Van Dijk out for 3 months!!

You should have a Samsung Galaxy [1-8]. It doesn't have predictive text, which auto-corrects [I've experienced that in a phone - yuck]. It has 'suggestive text' which is so good you can sometimes write a whole sentence just tapping on each suggestion. It even works in Duolingo suggesting to me on the correct Italian word to use. And more often than not, it gets it right. An absolutely brilliant text aid.

 

Perhaps life with you has been a constant surprise.

 

Shock more like!

 

She-wow-a ?

 

All that money and a rather unfortunately placed rip in those leather pants.....

 

Still can't run without help though.

 

In a previous photo of that treadmill it said 'Anti-Gravity' on the side. I assume that Virgil runs in some sort of sling arrangement which gives him a reduced measure of impact weight on his injured foot. Plus, from the 'bubble' sides, I assume they can increase the bar pressure to his legs for some obscure medical reason that Chilco could probably tell me. Cunning anyway.

EDIT: Wow. Looked it up. The athlete runs in air-tight neoprene pants and there is a further air seal at the waist. The bag surrounding the legs is inflated and this buoys the athlete up, reducing their weight by as much as 80% [yes eighty, Chilco] depending on the amount of pressure, which stiffens the sidewalls, running pants and seals, and lifts the athlete.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/57102/how-does-anti-gravity-treadmill-work

 

So really it's just a hi-tech version of one of these, plus the ground moves underneath you:

please log in to view this image

 

Looks like the two Ronnies' sketch with Clasie as the 'I look up to both of them' character.

 

So, moving on from dogs, phones and Frost Report sketches. This stuff about Chelsea having a shopping list. If, and this is a 24 storey IF, Chelsea have leaked any info about their transfer targets rather than this simply being lazy journalism, how is this not "tapping up"?

I had the slightly surreal experience of being at West Brom in the home end as I went with two old work mates who are life-time Albion fans*. The stewards were unaware of the presence of a 75 year old potential hooligan, but fans around me knew I was a Saint and wanted to talk about "losing that big centre half and ..and.."

It is hard to imagine that this sort of stuff doesn't make, say, Ryan Bertrand think twice, especially if he has just had a bad day at work. There are rules about approaching players, yet apparently none about allowing rumours to run and run.

Just saying ... or is that venting?

* Funny thing was I wasn't going to go yesterday but these guys put pressure on me. They'd bought me a ticket as apparently my presence would guarantee an Albion win. They'd thrown in a good evening out with our wives afterwards. Suspect that there may not be a repeat invitation.

 

One advantage that we have in keeping players is that there are only a few English teams that you would leave Saints for, so we only risk losing our best players (huh:....). The disadvantage we have is that we make players look good. My point is that we keep the core of the side....not like we lose the lot. And the better we get, the harder it will be to winkle the players away....shame we aren't likely to be in Europe next year (though that may help Puel in the league).

 

Interesting fact*: This is a picture of me, moments before meeting Ian Thumwood at nursery school for the first time. You can imagine the picture moments later.



*i may have made this up

 

Do you mean "most" of the team when you say "core" of the team? One could suggest that losing best CB, CM, CF (for example) is losing the core of your team.

 

I was using 'core' in the sense that we keep most of the team...not in the sense that they are the best players. By the very nature of the beast, they are the players you lose. However, if you keep most of the players, the ones we bring in to replace the stars will find themselves fitting into a settled squad....and with some adjustment to suit the incomers, the team carries on. Other teams lose their better players as well....it's not just us. Having a plan and sticking close to it has been our strength.

 

Just clarifying.

 

Thanks for that, I didn't realise the extent to which the athlete's weight is reduced. Quite amazing really, and explains why you can have a video of Virgil apparently running freely and the next day he is on crutches again. Anyone who has ever had an injury to their foot or ankle knows the hardest part is learning to bear your own weight, and this seems a brilliant way of doing it gradually.

 

I share your frustrations, but the thing is with tapping up it is very difficult to prove, I can only think of Chelsea who have properly been punished for it.

I'd say that these days in 90% of transfers the personal terms are agreed before the fee too.

 

Liverpool also got caught out with Stoke's Academy player.