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I'd argue strength is just as much an athletic quality as pace or stamina. They're all physical, athletic traits. Height, maybe less an athletic trait, but jumping certainly is. One reason I liked it when Bolton or Stoke stuck it to the big clubs is that it negated the technical advantage of...

Good luck to him and them.

Thanks, that's quite interesting. I suppose next-year-picks are with slightly less than this year picks as a) you have to wait and B) you don't know where exactly in any round you'd be picking. As another twist, positional need/availability at that stage if the draft might lead to some teams...

Not that I know of in the rules, but in practice it's self-limiting. If you're giving up your best players for first round picks, you're almost certainly making you team worse, so no one would do it. Nor do you never have enough later round picks to mean you can acquire too many 1st rounders...

Exactly. The team trading down will always believe they are getting the better of the deal, or they wouldn't do it. I like that money doesn't come in to it: you can't buy someone's picks, you can only offer your own players or picks.

I thought this was going to be thread about adopting a US style franchise nickname. The idea of "the Middlesbrough Stench" is growing on me. When I liked in York, there was a large sugar beet factory, and when the smell from that was wafting over the city, that was worse than anything I've...

I really couldn't. I'm not that rich.

They currently the 4th worst team in PL history based on points totals. Derby, Sunderland and Huddersfield have had less. The question is will they break Sunderland's second worst record of 19 points?

I'll look again later.

I don't think there was a single Brentford player who was in the playoff team that we beat, and their team that eventually achieved promotion. Every player had changed in between, and the likes of Watkins, Bhenrama, Konza and Maupay had all been bought and sold in the time in between. No one...

Absolutely agree (apart from the use of the word "turgid", which is one of my pet hates in football). That's my point really: variation in style is vast; not playing tippa tappa out from the keeper does not make you a long ball team. Likewise, Pepball is not inherently attractive: it can be when...

I love the draft, the bargaining and manoeuvring that goes on. The daft thing is, I know nothing about any of the players being selected. I've no idea who is good an who isn't, but it's still compelling watching. Will record and watch tomorrow, so I'll avoid this thread until then....

Does that include loan fees, do you know?

Performance of the 3 team who don't win the playoffs in the following season over the last 11 seasons (assuming Coventry don't pull off a miracle from here): Automatic promotion: 7 (21%) Promotion via playoffs: 4 (12%) Lost in the playoffs again: 4 (12%) Missed out on the playoffs 16 (48%)...

No one enjoyed that. However, I do believe the PL has been enhanced in the past by having one team, Bolton or Stoke, prepared to play that well. Wenger's Arsenal seemed to struggle particularly against this style (I think we all enjoyed his interviews afterwards which, if I remember rightly...

I think there is a degree of snobbery about what I think of a classic centre forward play, as if having a centre forward over six foot tall makes you a long ball team. There's also an assumption that big centre forwards must be donkeys (go and tell Mark Viduka, or at second tier level, Paul...

I think that's true of every player, isn't it? Which player plays to their full potential all the time, takes every opportunity and finishes every chance? When they don't, it's frustrating. That's the nature of the game: it's never going to be bland and anodyne. It wouldn't be popular if it was.

Said every club in the division.

But surely we play too many games already? Think of the toll it would take on the players bodies! I think you are right, by the way.

I'm sure we'll sell someone. We only sold 2 last Summer; I don't think too many were upset with Bola going. That leaves Chuba. Given the contract situation, I still think it was the right thing to do. If a decent offer comes in for McGree, I'd do the same this year. I'd prefer him to sign a new...