I know we thinking losing Rice cost us CL. But in reality we got fairly lucky with Rice/Soucek availability. This exactly. Take our best XI and throw three random darts to remove some players for injuries. That’s what our actual team will look like most weeks. We got lucky that the darts hardly eve...

I actually think we need quite a few in this summer as it’s a fairly thin squad at the best of times - imagine the additional Europa League workload. For once, we got really lucky with injuries this year, plus we had a few players the wrong side of 30 playing out of their skins. The opportunity with...

Could the view be that our defence’s main issue was the team in front of it (in the event we’re unable to attract/afford an elite centre back as the managers preferred solution)? Bowen, Fornals, Benrahma, Antonio may not be as star studded as Yarmo, Lanzini, Anderson and Haller - but work rate when...

I have similar feelings about Benrahma as I did with Fornals. Looks like a nice player, but who looks at our squad and says "yep, that's where we should drop the next 30 mill" Really the next 60m or so should be spent on the following: 20 mill CB 20 mill CM as competition and back-up for R...

IF say we buy £20M of players, that would have very little effect on the overall price of the club as we are hearing 450/500M, so an extra 10/20M against those figures, and the £20M spent (or debt) would be coming out the club finances. So can't see that being an issue moving forward. Have we heard...

Noble stays, for all the reasons we both state. But he isn't cover for either Rice or Soucek. Agree on the above. We're too sentimental about Noble at times. Yes, he's proper West Ham, but the owners have got away with murder chronically under-investing in CM because of the affinity between him and...

Whilst the growth in TV revenues may come from international rights - that dis-proportionally goes to the top clubs. Before last year the international revenues were split evenly between the PL clubs. Now any increase in international revenues are based on merit (league position) with the top 11 cl...

Quite a few on here are questioning the wisdom of purchasing a PL club. At the moment it’s true that it’s hard to turn a profit from a club due to the high wages. But most investors wouldn’t be using PL investment as a cash cow. It’s the access to a club in a league experiencing very large growth in...

Exactly. Alot of people seem a bit dissapointed with the Randolph signing, which seems likely. There hasn't been a tonne of alternatives suggested though. Our scouting network should have been looking for a long term successor to the (almost) 35 yo Fabianski for a while now. From what I can gather,...

If the plan is to endure a crappy second goal keeper for two or three years on the outside chance that Anang or Trott become good enough then the plan is even shittier than I thought. Demand better. Totally agree. Moyes, Randolph, Cresswell extension, scouring for free RBs... the evidence is mounti...

It will certainly be interesting to see how Johnson retains the vote of the work class northerners / midlanders. He will have to start delivering in an area that the conservatives aren't exactly famed for - regional development and active industrial policy. The market usually concentrates power and ...

White Goodman wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 2:23 pm Yeah it's a fair point. I don't really know the answer.

I suppose I don't really trust someone like Corbyn to answer it for me .

Fair enough, that makes a lot of sense.

Can you explain what you mean by the system being rigged? In which way specifically? The ability to "get on" - in other words be able to accumulate some form of wealth is consistently hampered. People working long hours, paying income tax, then seeing half of their disposable income go to...

For those talking about people getting older and becoming more Conservative, here's some thoughts from a person who is in mid-30s and straddles the "Millenial" and "Generation X" cohorts: I think historically there's merit in the argument put forward by Bubbs and BILR (people get...

The margin of error gives the pollster the range of hung parliament to a de facto Tory majority of around 90. Covered almost all the bases. :) Good observation that. It's basically the range of opinion from a number of pundits. I'd be really interested to know what the hedge funds and money markets...

Get the F... IN!!!!

What a story that is for Martin. No idea where all that resilient defending came from.

Absolute classic West Ham to win a game like that after such a bad run against mediocre teams.

When the dust has settled, some slug will crawl out from beneath a rock and claim the police should have tasered him. Some slug has already crawled making the case for concealed carry of weapons in the general public (what could possibly go wrong?!). I don't make all those on the right responsible ...

Kinda misses the point. Politicians adore 20 year targets because they know they will never be held to account for them. It just grants them scope to virtue signal rather than deliver. Parliaments get five years. What are they going to deliver over the term of their power? Bound within the longer t...

Could Pinocchio-gate be the "bigoted woman" or bacon sandwich of this election? Might tip the scales in midlands / north as it's highly indicative of De Pfeffel junior's view. I suppose Stanley will be headed to the same naughty step Rees Mogg is on. Say what you like about them, makes you...

The poll claims to have asked 100,000 people. If so, that would have taken some time. With the volatile nature of how politics is in this country at this time, i very much doubt that all of those people have firmly made their minds up yet. So again, I can’t see such a wide margin victory happening....