Yorkie

Yeah. The objective is to win every game, but the term 'must win' is loaded and implies that there would be some dramatic implications if we didn't. It would be incredibly disappointing if we lost, but its implications would be limited to the fact we're not winning a trophy this season. The only time to reflect on the manager's position will be at the end of the season.

The Liverpool game sends it sky high but we'd still be comfortably bottom even if that game had a more typical xGa. It's an incredibly damning graphic, has to be said. Defensively we're an absolute disaster atm.

Sadly some unforseen circumstances have disabled my ability to attend this evening; gutted!

Really looking forward to this now. Have expectations of an angry wrong-righting performance after the weekend's shitshow.

Bit annoying but I always expected West Ham to win another game this season. We just need to sort our own form out. We've got them, Brighton and Wolves all to come at SJP so it's all in our own hands.

I've never understood the gripes with the Blaydon Races version. But yeah, Local Hero has lost its emphasis for me now cos it's hastily bolted-on at the very end of pre-match affairs, rather than taking centre stage when the players come out. Then the piece itself is too long for the segment of proceedings in which it sits - literally stopping a moment before the ref's whistle. I'm glad we had this chat, I hadn't been able to put my finger on this but I have now. Apropos of nothing, sometimes FIFA times the pre-match cut scenes with a saxophone instrumental from Get You Down by Sam Fender and it sounds fucking mint. (2:04 in the song).

I wouldn't have a single issue with Howe being the kingpin when it comes to first team recruitment. I get that Sporting Directors are supposed to last longer than managers, and the theory - therefore - is that it would more logical for them to craft an identity and recruit based on that. That argument is of course flawed by the fact that our Sporting Director jumped ship after five fucking minutes. Just give Howe the keys to the kingdom. He knows what he's doing and whatever identity we're crafting is being built on his image anyway.

I love Going Home/Local Hero but has the timing of it changed over the years? It starts later now, doesn't it? It used to play as players emerged but now that's the orchestral/choir piece, and Local Hero starts afterwards. Sometimes feels like everyone's waiting around for it to finish before the ref can blow his whistle. Could be talking shite. I'd bin the orchestral piece though. Edit: orchestral piece, then PL music, then Local Hero. It's playing when the teams are shaking hands. Too late imo.

It's usually (and was today) Matthew 'Razor' Raisbeck.

Murphy too.

I've never turned a tele off so quick. Good result.

Great to see. Is this competition just from Tier 3 downwards?

Your man Pete? (not watching)

Wew, is he two-footed? Two great goals there.

The target is to qualify for Europe so it would definitely be a failure. So would finishing in 8th; the specific table position is pretty irrelevant up to a point imo. If you were to argue that finishing in the same position we did two years ago represents a lack of progress then you'd be ignoring all context.

I don't think this is controversial at all, fwiw. If we keep Bruno, invest well and keep the squad fit, we ought to make a stronger claim for the top six. If the team becomes no longer (at least) equal to the sum of its parts, it'll be fair to question whether he's the most suitable option long-term.

From an optics point of view it could be damaging but if we finished say 11th as opposed to 8th I don't really see how it would dramatically re-define the season. We're in a mini-league with Brighton, West Ham, Chelsea and Wolves and the finishing places for those five are pretty interchangeable, imo.

Fair counter, I've probably got it wrong with Chelsea seeing as it's only Lampard and Potter in their recent chopping and changing who haven't delivered silverware. Spurs are a more valid example (i.e. by building their own roadblock when they twisted on Poch), and I wouldn't bet against Ange being shown the door within 12 months. My broader point is that I'm far more inclined to watch someone build and grow with us, with allowances for the occasional underachievement (not that Howe is underachieving), than hire and fire. If for any reason: I honestly don't think the pool of top managers - who can routinely get a team punching above its weight - is especially high.

@STM good shouts re the Arteta situation. Fair play to Arsenal for sticking with him when the likes of Chelsea and Spurs have demonstrated the issues with being impatient. I pray we never become like them.

Mourinho isn't a good shout for the reasons KI listed but why should we change managers anyway? Is there any evidence that the broad trajectory under Howe isn't an upwards one? Are we so unrealistic about becoming top six regulars (an unbelievably difficult task) that we should sack him because he only achieved that in 50% of his seasons with us? We're hardly talking about a flash-in-the-pan campaign under Pardew followed by a relegation battle, here. We've been in the mix all season despite everything. If we finish 10th or 11th this season, for instance, then we take it on the chin and crack on. 8th or 11th - there's very little difference, a bit of prize money aside. I appreciate that that leaves us vulnerable to losing our most coveted players but we should've known all along that we might not move fast enough for the likes of Bruno. That's just a symptom of the enormous ground we had to make up after Ashley.

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I honestly don't know how anyone could see an additional ban as anything other than draconian, overzealous and unnecessary. If the PL saw fit to give him say a five month ban (a la Toney), but commencing at the conclusion of his current one, then it is in effect a 15 month ban, which would be frankly obscene.

Clearly he will have done though, it would just be contained within the span of these ten months. There's no justification whatsoever for giving him another ban to commence as soon as this one is finished. The punishment he's facing now should effectively discharge any other penalty.

I still don't really see any fundamental flaws in his managerial ability that warrants him any serious flak. No compelling evidence whatsoever to suggest we haven't got one of the best managers in the league, who we'd do incredibly well to improve upon. Results have been very mixed recently but I just can't look beyond the duff hand he's had with squad availability, with all the direct and indirect impacts that's had. From the massive direct impacts of the drop-off in goalkeeper quality, to the indirect impact of confidence being lost. I think it's fair to conclude that there's a method in existence which results in a better return than 19 goals conceded in seven games, but I can't believe that last season's GC column was a fluke - or even the spell in Autumn when were conceding 0.5 per game.

Longstaff has pinched some goals this season but fuck me he's been ineffective beyond that. I've always liked him and he runs all day and all day night, but fucking hell he contributes so little.