Raconteur

Lazaar didnt start a single league game for us but as soon as Sheffield Wednesday fans see him play they love him. Mbabu was binned off for Manquillo. I'm beggining to suspect for everything he does know, he cant do fullbacks at all. He signed a load of hopeless fullbacks at Liverpool. Josemi, Kromkamp, Dossena, Insua.... Gamez came and went with barely a start...

as evidenced by the curtness of the online notification

I was absolutely adamant that Rafa would be leaving in summer, because I don't believe Ashley will satisfy Rafa's demands. I'm starting to get the feeling, though, that perhaps Rafa wants to stay and will compromise what he expects from Ashley. I don't want to see Rafa in the dugout in August with more loans and frees, gritting his teeth after missing out on target after target. It would be his own fault, and I think there would be a lot of faith lost.

He was never loved as he was here.

Was reading that Ronaldinho scored two in a 3-0 win at the Bernabeu on the same day Messi made his first league start. Amazing to think there was a time Messi wasn't the GOAT. But yeah, the Dinho

Can see this appearing unironically on RTG

Aye. That was when they won the League wasn't it? Yup, all the talk was Blackburn didn't have the bottle to win the league, which clearly struck a nerve with old mate Tim

Story in the Guardian aimed squarely at the "bottling it" As an aside - who else remembers the Tim Flowers interview when he used the word "bottle" about 20 times in two minutes?

The fact that Citeh are getting these ugly 1-0 wins is the sign of a champion team, as opposed to Liverpool being unable to beat their traditional rivals? Citeh are the better team and will prove it over 38 matches, not 25. Liverpool are very good, and the vagaries of form and scheduling have done them well, but over the season Liverpool challenged well but will ultimately fall short (because they are).

Longstaff has demonstrated he loves going in for a challenge, but he also showed last week (when on a yellow) that he's smart enough to know when not to go in. If he can keep up that sort of judgement, he's going to be genuine class - even if it means he gets the odd yellow from stupid refs who don't know the rules.

I know that there's a danger of picking and choosing what you believe in social media/newspapers, but I'm sure there was a report that Ashley wanted stupid terms regarding future advertising and other untold terms and conditions. The "sale price" was never really the actual"walk away, no-strings sale price". Anyway, I remember reading such a report, and I firmly believe it. It makes me query the investors who signed NDAs to access the due diligence data cube or whatever the fuck they called it. The "books". I understand that process is quite expensive and therefore any investors who paid for access to that data have made a significant investment. It makes me wonder if any such investors have an actionable claim against Ashley for those monies, in that they invested in good faith whereas Ashley demonstrated bad faith with regards to the "sale price". It wouldn't be the first time Ashley was sued by erstwhile or would-be partners. And would the NDAs still apply if bad faith was demonstrated? If any such investors exist, of course.

For the home match, we'd been playing 5 at the back for a few weeks and reverted to 4 and got smashed. I can see why Rafa would be wary of doing the same thing again. And I'm loathe to be deliberately contrary, but for the love-in we've had about our defenders (50m Lejeune?) - whilst they have been very effective ball-players, that has covered up some of their deficiencies as defenders. Their actual job. Both Schar and Lejeune made mistakes of the type they have made before - consider some of the criticism Schar received earlier in the year before he became Ping Ben Scharfa, while Lejeune and Lascelles have always had defensive ricks in them. Our defensive set pieces are a vulnerability that well-coached teams will exploit and is a surprising deficiency in a Benitez-coached team.

Sterling and Kane staying put in the meantime?

Remember when he was sent off earlier in the season, when we all thought he was finished as a Toon player? Hell of a turnaround.

Stop being a relentlessly insufferable wanker about Eddie Howe. You made your point. Over and over.

Kevin Kilbane was splooging about him in the commentary I was listening to. Looking forward to everyone being on the same page.

I expected it to be given, because I expect everything to be given against us. That said, I reckon we'd be furious not to get it - and at 2-0 just before half time, it could well have been a different game. Tarkowski's missed chance was within a few minutes of it, too. Not to say they deserved anything, because they were rancid and we were very good. But fine margins and all that.

You'd have to think he'd be turning to the missus and saying something like "Look, pet, let's see if we can make this work"

Too bad it's not a tournament summer - be lovely to get a "bolter into the England" squad story about him

5 points off 9th is not quite so Bring it home lads!

Impressive interview as well - it was like he was speaking Rafa's words: team, organised, working for each other, next game...

Looks like the weakest link at the moment. He clearly works better with Atsu than Almiron, but that's tough shit for Ritchie. I've been following the debate about him "ignoring" Almiron and watched for it, and it seemed to me that more than once Almiron was narrower than Ritchie wanted. Surely it's just a getting-to-know-you thing...?

I remember being supremely confident before the home game and we got splattered. And here I am supremely confident before the return fixture.

After the match, the commentator in the studio with Al and Wright says something like "Watching you watch the Longstaff interview, you're beaming, you'd think you were his father". Such love

Fucking Nobody looked good in training, but in the end Rafa went for Manquillo.