midds

Unless the fee is ridiculous then it's a bad deal for us. Bayern value him at maybe £10m ish but that's tiny to his value to us right now. We need him on and off the park to get through from now until the end of the season, the discrepancy between his 'worth' to Bayern compared to us is huge. we'd lose so much at such a critical time of a very important season, it's just not worth it. What's an extra £6m if you fall 2 places down the League as a result of weakening the team and squad and losing your captain

We're pretty much on the same page then. What the club decide to do and what I would do may not be the same and if they decide they want to cash in then it'll happen and we'll all just have to deal with it but it would be a mistake, just in my opinion We do need players in other areas but it's cutting your nose off eyes out to spite your face. Trippier is more than just a 33 year old RB in this squad and to this dressing room

Until we know we've replaced everything we'd lose by moving him on is the honest answer tbh The difference between £15m now and maybe £9m in the summer is negligible. The impact on the rest of the squad seeing Trippier moved on in a January window, in the middle of an injury crisis, to a German team for relative buttons would be huge imo. He's a leader and a role model to the rest of the squad and it sends out the wrong message. Again, just my opinion I know he'll move on eventually but not right now, he's still to valuable to us right now.

Totally agree, Tino has looked great. Still think we'd lose a lot of intangibles by moving him on right now. I'm sure Tino could start at RB and do really well but that would leave us short in other starting positions and cover too. At the end of the day he's a mint player (bit of a bad run admittedly) but exchanging all the positives he brings on and off the park for a relatively small amount of money just sees like bad business to me. I just don't get the desire to actively move him on right now. If it happens then it happens but I think we'll be significantly worse off for it

I get the fact he's 33 and will need to be moved n at some point but this window is absolutely not the right time. We're on the bones of our arse and it's felt like it's been held together with sellotape for the last few months. Selling one of the lynchpins of the entire squad both on and off the park for a poxy £15m or whatever seems like the worst deal going. It's nearly February, surely he can stay until May and see it out here? If he wants to move on and we can replace him with a bit of time to figure it all out then we absolutely should do that. If it was Almiron I'd drive him there myself. Tripps is a different kettle of fish completely, he stays until the moment to sell him benefits us rather than hinders us

How much of that would we need to spend on the player to replace everything he gives us?

Can't understand anyone actively wanting this to happen. Yes we could move him on and just about break even financially but money in the bank doesn't full the big game experience and professional standards gap in the dressing room. You'd be losing a (largely) brilliant player on the park who also offers calmness, experience and nous (in the middle of a huge injury crisis) in exchange for about £16m maybe? He's worth more to us than that. Fuck that. He can move in the summer if he wants the move that badly

This season has been incredibly frustrating, we have (potentially) a fucking brilliant team with genuine options to bring off the bench but we've never been able to do that this at any point for various reasons. The injuries, and I hate to keep banging on about them as it sounds such a weak and pitiful excuse, but they've killed this season. Howe's had pretty much no options from one game to the next and we've suffered, he gets that pass. However, I'm absolutely pig sick of seeing 3 opposition players standing in the middle of the 13 yard trench that's between the back 4 and the midfield 5 when we drop into our formation. It became very obvious in Milan (A) and it's been there ever since. That gap has been there for months, it's been obvious and it's now getting exploited every single game. He needs to do something to stagger the midfield or let Schar into that zone as it's killing us every week. It's obtuse to watch it and not rectify or address it, fuck's sake change it up a bit. I hate losing but doing nothing about clear weaknesses and being done again and again isn't great management on any level.

Well there you go, every day's a school day

Did they? so where did the offence take place? I know it's a little thing but that seems insane

If you're a referee, and you allow a team to take a free-kick for offside inside the opponents half and just let that shit happen then you're weak as fucking piss. He let them do whatever the fuck the wanted, when they wanted and how they wanted. The spineless little cunt feels that threatened that he gave them the everything this afternoon. Scared shitless to give fouls against them as Pep would kick off about it at full time and he'd be in the spotlight. i expected City to win but I also expected the referee to be impartial and he just fucking wasn't. They're better than us but fuck me, at least abide by the fucking rules and make them play by them. Kavanagh can fuck clean off. I don't normally blame refs for losses but tonight was insane. Hope ne never refs us again

Yeah, I get you man I just hate the fat they've created it under the illusion of helping the weak when everyone can see it's the opposite. It's so disingenuous and obvious at the same time. It's infuriating

Great post and I agree (almost) totally This only thing I don't agree with is that the aim of it is to be noble. That's certainly how they've presented it and that's how it's spun but it's not protecting the poorest and most vulnerable, it's protecting the richest. It's a wolf in sheep's clothing and it's the big 6 who picked the outfit it wears. It's pretending that it's got the best interests of the fans at heart but it's actually got the wants and needs of the top 6 at the tip of the arrow. They don't give a fuck about clubs going out of business, they don't give a fuck about Bury, they give a fuck about maintaining the status quo and preventing any and all challenge to them from any other team outside of their little clique.

I still find it remarkable that there are a ridiculous number of rules and regulations that are prohibiting a club from spending money it absolutely has in order to grow and make progress in order to be successful. Doesn't just apply to us but Villa, Everton and West Ham and whoever should absolutely be allowed to spend the money the owners definitely have without any danger of going bust. It's ridiculous the barriers that have been thrown up to stop anyone from challenging. I get the need to protect clubs and fans from owners spending money they don't have, that's common sense and does make 100% sense. But this current system simply isn't fit for purpose. There has to be a better way of allowing competition whilst simultaneously protecting clubs from bad owners who want to exploit things. The whole thing is backward. Dressing it all up as being 'Fair' is just the spunk on top of the cherry on top of the cake. It's not 'fair', it's fucking 'rigged'

That's a scandalous rumour, completely untrue mate It was Staropramen

Aye they've been out of harm's way for the last 7 or 8 years in the lower leagues, taking the piss and have a pop safe in the knowledge that they'd never have to pay a derby because they can't get promoted into our league. Then suddenly we get drawn out of the hat together, they make their mouths go and proceed to get completely fucking battered without laying a single glove on us and they've got no idea how to cope with it all. All the jibes and jokes went out of the window and they've overcompensated and they're now just 'a mid-table team full of kids' as opposed to this footballing nirvana that's a joy to watch playing the best football they've ever seen marra. They were boasting how much their players would be worth a couple of months ago and now it's 'been put together for buttons, built on a shoestring' etc. They're fucking pathetic in every single sense of the word. They've got nothing and were humiliated on Saturday, there's a gulf between the sides and it 100% will get larger and larger and larger. They're an ever-decreasing spot in our rear view mirror

It's ironic because the one time he made the right decision and laid it off Dalot curled one in. Every other time he was in a similar position it was head down and take a shot he knew would be blocked, trying only create an opportunity for himself rather than his team. He either needs an arm around the shoulder or a massive kick up the arse, no idea which

Rashford doesn't look like he even gives half a fuck at the minute. Looks like he's playing for himself rather than the team too often, decision making is poor, often takes the shot rather than passing it on, running into 3 defenders too often, head's down and the body language is terrible. He's clearly not shit but there's something very wrong with him atm

Had no idea the chevrons were a nod to anything in particular but apparently they tried to recreate the hummel design on a shirt they wore over 30 years ago. Obvious when you think about it...

They got off lightly in hindsight, had that finished 5 or 6 then they couldn't have complained at all. Can't remember a more comfortable derby ever

Can't disagree But that didn't happen. Some days you're the statue and some days you're the seagull

Their fans seem to be completely disintegrating and have turned on each other, the manager and the owner in the course of about 6 hours. This has pretty much broken them and it's brilliant to watch them a) rip each other apart and b) have it confirmed that their own vulnerabilities were brutally exposed today. They've hidden away in the third division for a few years whilst constantly reassuring themselves that they're still a big team playing brilliant football. They've patted themselves on the back as to the quality of the football they allegedly play and the superb level of support they give them but all of that was revealed to everyone with a functioning pair of eyes and ear today. They got battered today, it was a demolition and now they have no idea how to react or think so they're turning on their own, it's beautiful man

Are they still a 'joy to watch' by the way? They were a joy to play against I know that. Got utterly dicked on national tv in their biggest game for years and never laid a glove on us, they're complete pigshit and it speaks volumes of how poor that division is that they're doing ok in the league. The difference between the squads is immense

At the time I thought he just eased him out and that's the angle the ref got too, their bodies hid the shirt pulling and if he'd been shown the angle from behind the goal he would have given it. I can see why he didn't give it at the time but he probably should/would have if it had gone to var

That was about as comfortable as it's ever going to get in a derby, complete domination from the first whistle and virtually zero threat other than a couple of speculative pot shots. Not the game I was expecting, I thought they would be snapping into tackles but the sobering fact for them is that they couldn't even get close enough, the time and space they gave us was incredible to watch, they couldn't have been more passive. Their players are all really poor technically and I wouldn't have any of them in our squad at all, they couldn't keep the ball for more than 4 or 5 passes then got caught or just passed it away. We looked in complete control and they essentially gave up after their little 5 minute spell, the "ole's" on 55 minutes were the signal for them to jack it in mentally. Routine, professional, dominant and comprehensive win away from home that demonstrated the huuuuuge gulf between the 2 clubs, they're a billion miles away and that gap will only grow. Lovely way to start the weekend, I'll never tire of rubbing their noses in the fucking shit