midds

Knows the club, safe pair of hands, proven track record of promoting teams from the Champo, vast experience in the game, proper proper football man too etc Have I missed any?

The question they should be asking each other is 'why can't our chairman and (fuggen massive) club not match the offers of other clubs in the same division?' Once they start to dig into the reasons why then the penny has a chance of dropping. Until such though time occurs though I'll carry on giggling quietly from a distance

Pray for @bovril

Something about Grealish I absolutely loathe. He's such an entitled and obnoxious little cunt like. That's probably it tbh

Tieleman's star seems to be on the wane now, wonder if he's already peaked? I know he's only 25 but this is his 11th season of football as he broke on to the scene so young. He's racked up 320 games already which surprised me.

Think all of the words mentioned so far are spot on - intense, relentless etc. What I would say is that our lads look like they're enjoying themselves out there. I watch some teams and their players look like they've got the world on their shoulders and look anything but happy - I'm thinking Spurs and Chelsea specifically. Our lot are rock solid, disciplined and organised but they're also exceptionally well drilled and highly motivated. Our weaker players still function well in the team structure and we've also got quality in a few positions, get Wilson and Isak and maybe one or 2 others in Jan on the park and we'll fucking fly

Love a good merge

Yeah, I'm not saying people are losing their shit I just hope that a few disappointing results and a fall down the league a few places doesn't trigger anything. I don't think it will as most have the perspective you mention, just don't want any negativity.

Just as an aside I think this season has shifted expectations wildly and I'm really hoping that when/if our form does dip and we start to drop a few points and lose a few people don't lose their shit. To be in the top 4 comfortably and purely on merit going into 2023 is phenomenal and beyond what anyone could have predicted or hoped for. If we do end up finishing 5th or 6th then it should still be seen as a huge step forward and I hope fans don't get negative about it - it would still be a better finish than most dared to predict in August. For the record I think I went with 8th or 9th before the season started

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/

Still think Bellingham would be "the one" if we went really big on a single player. Again, that's not saying we'd get him, he'll have better offers I'm sure, but if we intend blowing the beans on a single player then I'd go for him

Agree totally but he'll not be allowed to take them down. As soon as it starts looking genuinely sketchy (and we're not far away right now) they'll bin him and appoint Dyche imo

Ah that could be it like. Didn't realise that but probably should have What do you reckon, Martinez sobers up in mid February-ish? Fucker needs to be having the party of his life

Why are Villa 7/2 at home on Boxing Day? I know it's Liverpool but even so, they look utterly transformed under Emery. That's got to be big, surely? Liverpool have won 1/6 away this season, Villa have won 4/7 at home.

Home advantage is big in this one. Sure I saw Given have a little glance down at the FUCKING TRANSPARENT PLASTIC BOWL before his hand went in to make sure he was picking the 4 The little scamp

Quite happy to let these cunts just get on with it tbh. Yeah I'll have a little chuckle if they lose or whatever but the 2 clubs may as well be orbiting different stars atm. Looks like they're struggling to pay their best player £1m a year and they're bang average in a poor quality league and they'll be there for quite some time unless they invest. The gulf is huge and it'll only continue to grow in the next 3 or 4 years. They're a sideshow. They're a toddler having a tantrum in the supermarket 6 aisles away, fuck them

Lloris looked like he was papping his whackers in the tunnel before they even took the field. He was never going to get near a thing

Absolutely brilliant game to end a brilliant tournament. Also delighted to see Messi lift it before he eases his way out of things. History made and I was lucky enough to watch the whole thing. This is the ultimate in the sport, it does not get any better than what we saw today. Peak football.

Sounds like common sense to me, the training regimes of an International tournament in the desert will be very different from getting back into the swing of things in the NE in December. He'll need time to adjust a few things and I'm sure Howe knows what to do with him. Isak on the other hand is another matter entirely and I'm starting to get a bit twitchy about his injury tbh.

It's a plot-twist that I don't think anyone saw coming tbf

It's a glorified training exercise tbh, the result is irrelevant and the fitness and sharpness of the players is the only thing that matters. No injuries and plenty of minutes back into legs is the only priority

Out of sight out of mind, eh? Ban all Newcastle fans = no Newcastle discussion = no acknowledgment of Newcastle playing well or succeeding while they toil in the lower leagues = pretend it's not happening = win for all MLFs - it's not being talked about and thus not happening so it's a big fucking 'yay' for them all. Sunderland continue to be absolutely fucking massive and they can carry on patting each other on their backs into infinity

They've become the antithesis of what they're meant to be about. They should be representing and supporting the fan-base, they're only interested in representing and supporting themselves. They're now just a cautionary tale and an example of foxes being given the keys to the chicken coop. Let the self-serving, publicity-hungry wankers get on with it