Cronky

I've had a look at the last four fixtures for the teams 3rd to 7th, and I would predict - 3rd Man City 71 points, 4th NUFC 69 points, 5th Forest 68 points, 6th Villa 67 points, and Chelsea 7th on 65. Forest and Villa look to have the easiest run-ins. Must say, it's nice to look at the closing fixtures with a view to the Champions League rather than avoiding relegation.

Got to get it off my chest regardless - is there a more boring pundit than Alan Shearer? Always stating the obvious at the top of his voice in the most long-winded way.

I would say that we were a team on the decline, and a momentum like that is difficult to turn round. Sir Bob did that, and more. It's extraordinary that so many supporters turned against him and he was sacked after three successive top five finishes. We paid a heavy price for that. The detailed story of those events would make an interesting read.

Villa are a very good side with strength in depth, and all logic suggests that a draw would be a good result. However, at the moment we're approaching every game like we're invincible. They conquer who believe they can.

I beg to differ. Without getting into all the debates about a combined XI, they have several players that would easily compete for places in our team - Dalot, Maguire (yes), Shaw, Diallo, Ugarte, Mainoo, Garnacho, Zirkzee, Hojland, Fernandez, Diallo, De Ligt, Martinez. Our squad is just playing above their normal individual abilities. Their squad is playing below. It's easy to forget that they won the FA Cup last season, and finished 3rd in the league the season before. Things seem to have gone particularly downhill since they instituted this crazy ownership / management model and Ratcliffe came in. He made a balls-up of the most important decision that a club has to make (ie the Team Manager). The rot sets in from the top, and the whole club looks like an unhappy and divided unit. (Unlike ours, tee hee)

Trevor Francis (great player, mediocre manager, for those too young) once said that you can't achieve anything without a happy dressing room. There's nothing wrong with their squad. It's the spirit that's the problem. It can't be a help to have a manager (and I think a captain) who keeps giving them the message that they're not good enough.

He's starting to play with a conviction that was lacking before. He's not the most refined of players but he's now using his power effectively.

He's a bit of a bore though. What he has to say could be said in a quarter of the time that he takes up. Underneath all the tearing of the hair was the main point though. Amorim lacks the experience and the confidence for the job at this time. I don't doubt his talent but there are horses for courses and this just isn't his course.

A nice but strange feeling that a 4-1 win against Man U feels routine. I don't think Amorim played it right at all. Unless Onana has had a total nervous breakdown, he should have been shoved back on his bicycle. The league is no longer important for them, and the manager has just given his player a vote of no confidence. Garnacho seemed to brush past Amorim's offer of a handshake when he was subbed. He's a dangerous player and I was glad to see him go off. I suspect that Amorim has pissed him off and he'll be playing elsewhere next season.

Yeah, whatever it is, he should give himself the time for a full recovery. I'm assuming it's a virus, and the after-effects can linger. He gives so much of himself to his work, and perhaps he needs a proper break.

I wonder whether he had the flu and, being Eddie, didn't take time off work when he should have done.

If ever there was job that has buried reputations it's the England one. There's lots to unpick with the Clough - Ferguson comparison, and obviously in terms of trophies won, there's no comparison at all. But Eddie is operating in a different environment, and one where it's never been more difficult for a club to make a breakthrough into the elite. Taking a club that is rooted on 92nd place in the League pyramid into the top division in such a short space of time is a unique achievement. We ourselves had been a wreck of a club for so much of the last 70 years, with the fans, the manager and the owners regularly at odds, and when Eddie took over we looked trapped in the same cycle. We looked like we were going to go down with about 20 points, and the speed and the extent of the turnaround has been quite incredible. But for me, the manager who springs most easily to mind in comparison to Eddie, is Clough. Now I know they were very different personalities, with different methods, but they both had a similar transformative effect. We've all seen the phenomenon in football whereby an individual player, or a team as a whole, can suddenly hit a sweet spot of form. It may only last for 20 minutes in a game, or for one game in three, but sometimes things just 'click'. That can be elusive and short-term, and the knack of football management is to achieve that for 90% of a game, and in 90% of games overall. Clough and Howe both show the ability to do that. They are both able to get far more out of a player and a team, on a regular basis, than you would expect. The recent final was only the latest example. We were affected by injuries and suspensions, and I was looking at the teams on paper, and thinking we were Donald Ducked. Only one or maybe two of our players (Isak, Bruno) would have got into their team. Many of them wouldn't have made their subs bench. I thought our only hope was to defend like crazy and nick a late goal. The game kicked off and the logical script went straight into the bin. I should have known better, because Eddie has defied the odds so many times. Murphy is a good case in point. We were thinking a while back that he was a Championship standard player. Well actually, he still is. He's just not playing like one. He's going out there, convinced that he belongs in that company, and that's half the battle. At the end, my reaction was similar to when Clough won those European Cups. To quote our Eurovision Song entry - What the hell just happened?

Cunha is a good player for sure, but what we ideally need is a left footed player to play on the right, who can also cover the striker position. Mbuemo ticks both boxes.

Eddie isn't a gun for hire, so maybe his eventual trophy haul won't be as big as the likes of Ferguson or Guardiola. But what he's achieved in his career so far is equally remarkable, and like Ferguson and Clough, it's been with two different clubs. It's no fluke. Whatever happens from hereon in, he's one of the greats already as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not sure that Pep's heart is really still in it. I wouldn't be surprised if he left at the end of the season. I also wonder whether Phil Foden would be better off elsewhere. He was one of the best players of his age group in the world, and perhaps the best, but his game doesn't seem to have developed in the way that it ought, over the last 2 years. City's style is quite regimented, and I think he needs more freedom. The post-match discussion was spoilt by Roy Keane and his usual rants about making more effort. Izzy and Micah were doing their best to raise the tone, but they were fighting a losing battle.

Is there an element of guilt about that? He did get the sack. The Board and what seemed to be most fans turned against him.

I think we've been interested in Quansah for a while now.

On the subject of KK and a return to the ground, there's something very 'all or nothing' about the guy. His career is full of sudden appearances, sudden departures, long absences and periods of apparent commitment. Being a bit player isn't his thing, and at the same time he's right in not wanting in any way to upstage Eddie.

Thank you. Should have gone to Specsavers.

Sorry, I don't get that. I'm old. What did he mean by 'Why don't I bring him out?'

Well posted. And Eddie was taking over a club with fewer resources in a far weaker position. I called this a while back. This guy is a rare talent.

I’d agree that he’s a very good player, but we’re not flush with money and there are more pressing needs. Someone will probably get lucky though and scoop this kid up for a fraction of what he’s worth. I suspect that one of the major problems that Amorim has brought on is that he seems to have pissed off two very promising youngsters in Mainoo and Garnacho.

Yeah, I was thinking of Leicester. Going from relegation certainties to the Champions League in 18 months was an incredible feeling.

We don't look any different from the Southgate era, so far at least. The build-up is a bit slow and deliberate. I've got a downer on the usual suspects. Rice doesn't pass with any daring or imagination, Walker doesn't want the ball, and Rashford struggles in confined spaces. But our big lad has done well.

Don't be such a miserable git.