Conjo

Just watched his goal against Norway. Fuck that was annoying. A slight deflection sure, but he turned the Norway defender into a pretzel with some lovely dribbling after carrying the ball across half the pitch like he's never done for Liverpool. It's petty, but I hope someone snaps one of his twig legs during the WC. Can't be having that version of Isak playing for those cunts.

Pretty sure it was Miley.

Nick Popes missing ingredient. Not good enough overall though. Wish him all the best, seems like a good guy.

I feel footballs entertainment value is very cyclical. I know there's more to it than goals, but you just have to go back to the 23/24 season for the most goals scored during a 38 games top league season in England. If 23/24 didn't have that record, it would have been 24/25, then 22/23. Right now we're in a boring meta, but very soon someone will find a solution to counter it and it will become better, maybe combined with rule changes wrt time allowed for set pieces, hopefully significant improvements in VAR usage etc. There's been multiple spells the last 20 years where it's been boring. I guess the main difference is that there's fewer truly unique players at the top level right now than earlier. Not beyond the realms of possibility that the counter to rigid systems ends up being unpredictability and flair and we could end up seeing quite exciting football and footballers sooner rather than later.

Oh yeah, I'm probably mixing them up

He shouldn't have benched one for the other then. I think I remember ( long time ago) a major reason for so many being happy with the sale was that N'Zogbia would get more playing time on the left wing.

Rogers has played nearly every minute of every game this season, and is the only one creating for them. Hyperbolic statement I'll admit, but Villa will seriously struggle without him.

Emery sacked by October if Villa loses Rogers. He'll have no clue what to do when "pass it to Rogers" isn't an option for his attacking plan.

Remember at the time I wasn't too fussed about him leaving. He was incredibly frustrating to watch at times with his inability to get past his man and hitting the first man on crosses/corners, however in hindsight that was only because we used him exclusively on the wing. He could play on the wing, but he was never a winger.

Not even close. Targett was out for 125 days with his hamstring, then just two weeks later he got an achilles injury which set him out another 148 days. Came back only to be hampered a month later by his eczema for 50 days. Then a minor illness (5 days) and another lesser hamstring issue (35 days) before he went to Middlesbrough. Wissa had one injury which set him out for 114 days, and has now been injury free (bar a bruised knee that saw him out of action 12 days) nearly 6 months. If Wissas knee injury was so bad that he would never be the same player again then fair enough, but I haven't read anywhere that the injury was so serious so correct me if I'm wrong.

I think you put too much into his performances this season, which I don't think is fair considering he probably hasn't been ever properly match fit this season bar the first 5-6 games. He's never been very good in the final third I'll grant you, but he is excellent at getting past his man and carrying the ball up to that point. We just need a good fit for him at RW to do the stuff he isn't good at. Neither Murphy or Elanga is the answer. Defensively i think he is among the very best in the league.

Harsh to call it a failure when it's due to injuries. His transfer didn't work out, but it wasn't a failure by him, Howe or the ones that approved the transfer.

Keeping him fit next season will be important. Hopefully we can find a high potential player that can play cup games and be subbed on in league games to manage Tinos time and fitness, with the aim to split even more of the pitch time between them once we're back in Europe the following season. With all his injuries this season I think we've forgotten a bit how incredibly good a fully fit Tino is.

I'd argue none of them were misses.

Didn't necessarily mean poor players playing for both england and barca at the same time, just poor players in general.

Poor players (relative to the level they're playing at) have played for both England and Barcelona. Not saying Gordon is poor, but I think both England and Barcelona are overrating him.

I'm about as indifferent about this as I was when he first arrived. Decent player, bit too self serving for my liking, but seems to be a nice lad. However, one that will never live up to his early potential at Everton. He is far to inconsistent and lack ability on the ball to take us to the next level. I don't think we'd ever see the 23/24 version of Gordon here again, so better for all parties to part ways amicably and with a sizable fee to reinvest and hopefully improve our squad.

If the loan amount is the same as when they bought the club in 2005, it is naturally less now due to inflation. £650m in 2005 is the equivalent to ~$1.26bn today. If the club can afford to service the loan then why not? I would think by paying parts of it off over the years would save them a lot of money in interests in the long term but as long as they can afford it without bankrupting the club then they should be allowed to do so.

Great fee for a fairly limited player. Great move for Gordon personally.

Paraphrasing a bit since I can't remember exactly what he said, but Howe was talking about players needing to show commitment to the team during a period where Willock was injury free and out of the team. A few weeks after, Willock was starting to get time on the pitch again, and a bit later than again Eddie was praising him in a press conference for his commitment. So my educated guess is that he WAS late for training, but he has shown personal growth and isn't anymore.

If Pep Lijnders is as good an attacking coach as he is on FM24 we should break the bank to get him here.

Wouldn't even need half of the points lost from winning positions to qualify for CL as the table ended this season While it's a big worry, it also gives hope in a way since we've been able to take the lead in so many games? It would be worse if we simply drew or lost all those games from the start, even if dropping points late in the game obviously is heart breaking.

I don't mind if he stays. He offers something unique despite being extremely anonymous in many games, and seems to be content with being in and our of the side. However, we need to become better sellers. If there's an eager buyer for Barnes, this summer after the season he's had, at his age, is the last time we'll be able to sell him for more than we bought him for.

I think he should be allowed a slow start to the season as well. If we're bottom half of the table and potentially in a relegation battle when 3/4 of the season if played then fair enough, get someone in to try to survive, while also giving the new manager some time go get familiar with the squad in order to identify where improvements are needed for the summer. No point keeping Howe here if the owners are ready to axe him after 5 games (remember when Shepherd did it to SBR?). Then they might as well get someone else in now and give them the summer window to allow them to get some of their players in.