Yorkie

That Brighton calamity is a true "puts things into perspective" result for the ages. Properly competitive league this year; quality in all regions of the table. Two points from Southampton, Fulham, Leicester and Palace in their last four is a dismal return.

Inoffensive choice. Quite surprised they recruited in. Hug your gammons tonight, folks.

As a glasses wearer I don't support this.

Really? He goes over the top but it's hardly a stamp and the contact is minimal. Red would've been incredibly harsh imo; yellow's fair.

Showed his physical attributes again but thought he demonstrated his rawness very aptly with that botched breakaway late on. Slip it through to Gordon and that's 5-0. Look forward to seeing more of him though; he's got talent and he's in very good hands.

It wasn't an impossible job for decades and decades prior to VAR. Relying on the lino enables the rule to be applied in the spirit it was created: to prevent unfair advantages. I'll take that over the ludicrously pedantic, overzealous and unnecessary application by VAR.

That was my take, too. Goes down early in anticipation of the contact. Let's face it, most recipients of fouls emphasise the contact these days; doesn't mean it isn't a foul. Was annoying he didn't sell it better tbh.

Buzzing for this now. Huge game, huge opportunity. They won't fear us so we'll have to be totally on it, but hopefully we'll go hell for leather, deshackled from the anxiety of our league form.

Champion. Brilliant performance.

Match thread.

You're such a wet wipe, you.

I'll criticise when it's warranted; I literally did so in the post you quoted re Guehi. I thought the Trafford thing was conditional on us shifting Dubravka. We went back in for him even after Vlachodimos arrived iirc. And like I say, we're probably not even in for the likes of Trafford if PSR isn't a thing - we try to upgrade Pope.

It's on the club that they couldn't shift an ageing, rubbish, expensive Ashley relic who terminates his own loans? And it's on the club that the PL's anti-competitive rules forced us into making a deal which - as sods law would have it - required us to sign another keeper we didn't want? The Guehi fiasco is 'on the club'. The goalie situation I'm prepared to give them maximum grace for. If there's no PSR then we probably upgrade on Pope; let alone Dubravka. Honestly blows my mind that even an enemy as common as PSR still won't stop people from going after the club.

Gillespie literally doesn't count. Ruddy replaced Karius; it's perfectly fine to have a competent third choice goalkeeper. We tried to shift Dubravka but couldn't because he's rubbish, so we were stuck with him. Then we were forced to sign Vlachodimos to avoid a points ban because of anti-competitive rules. Ergo, no proper new goalkeeper. The window was crap but not everything has to be the fault of whichever person at the club you fancy slagging off from one day to the next.

That's not the point. We weren't going to get another keeper after Vlachodimos came in, were we?

We clearly want to upgrade on Pope but haven't had the financial wiggle room to do so. Then being forced into getting Vlachodimos to avoid a points ban ended any hopes of us upgrading even on Dubravka. As always, the rules are at the heart of the failure.

There were plenty of "you don't speak for me" types back then too.

I completely disagree. A player represents less of a gamble if they've already demonstrated that they can perform consistently at a high level in this league. I don't really see how that's up for debate. Obviously that isn't to say that it's impossible to buy poorly from the PL, or that it's inherently risky to buy from abroad; but if you've got limited financial wiggle room then it makes sense to identify 'surer' things at home. The trouble is, that market is inflated and more accessible to the rules' main beneficiaries.

The justified and prevailing complaint is that the sensitivity is so much greater in our case than others because of the bullshit, anti-competitive rules. In a couple of windows, Chelsea can blow £250m and God knows what wages on a few players who've already demonstrated their quality in this league, and it's no bother at all, whether or not those transfers work out. We do the same and suddenly it's "stop whinging, you made your choices"? Horseshit. PL players are appealing because their chances of success are more guaranteed; buying from abroad - although it can be cheaper up front, is riskier. Why should only a small number of teams have unfettered and consequence-free access to the lower-risk market?

I don't think the message on the banner holds that much relevance unless the fans are being gaslit about expectations + the club isn't trying. The message is still true imo, but it's not a particularly fair as a riposte to a fan who might complain that the club needs a change in order to progress. You're allowed to want better without being totally grounded by a message that was most relevant in 2014. But it certainly wasn't sanctimonious back then.

I can't get my head around people not aligning with the message on that banner. It wasn't sanctimonious at all. Its purpose was to highlight that the club wasn't even trying to compete, all the while the fanbase was being continuously gaslit around supposedly unrealistic expectations. I can't believe anyone who's been on this forum long enough wouldn't get that. Obviously we all want a team that wins; the point was that, at the time - after years of deliberate regression - all we wanted (at the very fucking least) was for us to have a go. Deluded Geordies think they should be in the top 4! Er, just trying for something more than 17th and the 3rd round of the cup would be decent, like.

Mad how I can still get so rattled by shit we were arguing about ten years ago.

This is just it. For clubs with desires on the Champions League places and/or silverware, the pool of managers that are both appealing and attainable seems incredibly small. That's why you get the likes of Chelsea changing managers like they're underwear; Man Utd sticking with Ten Hag longer than they wanted; Spurs lurching from one bad fit to another. I hope we give Howe time and resources to have a better second half to the season regardless, but I'm really dubious we could actually improve on him.

Wouldn't surprise me. He was squaring up to fans behind the dugout again the other day; the guy is pure Vanarama.

If you reckon 11/12 and/or 05/06 were better than last season then fair enough. I certainly don't, even if we picked up a few more points.