Yorkie

Start, then. I've no beef with the lineup fwiw.

He's always talked about protecting Miley cos of his age tbf, don't think he wants him to be a regular in the side yet.

I would've assumed this would be an opportunity to rotate a couple in and save legs, but I trust the boss and they've obviously got belief that the players can handle the load. You do wonder why we bothered with Ramsey at times, mind. Surely they expected him to feature in games like this?

I used to find him a bit annoying (and he kinda is) but tbh I think he's arguably the most sensible NUFC content creator out there now.

If that's true they're reaping what they've sown and fuck em.

I've no love for Palace but it's an incredibly depressing tale and another sorry indictment of the financial order which has been established in the Premier League. In fairness to them, they've criticised PSR and even suggested amendments to try and level the playing field a bit, but there were no takers and, what do you know - the ceiling they've had enforced on them has been hit. Seems like it's been pure misery for them since the cup win; the Europa debacle and poor performance in it, losing key players in the summer, Glasner's situation, cup embarrassment, more players leaving in January... I do sympathise a bit.

tell me that's a joke. There's immense value in the flag displays - they're legitimately one of the best things about the club - but agree that their influence on the atmosphere is probably negligible.

It's not like that's an improvement on anything though. Going into the last round of fixtures in 2023/24 (the last time there was a traditional group stage), almost everyone had something to play for - even if it was just finishing 1st/2nd or grasping the Europa League spot. Looking at the standings there was only three teams out of 32 who already knew their fate before the last game.

Well my point was that the emphasis is different. They need to stop playing like carthorses, was my read of the boss' words.

Interestingly Howe gave that exact answer in the presser, only he put the emphasis the other way round (they need to do more, we need to help them more).

Reflecting on our own game with Man City after this is such misery fetishizing. They've lost a couple of games and therefore shame on anyone else who didn't beat them? Our cup game was tight and they played well (as did we). Them's just the breaks.

VAR shouldn't really be used for turning non-pens into pens at all, really. It's almost always a massively disproportionate punishment relative to the infringement - which is fine, it's part of the game and always has been - but we don't need to manufacture it happening more frequently. Overturning ones which are given incorrectly, sure. But then you're into the realms of choosing where to apply it and where not to, when the more consistent approach is to have it on either everything or nothing.

Targett out of contract too. And Ruddy.

I hope I never feel that way towards any NUFC player/representative ever again. What a ghastly pisstake of a signing this was. For us to replace Cabaye with this mackem ghoul - on the pretence that he was exactly what we needed - was as gaslighty as anything else that happened during those torturous years. Good to get these reminders every now and again.

I'm looking forward to it of course, and my gratitude to Howe and everyone else who's got us here is boundless, but the anticipation is diluted because it doesn't feel like there's that much riding on it and I'm anxious about the cumulative impact on the players/season. Last time we were in I was buzzing days in advance and was very distracted on the day of the games.

Zero more points could well get us through, it seems. High stakes indeed.

Aye you're probably right. I'm somewhere between reveling in us being in Europe but resenting the competition itself. Mixed feelings for sure.

Four games to go before we enter (or don't) the knockout stage. Slog and a half. I suppose there's some jeopardy on Wednesday because if we lose both it and PSG we'll probably be out. Feel fairly ambivalent at this point really, beyond wanting to avoid the ignominy of contriving to get knocked out from such a good position. It doesn't feel like we have a purpose in this competition. At least with the traditional group stage there's almost like a self-contained competition within the competition. With this it just amplifies your identity as an also-ran. That said, I am looking forward to the game itself in the hope that the slightly more heightened stakes produce a bit of an occasion.

Yeah I'd say you're absolutely right. I can't think of anything worse and it was an insult to the profession. It's like, okay, transparently have biased co-commentators, but fucking hell can we at least uphold a veil of professionalism?

I'd be fascinated to know what our initial vision was for the strikers' department tbh. Obviously it would've been Isak and another, but whether that was someone theoretically ready-made, like Wissa, or a player to be developed, like Woltemade, I dunno. But as soon as it was likely that both would be gone I think it was more about just re-tooling the whole department rather than 'X to replace Isak' and 'Y to replace Wilson'. I've always been convinced Joao Pedro was our first choice and him going to Chelsea was the turning point of our whole summer. Even if Isak still goes, we at least hold some cards rather than having our bargaining positioned weakened a little bit more seemingly every passing day. I think it's a minor miracle we got £130million out of Liverpool given Isak doing everything he could to depreciate his value, and the fact we couldn't do shit in terms of incomings.

It's entirely deliberate and, as KI says, they're honest about it - that's the model now. Years ago on Set Piece Menu (long deceased best football podcast around), Andy Hinchcliffe talked about how Sky approached him to enquire if he would be Man City's 'guy' a la Neville for ManU and Carragher for Liverpool. It's the intended model to have commentators/pundits which are representatives of clubs. Prime had Shearer commentating on our games in one of the last sets of fixtures they had. It's an obvious way to cultivate dramatic discussion and I assume it's mostly about driving engagement on social media. I do find the coterie of Man Utd ones (Neville, Savage, Ferdinand) totally beyond the pail on comms, though. That was absolutely rancid yesterday and I'm reminded of that Lyon game on TNT last season. Absolutely hideous and such a massive dumbing down of the profession.

I don't think we were ever going to get him unless Isak left, at which point the valuation changed. I believe Wissa was identified as a proven PL goalscorer who would be definitely be available to us in the event we lost our own proven PL goalscorer. So he wasn't a panic buy; he was our planned-for 'break glass in case of emergency' signing if Liverpool stumped up.