Sly

Just chipping in on this. Roads are currently made from bitumen, aggregate, sand, filler and recycled material from the previous / existing surface. It’s a bit like making a cake! A few countries, like India etc that have large volumes of excess plastic waste, have trialled plastic as a bitumen alternative with varying success. The proposed UK alternative is that plastic gets added into the mix as a small %, so until it is installed, no one really knows if it will perform. The road / asphalt industry currently makes material for roads, anywhere between 150c - 190c. The industry as a whole is currently trying to reduce these temperatures to aid the carbon footprint / reduce fumes. In principle the higher you cook the bitumen the weaker the installed material is, therefore potentially leading to early life failure, or in simple terms, more pot holes. To get the plastic additive to melt, I’m informed that you need to go above these temperatures, so in a nutshell, somewhat counter productive. The issue we have with potholes in the UK isn’t just a maintenance issue unfortunately. It stems much deeper, incorrect material choice, poor quality material, sub standard installation etc Another issue that hasn’t been addressed, is that roads wear out, where will these bits of plastic go then?!? We could end up with bits in the water system again!

Thank you.

I missed Charles Aránguiz, Opted to joined Bayer Leverkusen, rather than us. Something about wanting Champions League football. He then got injured so missed a good chunk of the 15/16 season. Unspectacular since coming back also.

I was looking at some of the players we’d been linked to over the past view years last night. Alarmingly, some of these big money transfers have been flops!! So we’ve potentially dodged a bullet. Ben Gibson - Defender Championship, playing 3,300 minutes this season. Hasnt pulled up any trees and would have been a waste of money at £30m. Stats don’t stack up against Maguire that well. Although he does make s lot of clearances. Johnny Evans - Defender Premiership, playing 2159 minutes this season. Involved in a relegation battle and hasn’t looked all that spectacular. Involved in an incident with a taxi hasn’t helped his cause. Fairly solid in the air, not that great on the ground and has lost a fair amount of tackles. Would have been a waste of money. Alfie Mawson - Defender Premiership, 2,700 minutes played this season. Improved under the new boss at Swansea. Great defensive stars with good aerial winning %, clearances, blocks, etc, Does have an error in him. Missed opportunity in hindsight. Worth perusing again I’d say. Chris Smalling - Defender Premiership, 1906 minutes played this season. In and out the United team. Defensive stats on par if not better than Maguire, though lacks the offensive presence. Worth reviewing again I’d say, would have improved us on paper this season. George Hirst - Forward Academy prospect really at Sheffield Wednesday. Highly thought of after scoring 40+ goals the U23s and the felling is he’ll go on to be s good player. We’ve had a few of these ourselves in Petrescu, Key, Dodds, O’Grady, Heskey ..... 1 in 5 or 10 make the grade, so complete shot in the dark. I think we offered £2m, they wanted more, a lot more, which was a bit of gamble. St this stage, not a miss. Andros Townsend - Attacker / Midfield 7 assists and 2 goals in 29 games. One wonder game in 20, largely absent for the others. Swap for Gray who is a similar player but younger, no brainer, we got the better deal by keeping DG. Ryad Boudoubouz - Midfielder / Attacker 2 goals and 3 assists in 20 odd games for Betis. Started the season injured but hasn’t had the impact many expected. Never a replacement for Mahrez. Guess that’s why he only went for £6m after all the hype. A bit Knockaert-esk from the few games I’ve seen. Gylfi Sigurdsson - Midfield Crazy transfer fee, even the Everton fans will tell you they overpaid. Can’t doubt he has ability but for £40m pre Neymar and Coutinho was s bonkers transfer fee. On top of that, he hasn’t been great in an Everton team that haven’t set the world alight. Have looked better since January but he’s injured now. He’d have improved the squad, but at that price, we could have gone shopping elsewhere. It’s a dodged bullet from me. He’d have got pelters on here if he’d showd the form he has for Everton at times. Mohammed Elneny - Midfield Rejected the chance to join us. We’ve not lost out, as he isn’t any better than what we have. Not rated by the Arsenal fans who wonder why they have him. Nothing missed by not acquiring him. Kara Mbodji - Defender Difficult to tell, injured in December playing in the Champions league against Bayern, wasn’t pulling up trees before that, missed s few games after getting dropped. We’d need a closer look. Gaston Ramirez - Midfielder By all accounts has done quite well at Sampdoria since he’s been with them, albeit in unspectacular fashion. Would have given us nothing but a squad number and came with a questionable reputation. Nothing lossed by missing out on him. Robbie Brady - Midfielder He he got injured playing against us and is out long term. He was playing well for Burnley before that and a bit like Albrighton for us, offered workrate and tenacity. Would he have improved the first 11, No. Would he have improved the squad, yes, albeit at the expense of someone like DG. No loss here really. Francesco Arcebi - Defender Has played frequently this season but Sassullo have struggled and his stock has dropped. Defensive stats looked solid, especially aerially. At his age, was maybe a Huth replacement but lacked the language and Premier League experience. Most likely not a bad thing we didn’t sign him. Although by the sound of it, we we were not as close as many thought in terms of signing him. Luka Milovokik - Midfielder 8 goals in 29 Premier League games. Has certainly been a shinning light in a poor season for Crystal Palace. They rate him highly and at just over £10m, seems a solid investment. Could have done with him early part of the season. Not sure he’s better than what we have in Silva, N’didi and Iborra, however would push for a stake in the team. Bit of a miss for me. Mamadou Sakho - Defender His loan spell at Crystal Palace arguably had the same effect on them, that the signing of Huth did for us in the “Great Escspe” season. Looked a great bit of business for £25m when he signed permanently. Started to look a decent acquisition then got injured in September and has missed s good chunk of the season. Has just started to return and looks to bring them stability. We’ve missed out in my opinion. Naby Keita - Midfielder Pure and simple, complete miss. Should have persuaded him harder when we had UCL football. Stephen N’Zonzi - Midfielder Not sure he ever fancied us, however would have improved us. Again, without UCL football, he won’t come here. Opportunity missed. Charlie Taylor - Defender We were linked with him whilst he was at Leeds. He’s subsequently signed for Burnley and hasn’t featured a great deal. I believe this was an option, should we have lost Chilwell to Liverpool. He wouldn’t have improved us, so for me we’ve not missed out here. Marcel Tisserand - Defender We were linked when Claudio first joined and he can play anywhere across the back line. Now at Wolfsburg, they seem to rate him quite highly. I’ve not seen much of him so hard to comment really. Wolfsburg we’re doing okay early season. He’s injured now and they appear, on the face of it, to have missed him. Michael Keane - Defender See write up on Gylfi Siggurdson and copy paste here. Looked great for Burnley, hasn’t been that impressive for Everton. Huge price! Would have improved us but not at that chunk of money. Verdan Corulka - Defender He he must be getting on to be 40 years old now. Solid defender but would have added to an aging back line. Not a loss. Luan Viera - Attacker Came from nowhere and outshone all of Brazil’s big names at the Olympics but has since fallen back off many people’s radars. Now in his mid 20’s he appears a big of an enigma, as he doesn’t score loads of goals. Incredibly skilful but has the Shinji effect and just makes the team tick. He’d be a massive gamble at the money Gremio would want, hence why he’s still playing in Brazil and not Europe. No idea what he’d add to us, as in all honesty, he could be an expensive, very expensive flop. Gabriel Barbosa - Attacker He supposedly choose Inter over Leicester when leaving Santos and it didn’t work out. They didn’t rate him and packed him off to Benfica, who also didn’t rate him, so he’s now back at Santos on loan. For £25m, he’d have been a waste of money. We’ve dodged one here. Riggar Sigurdsson - Defender We we’re linked after the Thunder Clap and it’s Iceland Vikings knocked England out of the Euros. He was unspectacular and would have been a back up at best. Signed for Fulham following, so guessing this was agent talk. Then joined F.C. Rostov on a free in January this year, Nothing lossed here. Eduardo Sasha - Attacker Another Brazilian who’s still not made it to Europe, despite being in his mid 20s. We over £7m, Internactional wanted more. His stats don’t paint a great picture, not she he’d have been worth it. Again, if you’re good enough, you leave Brazil when you’re 21. Could have been worse. Could have made him the worlds most expensive player, ala Denillson. Troy Deeney - Attacker As a forum, we seem to cover “Deeney to Leicester” every transfer window. I think they wanted £30m+, we offered £30m!! Just read that back to yourself. They turned down that amount of money. Worse option than we have, although he think he’d have been a good foil for Vardy pre raised expectations when he won the league. Ark Millik - Attacker He didn’t fancy coming to Leicester and joined Napoli for £30m from Ajax. Didn’t start that well with 1 goal in 4, before he was long term injured. Has recently returned and the feeling is they’ve operpaid significantly for him. I’m glad we didnt get him. We’ve already got some expensive subs. Jeison Murillo - Defender Inter wanted £22m for him, we bulked and looked elsewhere. Signing free transfers from Spain for our Champions League campaign. He’s now on a two season loan at Valencia and the game I saw he didn’t stand out. Difficult to state what else he’d gave added to us. Ousmane Dembele - Attacker He revealed he turned Claudio down in favour of joining Dortmund, then has subsequently moved to that small team in Spain called Barcelona to play with Messi and Suarez. Big missed opportunity when he left Rennes. Major miss. Gianluca Lapadula - Attacker He’s had more clubs that you can shake a stick at. We were linked whilst he was at Milan but he’s since joined Genoa. Doesn’t look great and has an awful goals return. Again, we’ve dodged one. Mitchell Diyks - Defender Attacking full back that we were linked to, having come through the youth ranks at Ajax. Had a loan spell at Norwich last season and was highly thought of, however they were not able to get him permanently due to financial restraints. Not featured much this season for Ajax and leaving on a free transfer. Stood out in the Championship, hasn’t featured heavily in the Eridivesse. Not much point in re-looking I wouldn’t have thought. Tonny Vilhenna - Midfield Tonny has had a steady season in the Netherlands. 9 goals in 25+ games. Needs to leave to test himself in a bigger league as he has obvious talent. We were linked on a free transfer so nothing to lose. Loic Remy - Forward We looked at him as a Vardy backup in the January transfer window, of the tithe winning season. He’d have been backup and outside of his spell in England with Newcastle, never really looked up for it. Dwight Gayle - Forward Linked heavily at one point, however always seems more of a Championship bully boy who can’t make the step up to the Premier a League. A David Nugent Mark II. We’ve moved on. We dodged one! Eder - Forward Sampdoria wanted a fair chunk of change for him before he joined Inter in the 16/17 season. He’s over 30 years old and hasn’t exactly been free scoring. No sleep lost on missing this one! Karol Linetty - Midfield Ourselves and Man City we’re linked in the 15/16 season on a free transfer, prior to him joining Sampdoria. Looks a steady player and for a free transfer, we appear to have missed s trick with this one. Dante - Defender Old, what was Claudio thinking, glad we missed out. Florent Malouda - Attacker Old but experienced. I can see why Claudio fancied him but wouldn’t have been a good fit. Nothing lost with this one. David McGoldrick - Attacker Apparently terms were agreed, we were that close to annoucing the signing, then something happen (luckily) and it fell through. P.S - I know stats aren’t a true accurate reflection. They give you a feel though. Sure I’ll have missed some!

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/689738/Man-Utd-Chelsea-Tottenham-Luke-Shaw-Transfer-News-Rumours-Gossip/amp Luke Shaw's Manchester United future in doubt LUKE SHAW’S Manchester United career is over following his public dressing down from Jose Mourinho. Shaw will be sold this summer, with Tottenham, Leicester and former club Southampton all in the hunt for the left-back. Shaw was left humiliated after being hauled off at half-time during United’s 2-0 FA Cup win over Brighton on Saturday night. Mourinho laid into him afterwards and accused the defender of letting him down and not following simple tactical instructions. Starsport understands it was the last straw for Mourinho, who no longer feels able to trust the full-back. Mourinho has targeted Danny Rose as Shaw’s replacement and wants to use the 22-year-old as bait to lure the England and Tottenham ace to Old Trafford in a £50m deal. In the meantime United are expected to trigger the 12-month option on his existing four-year-deal so they can secure a bigger fee for him in the summer. Mourinho didn’t hold back in his criticism of Shaw after seeing United reach the FA Cup semi-finals. “We worked on certain kinds of movements, where it was really important the two full-backs were aggressive, created space for (Nemanja) Matic and were in front of the two central defenders. I didn’t have that,” he said. “I had to change one and I chose Luke because at least Antonio (Valencia) defensively was capable of good positioning. “Luke, in the first half, every time they came in his corridor, the cross came in and a dangerous situation was coming. I was not happy with his performance.” Shaw has endured a miserable time since joining United in a £30m deal in 2014 as the most expensive teenager in British football. Serious injuries, including a double leg break in 2015, loss of from and question marks over his attitude and fitness have combined to see him become a huge let down. The left back has started just 39 league games in almost four seasons at Old Trafford and seen Ashley Young, Marcos Rojo and even right back Matteo Darmian all picked ahead of him. Shaw went to the World Cup aged just 18 in 2014, but has won just seven caps since then and is not expected to make Gareth Southgate’s squad for Russia 2018. Mourinho admitted on Saturday that he risks losing the dressing room after publicly slamming his players for being scared to play and lacking personality. But midfield star Matic has backed the hardline approach of his boss and said his team-mates need to learn to deal with his demands. Matic said: “He is special because he wants to win always. You can see when we lose a game, he cannot accept that. “Probably that’s why he won more than 20 trophies in his life. It is very difficult to work with him because he always wants more and more. “Even if you win the league he wants to win it again next season. He is like this and the players need to be ready for that. “Because at this high level, at Manchester United and where I used to play at Chelsea, the players need to be ready for that because the pressure is big. Everyone expects you to win every game. “Obviously it is not possible, but supporters always expect. It doesn’t matter if you are tired or not, supporters want high quality football. It is normal.”

N’Didi is a solid player for us. He’d get into 2/3 of the teams in the Premier League. Kante is the best in the world at what he does. He’d get in 99% of the teams in the world. Yes, his stats don’t look as impressive at Chelsea, however he’s not having to run around like crazy, carrying the likes of Ulloa, De Laet, Schlupp, Dyer, Inler and Benelouane. Kante is miles ahead as a player and his passing ability was under appreciated, as was his ability to pick up a ball and drive through the midfield. No comparision. The most effective player we’ll ever see in a Leicester shirt. It was a crime to football that he didn’t win player of the year. Chelsea fans rate him higher than most of their past midfielders, including Makalele.

He’s a shot stopper. Huth took control of the defence and basically controlled that box. Without him, he’s been exposed. He’s a good goalkeeper, however he has his limitations and has cost us games this year. Although, I’m not sure he’s any worse than the likes of Pickford, Bravo, Begovic etc, who are all in the most expensive GKs in the world. We’re not going to go out and buy an Oblak, Donnaromma, Handanovic etc

Yes!

I wonder how much has been spent trying to find it. I’m sure it’ll be settled on the seabed somewhere.

It’d be interesting to see how people would Brexit vote now, having seen that some of the propaganda was basically lies. I mean that from both sides as well. In a nutshell, no one had any idea what the impact would be, we still don’t know now. I’ve discussed the issue with both remainders and exiters and have been quite surprised by the number of people that have changed opinion on how they’d vote in hindsight. I can only add to the scaremongering really, working in construction, I foresee a tidal wave coming next year, with works grinding to a halt. I’m seeing projects shelved, left right and centre. The housing market remains flat. If we don’t have jobs. We have a call for houses but it’s getting more expensive to build them, so the price goes up, so the people buying them have less cash to spend elsewhere. I would not be surprised to see us go back into recession.

I’m not sure why stuff is still provided in plastic packing really. It’s been an issue for years but with the “Blue Planet” phenomenon, it’s really gained traction. I think it’s fairly nailed on that we’re injesting plastic ourselves. However it’s just a modern world issue, albeit one that needs addressing and rectifying. At least we’re not inhaling passive smoke from coal fires, standing in pubs / clubs or industrial engineering these days.

I’ve had 3 new builds and snagging aside, your house comes with an NHBC warranty and if you go with a decent builder, who use good sub contractors, you’ll be okay. The issue for most, will be that they don’t work in construction. So have no idea if it’s been built by a decent company. My experience tells me that I’ve had less hassle with new builds, than I have had with older properties. Settling aside, which leaves cracks etc, if you get an unforeseen issue, my house builder sorts it out. They’ve even done me favours like extra slabs, upgraded tiling, sinks etc from site. Generally, personal taste aside, you don’t need to do anything. Move into an older house, whatever issues you have, you’re paying for them. I’ve not lost money on any house I’ve purchased, however, the market price is relative. Based on my experience, all Estate agents do is look around your property, then pitch it for similar properties that were recently sold within a 5 mile radius. It’s not really rocket science that! I’d never spend £000’s upgrading a house as its still got a price ceiling based on the post code.

Amongst all the hysteria this week, around the potential / rumoured actions of Russia attempting to kill people on British soil, Gareth Southgate announced an England squad, which seems to have largely gone undiscussed on here. Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope, Jack Butland, Joe Hart Defenders: Ryan Bertrand, Eric Dier, Joe Gomez, Alfie Mawson, Harry Maguire, Danny Rose, Kyle Walker, John Stones, James Tarkowski, Kieran Trippier Midfielders: Dele Alli, Lewis Cook, Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana, Jesse Lingard, Jake Livermore, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Ashley Young Forwards: Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Jamie Vardy, Danny Welbeck Games against Netherlands / Italy No place this time around for; Kane, Drinkwater, Jones, Smalling, Forster, Delph, Cahill, Shelvey, Walcott, Barkley, Chambers, Clyne, Gibbs, Sturridge, Heaton, Shaw, Cresswell, Abraham. Some of those are injured, some Gareth has just decided to bin off.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/43163641

Player power has taken its toll on our club. Let’s be honest, they’ve created an ephoss of downing tools and sulking when they don’t get pampered to. It was evident under Ranieri, Shakespeare and now Puel. It is as if, someone flicks a switch and we turn off. All it’s doing is depriving the fans. At times, we’re as boring to watch as Chelsea were against Man City. If we’re playing this possession game, we need to close down with more intensity further up the pitch. We seem to have lost that. Vardy looks isolated without Shinji. We’re compensating for the immobile defence by having the midfield play deeper. We don’t transition quickly enough with our current crop of players. I think Puel could get this right, we’re just in transition. He’s only got a handful of players to make it work. He needs time to implement a personnel and culture change. Get rid of the dinosaurs within the camp. Oh ..... if he does go, is it worth looking at Simon McMenemy?

It’s being reported that N’Golo Kante collapsed at the Chelsea training ground last Friday. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/03/05/ngolo-kante-fainted-chelsea-training-ground-ahead-trip-manchester/

Surely the best like for like replacement we could get would be Brahimi? Wonder if we’ve ever looked at him. ?

So .... not that different to Andy King?!?

Snow was a bit pants on Leicestershire really.

Awful news this. It puts life into perspective. Apparently he passed after coming down with a sudden illness. Tragic news for his Wife, Daughter and Fiorentina.

He may sulk He may disappear He may be absent for 85 minutes of a game However, Surely we can all acknowledge his brilliance and accept we’re very unlikely to see a player of his calibre play for Leicester for some time. We’ll miss the great artist once he’s gone!

Still as dull as dishwater.

Well, this thread is telling lies!!

Frank Rowling. French Left Back from Memory. Ryan Smith looked Brilliant on his debut against Derby at Prideless Park. Almost as good as that Zolt Lasko bloke we had from Outer Mongolia, with his mate Bori! Other randoms people might have forgotten: Zak Whitbred Miquel Jesse Lingard Michael Johnson Kerrea Gilbert Sergio Hellings Radostan Kischev? Peggy Arphaxed Steve Corica

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