Sebastian Haller of Ajax - first player to score four goals on his Champions League debut.

The one thing that still amazes me about Ejaria is how long Liverpool held on to him before his permanent deal. Bags of ability, but he/the club just can't harness it.

Lewandowski is getting a bit ridiculous, another brace last night. Messi/Ronaldo levels of ridiculous. Six games this season, he has scored in every one - ten goals in total. Since the start of the 2019-20 season he has a silly 113 goals in 93 games in all competitions. 19 assists too.

There's got to be a realistic level of expectation against Pauno or any manager. If we're expecting a manager to sustain a promotion push, then every manager will fail. A relatively comfortable mid-table season is the best we can ask for, even if the likes of Dann and Drinkwater make a real differen...

First game I've watched right through this season. Don't think we were as awful as many were making out. Rahman looks like a very good left-back - can see clearly that he is a Premier League loanee, assured first touch, gets forward and back at the right times. Halilovic looked half decent to me - a...

Cash out seems to get me every time, Roma drawing with Sassuolo with 5 minutes to go and from the stats weren’t looking likely to score, decide to cash out for my stake back before Roma score the winner to cost me £50! Always seems to work the other way to the desired outcome, very frustrating Cash...

Also a brilliant start for Wolfsburg* in the Bundesliga. Wonder if they might challenge for a knock-out place in what looks like a pretty open CL Group G (Lille, Sevilla, RB Salzburg). They don't concede many goals - just 38 in their last 38 league games. *Excellent fact that I was today years old w...

Forgot to do my usual ones to watch type post pre season on clubs and players I will be keeping a close eye on, but Valencia were going to be one of them and after 4 games they are top. Still a shambles behind the scenes but they took the Getafe manager who has been really highly rated working on a...

Game itself - Liverpool looking very much like their old selves at the moment. Thiago in 'purring' mode, and they'd have won by five or six if Mane was wearing his shooting boots.

Spurs were awful.

Pretty sickening injury for Elliott. Why (it feels) always these young players with bags of potential? I don't think Stuijk went to hurt Elliott, but that was a red card all day - one of those horrible challenges where the defender leaves the trailing leg doing whatever, and in this case getting tan...

This mock up would have been great. Not sure why Neymar's and Aubameyang's love child is wearing it though.

Was about to write 'more third kit nonsense', as their all black away kit covers off teams that play in red, but of course they've drawn Milan in the CL.

There's really little interesting happening in European qualifying groups at all. In Group D, Ukraine have managed to draw all five of their games so far, four of them 1-1. This keeps Finland interested, but Ukraine will probably ultimately have enough. Wales should beat Estonia tonight and move cle...

What a mess COVID is making of international football. Four Argentinian players may still face police action after travelling for the Brazil game and not quarantining as required by law. Those players are also facing suspensions by their clubs for travelling at all. Clubs asked players not to join u...

That's bloody awful.

This is a great thread. https://d3j2s6hdd6a7rg.cloudfront.net/v2/uploads/media/default/0001/75/thumb_74104_default_news_size_5.jpeg Ronny Rosenthal. Most players become cult heroes for a brilliant season or two, or long-term service to a club. Rosenthal did it in eight games. Liverpool were a little...

These international qualifiers get ever more pointless as an England reserve side struggled past Andorra today, really should have pre-qualifying competition and reduce the number of these fixtures. Not really criticising the fact it’s largely a reserve side (though disrespecting the opposition and...

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/tony-daley-of-aston-villa-in-action-during-a-match-mandatory-credit-picture-id1632927?s=612x612 Used to be a big fan of Tony Daley. That sort of winger has disappeared now - early John Barnes, Chris Waddle, Reading's Tony Rougier. I guess Traore the nearest inca...

Became inadvertently interested in Bobby Mimms through my first sticker collection, which was Panini's 1989 effort. Mimms, then the Spurs keeper, seemed to be one of the most frequent stickers, and his swap value was near zero - to the extent that one kid in my year spent a few months being known as...

The entire business is owned by a couple of very powerful families who run the "country" as one big mafia organization. One of the companies they own is Sheriff, Transnistria's only supermarket chain, and also a convenient front for trafficking. This is were Sheriff Tiraspol comes from. T...