80

Really big goal for him given the break. He's not going away...

Looked like he's back to his old self after that (by his own standards) mini wobble

Proper soldier.

Running the show again, as usual.

Had thought he'd already hit the extension... Unless it's based on games started rather than sub appearances. This latest injury does pretty much put the writing on the wall for him though.

Deserves a large chunk of credit for the own goal last night as he literally barged the defender into heading 'on' target. Not a foul as the reverse scenario is considered good defending...

There's maybe an argument that Potter would be smart to make the leap now if he doesn't like the way things at Chelsea are smelling. Him getting drummed out in the next 12 months plus a bit of bad luck could kill his career.

That's a valid argument. I was thinking more about building for the long term, but if it's a case of football needing immediate results to help fight for having a longer term future, that makes more sense to be fair.

I'll feel relieved when he gets off the plane...

Didn't see the match. Imagine he's absolutely gutted. Pleased he didn't get any on him re: penalties etc. It was the first thing I went to check. Can imagine he'll be fired up as hell for us, and agree he'll probably need a bit of calming down and decompression if anything. Just doing the simple things for us for a little bit will be absolutely fine.

I'd see it as being more about long term squad development, with a view to future tournaments. It's him that chose to take a 17 year old with barely any club appearances to a world cup after all, so I'd imagine he'd be on board with that idea. Unless he thought this was the year Australia was going to win the world cup?

Yeah, it's a fair enough call. I would've just been trying to wiggle it so that he came on for the bare minimum of remaining time e.g. 30 secs.

Unless there were any attitude issues (which I seriously doubt), I agree.

Relieved Dan Burn is winning.

Got "your girlfriend commenting on the guy she ends up marrying before you break up" vibes

His only decent game came the match after his Dad died. Was meant to be a tribute, hoped it was the start of a renaissance for him at the time. It wasn't. Which kind of makes it look like he was celebrating his dad's death in retrospect.

Reactionary pretty much sums up his time at the club. If Robson hadn't been a Geordie (from Chester Le Street, County Durham.......) we'd have probably hired someone like Brian Little in 99. He wasn't a million miles away from Ashley in terms of not respecting the idea that low profile spending on things like backroom staff and training facilities would have any positive impact on the club, and Robson was trying and failing to fight battles with him on that for years. Shepherd was more interested in lurching around making ostentatious signings, selling sizzle rather than steak to keep people buying tickets. My pet theory for a long time has been that Robson turned his guns on Solano because he wanted to reformat the team and move us away from being reliant on crosses into the box for the ageing Shearer. Bearing in mind, iirc, the previous summer was the one where Shepherd had blocked him from selling Shearer to Liverpool. So if he wasn't going to be able to evolve the team in a normal way, he was going to try and force the issue by making him surplus to requirements. But yes, in and of itself, Solano's treatment seemed mental at the time.

Judging by the Dyer fight, I really don't think so...

To be fair, in the interview he seems to be saying the reason he's traditionally preferred Liverpool to Newcastle was Mike Ashley and how differently the two clubs have treated him since he played for them. Plus Gutierrez. I can sympathize with that...

I mean, that's manifestly untrue. I haven't seen the documentary, but I assume they mean in terms of impact upon the head and brain, which might be right. But in terms of the weight, the ability to manipulate it, make it's flight curve, and even in terms of water absorption, they very different. I agree players from different eras would have adapted of course. But I was just thinking about Botman and his effortless flicks for distributing the ball, and sending the ball out across for Trippier to trap. Those actions would require very different body shapes to achieve similar efficiency in the past.

I always think the massive difference in the balls footballers played with in different eras is hugely underconsidered when attempting to compare them across generations. What would Messi have looked like using the medicine ball Pele played with in the 60s? And then there's the pitch quality...

Trips for me I think. He's the one player I feel like if you took him out of the club, the club definitely wouldn't be the same because he's so influential tactically and mentally. Having him in the team makes you feel like you've locked down literally half the pitch.

Addiction and/or self-destructive tendencies?

Trouble seems to keep finding it's way to this boy. Would've fit in here so well in 2003, but not so much now.

You're not up to playing the game on his level. You see, he's actually HELPING the club by putting out disinformation to lead other clubs into not demanding such high fees from us. Amanda's actually very grateful to him, she thinks the last 12 months wouldn't have happened without him.