Yorkie

Next Valentines Day I'm just gonna ask the mrs to hold the poems and instead print out a bunch of sewellys posts on Italian football and shove them in the card instead.

Hopefully those quotes put to bed some of the daftness about his loyalties. He's had a pretty remarkable turnaround this season really. If he doesn't feature last season then we almost certainly get into Europe, now he's possibly first choice for as long as he's fit. Didn't see it coming at all.

Same club as Alex Murphy.

Farcical

Of all the competitions to have a fixture or two in America it might as well be that one. There's very little that's sacred about the Champions League and it's not grounded in any one location, unless you count 'Europe' as one location. I'm sure the fans of Real Madrid could stomach having to give one final a miss. Any domestic competition and it's another story imo.

Absolutely love the image of Howe chuckling away after all the aggro and saying "now put the Wham shirt on."

It'll have done him no harm at all to his career I wouldn't have thought, relative to his ability. It'll be like Pardew moving onto the likes of Palace and West Brom; jobs he would've been absolutely nowhere had some idiot owner not given him a chance at a big club.

I thought at the time, 'is Emery really getting so wound up by Tindall shushing?' Thought there had to be something else to it but apparently not. What a lot of wetties. Even happier we gubbed them three nowt.

Absolute pisser for Blackburn but happy that Derby are getting a decent manager in. Two of my favourite Championship clubs tbh.

God this really is anyone's isn't it.

Decent

Lollllll

Fucking get in

Wolves' Marshall Munetsi pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable by wearing a number 5 despite being a midfielder. Fortunately for him there's a precedent.

Genuinely think nine figure sums are a thing of the past in the PSR age. Plus the Chelsea factor undermines Enzo/Caicedo being any sort of benchmark. There's no market for an Isak that is settled at a Europe-competing NUFC. We can comfortably say "obscene price or fuck off" in that scenario. And no one can pay that. Ergo, if he leaves, it's because he wants to, and we've been forced to accept a more 'competitive' price. (i.e something between what Nunez and Lukaku cost). It all hinges on the player in this case imo. I don't see why he'd want to leave, incidentally. He's got it good here.

I'm generally behind our narrowly-scoped transfer policy of only spending big and only on players who are almost guaranteed to succeed. However, I'd sooner see us spend moderately on less of a sure thing than extend Wilson's contract. If it's DCL on a free, that's fine with me. We need a senior striker to relieve Isak next season, particularly with us being in Europe.

Have been thinking this ever since Sandro started to look like an elite player. We're one player away from having a truly unbelievable midfield; it's very tempting to invest there again to make it happen. Mind you it makes the Anderson thing all the more frustrating. He'd be the one in there right now imo.

Murphy n'all imo. Wasteful a couple of times but he worried them constantly.

For all he's raw and his decision-making looks miles away from what's required in the PL - he did a fair bit tonight that you'd expect to see from a striker of that level. I'm talking about his hold-up play, which I thought was terrific - particularly the way he collected long balls - and also his positioning. It takes some intelligence to play two distinct positions in one game, and in both he found himself in places where he could/should score (Murphy's breakaway/Wilson's goal). So it wasn't just chaos factor. Though that part was definitely fun.

There's a lot of hyperbole in here as usual but even as someone very forgiving I'm kinda losing the will with him. I can't think of the last time he played and wasn't pretty shit. He was awful against Bromley and not much (still a bit) better tonight. That extra half second he needs really stands out when you're watching Tonali and Bruno week in week out. That said - and I know this is a cliché - but we do need a squad, so I'm not desperate to sell him. We play with three midfielders, which means you need six to choose from if you intend to go deep in all comps. If he wants a move and/or it's appealing from a PSR perspective, then fair enough, but no Longstaff means our key players getting flogged more than they ought to.

Would do sordid things for a point.

Easily my man of the match tbh, made a brilliant contribution to that game. Calling it now; he gets a move for £50mill-ish in a year or two.

Absolutely, well summarised. As "what it's all about" as it gets. Credit to Birmingham for their part in it, even the disgusting stuff.

Really enjoyed that. The lads did very well to get through that with a positive result, because they're a decent side but also a filthy one who made it uncomfortable. Pope - 8 Tino - 7 Krafth - 6 Burn - 6 Targett - 6 Bruno - 6 / Tonali - 8 Miley - 7 Longstaff - 5.5 Osula - 8 (MOTM) Wilson - 7 Willock - 8

Osula has something. Absolutely no doubt about it.