Raconteur

Because Ashley really isn’t bothered about relegation. He thinks he can build a championship promotion team cheaper than he can build a premiership surviving one. He’s too thick to realise you need a top manager to achieve this though. All of Ashley’s mistakes come back to this. He doesn’t understand football, and he’s too thick to adjust his thinking. We’re talking about compensation being an obstacle for Ashley, but the fresh line is Ashley wants to repay Bruce’s loyalty. He needs to make a football decision he’s too thick to make, and is instead rewarding sycophancy - at the cost of untold millions.

I’ve been thinking about that £4m compensation - why doesn’t someone suggest to Ashley that he sack Bruce and just not sign the cheque? Make Bruce sue for it (and argue incompetence, because why not if you’re in court anyway)...?

Am I mistaken thinking no one has mentioned Loic Remy? Edit: literally half a dozen posts up

Hendricks having triple the game time Matty has had this season is reason enough to sack Bruce for gross incompetence...

Surely a better option to wheel Shearer's statue onto the pitch - even stationary, it will be offside less than Joelinton and more mobile than Wor Andy?

Good thing Mike Ashley is a fit and proper person to own a football club.

I don't think Hayden should wear too much of the blame either - you could see he was trying to cover two players and in the end just couldn't. If he'd gone inside earlier, the deeper cross to an unmarked man was on (and no doubt Hayden would still be blamed)

Feel like I’m swimming against the tide, but I’m actually quite confident - of course they want to bounce back from being humped, and we’re still managed by a cabbage, but nevertheless I’m tempted by the $2.87 odds Sportsbet are offering... Their injury crisis is compounded by two suspensions and I heard the kit man and the tea lady were training this week in case of selection. We have clearly turned something of a corner in our style and approach thanks to Guv’nor Jones - maybe Bruce will see the need for an active Wor Graeme and let him move the pieces, seeing as banishing him to the stands worked so well last time...

It’s not just him - our whole team clearly have no instructions or routines. Outrageous the way we turn the ball over at throw-ins. Didn’t Bruce criticise Sean Longstaff for taking a quick throw earlier this season? Meaning that dithering, waiting for teammates to be marked and turning the ball over is... by design?

But with Chucky and Xisco it was obvious that there was some other reason they were brought here, the managers would never actually play them. How do you account for Bruce including in the starting line most every week? I mean I know the answer I'm going to get but.... Xisco was better than this lazy fucker. I thought “Xisco is better than...” would never be said about a starting NUFC striker. I think it’s hyperbole, but it’s pretty striking that the comparison is even suggested.

You quoting a sheff united forum? There's only one team in the whole division I feel are bad enough to make us look like something resembling a football team. This is the one mate, we are going to pass them off the park. I can't believe you honestly believe that. See you Tuesday man. Looking forward to your thoughts then. Sheffield United are awful, but we’re pretty awful, with a thin squad that just played 120 minutes three days ago. Curious as to who will be making the passes that play Sheff U off the pitch, too. If he’d said lump it long over and around their defenders, I might have been with you...

This boggles me almost every match (every opponent who bothers to watch our match tapes). There are simply no throw in routines in our repertoire. If the bad guys mark up, the Toon thrower has a visible thought balloon saying “What do I do?”

It’s actually incredibly frustrating that he seems to put his mateship above the good of the club

Small mercies

You can’t underestimate the fact that he gets the shit kicked out of him every match, and probably has since he could dribble.

Would it be fair to say James Tavernier is our most successful active Academy product? How is his injury record since leaving the club? Paul Gascoigne?

I didn’t get a laugh for it so wasn’t worth trying to steal my material. Says everything about Bruce's approach that we were both thinking it Unless it was one of you two, it was also stolen and reused on the BBC live update

Would it be fair to say James Tavernier is our most successful active Academy product? How is his injury record since leaving the club?

I’d be curious to see the stats from that match - I remember us being pretty ordinary but for the goals...?

I really feel it’s valid to ask what your association with these two... fans is?

Took too long to get a mention. Up there with Bergkamp and Zola as my top three. Vialli as my favourite not mentioned yet

Surprised they didn’t do the same with Haaland or did he have a contract clause of some sort? My memory was that there was a fixed price clause for Haaland for RBL, but when RBS started accepting significantly higher bids, Haaland was free to choose. I think...

So obvious, yet Bruce is oblivious. Or so wedded to the notion that three at the back = negative Rafaball...

It’s impossible for me to think of Craig Johnston without feeling a measure of bitterness

I have to say I disagree with this - for a reason that still doesn’t make sense, I really liked the Hoss, and I was very, very lonely for a long time on the topic. He was widely hated until the end and cheered out the door - at least, that’s how it seemed to me...