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I'm inclined to agree with banning her, but wonder if she's actually playing for that outcome to stir up some controversy.

The Tonali interview is another massive statement of support for Bruno's leadership position within the club.

It was still the right thing to do. Only dead fish go with the flow.

I think the league is the only thing that will really count on that one.

God it's like the spirit of Freddy Shepherd lives on in him. When you're making signings to make statements, you're losing. @timeEd32's post earlier about the sheer range of possible explanations for what's going on at the moment, and the lack of sense in assuming any of them are exclusively true, is spot on, by the way. The idea of the club holding out on spending and thinking of having a super splurge next year - probably under a new manager - has crossed my mind. But it's way too premature to start shouting about it and, as he says, only destabilising the situation, probably unnecessarily.

Well, valid about Popey being too big for most to hook that high, but I don't think the guy is selling at all. He's genuinely taken down.

Thick of It style

I'd be foaming if it happened to Pope, to be honest. And that's including the fact his arm was down across his chest rather than over his throat, too.

I wasn't having it when many people said it at the time, but in retrospect it looks like they were right - Bruno's form improved as soon as he got a new contract. In other words, he wasn't playing well because he wasn't happy. Hopefully something similar happens with Gordon.

Stepping back for a second, it would be pretty fucking funny if we managed to get ourselves yet another owner that does fake "we tried" transfer sagas.

This was the moment. He absolutely wasn't very good for Howe for 15 months. Him getting replaced by Murphy was a big part of getting us out of our goal drought and back in the CL hunt in early 2023.

This has been bugging me. Yadda yadda usual caveats apply about believing what Eddie says, but you're right. I reject the idea that good players who can be moulded through tactics and training into being effective parts of serious teams are as rare as rocking horse shit. It sounds like we're unnecessarily narrowing our potential talent pool. Being very exacting about what we want is great, but not to the extent it paralyses us and/or leads to PSR bankruptcy. Would Joelinton, Willock and Murphy have been on our shopping list in January 22 if we hadn't already owned them? Pretty obviously not. We need more of the make it work mentality.

I've been kind of assuming he starts against Forest. But it depends on the attitude Howe takes to this cup, I guess. I'd be a bit annoyed if it's an almost unchanged 'first team'. We have to be able to use the squad through the season.

Never thought he would.

Not wanting to pick a fight on Barnes, especially today. But focusing on his goal numbers as being outright justification for playing him is the same argument for having Kevin Nolan in the team. There's more to it than that. And I say that as a fan of Nolan's back in the day. And as I say, credit it to him, he gave us a good deal more than just an assist today.

There really are no excuses for us to look badly prepared this season.

They do, he's just genuinely not very good at it. Not easy to improve upon him overall, though.

Credit to him. Came on and gave it a real go. Showed what we were missing with Gordon there.

Need a first rate right winger before we can ever feel comfortable about waving him goodbye.

As Groundhog says, yes, but maybe even worse was the fatigue that the players on the pitch had. It was the first time that season you saw their backs break mid-match. Might as well not have played the last twenty minutes or so.

Believe the polite term is now commentators of colour.

I think the answer was relatively straightforward, the question being if he was excited by the idea of having Sandro in the team. Something like second to last question. His face was a picture, though. I hadn't been aware of the context of Louise Taylor stirring shit with the deleted question at the time, probably came immediately after that which helped explain the vibes coming off him.

It was one of the few questions that cheered him up in the most recent press conference

Hmm. Wasn't aware of Palace's biggest shareholder also owning Lyon who bid an unexpected £40m for Minteh. Wonder what our relationship with him is like.

This one has totally passed me by. How did you hear this? Wondered why the video was shorter this week.