His Name Is Death

Considering all he's done for them, this is appalling behaviour by whoever's running Napoli's TikTok account: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66933115

I remember they picked up some Man Utd fans too lol.

There might be a bit of that. Konsa had to challenge Ramsey when he was puzzled about why fans were celebrating our qualification for the ECL, didn’t he?

Exactly, especially people who own/breed 'XXL' bullys like this. Might as well have a lion at that point. A lion would probably be safer.

via https://twitter.com/keewa/status/1701499330840957397

The perfect 'beady eyes, pursed lips & sour, pissed off expression' that voters instinctively warm to.

Didn't recognise the name but immediately recognised her face when I looked up her obituary. She was breathtaking as Irene Adler (in the Granada/Jeremy Brett 'Sherlock Holmes' series).

But can it really be said that he's fallen below expectations when this was a well-known weakness of his before we bought him? He wasn't intended to fulfill a physically-dominant role in the system and now injuries to Mings, Moreno and Carlos mean we have to find ways to compensate for this, even if it means asking him to play in a style he's not comfortable with. (I do think football fans often underestimate just how specific players' roles are and how dependent they are on the system ticking along nicely. I doubt there are very many players who can override this and immediately compensate for the loss of a player who fulfills a different role. Perhaps this was less true in the past, and perhaps that's why people have this expectation of players taking charge when things go pear-shaped?)

He does seem like a player who benefits from a formidable presence like Mings or Carlos, but this was already known when we bought him. I doubt it makes him an exception among modern centre-backs, who are fast and possess a wide passing range but whose lack of physical dominance makes them easy to play off. Not his fault that injuries seem to be scuppering our system at the moment.

It's one thing to have a concern, though I think it's far too early to tell (especially against a team of 'asthmatics'), but it's overboard to say he's definitively 'out of his depth' at this level or worry that he may become Emery's downfall.

This is exactly the sort of crap I mean. Do you realise how fickle this makes us look? Then, when his peformances pick up, like McGinn and Konsa's did, he'll be a top-class 'Rolls Royce' defender once again and the fact that he was being slated as Emery's potential 'downfall' will suddenly be forgotten.

What a load of rubbish. Emery wouldn't go to such lengths to convince Torres to join us only to lose faith in him in less than 10 games (and limit him to ECL games). That ought to be blatant.

I hope fans aren't going to turn on him so early on ffs.

Oh, right. I don't pay much attention to Madrid, so I didn't realise he was now an attacking midfielder.

How did Bellingham become such a consistent goalscorer? I thought he was a central midfielder?

Shane Long. Danny Welbeck.

I have to pass through places like Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley on my way to seeing my best friend in Preston. It's truly sad how neglected these places are (there's a reason why they're routinely listed as the 'worst places to live' in the UK). More than a touch of Innsmouth about them. Partially explains the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel cretins you get among Burnley's supporters.

The contradiction goes away when you treat his 'good causes' for what they are: PR exercises.

For our own good or because they don't want him to leave?

Didn't take long for them to find their Caicedo replacement. (EDIT: Oh, someone mentioned it already.)

We're not buying anyone from Brighton lmao. Why would he give them up for us when he's got a good thing going with them?

Of course, the actual behaviour of traditional journalists and media outlets couldn’t possibly have contributed to all that hatred.

I think that’s true, but it’s also that people want ‘like what they like’ without people hassling them about it. They don’t want anyone spoiling their fun at the weekend or the vicarious pleasure they get out of the club’s success. I know it’s true of many fanbases. I find the attachment our fans have to Villa unhealthy a lot of the time, but there’s something truly infantile about Citeh and Newcastle fans.

The Saudi league will succeed because the government are relentless enough to want it to (and wealth beyond imagination to fall back on), much more so than the Chinese government. Considering the other megaprojects they've got in the works, I don't know why people think they're a flash in the pan. Yeah, sadly, my 14 year old cousin (a Man U fan, but I still love him) recently expressed an interest in following Al Nassr because he loves Ronaldo so much. You have to remember that we're the 'legacy' fans stubbornly tied to supporting one club and we've already been dumped to make way for fans of superstar names.