...Dan

And Gerard Lopez has fucked yet another club. They have appealed the decision, and if they can raise enough money they'll save themselves from going to the third tier, but even if they succeed they're in a really bad place. Lopez needs to fuck off.

Yep

As Stan said he was very good at Espanyol. A classic Spanish 6, good passer, good vision to pick out forward passes, and cool when pressed to pick out good passes under pressure, but not very mobile or fast. I don't know if Leeds fans are expecting Phillips to stay or not, but if they bring in Roca it's probably as his replacement.

A few of us have been discussing having a tournament in the off top thread, so I thought I'd make a thread so more people will see it and just generally to talk about poker. So, do you play? Online or with friends? How good are you? Discuss.

Oh so not with anyone from the forum then? Yeah I was thinking like £10 buy in but ideally you'd want a good 10 players to make the prize money decent and I'm not sure we'd be able to get that many forum members to play.

Yeah I've been thinking it's a shame that money is such a big part of it, because it's a really enjoyable game. This is why I prefer tournaments where you just pay for entry and everyone starts with the same number of chips because then it's just like you're paying to do a hobby and have fun like you would playing 5 a side with your friends. Then if you lose you don't really feel like you've lost anything. I don't know if it's the norm but in the tournaments I've played there was a rebuy option if you lose all your chips. I don't like that because then it's like you're gambling again instead of just paying to play a game.

Did you ever do this? I decided to learn to play poker on Saturday and I've played a few tournaments on bet365 and 888poker and I've really enjoyed it. I'd be up for a forum tournament if we can get a decent number of members to play.

Thibault Courtois Ballon d'Or

Surely that should stand. Liverpool are lucky there.

I don't think I've seen him play once since he's been at Leicester but yeah at Lille from what I saw he kind of showed glimpses of having big potential, he was very very good on his day but not consistently one of the best in the league, nothing on the level of Camavinga and Tchouameni. Going by what you say he probably could have done with another year in France. Any chance you loan him out next season? He wasn't a nailed on starter at Lille and I guess he hasn't started many at Leicester? A season back in France as a starter may be for the best for him and for Leicester.

Yeah Aouar really hasn't had a good season, but I still believe he has the talent to become a top player. Getting him for 12m would be a very good deal. I'd definitely take him at Arsenal.

Happy for Leeds. A club that belongs in the Premier League.

I've been a fan of him since his Toulouse days. I wanted us to take a chance on him at the beginning of the season before he went to PSV. He was brilliant physically and defensively and always tried to progress the ball with carries and passes but the problem was his execution of the passes he had in mind, so he was a bit raw. He's improved that part of his game a lot this season and I'm not surprised to see big clubs after him.