J7

Pretty much exactly three minutes for me. Got what I was looking for too.

Spot on. Agents through journalists list a load of clubs apparently interested in their player, then a new story is made about clubs ‘missing out’ on multiple targets.

I know you say a couple of minutes, but is it literally just that? I’ve got an appointment booked for later, but I’m in Asia with £3 per minute phone call the only option. I gave them 8 blocks I’d be happy with a single seat in and just asked to be told over email, but no can do.

Given the progress Osula has made, selling him would be ludicrous. He’s not scoring by accident.

Was in a few adidas stores in China last week and you wouldn’t know we existed. Not sure id have bought that though, even if it was to be one of the first. 😂

You argue to the nth degree against anyone who isn’t 100% confident that he can turn it around, never mind those ‘calling him worse than shite’. I’ve seen that very rarely on here, but you’re happy to group everyone who doesn’t agree with you together to try and win another ‘argument’. It’s tedious.

Can’t remember being as raging about an outcome in football, away from Newcastle, as that Celtic title. The pen Hearts didn’t get at Motherwell, the failure of VAR to spot the Johnson clear sending off in the OF, then that ridiculous decision on Wednesday. Should have all been over. Add to it all the ref having to blow early twice in a row because of pitch invasions and the zero consequences for Celtic over and over. Horrible club. That old horrible cunt O’Neill didn’t even have the grace to mention Hearts, never mind say anything their players being attacked.

I mean ignoring the number of players out of position, but it was clear Bruno was blowing out his arse and Hall was basically injured long before the equaliser. The in game management has been so poor. OK, we were probably in control for most of the game, but it’s still hard to understand why Forest finished the far stronger a couple of days after a Europa League semi. I doubt they did much preparation for this game and probably had Friday off; we had 8 days. Too many people clutching at straws.

Basically, your mitigation is ‘if only we had signed players we had no chance of getting, all would be fine’. It’s a nonsense argument.

True, though it’s hard to say whether City would have triggered the Trafford clause anyway, or what the truth was behind the Ekitike/Isak thing. It’s pretty clear he’s never been that keen on joining given he’s snubbed us twice. I was obviously being a bit facetious, but I do think those with doubts are generally bright enough to take into account the poor transfer business in the summer. We clearly overshot, going for players that was generally unlikely to sign, but we can take that into account whilst also judging how things have gone with managing what he actually does have at his disposal.

Yeah, if only we had signed players we had barely any chance of getting anyway, it could have all been different. If only Vini Jr and Mbappe had signed, it could have solved our problems in attack.

Nothing to do with ‘short sighted, modern day, instant gratification bollocks’. You clearly have confidence he can change things and turn it around. Others don’t. Nothing to do with shortsightedness or the need for instant gratification. I personally want us to be heading in the right direction and have confidence that we have a manager who can move us forward. I don’t have the confidence that Howe can turn this around now. It might be a different opinion from you, but it’s not short sighted and I think it would be a long slog for anyone coming in given our squad and where we are at the moment. I’d expect a mid table transitional season with a new manager given the changes needed.

We need more than 5/6 signings like. We need two keepers for a start. We’ve got one full back on each side, Schar and Burn are about done. Tonali leaves, Gordon leaves, we need a RW and he doesn’t like our strikers. Said a couple of years ago when we failed on Guehi that we were going to get to this point where too many old players fall off a cliff around the same time. And here we are. Burn, Schar, Kraft, Trippier, Murphy, Pope, Wilson already gone.

I’m pretty sure Burn will be starting the season to be honest. More so than I would have been a few months ago. The attempts to change, even slightly, have pretty much backfired and I think Howe will cling to what he knows. Burn is his comfort blanket. Suspect we’ll go all out for athletes and not so much for technical players. It’ll make it harder for whoever comes next after Howe given football has generally moved on from our style of play.

Can’t see anything changing tbh. Those with doubts he can change and turn things around will still have them. Even a ‘good’ season next season can only be judged when we see if he can cope with Europe the season after. I’ll be honest, this feels like the Robson/Souness summer to me. Huge opportunity missed. Hopefully we won’t be regretting it for the next decade or so.

His comment looks pretty spot on to me. We completed 67 passes in the second half, 60%. The first half was 90 passes and 76%. It’s a good win, but it wasn’t a good performance. It doesn’t changed anything for me.

If they haven’t been exploring alternatives, then they should have been. That should be a constant regardless of how we’re doing.

I’m not sure Barnes was a great signing tbh. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m sure he was a second big money LW signing in the same year, then 9/10 months later we were desperately shipping Anderson and Minteh out to meet PSR. Maybe a bit of a luxury signing. Not that he hasn’t done well in spells.

There needs to be a mentality shift if people are so anxious thinking about an upcoming manager/player coming here, incase they do well and end up leaving. Some of our fans are like a paranoid guy constantly on the edge because they think they’re punching above their weight with a lass. Individuals will come and go. The progress of the club is all that matters.

If we need to make a transfer profit as part of our UEFA punishment, I can’t see them spending that much on one player. Assuming they’re going to continue to bore our tits off with 433, we need a keeper, RB, CB, CM, RW, LW and a striker. Even if we rake in £200m for Tonali, Gordon, Tino and a few others, it’s still going to be tight.

It’s the same with overplaying 5th, when both Man Utd and Spurs were a shambles, and Champions League quarter finalists finished level with us. Anything lower would have been a failure.

I didn’t say it was below par. I said it was par/good, in the league.

We over performed for his first 18 months, but not since. It’s been about par/good in the league after that and before this season. You don’t spend the best part of £700m, have Brazilian and Italian internationals in midfield, the starting English right winger, two young highly rated English full backs, then settle for ‘levelling off’ in 14th behind Bournemouth, Everton, Fulham, Brentford and Sunderland. £55m Elanga is his man. The performances have been in the main very poor, never mind the league position.

If he’s going to stay, given we have nothing to play for now, I’d like to see at least some evidence before the end of the season of what he is going to change to have us moving forward again. If it’s just going to be more of the same tired 433, hoping we’re playing with enough intensity and pressing to do anything, then I’ll have no confidence for this summer. My fear is that this ‘rebuild’ will just be trying to find new players to fit the same system Howe seems wedded to.

That’s the kind of turd polishing that saw people gushing that we played well at Anfield for half an hour. ‘Impressed we’ve done as well as we have’. Give over.