The College Dropout

Players doing nothing to help.

That will happen when we invite teams into our half so often.. Exactly.

Looked an excellent strike first time round. Deflected upon replay. Can we start playing now?

Not like this and not holding his knee.

We are comfortable. I'd rather we be comfortable with the ball than comfortable simply defending but it's till comfortable. I'm not one for the Barfa hype but we i'd prefer us to go back onto the front foot. We could get another goal or two and kill the game. As it stands, if they can score a goal I would ge very nervous. Although that hasn't been in our nature this season when we have played like this so far.

I'm tired of all this "disappointing" BS from fans when a player goes to a club for money. The vast majority of us do it as well and the vast majority would do it if they where professional footballers.

Agreed. He won't lose his vision, touch or strength on the ball, if anything the first two will probably improve. Once Ronaldo loses his pace, he'll be pretty ineffective at the highest level. Still be strong as an Ox and have that leap/heading ability. He'll be a bully for many years to come. he'll surely move to be a more orthodox number 9? nothing to say he'll lose so much pace mind, he's not had a 'proper' injury yet Yep. Injuries are odd though. Rio was never plagued by them in his youth but succumbed frequently in latter years.

Agreed. He won't lose his vision, touch or strength on the ball, if anything the first two will probably improve. Once Ronaldo loses his pace, he'll be pretty ineffective at the highest level. Still be strong as an Ox and have that leap/heading ability. He'll be a bully for many years to come.

I don't agree. The biggest stage on club football absolutely pales in historical significance compared to the World Cup. The only reason we're even having this conversation at all is because we're hardcore football junkies. The general public doesn't give a s*** about the Champions League, and small sample size as it might be, the World Cup is undeniably a key factor in determining a player's legacy. Then the general public is in no position to be judging the greatest players of all time. f*** the general public. I like to think that the truly "great" players (the word itself is quite overused) have a historical and cultural significance that goes far beyond just football fans. Pele stopped a civil war ffs. Maradona also kept the entire economy of Bolivia and Colombia afloat. Yeah, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. Gaining influence that goes far beyond the pitch through your skills and achievements. Ryan Giggs is a great player and probably has the most illustrious club career ever, but he's not going to be remembered for very long by people who don't follow football religiously. In about three decades he'll probably be a footnote for most people who aren't Manchester United fans. Maldini?

Spurs at home to Mackems tbf. But still good.

Everton vs Sunderland. Decent.

Please.

Surey the whole point of league form is to get into Europe? I'd settle for a few injuries and tired performances next year if we got a good run in Europe. League always has to take precedent as that is ultimately the way you attract better players. Not when you've won fuck all for 50 years.

Surey the whole point of league form is to get into Europe? I'd settle for a few injuries and tired performances next year if we got a good run in Europe. Exactly. I'd take lower midtable for a real Europa, league and fa cup run. Even resting players for European games.

We've missed one CL final in something liek 5 years. It's fine.

They'll finish 7th and the Scum will nick their space in Europe. They'll win the League cup and qualify regardless. Silly fools will be ungrateful for it too.

They have money for transfer fees, not wages.

There's not much better in the country tbh. There's only Spurs better in the whole competition. Realistically S'land could go to the final.

With the money they invest and the wages they pay they will be no better than where Spurs are now.

Chamberlain does look knackered tbf.

AVB hasn't helped his cause at all. He's come with too much arrogance and perceived disrespect.

Would be better if they just won now. If they go to Birmingham and lose I don't think we'll finish in a European spot next season. We need Chelsea getting to the FA Cup final.

Really need Chelsea to win here. And Arsenal at Sunderland. If they both win i'll be more confident in an all top 7 FA Cup final.

They think he'll be like Scholes and them.

Europe is only good if Ashley will sanction 5-6 players capable of rotating in and out of the squad. As it stands Europe would kill us and I don't fancy our chances of Ashley investing that much. I wouldn't mind a mid-table season if we gave the Europa, FA & League cup a real push next season. There's no point doing well in the league if we aren't going to push for honours. Our cup form under Pardew is pretty crap tbh, don't think he'd know what to do in Europe, I've very little faith in him doing a good job balancing the squad with another competition to think about. I'd like a cup run and challenge for honours, but don't think our set up right now can do it, especially when we lose our best players again for 6 weeks next season when we'd have 2-3 cup games (if successful) Right now we play for league position, couple of signings would enforce that position or climb, but anything more than that would stretch us far beyond our means and we'd fall apart imo, we'd end up mid table with nothing to show for it, then we become vulnerable for the vultures to take our best players and no doubt Ashley would pull the trigger on Pardew for it as well. I'm not talking balancing to be fair. I mean outright prioritising cup competitions the way Fulham did a few seasons back, resting players in the league for cup games. If Mark Hughes, Hodgson, Walter Smith, Pulis, McLeish etc. can give it a real go in the cups, Pards can. The league cup semi's success are probably more dependent on opposition than the AFCON tbf. Same with the FA Cup really.