Tom

Update - wife in tow, stand down this is a shopping trip! Wonder if he’ll let me get a lift from a Preston, as above there’s no chance my connection turns up Edit not wife just seat mate, attire - business casual, London based signing incoming. BRFCS 2 - all other sources of info 0

Following on from my Davenport exclusive I bring you this developing story. Steve Waggott is currently on my train from London, off peak in standard class, what a man, look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves #trainbae

We’ll have a job on to stop Mbappe - feels a bit like this tournament is set to be the moment the torch was taken by him, unreal coming of age.

That last sentence whilst extreme isn’t far from normal business practice. A lot professionals in any industry have bonuses, they are even referred to as OTB - on target bonus. You meet your targets and get your standard bonus, do better and get more do slightly worse than expectations and often still get a bonus amount. If survival was the aim for Bolton last season you would expect there would be bonuses as such, bigger bonuses would have kicked in if stretch targets were met. It seems daft in the mega money world of football granted but it’s not unusual.

A few tweets went around yesterday including from people based around Bristol, some people asked Nixon directly and he eventually came back with ‘there’s something in that’ So no he didn’t break it but did seem to go and check and hear similar

He looks to be a logical sort of squad player, young, pacey and potential for goals. Wouldn’t be adverse to it myself if he wasn’t the main man. Edit - sorry I thought he was younger

Which ex Rovers feels more of an idiot right now, Big Sam for his greed / ego combination or Niko Kalinic for his refusal to come off the bench whilst his teammates go on to the semi final!

I read it as a Chapman signs this week reply

That Russian who dinked it will feel that one for the rest of his life, you just can’t do that and miss at this stage.

Russian player just dinked it the same way as the keeper went, what an idiot

Imagine one of these teams getting to a World Cup semi final! Modric is a class player but two average at best teams on display here. Not sure which is the most desirable but it may be prudent to avoid any Russian drama

Let’s be honest Sweden were gash but we got past them with no drama and no suspensions

Disagree, think we’d beat both

It doesn’t need to be though. We can get to the final without playing any of the favoured teams and then over 90 minutes it’s anybodies game.

This is insane, concvinced we are winning this World Cup, it Brazil were still there I’d be nervous but I think this is ours

We’ll take that!

Cagey start by both teams, we need to take control

Amazing we can win this while never having to play Brazil, Germany, Spain or Argentina. I thought Brazil were the best team left and they are gone!

Neymar just put one on a plate for Coutinho but a shocking finish. Whoever you face out of these two their flaws have been exposed here.

Blatant penalty; shocking decision that one.

Bolton have confirmed the game is off in a two sentence statement

Nobody to fear in this tournament!

Have I missed something linking us with Armstrong? Mowbray seemed quite dismissive of him before

I’m never overly invested through the qualifying stages admittedly then get fully on board at tournament time. Although I have to admit that it’s so much easier now we don’t have the likes of Rooney, Terry and Gerrard in there. It doesn’t help that qualifiers disrupt the flow of the normal football season. Absolutely loving all the ‘it’s coming home’ memes

I can’t imagine supporting a club where unmitigated success is just the expectation, how can you truly appreciate it then?