wormy

I always defended his China decisions for similar reasons but after a Google I've only just come to realise the first biggest issue of the foreign player quota was announced two years before he even went to the CSL.. Everyone and their dog could see such a quota was going to seriously hinder the growth of the CSL as a worldwide interest and in turn, owners would likely stop funnelling money in to it like they had started to do. Tbh that just makes me feel that like Everton, he was well aware of some quite restrictive constraints he was going to be working under and I've not much sympathy that they've both gone wrong. Caveated with the fact I still love the guy, but they're frankly two crazy decisions in hindsight. And the decision to manage NUFC, as grateful as I am for him doing so, wasn't any more sane.

Hey, now...

Interesting pairing. Anyone know if they're friends or just a couple of random players that were willing to sign up for a podcast? Should be an interesting listen.

How much of an improvement could the club theoretically make to facilities mid-season? Genuine question btw; not saying above opinions on not seeing ambition are wrong. I just figured most of the club's facilities are so far behind the times that mid-season would only allow for a somewhat pointless, surface-level spruce up before having the time in the summer to tear things up and start again. Can't remember - is there a winter break this season? Could be an interesting gauge as to whether they plough through some work that would've otherwise gotten in the way.

I'm sure I've already said it numerous times but I don't see how Rafa coming in to oversee Howe would ever end in anything other than tears all around.

Can't deny I chuckled at the top comment on Reddit simply saying '1-1'.

Further to the bolded, I'd be interested to know the number of draws of those winless run teams we're being compared to. We're winless in 14 but we've also avoided defeat in half of those games. The point coming from each of those draws is keeping us within touching distance if we can string a couple of wins together. It's all well and good raising 'no team has survived after xyz' but the big stat right now is we remain 6 points behind with 72 left to play for. I won't deny I'll be revisiting my post-Brentford 5/10 if we fall further behind on Saturday. But it remains nowhere near as dead in the water as 'no wins in 14' would have people believe.

So conflicted. Part of me still wants Rafa to survive and push on as the season goes on. But I've not watched a single match of theirs to know if he's lost the players or not; at least during our awful runs you could see the players hadn't downed tools. So I'll take the club overall crashing and burning instead.

For the love of God no.

Fingers crossed they part ways and continue to plummet. No internal conflict then.

Harsh on Oldham.

The duality of man.

Exactly what a speccy knacker would say.

I didn't feel it was that much of an error as I initially thought. Live it looked bad but then from an angle behind the goal it seemed to be quite a stretch. And I'd much rather he remain confident to come out for the ball than Darlow's hesitancy, who probably would've left an attacker to come and smash it first time.

Have some bloody respect for a top 10 PL manager.

The timing of his Everton appointment and our takeover makes me feel like it's somewhat fate and I've made my peace with Rafa not managing the club again. Whether we consider replacing Howe in general? I don't even want to speculate on that as it depends entirely on how much fight/improvement/hope for the future we see by the end of the season.

Considering the other creative players we have, I'm much happier having Lewis in the team for what appears to be improved defence from the last time I saw him, than Ritchie for his productivity in the final third.

Love the moments he looks like he's running through treacle yet still somehow manages to come away with the ball.

Easily MOTM. Please keep it up, Big Joe.

I don't care what happens to our defensive options over the rest of the season, I don't want to see this prick again. Bring a youth player in if you really have to. Just sack this dipshit off.

Get fucked, Clark. Thick as utter pigshit.

I Shows how much attention I've paid to football the past two years.

When the fuck does play actually get stopped for a ref deflection? Fuck off.

We supposed to have two match threads going right now btw?

CLEAR AND OBVIOUS.