Zoo 2.0

The people that own Wolverhampton have shares in Jorge Mendes' Agency, so without there being a formal agreement (as doing so would be against the league rules) the agreement was that most of Wolves transfer dealings would go through Mendes, meaning that the club received footballers that normally wouldn't go near them, such as Ruben Neves leaving a key role at FC Porto, to come and play in the second tier of English football. In return of course Jorge Mendes would receive a percentage of the transfer package, a win-win scenario. I'm not doubting for the record that Thelwell may be a good guy, he's certainly had plaudits for his work with the NYRB's but his time at Wolverhampton (IMO anyway) should be taken with a massive pinch of salt. The transfer dealings would have happened had he, or indeed I been in the position of Director of Football in that timeframe.

No idea who he is, but will give him time as I would anyone else. His time at Wolves should be taken with a pinch of salt though, Jorge Mendes built that squad with Nuno Santo - nothing to do with Thelwell.

Bielsa is known for absolutely knackering his players out, his 90mph football has caused a few of his teams to struggle in the business end of the season. Music to my ears, as it's another team that can hopefully fill a relegation spot for us. I must admit that when I watched them against us and Manchester United, they were simply abysmal.

Russell will get the same treatment as Bottas, it's totally equal until one car is effectively out of the title race. Unfortunately for Valtierri, he was usually out of the race pretty early which meant he had to deal with quite a few team orders. I expect George (especially at the start) to be fighting with Lewis just as much as Max, Sergio and the rest will.

Social media muppets.

Everton fans strike again, just a week after being told by Ben Foster that we're one of the worst fanbases in the league due to getting on players backs there's folk out there giving shit to DCL, who's been out for months with injury and is only 24 years old. Honestly, some of our "fans" absolutely boil my piss. The Ben Foster comments were absolutely on the money and I've been saying it for years.

I thought that before the Leeds game, I think the away games will be a write off and we'll just need to hope that home form can see us through. Results not going our way this weekend is quite scary, especially with a few games coming up against big teams. I just don't see (even with home advantage) how we take anything from Manchester City.

Liverpool have equalised against Norwich, need them to get another. Burnley will probably win, they look home and dry.

Weghorst puts Burnley 1-0 up at Brighton, ffs! Edit: 2-0 now, really don't need Burnley getting wins under their belt. They were dead and buried before today's game!

First game in a while that I'm totally missing, at my father-in-law's for his birthday and every Premier League game is on PortugueseTV apart from ours ! Relying on you guys and Livescore to see how we get on, while I watch attack after attack of Liverpool against Norwich .

Excellent stuff mate, you'll love it.

I think the big question will come when they face an elite club. Without sounding disrespectful, Pep will have been doing cartwheels when City drew Sporting and it's no surprise that they're virtually through after just 45 minutes. When they can dispatch the likes of Bayern, Liverpool and Madrid then it'll make people stand up and take notice. Of course they can win the treble, but I just think that with the intensity of the modern game there's always room for at least one slip up (though I don't think it'll be in the league).

I don't think that this is necessarily the start of all out war, but I do think that if Russia takes over Ukraine they'll potentially look to strengthen further by taking countries that are next door, such as Georgia (which in turn will force major action, and potentially WWIII). I'm not massively into politics, and haven't really dug too deep into the whole Russia/Ukraine scenario but it does worry me (especially with a little one now) how unbelievably fucked the world seems to be; Covid, Johnson, Biden/Trump, Russia/Ukraine etc. It's worrying.

Given how people are struggling to make ends meet, I can see this being a bit of a disaster for some people. Although on the one hand the ticket freeze in previous years has made this a little bit better to digest, people are going to potentially be priced out of going to the game every week which hurts a little bit when we've been such a circus upstairs and have won absolutely nothing to reward the fans for their loyalty. A good point mentioned too was that we have no sleeve sponsor, getting one could potentially offset the money raised from increasing the season ticket price, but I know that's me living in a fantasy world. I'll be back next season for No. 15, but I think loads won't be and it's a shame - what does worry me is whether when we go to Bramley Dock, whether we'll go insane with ticket prices along the likes of Spurs and Arsenal because we have a shiny new stadium.

Worked out well for Leicester though, the purrfect disruption to West Ham's gameplan.

Apparently he arrived at the stadium fine, but after the warm-up started feline unwell.

@Romey 1878

I think United will want to keep him, but I think the relationship is past saving to be honest. He wanted to go last season and Solkjaer blocked it at the eleventh hour, only for him to keep him on the bench anyway. There's tons of videos of Donny (who by all accounts seems quite reserved) seriously pissed off on the bench - it's the same as what is happening with Lingard now (who was told he could go by Ragnick, before the board blocked the move). If we can give them a couple of quid, hopefully they'll play ball and let him go.

I repeat...

Clement is a very close second in terms of things I'm excited about at Everton. He's been there and done it all, won trophies with Real Madrid, Chelsea, PSG and Bayern. It didn't quite work out for him as a manager, but he's well known as one of the best assistants (and all round tacticians) in the game. No surprise that he's focusing a lot on set pieces and we've scored for fun from them so far.

Too early to get Lampard on my home shirt yet? Haven't felt this good about a manager in a long time, I was made up with Ancelotti I can't lie, but Frank just seems to "get us". I don't think there have been two polar opposites in the sense of him and Benitez at a club in the same season before. I'm optimistic that if we can keep chipping away and getting points on the board (even a draws here and there), those teams in the relegation places will be cut adrift.

If Rondon was part of a higher social class, he would have known to put it past the goalkeeper as opposed to straight at him. Not going to spoil my night though, just finishing off some caviar overlooking the hanging gardens of Babylon - good evening to the rest of you peasants.

The absolute fuck is this thread.

I was so excited when we signed him and he didn't dissapoint today, what a player Donny is. Really hoping that he tells United where to shove it at the end of the season, we are a much better team with him in the XI. Easily my MOTM today.