This week has seen Eddie Howe do the "We wanted to sign Dele Alli from Milton Keynes" schtick. Mark Lawrenson has reprised the "Dele Alli was going to sign for Liverpool" number. There's someone missing from the list of those that failed to sign young Dele but could have. Is Wenger arrogant enough to stick his head above the parapet despite his current troubles? I wouldn't put it beyond him.
I hate to inform you all, but the story involving Paulinho and the Japanese porn star is not what you think...
Diego Costa has given another indication he wants to stay at Chelsea, insisting he does not want his partnership with Eden Hazard to be broken up. Costa, 28, has been linked with a move to China. (London Evening Standard) And Hazard could be off to Real!
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe is scouring the lower leagues in an attempt to unearth the next Dele Alli... (Bournemouth Echo) ...to be poached by United or City.
I'm not even sure how this is a story. That's how Howe's done things at Bournemouth til this point, anyway. They pick up players that haven't made it at the bigger clubs, those that have succeeded in the lower leagues and the odd foreign player. Pretty standard stuff.
He may be getting deported because he's been gambling too. (Porn and gambling are both illegal in china). What a muppet.
He wasn't gambling, he was promoting a betting site with a porn star, both of which are illegal in China. Looks like his agent or manager didn't do a very good job, to me.
Fair play to Huddersfield for pushing it this far, too. The play-offs should be interesting. Some unlucky soul's going to miss out, though. Derby's loss today basically rules them out. 4th to 7th is only 3 points and 4 teams are playing for 3 places. Very tight.
At my school, we sat at old style wooden desks (really), which were set out in rows of five. Your place was determined by your position in class (there were no qualms about ranking kids then based on their performances in term and exam). So 1st to 5th sat on the first row, 6th to 10th on the second. That meant 2nd and 7th sat adjacent to each other. 2nd was clever, nearly top of the class whereas 7th was aspiring to be clever, but a bit off the pace. 7th invariably glanced across to the right, hoping to crib from whatever 2nd was writing down. You can see where the analogy is going. Who thought Arsenal would be sat there, glancing across trying to emulate what Spurs are doing?!
The current Spurs team is reminiscent of the teams that Wenger put together in his early years. Very physical in midfield with pacy full backs pushing on and quick interplay up front. Ex-Gooners of a certain vintage are very much fans of MP's Spurs. Quite right too. He is re-writing what people thought was possible in today's money centred game.
Watching Southampton v City...the idea that any of our players would want to leave us to join them is very weird. City do not look like a team who spent £170m last summer and have a selection of world class players and the best manager in the world. The look a pretty good top four team but no more than that.
