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Alfie Lloyd - Well Done
at 13:56 16 Oct 2026

Ya, I saw that too, but was ignoring it!!

In all fairness, though, that would have been before Sexton started travelling abroad to watch, in particular, Dutch football.

Venables' three years at Spurs, the house of Bill Nicholson, who is tied in to Ajax through Vic Buckingham, might be far more influential on his thinking than his days at Chelsea.
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Friday Music: Songs With Foreign Words/Phrases
at 13:12 16 Oct 2026

It's beautiful. A mate sent it to me and the first time I was listening to it I was off on a hike, and about four minutes in I was hooked and I had one of those moments where you think "I'd love if it now if 'blank' happened" and in this case it was a case of "I'd love if there was a voice added now" and it just happened and it fitted and it was amazing.
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Less hype, more action for high flying Blues - Oppo Profile
at 13:03 16 Oct 2026

Thanks.

He's not cocky, but certainly confident about their hopes for the season.
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Friday Music: Songs With Foreign Words/Phrases
at 12:01 16 Oct 2026

Belter of a track.

This is the one of his, I know. Must look him up.
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Friday music...........Booze
at 10:53 16 Oct 2026

Sad, but powerful.
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Friday Music: Songs With Foreign Words/Phrases
at 10:48 16 Oct 2026

Ooh lá lá, a deux.
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Friday Music: Songs With Foreign Words/Phrases
at 09:55 16 Oct 2026

Ooh là là, Deborah.
Ohh.
lá.
lá.
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That Boy Kemper
at 00:50 16 Oct 2026

Wow!

You went from 'Very early days' to 'I'm in love' within two sentences.

You soppy bastid!!!
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Alfie Lloyd - Well Done
at 00:00 16 Oct 2026

Sorry, Myke. 100% right.

As soon as you posted, I went reading through Francis' 75-76 book again to see the overlap and it was minimal. Venables last game for Rangers was 14 days before Jago left, and only played 14 games for Palace theerafter.

So the arc might be (at least in terms of attack)- Jago-Venables-Graham-Bould.
Then in terms of defence might be (high line, egg, rope etc) Venables-Graham-Bould
I think Graham might also worked under Jago at Millwall?
Must look that up.

One way or the other, what Francis' books demonstrate is that Rangers had a huge impact on tactics throughout the 70's and 80's.
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Alfie Lloyd - Well Done
at 23:21 15 Oct 2026

Both, I agree, Myke.

But I'm talking about the introduction of three particular things here - the high line, wingers showing in, full backs showing out, all absolute staples of Rinus Michels' football that Sexton used to hop on the ferry to watch while our manager.

Francis's book that I mentioned above does draw a timeline through Sexton watching European games, Ajax in particular, and then the evolution from Jago's tactics to Sexton's tactics, at least in these regards.
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Alfie Lloyd - Well Done
at 22:57 15 Oct 2026

'The egg' is a Venables term, Sheener.

I think Francis Peacock's excellent book goes through it.

'The war zone' is probably a GAA term, now that you mention it, but it's a simple term to focus the team on where and when we defend so that we don't get dragged all over the pitch without the ball.- I suppose in modern footy terms it's high press/low press/etc.
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Alfie Lloyd - Well Done
at 20:19 15 Oct 2026

I will demand my normal fee of one pack of dry-roasted peanuts.
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Alfie Lloyd - Well Done
at 19:26 15 Oct 2026

"I wonder if he's been told to just hang back on that for now and as he becomes more settled he'll be permitted to be a bit more ambitious going forwards."

I was wondering the same.
It would make sense.

I also wonder if Bould is now more involved in the first team defensive coaching.
I have no idea, but...and admitting that there's no new ideas in football...

We're showing real signs of Venables defensive tactics at the moment:

1) Wingers show the men inside to the war zone/the egg, then we rob them.
2) If that doesn't work, then full-backs have to keep their men outside for as long as possible to allow us to swamp the middle.

I wonder this because Bould is of the QPR/Venables mould:

Bould learned from George Graham.
Graham learned from Venables when he was his reserve coach at Rangers.
Venables of course, learned from Sexton at Rangers.
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Alfie Lloyd - Well Done
at 19:13 15 Oct 2026

Snap.

'Hooray for Alfie Lloyd...da da da da, dada da dah.'

( just copied this the da da da da bit, you nailed it, I had to sing it myself because I'm a nerd).
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Charles's gambit
at 15:02 15 Oct 2026

I'd imagine you're right.
Advance scouting would have picked him out in five minutes and there's so much video of even pre-season games now.
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Smyth
at 15:00 15 Oct 2026

Also, I'm amazed that fans are amazed that other fans think differently to them.

That has always happened and always will. Try and get five fans in a pub to agree on anything. I mean *anything*. Day of the week-type stuff.
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That Boy Kemper
at 14:30 15 Oct 2026

There were a few really good displays last night, but while he was on the pitch Kemper was my favourite.

I absolutely loved it.
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Charles's gambit
at 09:16 15 Oct 2026

'Charles's Gambit' is surely a chapter in 'Smiley's People'?
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Derby Reflection
at 08:46 15 Oct 2026

Completely agree, dmm. I thought our shape was very good when we had the ball, with the full-backs pushed up as wingers, the three attackers all central and Kamara, Madsen and Vale central giving the centre-backs plenty of protection when we lost the ball.

Up until the subs, it worked a treat. After that, we lost our way, I thought. The subs looked uncertain about their positioning, we looked less fluid in possession, and we certainly didn't protect our centre-backs as well.

But that first hour was very promising.
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Derby Reflection
at 22:22 14 Oct 2026

I thought Adamson did well, but he was asleep for their goal, unfortunately.

All part of the learning process for him.
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