STM

Surprised to see this thread wasn't bumped from Sunday. I know, I know he's shite yada yada but his 10 minutes against Spurs was cracking and helped us see out the game in a comfortable fashion. Won a couple of free kicks, held up the ball etc. Well done Woody lad, same again if we need you please.

I see no issue where he doesn't add another year to his contract (protecting our asset) and in return we give him 170k + various bonuses. I mean, we could easily give him another 40k per game. He's worth every penny.

I'm there

This all starts with which ex players they have covering mainstream football. Neville, Carragher, Redknapp, Souness, Keane, Micah Richards etc. Even when you have Shearer and Lineker the tone dampens from that somewhat. There's nothing more annoying than "it's a matter of time before a big club comes looking". Especially annoying when they are talking about a player from a traditional big club like Leeds, Villa, Newcastle, Everton and going to traditionally smaller clubs like Chelsea and City. Its been a long time since "size" of club meant anything of worth. Back in the day it was stadium, reputation, following, now its finance and recent success. Can't wait until we win something and people accuse us of only being big because of money.

Yeah sorry, I didn't so much mean by standard as much senior members of the squad.

I'm not sure I agree. If he was a new signing and immediately was given double the next most paid player, perhaps that would raise eyebrows. Put yourself in the shoes of Wilson, Trippier, Shelvey and maybe even ASM. Give them the choice of keeping Bruno but him being the highest paid player, or losing him because you couldn't handle someone earning more than you, what do you? I've said this before and I will say it again, any player who looks at Bruno on 200k a week (currently on 100kish) and thinks "that's not fair" wants to be launched into the moon. He's clearly our best player, clearly our star man, clearly where we want to be as a club. You want the same wages? Go and earn it. With all that said, I'd have no issue with Botman joining him in years time, provided he continues his form but again, it has to come through merit, not jealousy.

It comes to the stage where I barely know what our first choice 11 is, let alone which area is a priority. I'm so used to having a glaring weakness in the first team, now that simply doesn't exist. The only weakness I see is that once we have injuries our options from the squad ranks are poor but when the likes of Jacob Murphy come in and we still win, you have to scratch your head. The only thing I could say with certainty is that we lack a creative ball player in the final third.

Because you are reading the wrong stuff. If Bruno leaves us, it's to Real Madrid, its in 2/3 years time, its when we have qualified for the champions league and its for 130m+. He will have a new contract before the world cup, that will shut the noise up.

Looking at potential PL targets, i went for players who I felt fitted certain profiles, I.e mainly young, mainly British. One that stood out for me was Emile Smith-Rowe, who doesn't start for Arsenal but has massive potential. Tielemans (out of contract) Shaw (out of contract) Trossard (out of contract) Maddison Barnes Emile Smith-Rowe Buendia Ramsey Pulisic Broja Lamptey Soucek (contract up in 2024) Gordon Holgate Mitchell Eze Walker-Peters Harrison Gelhardt

You would change the best defence in the league?

Besides, they aren't the frightning Chelsea of old, although they have improved under Potter. There are numerous deficiencies in their side. Would happily take a draw though.

Can we just sign Rafa Silva please.

Think Howe is prepared to run them into the ground for the last few games before the break. Nice refresh, few players back, one or two signed.... Europe here we come.

Interesting that we were linked with Luke Shaw and he's out of contract this year. A few others on the list, which we have been linked to in the past; Asensio, Ndicka for example.

I was talking about how much we would have been able sell him for pre-Howe. Not how much we paid.

Reckon we are pretty much done with redemption arcs. The only one I could foresee is Lascelles if Schar was to get injured and even then I couldn't imagine how Eddie would turn Lascelles into Franz Beckenbauer.

Thinking about the "worth" of players and what you could (not want) sell players for, Fabians Schar is 30 and you could probably command 25/30m based on his performances. I'm not saying this because I want to tout our players to other clubs but this is an astonishing turn around in his career. You could easily see a scenario where someone like PSG would be interested in him, given his ability on the ball and the years he still has left in the game. I'd be interested to see how Newcastle would respond to such an approach. It also shows the value in having a quality manager, who improves players. Think of how many assets (shudder) Eddie has created, through his management. Joelinton 10m into 50m? Miggy 8m into 25m? Krafth 4m into 10m?

Here lads, if you aren't feeling optimistic about this, just imagine Tyrone Mings having to deal with our press for 90 minutes.

I'd like to urge caution. Villa are on a high and they will come out of the traps against us, they also have some dangerous players. Having Maxi on the bench would be a huge bonus. Would give us a real edge in the second half. I'm happy with how things are going, so let's just remain unbeaten please.

When these cunts talking about us?

That's an incredible appointment for them. There's an irony that Emery won't get a chance amongst the PFM fan boys, where as Gerrard didn't get enough time.

They didn't deserve their goal, regardless of whether it was legal. Nick Pope had very little to do in the second half. Also, I can think of twice when we were breaking on the counter when they cynically pulled players down (Miggy and Wood). Who were the shithouses?

Marcotti seemed to know very little about anything. Howe absolutely adores Wilson.

Tell you where Howe IS NOT going.....

Just to be clear, we have the best defence in the league, 3 of the 5 in that unit are English, only one will start for England and that's because of injuries. Southgate get to fuck.