The College Dropout

Nah. You might as well wait - just in case. It was bad refereeing

There was that Liverpool mistake that was similar in the ref blew too quickly and that went on for literally weeks.

Probably Slot. Had we finished second it would’ve been close.

For the last time - I’ve not said the team are ‘bottlers’. We just bottled a single game. The best teams and players sometimes lose their heads. City have bottled games in the CL - they are also serial winners, Man U have bottled games and league titles, they were also serial winners. bottling = the pressure causing you to not perform at your best. It happens to the best and it happened to us. It’s fine.

Interesting to see the players we attract we need to raise the technical floor but Howe ball works. We need to triple down on it.

Nah. Honestly management should be expected to communicate at least quarterly. Owners Managing Directors and the like get to hide behind mangers too much. Daniel Levy in particular. He’s the boss at Spurs and seems to say next to nothing publicly. That’s his entire club.

Aye. What you want to do in a game like that is enforce your game. But we were off it in the press. Then you want to at least PLAY - get thedown and do what you do. But we couldnt get that off either. With a higher technical floor. This will become easier to do. So will having a bigger squad where we can maintain better fitness levels. Yep. There’s no Gordon v Barnes debate. This new CL format means you really need a squad. ‘I just felt our desire to win and to do well was probably too great.’ Eddie Howe Loved Eddie’s interview after. He was fully honest and transparent - usually he’s guarded. He knows he’s done a wonderful job this season with a thin squad. Now he needs management to make it happen for him.

You’re making it personal and definitive to the team overall. They bottled yesterday, that doesn’t make them bottlers - I hope that makes sense. Losing your nerve once out of 6 occasions doesn’t make you a bottler. Holding your nerve 5 times proves that you aren’t. But equally, you did bottle it that one time. Man U 2012 bottled it. Nobody talks about it much because they are definitely not a team of bottlers but they did it that season. Truthfully we were in danger of bottling it against Chelsea. We got nervy.

Howe Pretty much said himself we weren’t right mentally yesterday - tried to force it too much considering the occasion. That’s a bottle job. Don’t want to labour that point. Great teams can bottle it sometimes and we’ve stood up when it counts so many times this season, think being favourites worked against us. But we have to be able to call a spade a spade. Thankfully things fell our way. And maybe Yasser would’ve realised some of the massive gaps in the squads quality and make sure Eddie is backed properly within the rules

It’s probably cope but we don’t need his type of character in the dressing room if rumours are to be believed.

They’ve been good without him when needed recently tbh.

I like Garnacho tbh. He’s just a bit selfish and not as good as he thinks

My memory fails me. It just remember thinking we should’ve won if not did the injuries but in retrospect we were never going to amount to anything under Souness. He was in the process of gutting Robsons side. He let Bellamy go on loan that January, Bellamy would’ve killed sporting. Think Bellamy ended the season our joint top scorer despite leaving in January.

Agree with this. The floor of Chelsea’s squad in ability is crazy high (except the GK and ST). Their 20-25 players would’ve probably started for us today

We were never going to win that tournament with Souness. Dyer and Jenas were killing Sporting with their pace and athleticism. Think they both got injured in the game and that was that.

Things like the Dan Burn slip just didn’t happen for vast majority of the season. That type of thing happened a few times in his first season at CB but he ironed that out in the main.

Funnily enough. I think 67 points is usually enough for 5th

Depends how much Villa have gambled financially.

One of the 3 centrebacks. 433. The back 5 is usually tactical. Today Howe simply didnt want to start Willock and Targett/Krafth.

I thought Forest would make it as they had great fixtures.

These proper botltled it. Lack of class and squad depth showed in the end. But also lost their nerve. If they had held their nerve against Leicestee they would be in the CL.

I’m not worried about Chelsea in the medium term. They are not well run enough. Don’t believe in the manager either. Something is seriously wrong when a £2bn squad is struggling to finish 4th when not in a competitive European competition. Conference has even been a blessing for them. It’s keep their second squad match sharp.

Would love to have a 30 year old Rondon as a bench option. We’ve had nowt upfront for weeks.

But it would’ve been overturned if the ref had delayed the whistle. Thats the issue. It being a foul is not the issue. Blowing the whistle is. At least to me anyway. Didn’t have the audio on high.

Bit of a blessing in disguise that