Sam-AVFC

Not long ago I lived with a 30 year old who used to refer to himself as a "banter merchant" and had a mug he made on a date with things like "birds", "footie", "utd" and "beers" painted on it. I'm only 27 and it amazes me how many people around my age are like this. Jesse Lingard is not far from the norm - possibly more level headed! I've always had a close knit group of mates since school so didn't really appreciate how many people like this there are out there until I lived with that guy. Love Island also helped to open my eyes (although I love shit TV like that so am a massive hypocrite). Back on topic...with Martial injured it will be interesting to see how Utd line up over the weekend. Presumably James starts on one side again, but does anyone reckon Greenwood might get his shot? I've heard him raved about so would quite like to see him in action.

Apart from hating him, I'm with you there. Always thought he had a fairly unfortunate natural mix of smug/creepy.

I understand that, the make up of the squad just doesn't scream 3 at the back to me. Have we played 3 at the back since anyway? I'm pretty sure we didn't in the Nations League. Edit: just looked back at the last 5 England games and we don't appear to have played 3 at the back in any of those.

I'd be surprised if we play 3 at the back if there are only 4 CBs in the squad.

I know what you mean, Rodders. There are a few, like War of The Worlds, I've started and not been gripped by at all so stopped reading. I just struggle to not finish a book once I've started it so try not to get roped in with something I probably wont enjoy. I know it's a bit silly. It's definitely interesting to see the different writing styles, but the main thing I like is how compact a lot of early 20th century classics are. Whereas all movies & books nowadays just seem to get longer and longer there didn't appear to be a problem with telling your story then finishing.

Those pictures bring back all my childhood resentment of my dad (a carpenter) never building me a treehouse. We were left to our own devices to build one at my grandma's on Sundays - with hindsight to get me, my sister and various cousins out of the way after lunch - and all we managed over about 5 years was to nail a wooden pallet to a tree and create a basic ladder to get to it.

I started to read more classic novels a while ago when I realised you can download most of them for free on a Kindle - started with The Great Gatsby being well know and a short read and was hooked. Is Petersburg good? It's one I've had my eye on for a while. Has anyone read Romance of The Three Kingdoms before? I'm really interested in it as a historical and mythical text that still influences so much of modern Chinese culture. The size of the thing is quite daunting and I can't start something then not finish so don't want to start and find myself still trying to finish it 6 months down the line.

Glad to find this thread as I've been looking for some new books to read recently. Out of interest, has anyone else ever visited Bookbarn near Bath? I used to absolutely love going there when I was younger and still would now, but am unfortunately no longer based in the South West. They actually popped up on Dragons Den a couple of years ago, but had large debts so couldn't get investment. It's hard to get an idea of scale from a lot of the pictures online because, while the rooms are enormous, it's all sectioned off by shelving. I'm pretty sure they have a stock of something like 1 million books. The below picture give you some context: Bear in mind that is taken from the centre of the room. In terms of what they sell, I'm pretty sure it's all second hand. It ranges from the sort of stuff you'd get in any old charity shop to rare books and some interesting reproductions. One of my favourites I saw there was a Chinese book with of all of Da Vinci's sketches in it...only downside was I can't read Mandarin so the annotations were a bit useless!

But you do you know of anyone dying as a result of playing chess?

5 wickets in an innings.

Unbelievably Bassini who they did approve and was apparently trying to take over was literally banned from owning a football club for three years for dodgy goings on when he owned Watford! He even went into bankruptcy a few years ago to avoid paying back other directors at Watford who sued and won. Maybe it's just because it was such a desperate situation they needed to approve anyone who could afford to take over as administration was so close. The stat about the numbers of clubs going into admin now compared to the past is a bit of an eye opener. I think the main problem at the moment is allowable losses completely hamstring Championship clubs in the current market. Ideally I'd like to see the Premier League filter down a much bigger share of TV monet to the football league rather than allowable losses increased, but pretty sure they only just agreed a new deal.

Yeah, I didn't mean Angelino. I meant the first post I saw on Luiz hypotheticals ie this post: Admittedly now I've realised it was the same poster writing both posts I should probably edit that as can't tell him what he meant

But that wasn't the scenario, it was City buying him back just to sell him on. He could of course pretend he was OK with this then when bought by City refuse to move though I expect this would see him training with the u23s rather than Guardiola & the first team.

There is a middle ground between saying "that" about "any of our squad" and being "supremely confident then that the entirety of the rest of last seasons squad could/would make the step up with little to no problem".

But he would still have to agree to be their pawn for them to make easy money in this scenario. I'd personally be quite offended if my old employer rang me, told me to go back there so they can get a fee for me then immediately joining somewhere else. If I did want the move, I'd just cut out the middle man ie refuse a contract from Man City and accept one from Whoever so the club that I actually had minute on the pitch for and helped me develop was the one to benefit.

Well however he played “we still lost” and “not like we’d be changing a winning team”.

Why would Luiz agree to that if it happened though?

Now we're not signing him, might as well continue the tangent. I actually think Maguire will be a great signing for Utd. Did anyone really think Van Dijk was that good when he played for Southampton? No way I thought he was a £75m player - they took a calculated risk on him stepping up playing with better players and being managed by Klopp and he did it admirably.

I'd say we were stronger in every position 'relative to the division'. In terms of actual strength, I think wilko154 summed it up nicely. Can understand people thinking we don't have enough quality options, but really can't see how you can say it's actually worse than last year. You'd have to say Norwich & Sheff Utd were too otherwise we'll have an exciting fight for top 2.

I think he's got a lot of potential and could be a very good player, but I trust the club to make a better informed decision on whether there is a worthwhile deal to be had than the recently formed Cult of Benrahma. If we get one more I think I'd prefer someone who can play up top and out wide anyway.

It's even closer to Turin airport.

Does Brexit mean EU as well as non-EU transfers could be this protracted from January? Also seems odd that the process was so much quicker for Wesley.

@Mic09 Can't say I disagree with any of that! From the surveyor/valuation end of things it also sounds like the whole thing is an absolute shambles. I heard something a few months ago that would have surprised me if I hadn't worked for the Civil Service in the past*; apparently when HS2 was costed, they didn't make any adjustments for rising land value to take into account valuations wouldn't be set for a long, long time after costing the project. * not a dig at Civil Servants, just the fact all organisations are well under funded causing anyone decent to either move on or become completely apathetic.

Is there something to say it wont?! I know quite a few people that do Compulsory Purchase valuations for either side and with the amount of money spent I'd be amazed if it gets cancelled. It will go way, way over budget, but don't see them scrapping it.

Tbf the Madjeski has less atmosphere than your average shopping centre. I think they just get excited that someone actually wants to join them.