want the club to be self sustainable. So unless they get dizzy hobnobbng it with the Oligarchs and all the rest in the top flight, I don't think we'll be doing a Citeh anytime soon.

If that's the case, we'd probably be targeting better players than Kalvin Phillips and Adam Webster.

It's incredibly one-eyed. And reads more like a folksy blog with barnyard overtones than a newspaper article. But compare and contrast their obvious support for the biggest club in their region with the shite stirring we have to put up with from the Mail if we go three games without a win.

That might just be the worst kit of all time.

He certainly scarified me.

Cattermole. Holding that club together singlehandedly, judging on the commentators fawning over him today. Looked as bollocks as he usually does from what I could see. He can trap a ball further than most players can kick it.

Quite pleased with Vivaldi so far. Quick, and doesn't feel as resource heavy as Chrome. Little section top left to keep notes as I flick between tabs for work is a godsend as well.

He was highly rated at Ajax a few years back - sums of £15-20 mill were spoken about (he's already scored in the CL away to Barcelona). So he wouldn't have been a complete unknown, but it was still a great bit of business to get him in. I'd like to credit Bruce for El Ghazi and McGinn, but after a promising debut, Bruce seemed to lose faith in him. Another reason why it is imperative we get up this year. It would be great to see if he is as effective in the top flight.

Currys Purchased an HP Envy 360 15" from them earlier this month. Had been deliberating for a while, and was close to getting a 13" Macbook pro, but was reluctant to downgrade to 128gb or 256gb after getting used to my two year old HP AMD A6 which has 1TB. The A6 is basic, but it has run recent versions of InDesign and Photoshop via Creative Cloud easily enough. Recently it's been giving me a bit of gyp (when I have a few tabs including email and Word etc open usually) so decided to upgrade. What swung it for me initially with the 360 was it's a part SSD/part HD with 128 and 1TB respectively. Four issues 1: The touchpad on the 360 is junk. Click down the far left and it still tries to action a right click/ right menu Or if you try to make a selection it doesn't respond unless you touch the screen (which will be a faff if I have to keep on doing that for work). This issue has improved since I updates the drivers, but but it is still inconsistent. Tried it for two days as I put it down to my transition from a click pad and touch pad. It's a bit better, but the touchpad still feels laboured and -at times- unresponsive. This might be OK for occasional internet browsing, but not if you need it for more than that. 2: The fans fire up on very basic internet pages which aren't running videos etc. If it is struggling to deal with that, I won't waste my time running InDesign on it. 3: The finish on it is dire. From the moment it has come out of the box it has marked up with fingermarks and prints something rotten. This is on the outside and the touchpad. In contrast, my older laptop still has a similar finish to its first day. If I was hoping to have any resale value on this at all after a few years I'll be struggling. Not what you'd expect for close to a grand's worth of computer. 4: The sales rep who sold this pup to me said this machine would be fine to run high end programmes as it's a Ryzen 5 processor -which (in his words) is better than an i5. That clearly doesn't appear to be the case. I took this back after two days of use and Currys wanted to see the fault in store, re touchpad. Of course on this occasion, the issue with the touchpad wasn't manifesting itself (it tends to occur after at least 5-10 minutes use. They couldn't hear the fans coming on in store because -surprise- it is actually a busy shop store with music and TV in the background. So they wouldn't refund or exchange, but advised me to film the issue with my camera phone if it starts up again. Thoughts? BTW: I did click on the link on the front page of this thread, but that link appears to be broken.

Edit.

A stopped clock etc.

That'll do it.

How did Leroy Fer do today? (missed penalty aside). Still a decent age - though assume his stock might have fallen, as you'd think he'd have been one of the few Swansea players to attract bids last summer. Was very highly rated in Holland and almost joined Everton for a decent fee a few years back until a medical scuppered that one. Ended up making moves to Norwich and QPR and looked decent in the top flight any time I have seen him. Would give us more of a physical presence in the centre of the park and his height would be welcome defending set pieces. Which has been a weakness for us this year. I'd sooner see him doing the legwork in midfield rather than Whelan or Hourihane anyroad.

Wonder if the Harold Moukoudi deal would be worth revisiting. He came over in August and was impressed with the infrastructure at the club. But left after chatting to Bruce because their ideas about football differed. Not sure if that was because Bruce didn't even want him and the directive was coming from boardroom level or what. There were a few players signed last summer who didn't exactly fit the profile of usual Bruce signings.

Under two dinosaur managers he may struggle. But he's shown enough in the early games to convince me a good boss could get a tune out of him.

Probably just a rake of Brummie/ Midland Liverpool fans who (deservedly) took stick at school. Most Scouse fans I know seem to actually like Villa, for some weird reason.

You normally get a pretty good idea how bad things are when when HMRC start issuing winding up orders. That wasn't some flight of fantasy dreamed up by James Nursey at the Mirror. Maybe not. But perhaps don't over-egg the thing by talking about being one of the top 2/3 teams in world football within three years either.

I reckon he'll be gone by October regardless. Good bloke - shite football. He got us close a few months back, so we'll look like loons to protest.