Rich

They've got this June 30th deadline that the Athletic keep banging on about. If nobody blinks, they're going to be absolutely fucked.

See, I still thought we could've gotten something out of Liverpool despite being 0-2 and with a man off. It was a disaster of an afternoon, but them winning was down to us making errors and being caught out by direct play, which Liverpool have always been very good at. Man Utd tried to play a similar way to them, but we dealt with it well, as it perhaps doesn't come as naturally to them and they don't have the players for it. Certainly not with Weghorst up front. Liverpool were pretty pants but we were in that awful phase where we couldn't hit a barn door, with the cup final on the horizon, and where teams were only just beginning to figure out that going direct against us is the best way to play us. Hopefully, that game and the Villa reminder at the weekend means we'll be a tiny bit more cautious/switched on to being sucker-punched out of it by Spurs. No doubt there'll be some hairy moments because of the quality they have, but we've proven multiple times we can deal with class players, especially when they're bottomed-out on confidence. It has the feel of an Arsenal last season/Chelsea this season more than a Liverpool, to me. Sickeningly confident.

I don't think our top bracket will stay at ~£120k plus bonuses going into the summer, but I could well be wrong. I'm not saying it'll jump to £350k, mind, but £150k certainly, and even £200k might be in reach, as well, if we finish top four? We don't know if any of the players have percentage increases or set increases to their basic wage based on finishing in Europe, for instance, or even for finishing in the top 10. Based on how we've apparently tried to structure transfers, I could see the wages being handled similarly. There'll be an understanding in the hierarchy that if this current group gets us to Champions League level on mid-table/lower mid-table wages, their wages will likely have to be adjusted to reflect that, certainly for the players deemed critical to making it happen. It's the only way to maintain ongoing harmony, I'd say, as they've effectively proven themselves to be worth more. Same goes for Howe and his staff, to be fair, they should all rightly be asking for a bump if they're not guaranteed one already. The tricky part is not going silly with it, which is what many of the other clubs in the situation of qualifying for the CL consistently seem have done. Lukaku on £340k per week before bonuses, etc. It's going to be an expensive, but necessary, summer! And there'll be some painful parts to it, I'm sure, as it gets harder and harder to manage growing so quickly in such a short space of time. You already hear the likes of Sean Longstaff in NUFC TV interviews joking about how much less he's on than Dan Burn, the players will all be well aware of each others' wages, or at least have a very good idea.

This is besides the notion of little Dan Ashworth doing anything that he deems to have no point when it comes to transfers, too. He seems to know what he's doing.

Of course there was at least some point in it, surely? As a quick example, players often seem to like going to clubs with a long-standing interest them, making them feel wanted, etc. Even if we had a decent idea of the answer we'd get back, it surely doesn't hurt to make that interest more "official" (if, indeed, we actually did) and putting our name in the mix so he knows we're serious about him. He might end up in a Lingard situation where his leverage and therefore his ask keeps on declining and declining, and end up at far from his first choice (waves), though I know it appears unlikely at the moment given the names in the mix for him.

The formation is a literal “fuck you”.

Aye, this is probably where I'd land. But if this is the first time they're actually seeing her and they know she's the mascot, then is eye contact, a smile, or even a little hello or pat on the head (can you do that to kids these days?) really too much to ask? She looks sound as fuck , the poor lass, I don't know why you wouldn't want to be the absolute base level of human to her.

Kristiansen, again.

Has anyone ever looked at Javi Gracia’s managerial record before? My word, I was expecting to see something: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javi_Gracia. He must have some agent and, of course, excel at Power Point. I now understand he’s known for being calm, but I can’t believe what I’ve watched in these last two games. He just appears to have no control over anything at all and seems happy to just get utterly botted.

I waited 74 minutes for this post.

This is hilarious like.

Goal kick

Seven seconds being “quite a bit of time” is a new one.

Hinchcliffe loving that, the weird fuck.

If Raheem's disgruntled, I know a team short of a goalscoring winger or two.

Sterling or Koulibaly?

fucking roaring at this

Tanganga will come in, surely?

Everything of relevance that's available to them, probably? We were at almost 88% before the weekend.

Didn't know all that Sanchez stuff had happened at the weekend, Jesus. Other players have been deactivating their social accounts too. It's the perfect time to play them.

Another reason to want Everton to go down. Cheers chaps.

I liked NUFC360 better when it just rehashed everyone else's news. That's such a braindead post.

I reckon he will be dusting himself down as well, to be honest, he's that thorough. He advised the players to do the same in his NUFC TV interview after the game.