Yorkie

Already barely hanging on.

Honestly, don't worry about it. We're comparing duds with duds. Miley proves he's not afraid to use the academy; the other options clearly aren't up for it.

He was mint from the moment we signed Leon Best; I had a good feeling about him from early on - always looked physically capable.

Aye, not the end of the world at all, that. I love him and he'll be back to his usual self in quick enough time, but no issue in the pressure being relieved on him a bit ahead of these inevitable bad results.

Bah, you've taken mine there. Was convinced he was gonna be amazing and was beyond excited about his signing. Tbf for a couple of seasons he was very decent. My other contribution is Carroll. Maybe not world class, but I thought he looked like he was gonna be a really dangerous striker early on in that 09/10 year. Took a bit of time but fuck he was a good player by the time he left.

A Wilson injury is probably the most inevitable incident of the "it'll get worse before it gets better" phase we're currently occupying (in terms of squad health). Great to see Joelinton but you know he isn't fully fit either.

Please know that this is designed for comfort rather than doom-mongery: we are going to lose tonight, probably badly. Nothing will have changed and it won't have been the nadir. There's no need for anyone to lose any more shit when it happens.

Lolz, it was just a running joke at the time, can't recall why.

Diame was poor before Lascelles punched him into becoming worth the £24m we paid for him. Was literally one of the best technical CMs in the league in 2017/18, then was statistically one of the best tacklers the season following. That version of Mo would be a more than canny option in this squad. A quick look suggests he's still playing so it might not be the worst £40million we'd ever spend.

Well that's just it, you can go on and on. Isak lob v West Ham. Keeganesque second half against Southampton. That first half in Paris.

10.01: Dan Burn scores against Leicester 31.01: Longstaff sends us to Wembley 26.02: first cup final in 24 years 02.04: Man Utd revenge 08.04: Isak winner at Brentford makes it 15 from 15 23.04: Spurs annihilation, juicy style 27.04: Goodison thrashing inc. Isak's GOAT assist 18.05: Brighton pummelled, we're on the brink 22.05: UCL qualification for the first time in 20 years 10.06: Sam Fender at SJP 04.08: Amazon documentary drops 08.08: Livramento joins Barnes and Tonali through the door 12.08: Villa hammered on day one 19.08: Adidas reveal 19.09: back at the San Siro 24.09: 8 (eight) at Sheffield 04.10: PSG 01.11: Reserves destroy ManU at Old Trafford 02.12: another ManU win makes it consecutive home wins against them, Arsenal and Chelsea 16.12: Miley off the mark It's ended a bit sourly but, all told, have we had a better year?

Deeply pessimistic; just grateful that my Liverpool-supporting father-in-law has left prior to this. I snipped at him for the first (and last ) time during the Forest game when he "Go on"d a Forest breakaway at 1-3.

I thought he did okay at York too tbh. The National League tiers are obviously so hard to get out of and he very, very nearly had them promoted, only for COVID to curtail it and send Kings Lynn up on average points. Not totally sure where it all went wrong but there was a whole pile of shit going on off the pitch which I assume he couldn't keep a lid on; even his assistant got suspended for betting offences. Seems a great bloke so I hope he does well.

You're absolutely right; you can't understate the impact of that travesty against PSG and I hold that incidient far more accountable for our slump than any decision by Eddie Howe. What we're witnessing atm is the cumulative effect of an absolutely brutal month in terms of incidents going against us. The PSG call; Trippier's Chelsea catastrophe; Pope ending his season diving for nothing - all to a backdrop of no squad depth and a grueling schedule. It's been an absolute nightmare and I don't really think Howe has done much wrong. We're not yet in a position to recover and it'll get worse before it gets better. He'll have performed another miracle if we get to the end of Jan still in the cup and with our European chase back on track, because we are simply not equipped to turn our fortunes around atm. Literally just having to put Dubravka in nets severely handicaps us. If we have a full squad to choose from between February and May - I'm confident we can finish well and we can more fairly scrutinise his performance. But even then, he easily deserves the grace of one ropey season given the sledgehammer blows we've had to absorb.

Latest leg of the journey around the Northern Ireland Prem yesterday: Crusaders 2-0 Carrick Rangers. There were almost as many (Glasgow) Rangers shirts as there were Crusaders ones.

My bench has more Newcastle players than an episode of Geordie Shore.

I categorically do not want Eddie Howe to be replaced by Jose Mourinho but I wouldn't feel apathetic if he was next off the conveyor. He's generally a tedious bore and it would end in tears eventually, but I don't think you can rule-out the concept of it just clicking for him here. For him to have achieved consecutive European finals with Roma, he's still clearly got something about him.

Finishing in the top four was even less realistic going into this season than it was going into last, given the additional matches and pressure, not to mention the improvements of competitors. Anyone who held the expectation that we'd do it again was setting themselves up for an agonising year. I think par for this team is where we are now, among the scramble for Europa places with Man Utd, West Ham and Brighton. Alright it says '9th' next to our name atm but at this stage of the season, 6th-7th-8th-9th basically just means the same thing so I'm not losing any sleep about being presently bottom of the mini league. We'll probably fall another place or two but should be back amongst it after a much kinder February and March. The run-in is pretty gentle as well. Just finishing in the top six again would be a sensational achievement for this team... doing that two years in a row from our baseline would be amazing. 7th and another European campaign would be a good achievement too. We're up against some really, really good sides here.

Please no.

TBG is Paul Dummett iirc.

Results showing just how competitive the league is atm. Really dangerous opponents in all regions of the table. There's only really the bottom two who have a complete absence of any quality.

Eh so now Schar's the problem? Schar has been absolutely brilliant this season (until of late... because of all the injuries). I'm not even sure what argument we're having at this point but ultimately I think the transfer window was fine; we signed players who, with a fair wind, would've made a meaningful contribution this season. It hasn't worked out through no fault of our own and there's only this amount of scrutiny on it because of the extent of the injury crisis. No one would give a hoot about Lewis Hall (or at the very least just accepted that he's a signing for the future) had he not been thrust into contention due to everyone ahead of him in the pecking order getting injured.

Honestly don't know what to tell you if you think our nosedive is more accountable to not signing a third choice CB than losing say Nick Pope. You can all but pinpoint the moment our season's gone to shit as when he went off against Man Utd. The transfer window had fuck all to do with that either way.

We're a better team with Botman in it but his absence/the fact we didn't sign another CB in the summer is not the reason for why we're out of the cup competitions and losing league form. Until the injuries and fatigue caught up with us, we'd been beaten by two opponents out of 13 or 14 without Botman. Even the greatest planning of all wouldn't be enough to mitigate the injury crisis we've had. If Pope, Tonali and just one of Barnes/Murphy are available then I think we're still in Europe at the very least.

It is, but we'd probably make that back in the PL prize money we'd otherwise lose if Dubs stays in nets until May.