STM

Why are people such bairns man. Lewis hadn't played any footy in yonks. Give him a fucking break.

Murphy left?

He's been the odd one out for ages. Howe won't throw him under the bus though.

Can't see Everton affording him, nor him wanting to go to Everton. Chelsea might be daft enough but otherwise, I could see him playing for Milan etc.

Can't for a second think Wilson will start. Surely it's Isak to the left of Wood.

He's lazy, greedy and has said stuff in the French press in the past that weren't right. Whatever decision Howe has made, I'm backing it to be the correct one.

Comparing ASM to Ben Arfa is ridiculous. Sell ASM and let's move forward as a team.

I've been keeping a mental note throughout the season of where our performances have been (as opposed to result) and what you say is correct. By my calculations: Brighton outplayed us fair an square. Man City was a 50/50 ding-dong Liverpool and Man Utd bettered us for about 40 minutes in the second half but not too dissimilar to Arsenal. Wolves first half was poor but we should have had a pen IIRC In every other game we have been the better side, dominated possession, created more chances or been physically superior. In 18 games of football, we've had about 3 lots of 90 minutes which have been sub-par, if you pieced together various games. Compare that to Man United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs who have regularly stunk the place out. Its really been extraordinary.

I watched years of Man Utd under SAF going to their rivals and shutting the game out, he even used to put an extra midfielder in to manage the opposition. I saw no difference between what we did, with the exception that SAF had some top drawer players to kill sides on the break.

I hazard a guess that our commercial growth will be quicker and stronger than any PL club has ever done. We've cherry picked the best people for the job.

Surely by qualifying for the CL, it simply means you need a bigger/deeper squad of (quality) players, which is something we intend on building anyway? We could sign 5 players in the summer, who would either usurp current first teamers, relegating them to the bench or would themselves be players with potential who would sit on the bench. We could easily afford to sign 2 quality players like Maddison/Diaby, then 3 younger players like Fresneda/Varela and we'd have enough depth to compete on a few fronts. Again, we are talking season 2 of the new era. Even if we didn't get top 4 next year, it would hardly be panic stations. I can only see good problems.

Was just cramp, and he was subbed off.

Howe was quiet complimentary about Jamal Lewis, so I'm going to guess at this: Dubravka Trippier Lascelles Burn Lewis Bruno Willock Anderson Murphy ASM Wood Thoughts: Williock has been subbed off early on a few occasions, so I think he can take the extra minutes. Bruno is our only number 6. If Anderson doesn't start here. Where will he start? Changing the whole back four is too much. 2/4 is more doable. Give Burn/Botman half each. Isak from the bench for 15.

I always think of little things like this: remember us being "interested" in Renan Lodi early on in the summer? Only for us to be quoted 30m for him and we decided to just take Targett instead. A month or so later, he turns up at Nottingham Forest on loan (bullet dodged). The point is, towards the end of the window clubs and players panic, meaning scenarios develop where players become available, that previously weren't. Let Chelsea play football manager by pissing away squillions on players who don't fit any sort of plan. All they are doing in sending boat loads of cash into the transfer market, which accelerates other clubs etc. Towards the end of the window, when a certain amount of "balancing the books" needs done, we can sneak in and get a quality player on loan etc. Look at what Spurs did with Kulsevski and Bentancur last time. Its nice that we are biding our time and keeping on the fringes of things for a change instead of our usual panic buying or even worse, turning the fax machine off. Something nice will come up for us late on.

Looks like Isak will be in the squad.

Tielemans contract situation plays a huge part here. One of the main reasons he's being considered is because we suspect we will get him at a decent price. Whether we rate him as highly as Maddison is kind of irrelevant because we won't have to pay anywhere near the same amount. As I've said before, nothing will happen before the 20th of January IMO. It's not like last January where we were in a rush.

I can let go of the Ashley stuff, largely because there was an element of having to "get on with it", but every time he was a pundit talking about us he just seemed thick as fuck. Like, surely any sane employer would see his lack of intelligence? I'm presuming that Dan Ashworth is largely behind any decision.

Shola is fucking robbing a living.

Standard was better in Oz.

Dubravka Trippier Lascelles Botman Burn Bruno Joelinton Anderson Murphy ASM Wood

He's got three 30 year olds alongside him and a side which protects its defence diligently, it's the perfect nursery for him at 22. The tricky part will be when we have to transition the old guard out in a few years and replace them with like-minded players thankfully we have the right be people in place to do that.

Best defence in the league. I'm saying be careful that we don't break something, while fixing something.

It's almost like we play every fucker home and away. Isak is a massive + for me. Its genuinely like we have just spent 60m on a front man. We need a CM to keep quality in there, should Bruno miss a few games but apart from that we are cooking on gas.

I think some are seriously underestimating the job Dan Burn has been doing. It's a massive assumption that we could just play another flying full back at left back without seriously hurting the balance of our team.

I suggested Kyle Walker-Peters, as he can play on both sides but... Ultimately, the club are going to take their time and sign players who are going to take us to the next level. I suspect there is some regret on signing Targett permenantly. I cant see them signing in-between players, who can fill in (like I suggested above), they would see that as a waste of time and money, when they could just sign someone young with maximum potential.