RandoEFC

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/10884692/arsenal-shareholder-alisher-usmanov-makes-bid-for-full-control-of-club This could be big news.

I still don't see it. There's too much money in football, too many clubs desperate to buy the right new player at almost any cost, and not enough common sense or patience. When managers get sacked for finishing 3rd when they should have won the league, there is no time for "well let's just wait it out for another year and get him at a sensible price next summer" because 90% of the time someone else will buy the player and the other 10% of the time if your results aren't perfect, not signing the player will be hung over your head. I'd say there's absolutely zero chance that Lukaku leaves on a free in two years' time. Zero chance.

If Chelsea don't then some daft cunts like PSG will. I'm not arguing for a second that Lukaku is worth £70 million but anyone who thinks that nobody will pay that price for a striker who has scored a lot of goals, tends to score "Match of the Day" goals, and constantly talks himself up in the media (see Pogba) is naive, and that's putting it lightly. If not £70 million then you're looking at £60 million. Is he worth that much? No. Is anyone worth that much? Maybe Messi/Ronaldo. Is that just the way things are in football these days though? Yes, sadly it is. Lukaku will go for stupid money that he's not worth and he'll go this summer. If nobody will pay it then he'll just leave in January for £45 million or next summer for £30-35 million.

Still confused and bothered by this. Should have been done, new contract is the best deal for the player and the club, it's a no brainer. If this goes tits up and Barkley ends up going elsewhere and being a success while we fail to replace him the pitchforks will be out for the board again.

As usual, unsure on the new kit but always takes some getting used to and I'm sure I'll get to like it.

Mirallas has signed an extension keeping him around until 2020. Still too inconsistent to be a first choice for me but happy that he can stick around anyway. Slightly surprised by this though as I never got the impression Koeman was a big fan of his.

Coleman has signed a 5 year contract today. I'm glad but it means he better fucking had come back strong from this injury!

Well done Valtteri

Bottas smashing it so far

Vettel on pole for Russian Grand Prix. Raikkonen and Bottas behind him within 0.1 seconds. Poor qualifying from Hamilton in 4th. Ferrari's first qualifying 1-2 since France 2008 and Kimi almost got his first pole since that race.

A dull race after the start again. However, the tension of a championship battle can make dull races interesting just for the context of the season so hopefully we'll see it ebb and flow between Ferrari and Mercedes throughout the season. We haven't had a title fight between two top drivers from different teams with similar cars since 2008, best type of title fight for me.

Great news

Because McCarthy has come back from international duty at least twice with an injury since Koeman took over 9 months ago and has gone away with Ireland multiple times despite being on the comeback trail from injuries. Also probably pissed off that this latest injury is combined with the devastating Coleman injury which RK obviously knows is not O'Neill's fault but it's still annoying.

Pulis is an utter cunt in that case (well he still is anyway).

The club have confirmed that Funes Mori will be out for the season along with Bolasie and Coleman. In terms of first team defenders that leaves us with Baines, Jagielka, Williams and Holgate. Completely lost track of which Brownings and Galloways are at the club and fit but we'll surely be seeing some youngsters thrust into first team action before the end of the season.

To be fair, I don't see the harm in posting it in either/both. I personally probably wouldn't have read it if it was in the generic transfer rumours thread but I do follow this thread as it fully relates to the team I'm arsed about. The problem starts when you start making new topics for every transfer rumour and clog up the forum with pointless shite that won't even get a single reply half the time. RE: rumour - I've not seen enough of these players to comment but have only heard good things. £40m in today's market would be alright for two youngish home grown players as long as we have the money to spend on these deals and it isn't at the expense of buying in (fully) ready made talent for other areas in the squad.

Coleman's leg shattered by Neil Taylor in the Ireland Wales match tonight, be out for at least a year I should think. Shit luck to get two in a season following Bolasie as well. Wish him well. On a side note, McCarthy injured in the warm up. Time for him to sod off to somewhere like West Brom now, has had about 2 good performances for us in the last 18 months, constantly injured but still goes on international duty for some reason, can't be dealing with it.

For fucks sake. Still make a killing off him though. Not like he's out of contract this summer.

City -1.5 came through for me but a handful of half time "no clean sheet" bets have done me in and I'm only up 80p. Currently got a Draw no Bet on for Levante who have just equalised. If they win I'll be like a fiver in profit for this afternoon which is better than nothing I guess.

Academico Viseu scored so that's a win of a couple quid. Put £4 on Man City -1.5 now @ 23/20

Anyone got any good twitter accounts or websites with good tipping? I've just followed a few online that I might try and make some profit off. Put £3.50 on Freamunde no clean sheet against Academico Viseu at 4/5 in play. Will share if any of these tipsters turn out to be any good.

I'm a maths teacher in a secondary school. I love teaching as an actual thing to do, but teaching as a job has become beyond a joke. I've only worked in one school for a couple of years but from talking to other people I trained with and reading the Times Education website, it's absolutely shocking the workload teachers have to put up with. You teach 22 hours a week which sounds like quite a light amount of actual "work" compared to a 9-5 job with extra hours, but if you think how long it takes you to prepare a 5 minute presentation at work, imagine preparing 22 full hour presentations a week, delivering them to kids who can't be arsed remembering to bring a pen or pencil into school even though they surprisingly managed to remember their mobile phones, and then taking home 20-30 pieces of work home to mark from each lesson (100+ pieces a day). It's a joke and the staff cuts going on in the majority of schools due to a lack of funding means that people are constantly being asked to take more on with less time to do it. That's not to mention the amount of scrutiny and the constant arse covering from people in senior positions (which they have to do to be fair) having to raise with you why less than 70% of your special needs girls in Year 9 have made less than two sub-levels of progress since September. I'm moving back from England to the Isle of Man soon though, hopefully with a new school to go into from September, so hoping it'll be a bit different from teaching in the UK without Ofsted breathing down everyone's necks.