Ronaldo

Good job his backup isn’t still that clown who cost us 4th place last season.

Who would sign Longstaff?

To be fair even the wealthiest more rural areas of round here tend to vote Labour - even Alty and Sale West did this time. And tbf Man U fans from Manchester are generally absolutely sound. I don’t remember SBR ever being booed so that’s horseshit.

That collar requires a Windsor. Nicked his shoes from Sean Penn’s character in I am Sam too.

Ultimately we’re not playing well but it’s about results and 7 points from 3 and through in the cup. Got to say well done and use the break to work on the issues. Schar is a massive miss on transitions and bringing the ball out of defence. Without him and Trippier you can see Pope is all the sea with who to give it to.

I hate that midfield 3. There’s just no ball retention and 2 out of 3 of them need an extra touch. Can’t afford that. Tonali moonwalks into the team tbh.

You can’t honestly be shocked at no Sandro? Howe will play Longstaff ad infinitum because he ‘understands his role’.

Spot the difference.

Are you alright? That’s twice you’ve agreed with me.

They’re just very flexible in everything as long as the thinking is forwardly. I admire that. We probably need to be a better version of them medium term.

I’m sure there was another comment about the various people frustrated by the window and he mentioned the players. Either way, we’ve got a number of players in the squad who should be playing CL football and none of them can be happy today. This wasn’t just another window, it was our last chance with some of them. I really don’t want to be negative, I’ve loved the last 3 years but club simply has fallen way short of matching the ambition required to keep us moving forward. As @Pilko said, Dubraka still no.2 is just negligent. One fit top CB till Botman is back, and the RW situation. If the ambition was for CL football the fuck up is colossal.

Also I’m sure he said or heavily implied the players have been frustrated by the lack of signings.

Eddie said it in the presser yesterday tbh. A lot of players have been unsettled or words similar. The politician that he is, he wouldn’t have said that for nothing.

It most certainly is a shambles that Dubravka is still our number 2 keeper, mind. Absolutely no excusing the failure to address that and I’ve no idea why some are trying to.

We managed to sign 2 keepers and retain another who are all actually worse, which is an achievement in itself. Amateur hour.

He also said a lot of players had been unsettled this summer, and part of the reason for the difficult window has been the changing structure of the club. He’s very skilfully put a positive slant on an absolute mess of a situation.

Eh?

Do you work for the club?

The source is completely irrelevant at this point. But yes, I don’t think Hope is fabricating. I think he gets the vast majority of his insights from someone within the club.

Nothing to do with the source. We have a day left of the window and we haven’t signed a CB. It’s the only theory that works.

At this point it’s probably slightly more mental to believe the opposite.

Hope has contacts inside the club so that’s likely where that’s come from. I’d be more worried that the club are putting it out there tbh.

Not in real terms, no. Our backup striker is 2 years older, slower and injured for one. Trippier has deteriorated, naturally. Almiron’s form from that season is long gone. Botman out half the season… I certainly don’t think we’re as strong all things considered.

I’m trying to hold on to some hope about this whole thing but a decent season won’t keep Bruno, Isak, Gordon here. I think we need to be a bit more realistic about what players of that calibre want.

We’ve got 2 days left to make transfers that have been imperative since before last season ended. There’s a lot of blame to be assigned.