The College Dropout

Is Tino a better LB than RB?

Apologies for sharing the fake news.

Got the news from the Gil fella. Don’t know if he’s reputable.

Isak not travelled with the squad.

Cabaye was a hard worker. He just wasn’t athletically gifted. Like Bruno.

Nah it’s important. We were just shit that day. Man U will rotate and not give a fuck. Not going to think about City’s charges. But if they get found guilty they will have a multi year sanction for multi year breaches. A relegation and a points deduction that will make returning to the PL not a formality. I suspect it’s why they gave Haaland the super long contract. He’ll have to stay.

True. They’re deservedly also need to maintain their momentum.

With no other competition and all our rivals having other comps bar Forest - our squad is fine if we can avoid further injuries and suspensions. I know with Howe we can get ourselves up for big games, especially at home. I’ve had Man City as a given for top 5 but it’s not guaranteed. They’re deservedly 1 point better off than Aston Villa. Qualifying for CL feels like a watershed moment. The funds should allow us to try and properly kick on and secure a bump in our Saudi sponsorships. I was sceptical at first. But we need to add more Sandro Tonali’s and Isak’s. We are a bit of luck and a couple quality signings away from being CL mainstays.

Seems more of a physical thing. No pre season though.

If we get a RCB I like our central defensive options. 4 top players even if 2 are ageing.

Become a big lad but doesn’t get around the pitch like Joelinton or Sandro. Neither did Anderson at the same age. But he kicked on. I think 3rd choice CB and immediate backup CM are such crucial roles for teams in the CL and we are so light there in depth and quality. Arsenal: Rice, Odegaard, Partey, Merino, Jorginho, Havertz. Villa: Kamara, Onana, Tielemans, McGinn, Rogers, Asensio. Barkley. Newcastle: Tonali, Bruno, Joelinton, Willock, Miley, Longstaff. That’s not going to have us competitive on 3 fronts. We’ll need another purple CM so we can properly rotate.

Their situation is more akin to Everton, Villa and us. Brentford and maybe Brighton have low wages. They would be back up with a relegation and be able to spend to stay up. Leicester's wage bill is still crippling them. They've been making poor decisions though. RVN was always going to fail. Cooper can at least get some team spirit and have the team working hard for each other. RVN typical mediocre Dutch manager, no interpersonal skills, can't even motivate a pack of spaniels. Pending: Leicester 1 - Newcastle 0 But seriously if we can't beat these we don't deserve CL. If we can get an early goal their fight will disappear and the crowd will leave / turn toxic. Might not even be full tonight.

We'll need to spend the money we received for Anderson & Minteh for their replacements IMO. We need another physical beast in midfield, that's not Miley and Longstaff/Willock aren't good enough although I expect one of them to stay.

Howe would be pushing him too aggressively and want too much control. It would never have happened. Anyone with ambition and sporting integrity didn't last with Ashley. This season is giving Howe even more power IMO. If we get CL as well pretty much everything he's done (and Staveley + Ashworth) is vindicated with a genuine opportunity to continue to invest in it. The strategy is the right one, we just need more players. Get me a Howe style foreign purple for big money (Isak, Tonali), a couple high ceiling youngsters (Minteh, Hall, Tino) , a solid PL player (Barnes), keep our best players and we have a great chance of doing big things next season. Over to the commercial team to increase revenues with another CL campaign and a trophy to shout about. This approach of being too big and strong for most other teams + quality is a winning one. If we can tinker the intensity properly it can take us to the top with a bit of luck.

Anyone willing to work hard would succeed under Howe. We forget Howe had Shelvey sitting in front of the defence making tackles and playing balls through the lines. I would have Shelvey as a relatively lazy and unathletic player but he was tops for those 6 months. Lots of great shouts - Lejeune. Perez would've been more consistent - Perez was weak but incredibly fit. Gini, Sissoko. As mentioned, a Cabella or someone would be great too. This is under Eddie and PIF though. Eddie under Ashley is an entirely different club. Knowing you could be part of something massive is a huge motivator for everyone. I don't think someone like Eddie even takes the Newcastle job under Ashley. I shudder to think what happens to Eddie's career without us too you know. Maybe he gets a Forest, Brighton or West Ham type job but not one of the top 8. We've been as great for him as he has been for us. This has been a once in a lifetime opportunity and he's seized it. No other club would've given him this chance. As bad as most English managers are, few got good opportunties.

Ok. From his actual playing time, there isn't any evidence he was signed to play RW.

They've speculated again in January (for 6 months) to give them a fighting chance of qualifying again. We need that speculation to fail.

My memory it was a player brief but could be wrong. in any case where did he play in his starts in that first season for us?

A piece of scouting software saying Gordon is a RW doesn’t mean we signed him to play RW. In his rare starts in his first season he started at LW right? Eddie always intended to play him there.

It looked awful at the time. Anderson always had the potential to be worth £35m at some point - he was probably worth half at the point of sale. Our lad wasn’t worth the £5m Forest paid. Let alone 4x… at 30. And will never be worrh that. Not even half. It’s been a great move for Anderson and I’m delighted for him. Managing to stay fit the entire season has been crucial. A couple seasons back I thought he might not ve athletic enough for the PL. Then last season he stated sharply and looked too physically. Got injured and bar a couple games (Spurs he was great) he never hit those heights again. He’s gone to Forest and kicked on a level or two. Playing in a double pivot often.

Pep went to OT to draw. He started all the controllers and no wingers. He doesn’t have faith in this team. He doesn’t think us/Chelsea/Villa will keep going.

Chelsea are pants. They were really excellent for the first 16 games or so. But been average to pants since. If we can keep players fit. I’m so confident we’ll beat them. That’s why I’m annoyed they Villa are still in it. Historical results still favour Chelsea imo. City too. City’s form over the last 20 games isn’t top 5 form. Similar to Chelsea a good start is keeping them in the running.

My point was that while the other teams aren’t performing great. Neither are we.

Title race and relegation battle aside the only bad thing about this season is most of the top 6 have been super bad and boring but they still dominate so many of the live games and the wider football discourse.

Yeh they play City next weekend. He’s going to miss it.