STM

Once last hurrah from Callum. Get us the goals that get us into Europe.

It might not be factual, but it feels like goalkeepers don't peak until they are 30, Ramsdale is 26. Also, worth baring in mind that Ramsdale and Pope know each other and are probably mates, they certainly have connections, even outside the England setup. Even though the competition might be tough, I'd wager that they would enjoy working with each other in training.

Bless you.

15m would be a bargain, largely because we could sell him for most of that in a couple of years time if it didn't work. Something smells off about this rumour mind, it's got guesswork written all over it.

Has he been playing? Genuine question, I've not been following his progress.

He has to be absolutely shite.... or absolutely mint, in between doesn't exist. The reality is that he is a very good PL goalkeeper, a significant upgrade on Dubravka, a recent England International and someone who we could improve. If we are being quoted less than 20m, it's hardly any wonder we are interested in him. That's not to say he hasn't had his shakey moments but fuck me....

Ramsdale is pretty much the same standard as Pope, give or take a few attributes either way. However, he's significantly younger. If we signed Ramsdale he wouldn't improve our starting 11, or at least not right away but he's still got growth in him, especially under Howe. It's worth remembering that for all Arteta has done a good job at Arsenal, he's not got a good record with keepers. He let one of the best keepers in the world sign for Villa, a competant keeper in Leno leave, replaced them with a young, raw, Ramsdale and binned him off at the first sign of bother, for Raya who's not exactly Buffon himself. It wouldn't be where I'd be looking at spending my money though. Popes a good keeper and our next keeper should be significantly better with his feet.

This disproves your point .... since Newcastle is, you know, in England.

I think what is meant is that he probably didn't want to leave until the season is over. Even to a DoF it might feel like leaving before the job is done. Also Palace have had an upsurge, so you can understand if he'd like to see the season out. He's interested in the job because he's interviewed for it numerous times. Of course he's also well within his rights to change his mind

We are well capable of rocking up in the sunshine and smashing these out the park. Don't do it for Europe though. Do it because its a game of football and we want to win anyway.

I watched that overlap pod. I found the whole footballing discussion really engaging but yes Andy Cole comes across as someone who gets huffy quickly. Even his son didn't seem to like him. He's just comes across, cold, impersonal and hard to talk to. The bloke was an absolute goal machine like.

Classic one for the future. The problem with summer spending is that everyone, myself included, focuses on how it will effect the upcoming season and not the next 4/5.

I think we might get hung up on the "used to get played in CM" stuff. Ultimately at some point you need to concentrate on one position and own it. I can absolutely see him slotting into that midfield role later in his career though, he needs more experience on the pitch though. Midfield is a different animal.

Would be really interested to see how that looked. Did he find he couldn't do the drills? Was he not fit enough? Did he not look interested or concentrate enough?

At one point last night it felt like Bruno and Hall were the only ones on the same wavelength footballing wise. For a 19 year old he doesn't look like he knows how to give the ball away, or at least he's heading in the direction which suggests he's going to be that "press proof" type. His passing, shooting, crossing technique is outstanding. He's nowhere near polished defensively, positionally etc but I'm already at the stage where I can take that.. to an extent, because of what his all around game gives to the rest of the team... and of course he can improve on the job. I hope Howe and his team do everything on their power to convince Hall of the sacrifices he needs to make, that's my only worry. He seems quite a relaxed character, who perhaps doesn't like the hard side of training. Not a critique, just different. If he can go into this summer with the same attitude Gordon had last season, he could be in the England team by next season.

I can't remember the last game where we controlled the game. We've battered teams but I've not seen us control a game for a while. The two are different. Sometime our quality has seen us score for fun without actually looking fully in control like last season.

How much you want to bet that he starts vs Brentford? And if he does, my point stands.

Liquid I'm with you mate, I genuinely am, but sometimes there is the odd justified frustration that deserves a whinge. Don't try and fix the ones who hated Howe before and after.

I can't be having this mind... Pope will start vs Brentford and that means 3 days was the difference. On the other hand, I hate seeing this thread bumped, because I love Howe and I'm fully behind him.

5 times we've allowed that. Bad coaching.

Right? And then the added time to go with the wait.

I've never seen refs that are of a high standard. When I do, I will change my mind.

Aye but I'd rather have one wrong decision than two. There's too many downsides to wait for competent officials.

This is a fair take. If he can't see Trippiers performance tonight, he may end up with problems next season. No matter how much experience he might have, pace is pace.

Let's be honest, VAR didn't even see the rake on Gordon for the pen. It's not corruption, its downright incompetence. Get rid of VAR, we will never have the officials with the brain capacity to make cognisant decisions. Bin it.