80

I think that's probably the situation, yeah.

Fabian says relax!

I don't think Howe would've picked him ahead of Barnes if he thought there was a chance that was the case.

From this, combined with the high profile Parish interviews and such, it sounds plausible that this whole saga in the media is a made up story being orchestrated by Palace to try and drive a bidding war. Like a last desperate effort. Maybe Mitchell knows something we don't and we're anticipating getting him for less than has been said after all? It's my hope talking as much as anything, but it's pretty clear that something weird is going on.

Honestly, I'm fairly paranoid about this whole situation in terms of how he sees things right now. But bearing that in mind, we have to be careful not to overanalyze things, and even cause problems where there actually aren't any. Things and possibilities to consider in that clip include 1) he clearly was trying at first, it seemed like a conscious choice to stop rather than a general sense of not caring 2) he's managing his fitness 3) he's under instruction to generally not chase back into our own half to retain a presence up front 4) other players did similar things several times yesterday such as Isak.

The arse grabbing on the other hand... Wouldn't have blamed Jesus for getting his team to walk off the pitch.

Yeah, hadn't seen it until that clip. Looked relatively reasonable to me, expected far worse from the noise being made. More excusable than what Havertz did to start it.

All this fantasising about rage and grief over losing him. It's pretty blatantly people's repressed feelings leaking out at this point.

Neither did Bobby Clark, if you're playing that game. And Minteh's time here contributed far more to the club than he did. And arguably most of the others, for that matter.

Spot on. I don't see what the issue is with following a player we had who we didn't want to lose and looks to be great. In recent days we've had posts on here bemoaning losing Merino, talking about Perez, and Joselu, and Ben Arfa. People are still rightly pissed off about losing Bobby Clark for bobbins a few months before the takeover. What's the big deal?

Well, this post has convinced me Brereton should have been sent off and Schar shouldn't. I can guarantee I'd be totally ashamed if the roles were reversed and someone like Gordon did that out of the blue.

Yes, you can't keep missing chances like that and stay up. Was the kind of game they'll probably rue in a few months.

3 points, which is all that will really be remembered of this in months to come. Glad we ground the result out, could prove vital in May. Think Pope was really the difference between a win and one of our February-March performances.

Love me some Krafthy. Our CB situation is a problem, obviously, but one reason I was less worried about it than most is I've got a lot of confidence in him there.

Baptism of fire for him as captain today. Grew into it, got the impression it was playing on his mind a bit at first. I've got full confidence in him.

I know what you mean but I'd say this was the quintessential sort of game you don't want to throw on the shoulders of an inexperienced debutante, so I can see where Howe was coming from.

Missed him.

He's naturally brave with the ball, which is catching him out sometimes at the moment, although fundamentally it's a good thing. Never ever get a sense of him feeling overawed, quite the opposite.

Came on and immediately firmed us up. Added to a sense of calm, particularly on our left. Good debut.

Didn't think he was very poor. But it was mixed at best. He was involved in a number of positives, but yeah as others have said, it wasn't a good advertisement for him today - errors in possession and struggled one on one. Still see playing him as much more progressive than Burn (who was great in his proper position today). Far rather we have mistakes made there through inexperience that can be learned from, rather than a lack of agility that can never be fixed. That all said, Kelly looked a lot more assured there when he came on. Couldn't argue with him being first choice for us.

Pope in goal, Hall on the left, Bruno leading the charge and the world feels right.

Legal Yes please Close enough

Fuck me sideways - he's on the bench!

To be clear, that's where I'm at too

If we did lose, the justifications on here will be spectacular I reckon Joelinton will monster them.