Is this "bless them" as in it's unrealistic, or "bless them" as in he's shite, or none of the above? Asking for a fanbase

Crouch was like that himself to be honest. He was never naturally great in the air, paradoxically. Rory's throws were before his time anyway

Some positive news from the Stoke side

I make it four with big Niall

We're now apparently going to "beat" you to the signing of Ryan Wintle. Be still my beating heart.

Thanks for that. To paraphrase David Brent, I'm still thinking about the bad news...

Never heard that! That's erm.. interesting

Yeah we threatened to move away from the British donkeys model with a slick data-driven recruitment wonk last year. Lots of misses but some bloody good hits as well. Course his face didn't fit, now we've got super Jon Walters in charge sniffing out the old-school "DNA" again. Ho hum.

Already got Ben Pearson mate cheers anyway

Make it Jack Nzonzi and you can add a zero if you want

We're not signing anyone called Vale! 😷

Cheers for that. It's a very underwhelming signing but one I can live with as long as he's not our #1 CF option (he probably will be). Most significantly it signals a depressing return to signing "proven" British Champo plodders on quite big money, after one thrilling season of having a proper recruitment manager and signing about 18 unknowns from all over the world *edit; .....and Niall Ennis 🙂

Hope Gallagher is a bit better than that last lump we had off you lot 😁

Short podcast from this week with him here. Talks about Blackburn a little bit

I was responding more to "I'm not sure where it will go from there". Whether he "makes it" as a consistent Prem performer remains to be seen, I just don't think he'll struggle for offers

I don't think he'll struggle for offers at all, he's done easily enough for a promoted club, or a Palace/Everton etc to be interested. Back to Forest might be a shout if they stay up

Looking like he's been called up anyway in the end due to others having to drop out https://www.instagram.com/p/C4p2lAiNmai/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=ae67425d-0b0b-4d6d-b6a0-c2ed290e8aef

She came to UK when she was about 15 or 16 so still mainly grew up in Chile really. Personally I lay the blame squarely at her feet, she never spoke to her kids in Spanish at all growing up. Massive waste of an opportunity - and seemingly paying for it now! I think it was pretty unnecessary for the new Chile manager to come out and say that really, especially when he won't have even met the bloke, never mind seen him with the squad. The stuff about team spirit doesn't make much sense when you consider the players and fans have loved him since he's been with Chile, his impact has only ever been positive in that regard. To me it smacks of a new boss in town singling out a popular player to make an example of. It may be a bit of a miscalculation, a lot of fans won't be happy he's been left out. Regarding learning the language, to offer something of a defence of him, it can be quite hard to get opportunities to practise a language when you're an English-speaker, because everywhere you go there will be people who speak at least a bit of your own language, and are keen to practise themselves. I suspect that will be the case in the Chile squad, there will be a core of players who speak a reasonable bit of English who he's fallen in with, and his attempts to interact in Spanish will be reduced to a bit of a novelty on the bus or in the pub, rather than any meaningful everyday communication. I'm sure he's been taking classes but that alone can be very slow-going in terms of getting up to speed with real-time spoken interaction. For anyone saying they've got up to an "intermediate level" on duolingo, I'd like to see you go and interact in real time with a big group of working-class lads speaking at a hundred miles an hour, using all sorts of slang and niche football terminology etc. I've spoken (Chilean) Spanish to a very high level for at least 15 years and even I get lost quite easily - following that kind of language as a learner is near impossible. But again, all his mum's fault really!

More or less where we are tbh

“Ran his knackers off” ”never gave their defenders an inch all game” “Makes a real difference to the tempo of the front line” “Works ever so hard” ”a real grafter” ”I love how positive he is” “By far the hardest worker we’ve had in that role for years” Greetings from the Potteries.. Just thought I’d provide a little bulletin from our board on your former fans’ favourite 😅 feel free to rofl, lol or smh as you deem appropriate. hard luck satdee… we’re all in the mix now, could be carnage

Well Johnny Eustace would certainly get a decent reception from the travelling Stokies if he's on the touchline on Sat. One of my favourite ever Stoke players, would easily have had a good Prem career if he hadn't been so blighted by injury throughout his prime. Class midfielder. Probably end up a bit meh as a manager but I wish him well

So you're saying he's an animal in the air with sharp attacking weapons and great staying power? 🙏

Not sure but I'd imagine it'll be a cheap permanent

We (Stoke) are supposed to be signing him off you today. Schumacher was his manager at Plymouth. Skimming through your comments here is somewhat chastening. What can we expect...?

Sorry to dredge this up but where does the clearly not rating him thing come from?