Shak

Think we’ll start Joelinton LW with Willock LCM in the final, mind you.

That’s a real pity, the save a few minutes ago was top class.

Yeah he’s not a B because he’s not one of the best in his position by any means. But C feels very harsh as he’s better than a “solid PL player” too in my opinion. The gap between B and C is so vast, as a group looks like we’ll vote him as B- or C+ and that’s spot on IMO.

Aye, was gonna say this. Pretty big gap between being one of the best players at your position and being a solid PL player. But doesn’t apply to Botman, injuries are the only issue with him IMO. Fully healthy I think he is a chance to push on and be a potential A, but he’s a B for now.

Still annoyed that he didn't square it for Gordon, he had so much time to have a look and see if there was support arriving but never looked.

Fingers crossed

There's a pretty decent chance that the game will be meaningless for Arsenal, you'd imagine.

Trippier receiving the D from so many seems fitting, as it was his administering of the D to so many that has led him to it. Allegedly.

Stunned that there are so many saying C, a team full of players of his level would be absolutely fucked in the PL. Went for E, was stuck between that and D but ultimately I feel like I can make four fairly distinct tiers above Dubravka so went for the harsher option. Pleased for him that he's had a nice run recently but he's just such a poor shot stopper that I'll never feel comfortable with him starting games for us even as a backup.

The look of joy on your face as you momentarily celebrated Burn's clearly offside goal turning to familiar resignation will never leave me.

I think if we'd blown it I'd be legitimately considering just giving up on going to games. Full of confidence now, gonna get season tickets for me and @Beren for next year.

I think it was largely that Burn and Schar were awful on the ball. Was a mix of playing the wrong pass and just failing to execute passes that weren't that difficult.

We are no longer winless when I attend games! Those eleven minutes where we scored all our goals might be the best time I've had at a sporting event, just great fun. I reckon the losses and draws before this were all far less stressful, mind you. I've never been so certain of anything in my life that they were gonna score an equaliser with their last attack. Fucking drained after it

Every game of ours I've attended has been shite and I'll be at this so I wouldn't expect a classic, lads. Or a win for that matter. We might score though, I'm no @Beren.

Man the Glazers must love him so much

I hate that I have to follow that guy and read his tweets carefully

Does look like forcing him to join mid season might have backfired on them. The theory is sound, get him in and see which of the current squad he fancies and make sure they can hit the ground running next season in terms of understanding the new system he's bringing with him. Write this season off as a bedding in period. At some point though surely the shite they've been serving up is going to make the current players wonder if maybe this lad doesn't really know what he's doing. Once the players start to lose faith, it's a long road back. I know there will be a lot of changes to the squad but it'll still be a lot of the same players in there next season. You really don't want a situation where you're giving a massive transfer fund to someone who's on a hiding to nothing. Interesting decisions coming up for them, hopefully they make the wrong one

Aye, just the sentence explaining this article is wild. The crux of the argument is that you need financial rules that hand a massive advantage to some clubs because without them it could potentially hand a massive advantage to some clubs.

You can very much see what you want to see with Zirkzee, to an extent that's been true with very few footballers I can remember. Looks so sharp and graceful at times and then like an utter donkey at others

Under Howe if you're in the first team and playing well you'll keep your place generally, even if it's ahead of what on paper seems like the superior player. Dubravka is a good example of this, he's gone from having one foot out the door to starting ahead of a fully fit Pope because he's done well when forced into action. We've seen it before with Longstaff keeping his place ahead of Tonali and just the general unwillingness to have new signings come into the first team. If Miley comes in and plays well in a midfield three with Bruno and Tonali, I think there's a better than decent chance he doesn't give the spot back even when Joelinton is fully fit. Issue is getting that chance. Willock was obviously very poor yesterday but so was the whole team, there's an argument to be made that it would be very harsh that the takeaway from yesterday's game is that Willock blew his chance. I can see Eddie giving him another chance next week in a game where we'll hopefully have a much better foothold in the game. I'd like to see Miley given a run FWIW.

Isn't the point that we could get absolutely fucking massive revenue from new sponsorship deals and then we'd be fine for UEFA's rules as our much higher squad cost would be offset by our much higher revenue?

Good news. I'm pretty sure that Masters and the cartel clubs will drag their feet and make it as ball achingly slow and tedious a process as they can but it does feel that eventually they'll be forced into allowing clubs like us to be able to push on and challenge. Suppose there's a chance that City and the PL strike a deal that gets the City lawyers to back off but it would surely be foolish for City to trust them? Seems in their interest to allow the "Big 6" to be diluted a bit and have teams like us, who'll be a natural ally for them, be up there. Hope we have had the sense to have a number of huge offers knocked back over the last few years so we can sue the PL if the opportunity arises. It's truly, truly shit that this is how football works these days, but it's the new reality and I want us to be ruthless in it.

Sign Bardghji and Gyokeres, go Swedisb as fuck on the whole league.

It just seems like it'd be a shite deal for all parties, from a financial point of view. We'll save a few bob but be paying what you'd imagine will still be a significant salary for a player who will probably gives us ten appearances in the season and will most likely look like a shadow of his former self for them. Meanwhile, Wilson has some name value and could probably get paid a really nice amount for a couple of years from some Saudi club, where the inferior level of play will allow him to play and train less intensely, giving him a better chance of staying fit for extended periods. That all said, maybe he and his family are just really happy here and want to settle down somewhere that they'll be happy. He's doubtless got enough money to live very comfortably so might just be willing to make and play a lot less to have a more stable situation. If that's the case then fair play to him, honestly. I wouldn't want us to keep him unless it's a very cheap deal, though.