Yorkie

I don't think you've really answered my question though. Perhaps he played above himself last season but do you think we're getting the par now? He got 12 PL goals the season before last. I'd take that; that would be useful with the likes of Barnes, Gordon, Bruno, Woltemade chipping in. You might expect more for £55m but that's where the context comes into it.

It's really depressing. Criticism is fine; I disagree with it a lot of the time (or feel like it doesn't give due regard to context/mitigation), but criticism when we're in a bad run is understandable. It's the language that gets used which is so fucking depressing, about these people who've delivered such incredible moments over the year few years. Feels so over the top and hateful a lot of the time, and kicks you when you're down. Awful.

So he got those 45 goals for Brentford playing at his current standard?

Yep. 45 goals in 137 PL games before we signed him; 19 in 35 last season. As proven as it gets really.

Knew he'd score tonight hence the early avatar change yesterday. Good lad.

Well yeah but we didn't and my reflection on that group stage is just a shrug, which has never been out experience in the competition in attempts prior. I think we achieved pretty much the maximum we were likely to achieve with that fixture list, which was bookended by two absolutely solid ties. I dunno, fair enough if you think it's a good competition, not gonna say you're wrong as that's your opinion. Just does nowt for me. Knowing why it exists in it's current form is a contributing factor.

CL are pretty much the only matches I've enjoyed watching us this season There's been some good games and it's nice to win but they've felt a bit surface-level to me because they haven't meant much, and it's come at the expense of our domestic campaign. We could've drawn against Bilbao for instance and still been in the top 16. We could've played the kids against Paris and lost 10-0 and still finished where we finished. Fun in isolation because winning is nice but we're probably gonna get dumped out in the last 16 and we're all gonna wonder what the point of that all was, finance aside. The last campaign will be far more memorable in time and we finished rock bottom of our group. This isn't an anti-Newcastle post btw. I think we've performed admirably, and another cup semi with all the challenges this year is a notable achievement. But the CL is shite imo and doesn't feel particularly worth it from an exclusively sporting pov.

The money we generate from getting into the last 16 is not something we’d want to sack off. I know, that's what my last sentence is about.

Would sooner sack off the CL. Eight low-stakes but nevertheless gruelling exhibition matches rewarded with a punishing two-legged tie just for the chance to get dumped out in the last 16. Absolutely dreadful competition and I won't lose a wink of sleep that we're not in it next season. If it means we can't become title challengers, so be it.

Wow great while we are fucking trash in every other competition or good occasionally, been decent what 5% of the season

Not just this game is it and it's the manner of defeat and way we play, he's getting fuck all out this team Just the seven days since we went to the European Champions and took a point off them.

Mate I love you but fuck off with this shit

Gotta say I do have a feeling. It's the sort of season where we might just go mad and do it here.

We've been in one for most of the season.

This isn't worth our time

£130 million after a summer of him and his new club pulling every single trick to drive his value down as much as possible.

It is ridiculous, such poor planning What should we have done to avoid the tags of ridiculous and poor planning? Is it not more that the position has been occupied by unpopular players, or players who the manager has got playing well above their baseline? It certainly wasn't a problem area by any stretch last season, Murphy was brilliant. We also got a fee for Miggy a year ago and invested in - theoretically - a massive upgrade in Elanga at the point at which we could.

Ctrl F loan recall

I'm broadly with you on that. Maybe not quite as coldly , because at the end of the day, I'm in it for the feels, and I don't like to see players I like go. But, for instance, I'd mentally found myself at peace with a Bruno departure in summer 2024, which thankfully never happened. But it is one of the reasons why I don't share the same disdain for Isak as others (not that I blame anyone). It was an absolutely incredible signing and the pros do still outweigh the cons of how he manufactured his departure. I've lost almost all affection for him, of course.

Regardless of how you rate the replacement, we're not functioning in a basic net spend environment. I don't know the specifics but the fee recouped for Isak has implications across future windows; we've not 'blown it all' on Wissa and Woltemade. Both of whom could and probably will improve, hopefully considerably.

Now who's being untrue... Edit: sorry, mixed you up with TCD there. Anyway. This isn't true.

This is the irony of it all. In the Premier League we're 14 gruelling matches away from a possible Europa spot. In the Carabao Cup we're two.

I assume it's this, but it's not "it's fucked us" - simply, we chose to spend a lot in the summer. The teams we're trying to topple did the same but were able to invest again this month without the same restraint. Liverpool spent nearly more than £300million quid on attacking talent that has, thus far, produced pretty middling returns (being kind) - whilst knowing they'd have to wheel out a VVD who is becoming less reliable by the game. This month they spent £60million on a CB from Ligue 1.