Yorkie

I've no issue in confessing that it does do. I doubt I'm the only football fan who feels that way about certain people who've represented their club. And I'm saying this as someone who's open to change in the dugout (though ultimately pleased he's being given another chance).

I've been harping on about ending the season with positive vibes for the last four weeks, and I think the reaction after today sums up why. Last week was a good day for the club and, today, anything other than a miserable defeat would've sent us into the summer with nothing worse than weary relief that the season is over. However, they delivered an abject performance and one last morale-sapping defeat, thus re-sharpening the knives and denying us the ability to calmly just draw a line under it. Very disappointing and frustrating. I think the season is quite easy to sum up: it's been hugely disappointing with it's many lows far outstripping it's infrequent and unmemorable highs. There's been a conveyor belt of negativity ever since the Celtic friendly and it's been a season of consequences and knock-on effects. Losing Isak in the manner we did and Wissa being a complete disaster are the two things which I consider to be the biggest reasons for why the season has panned out the way it has. Bad goalkeepers comes next, plus we've had a shit-ton of injuries and a very unforgiving schedule. But most things stem from the striker situation imo. In terms of the manager's performance; I'm quite forgiving of him because I think he's had a difficult job this season, trying to withstand gutpunch after gutpunch. I certainly don't blame him for the way the summer panned out and there's only really Elanga where I'd really question his judgement. However, there's no getting away from the fact that, by and large, he's not helped us enough this season. If he'd paid for it with his job, I'd have been bitterly disappointed but I wouldn't have had too many complaints. All that said, on the 19th March, we'd just had brilliant back-to-back wins against Man Utd and Chelsea and were fantastic at home to Barcelona. We were six points from sixth and looking at the bracket to see a route to the Champions League final. At that point, you call it an imperfect season with a lot to do if we're going to achieve anything, but there was hope, and the mood was very good. The season turned on a dime that night in Barcelona, where the manager got it horribly wrong. It was a humbling, painful defeat, and the mackem game was hugely influenced by it. Suddenly the entire season is on the ropes. I think we might have rescued it if we'd won at Palace but we lost late again, and we were truly cooked from that point. From there it was basically damage limitation, with everyone to a man seemingly desperate for the season to end. This is where conclusions about the manager based on the run from Palace to Fulham are, imo, not really worth making. The season was full of near-fatal bullet holes after the Sunderland game; blood poring from it's torso. Mateta's 94th minute penalty was the headshot which finished us as any meaningful outfit this year. Which takes me back to the top; we've been playing for vibes for weeks now and sadly we've ended it with bad ones. 4/10

Disappointing and brutal season. Isak, 58 games, Wissa, terrible goalkeepers - plus a manager who couldn't find a solution. The result being a very mixed bag with some highs and a lot of painful lows. Personally won't put too much weight into anything that happened after the Nou Camp. Prior to then, everything was in our hands but that night was a wrecking ball to the season. He isn't going anywhere (rightly so, imo, though that's not a military-grade position), so all we can do is look forward to a reshuffle and a fresh start. Hopefully he can find his mojo again with a refreshed squad. Hopefully people won't be complete cunts about a man who has delivered more than we could've realistically dreamed of, just for having the gall to deliver a sub-par league performance. But I won't hold my breath.

Yet more wins than the team who finished 6th. Weird season.

Ergh. Thank God it's over. Looking forward to the reset and everyone being really chill next season with reduced expectations.

Howay the lads. Morale-boosting win to finish, please.

A replacement for the single member of the squad (Tino) who is apparently comfortable at playing on both sides of the pitch; not necessarily a replacement for first choice RB. Sorry, thought that was pretty obvious given it preceded the statement about a replacement.

Why wouldn't he just play Trippier if that was the case?

You absolutely love twisting words like. I'm saying Howe is playing Hall at RB to see if he's a viable option there in the future. Much like how Tino is an option at LB despite it being his unfavoured side. I don't believe he's playing Hall at RB because he sees him as the answer there long-term. Or because he's trying desperately to accommodate Dan Burn no matter what. We could do without having to sign a million full-backs in the summer so let's use this dead rubber to see if the one we've got has - heaven forbid - a bit of versatility. Anything to bitch and moan.

Because he wants to see how Hall fares at RB. Is it really that mental? We're probably losing Tino whose greatest asset is being able to play both sides. Would be useful if we had a replacement for that in-house.

If we're losing literally every right-back in the squad this summer then we could do with seeing if Lewis Hall is capable of doing a job there. No beef at all from me.

Goalkeeper situation is probably priority number one for me this summer. Regardless of any other incoming or outgoing, if we don't repair that position we will achieve nothing next season. I think we could do without having to sign two goalkeepers though, so ideally Pope stays and becomes second choice. However, if there's an appealing sale to be made and Pope wants to leave, I wouldn't be wildly against keeping Ramsdale providing the terms were right. I don't rate him particularly highly but how high should our expectations actually be of a backup goalie? We can't realistically expect to have two brilliant keepers, surely?

Yeah well put. He was into data before it was cool, basically.

Watched it with my best mate who's a Hull fan so happy for him but fuuuuuucking holy 2009 is that a miserable result. Shameful from Boro that they didn't capitalise on that gift against a really, really ropey Championship outfit.

Was mint for us mind. A beacon of light in a sea of shit.

Did they work from Liverpool's point of view? They ended up spending £130million despite conspiring with the player himself to drive his value as close to zero as possible.

Said he wasn't sure but just that it was after that date of the 13th, which is when the players return.

Might play against Fulham

Pretty sure he broke Woltemade no? At least I have a vague memory of nobody believing it at first partly because Hope was reporting on it. He was the first to mention Wissa too.

Couldn't really give a shite about England at the moment but I'm glad I won't have to watch Phil Foden perform at about 1% of his capabilities in an England shirt.

Depends how you define it I suppose. The worst possible outcome would be relegation so I guess that would be the only thing I'd call a disaster; speaking purely in terms of the final league position. I'd hope and expect us to have a better season than this one, which I'd ultimately define as a mixed bag.

Given how difficult it will be to shift the ones we currently have - unsurprised. We could have something with Osula though so maybe it wouldn't be a disaster.

Honestly think he might be the world's best man.

Yeah hopefully. Ultimately it's just better for us if they're in than if they're out. One thing for sure is that apportioning a single grain of blame at Eddie Howe's door is absolutely risible. He's been amazing for Hall.

It's great that there's been continuous evidence that players can achieve their international aspirations while they're here, but if Hall isn't included, that's not great for us. It doesn't mean he's going to rush immediately to the exit door but we want our best players to be as happy as they can be.