Minhosa

Nooocarrrrstle.

Man City.

Thought he was Mr Invisible last night. Also cannot believe how much Carrick sounded like Bruce in his post match interview and not just with the accent. His explanations were as basic as fuck. Really hope he gets that gig full time because he’d be fucking hopeless over any period of time.

In isolation, no. After 8 months and at a cost of £55m, yes.

A-fucking-men. Posted similar in the Elanga thread earlier this week. The bar for Elanga is so low from some people on here that Vurnon Anita would bang his arse on it….

Rolled back the years tonight.

Majestic tonight. At his destructive best.

For £55m he should already be one tbh….

Hasn’t been over the top at all. He’s contributed fuck all in 8 months having had £55m spaffed on him. It’s only ‘over the top’ if you’re super sensitive to him being criticised for some bizarre reason. And for all the compliments he’s received tonight it’s another game with no assists, no goal and some fucking woeful technical output again in the form of his crossing... Ran about a bit and won some headers though so there is that for the happy clappers to cling on to .

Delighted for him tonight.

Baseless view but I don’t think Pope pulls off many of those saves given his recent form.

Real shame he wasn’t fit to play tonight, I think it would have been one of the only games to have really suited him tonight. Tonnes of gaps, a four at the back for them and the game was played at a slow pace generally throughout. He’d have done well imho.

There's going to have to be an uncomfortable level of player turnover for Howe's liking is my feeling. Was told yesterday that Tino to Man City is a 'done deal' from a reliable source. If that's the case, we're going to need to have deals lined up before every club knows we have that fee burning a hole in our pockets like they did with the Wissa/Woltemade fee's. Hopefully Wilson will have the sense to get the bodies in first and then let the big outgoings happen...

Thought Watkins was excellent at our place tbf. Chalk and cheese in terms of quality of movement, holding the ball up and his pressing. He was a real nuisance all game.

I feel like I say this every time he does something but Hayden would be a great pundit. He's got a great tone, everything he says feels thought through and intentional and he's not prone to outlandish statements for effect. Always comes acros as a proper top bloke imho.

FWIW I absolutely wouldn't be looking to lose Howe. In fact, if we can fix the clusterfuck of last summer this next window, I'd even back him to win us a cup next season. One game per week, loads of time on the grass and a fitter, less stretched squad would make us favourites for a domestic cup imho. I sincerely hope he stays and is given a chance to right last summers wrongs. I still think he's a class act and has done nothing but work his bollocks off and represent us with real dignity. Having said that, I cannot wait for this season to be over. Never thought I'd say it but I'm fucking sick of going to the games, sick of our boring performances and sick of watching some of the shite that we should never have signed. Bring on next year, ship out the shite and go again and win more silverware.

Aye - just a bit of a self-serving cunt.

Don't disagree on that at all.

We spent £250m last summer. We could've bought three of them and still picked up a Thiaw or Ramsey to go with them....

Agreed. Amanda going remains a loss imho and we've never got the Sporting Director role right since PIF arrived. Jury is out on Wilson but I'm already anticipating 'hard to do deals in a world cup year' whilst Man City, Liverpool, Villa etc all announce signings prior to it.

They bid more than that for Ekitike and Sesko tbf. Ekitike was early in the window too so not a panic move imho.

We near enough dropped that on Woltemade. And we absolutely could do it again provided the sporting director and scouts are intelligent enough to spend the remainder of the budget on lesser valued players. There was a bunch of players who moved last summer for much less than that and are proving effective. It's all about how we use our budget.

That's my concern - our transfer record prior to last summer was fucking exemplary. Whatever criteria we were using then, we need to rigidly stick to this window and ongoing. I'd rather we didn't buy at all than buy completely different players for Howe's system and set fire to the budget because it's not just that one fuck up it's all the future players we can't afford to sign because nobody wants our overpaid cast offs.

If last summer has taught us anything, it's that we can throw away the risk assessment criteria...

Oh fuck yeah. We're never taking anything other than a thunderbastard of a loss on him and Wissa. Just rank bad business. If ever there was a time to call in a favour from our Saudi overlords....