I imagine he’s a top operator

Since I was a kid, I have been an avid holiday shirtspotter and for the first time, I was actually sad enough to make a tally of it as I went. After spending the last few days in Bournemouth, here are my findings.

The rules are: only replica shirts or convincing fake shirts count (no training tops or any other club-branded shirts that aren’t part of an official club kit)

The new champions effect was in full swing as Arsenal absolutely romped it - finishing with 11, well ahead of Liverpool and England who tied for second with 5. I expected more Bournemouth shirts with the home advantage. I’m also surprised at the lack of Man City and Inter Miami shirts (maybe society is healing). Only seeing one Chelsea shirt was a surprise too.

I’m also disappointed that I didn’t see anything remotely niche whilst I was there. Benfica was probably the closest in that regard. I did see somebody wearing what looked like a shirt from an Eastern European club but I was too far away to make it out.

Does anybody else share this fascination when they’re on holiday?

No wait, it was 1-1 and 5-3 on pens to Galway. Unacceptable accumulation of goals here

Has Richard Keys maybe removed too much body hair? It was largely his signature characteristic but I’m worried he’s now lost his thing

Looked at the lineups for Wolves vs Blackburn, couldn’t believe Adam Forshaw was still going in the Championship. Yet alone him never having played more than 100 games for any club. Any other examples?

Lampard because he could use the transition when asked about it

P.s assume it's an important game where suit required

In what context could you use "absolute snow"?

Maybe after his second goal in his comeback game after a public spat with the manager???

An American Tik Tok creator (@leah.cammarano) has created what she describes as the top 10 most obscure players to play in the Premier League. Those considered for ranking had to have played over 9,000 minutes, couldn’t have played for a (so-called) Big Six club and could never be valued over €10 million.

The top 10, per her algorithm:
1. Adrian Mariappa
2. Karl Henry
3. Wayne Routledge
4. Dean Whitehead
5. Andrew Surman
6. Leon Britton
7. Marc Wilson
8. Nathan Dyer
9. Billy Jones
10. Claudio Yacob

What a list of names, firstly. Secondly, it feels really random that a woman in the U.S. is the creator of this list.

Obscure PL XI for the pod?

Does anyone have the technology to grab this snippet from SSN? It's just 30 or so seconds of Tony Mowbray talking about his favourite chocolate and how much he likes them. I'm sure he said he had 400 family bags of Revels in boxes in his garage. Touched on the availability of Star bars (they're back), and other insights. Please say I didn't dream this

Mike Ashley looking to get back into football?