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I wouldn't. Why would hr? He's on speed dial for most of them

When Lambert said it it was a case of "people are deluded if they think we should be finishing there". If Tim said it I've no doubt it was more "this club SHOULD be finishing there" Massive difference

That's spurious at best. Teams that can afford to pay players twice what we can and can offer trophies don't need their players to do the tapping up. I'm sure it goes on - "come to Liverpool, we're really good", but I doubt it carries the weight people think. I don't think it works like that. More like a club, Liverpool for example, having their manager ask their captain to have a word with a player while away with England. It's more "so our manager mentioned you as a potential target in summer, would you have any interest in that?" than "you should totally join us" It sows the seeds in the players head, and he goes and tells his agent that there's interest and it builds from there.

Then we forego the domestic cups and it all balances out

Again, since the Europa is our best chance at making the Champions League for the foreseeable future, it should absolutely be our strongest XI every single game of the competition

No. Reporters go to him to ask him questions, not vice versa. By making himself available to reporters readily, it means that he's a go-to for vox-pops and quotes. They know he'll say stupid stuff, they also know it'll get people talking, so they keep going to him. 'Arry isn't ringing up the Mirror to chat about things, he's being contacted by the media. Sure, he could tell them to go away, but that doesn't change that he's not the one putting himself in the papers or asking for quotes

The overreaction to Jack essentially saying "I told you last year, I wanted to play this season without international football" in Ireland has been pathetic. People going on about how he's abandoning Ireland, when he's doing nothing of the sort. His father said if England wanted to pick him for the upcoming games he'd say no to them too. It'd be nice if he played for Ireland, though, since he won't get tapped up there

That's a fallacy. If we win the FA Cup (big if), to get to the final we'd have: 6 group games + 8 knockout games + 1 final = 15 games if the final is reached In the FA Cup you've got: 5 knockout rounds + (potentially) 5 replays + 1 final = Minimum 6, maximum 11 games if the final is reached In the League Cup you've got: 4 one-leg knockouts (3 if in Europe) with no replays + 1 two-leg semis + 1 final = Minimum 6 games, maximum 7 games if the final is reached If you were to foresake both domestic cups, you're cutting out a potential 15 games (since you'd be in Europe and enter the League Cup later), as you'd have to play 1 in each to get knocked out, and replacing it with another 15 games. I never see anyone saying "we don't have the squad necessary for domestic cups so shouldn't take them seriously" when the fact is that it's a like for like replacement if you go out in the first round of the FA Cup and League Cup. Yes, there's the travel thing, and the placement of games, but by forsaking the domestic cups, you'd have rest time later in the season when others are competing. It's entirely much of a muchness. I agree we don't have the squad for the FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League, but there's little reason why the Europa shouldn't be viewed as the main focal point in terms of cups, given that it carries Champions League qualification

That loss could, perversely, turn out to be the best thing to happen to us in years. Had we not lost there we'd still have Lambert I think

Anyone post anything in this thread recently that wasnt already said a hundred times in the last month or so?

3 of his grandparents are Irish

If they signed him they'd be talking about winning the title within about 10 seconds

You'll be adding another 29.9% on come 5pm Saturday, I'm sure of it

I should do, I work in it It's to sell papers, generate clicks or social traffic. It's got nothing to do with attempting to affect a player's form or career. People in Ireland want to hear about Grealish, so the papers give them lots about Grealish. None of the journos are sitting around plotting the player's demise through coverage

Don't Watford's owners have majority control over three clubs though? Seems to actually. Granada, Udinese and Watford

Muller!

Oh yeah, the media is all sitting around thinking "how can we make jack grealish play worse" I don't know what planet some people live on sometimes I don't think that was the implication. Take a little look around at your own planet there champ, Really? You don't think " these idiots in the press are just trying to put him off his game" is to be reasonably taken as the media is trying to make him play worse? What other way can trying to put him off his game be taken?

Oh yeah, the media is all sitting around thinking "how can we make jack grealish play worse" I don't know what planet some people live on sometimes

Also if the clubs were to meet in Europe what would happen then?? Pretty sure UEFA have rules regarding this, in that it cannot happen at all??? You can't own more than one club but you can own one and have a certain percentage of others once they're in a different country. Sub 20% I think

There really was no chance at all we were staying up under Lambert was there. Looking at the results we've had under Sherwood, and the fact that we're still not mathematically safe... Christ we'd have been lucky to be on 30 points now had we kept going the way we were

5-5! Jesus

Its only a friendly, so he could play for Ireland in that and go on to play for england as far as I know (Costa did the same thing in 2 Brazil friendlies before declaring for Spain)

Ah of course. Regardless of our result then you'd be looking for a QPR win there no? Also I don't think it'll matter if we win or not. Can see hull going down by a few to spurs

I dislike him because of his constant diving for dangerous frees and pens

QPR can't catch anyone apart from hull