Chris_R

Botman back in defence and Schar CM?

I spent a good 45 seconds looking for him before I saw him, then just went "Ah!", and started laughing.

They were owned by a billionaire. He invested shitloads into them, sold them, and turned himself into a millionaire.

Ah, so you're in favour of social and racial injustice? Got it.

'Woke' is being aware of social injustice. I'm woke and proud.

I was talking about Longstaff not Miley. My point is we need to register 4 over-21 home grown players for Europe and because we don't have 5 now we would be silly to let one go. We'll have empty seats on the bench. We'll be signing new first team players who we can't even register.

I know, which is why we need 5 in order to let Longstaff go without leaving a space. A) An injury and a suspension in midfield, and he's needed B) "seems the club are more open to him going" - Based on what? Have you been on the phone to Mitchell? I mean he might well go. He might not. Just seems like it'll leave us short of cover for a vital competition next year. We complain about our bench at the moment, next year we might have actual empty seats on it.

Constantly baffled at people basically selling Longstaff now. Sure he's not a starter, but can any of you explain who our 5 over21 homegrown players are who we can register for the CL next year? Longstaff is 1, Gillespie another I think? Then after that? We must register 4, so unless there's 5 on the books I can't see how we let Longstaff go. We'll have to leave blank squad spaces for our (presumed) CL campaign. Madness.

Howe OUT, Tindall IN

I mean they're right, we HAVE seen them given. They were all given incorrectly though, but still.

Rather lose every week than accept sportswashed blood money etc etc marra

Been way better than Rodri this season.

How's he going to displace Schar?

Was Townsend the one who just kept referring to "United" all game? Disrespectful cunt, whoever it was.

When good teams play badly against us, we often know it's down to us stifling them and nullifying them and get infuriated when the press / mackems etc say "I see the other team didn't turn up - AGAIN". We should be careful not to do the same here.

It's my second favourite goal, but I preferred Isak's. When Burn scored I was elated beyond words of course, but I thought it might ultimately be for nothing. When Isak scored, I actually started to believe we'd win.

But that player then wouldn't be progressing their skills as a goalkeeper, aside from maybe shot stopping, as Gillespie's job is just to spend all day having shots pelted at him. There's more to GK training than that, adn whoever took up that role from the youth setup would effectively be sacrificing their career.

I don't think we can just "let go" a centre back who is a good bit younger than our current starters who we're worried might lose all pace at any given moment. He's proven he's more than capable in the PL. If Burn and SChar suddenly become immobile statues and we can't play them it's not about him being 5th choice anymore, it's about him suddenly being 3rd choice. Or even second choice as he's 4th now.. We need legs in that central defence, or at least the option of them. We cannot rely on a central defence devoid of any pace at all. (I caveat this with not knwing how he'll return from a horrible injury but I assume the club know enough on his progress to be confidenet)

Lol

Too far for the fat cunt

What they're forgetting is he'll cost what we say he costs, not what they calculate he'll cost.

I think we'd sell for £30m, but we might well refuse £20m. And if we DID sell for £30m, I'd not be dancing in the streets thinking we'd robbed someone. People have talked about him maybe getting an England call-up. He's been sheer end product for us. He isn't the complete player, sure, but he's a very solid PL winger who provides goals and assists. That's worth a lot. Either way, he's been well worth what we paid for him.

In: Matz Sels Goalkeeper £5 million 2016–17 Matt Ritchie Right Midfield £12 million 2016–17 Dwight Gayle Centre-Forward £12 million 2016–17 Jesús Gámez Right-Back Free transfer 2016–17 Grant Hanley Centre-Back £5.5 million 2016–17 Isaac Hayden Midfield £2.5 million 2016–17 Mohamed Diamé Midfield £4.5 million 2016–17 DeAndre Yedlin Right-Back £5 million 2016–17 Ciaran Clark Centre-Back £5 million 2016–17 Daryl Murphy Centre-Forward £3 million 2016–17 Achraf Lazaar Left-Back £2 million 2016–17 Christian Atsu Left Winger £6.2 million 2017–18 Jacob Murphy Right Winger £10 million 2017–18 Jav.Manquillo Right-Back £4.5 million 2017–18 Florian Lejeune Centre-Back £8.7 million 2017–18 Joselu Centre-Forward £5 million 2017–18 Mikel Merino Midfield £6.5 million 2017–18 Martin Dúbravka Goalkeeper £4 million 2018–19 Fabian Schär Centre-Back £3 million 2018–19 Fed. Fernández Centre-Back £6 million 2018–19 Ki Sung-yueng Midfield Free transfer 2018–19 Yoshinori Muto Centre-Forward £9.5 million 2018–19 Miguel Almirón Midfield £21 million 2018–19 Total: £140.9 Out: (many forced, especially early on after relegation) Geo. Wijnaldum Midfielder £25 million 2016–17 Moussa Sissoko Midfielder £30 million 2016–17 Daryl Janmaat Right-Back £7.5 million 2016–17 Andros Townsend Winger £13 million 2016–17 Florian Thauvin Winger £9.8 million 2017–18 Siem de Jong Midfielder £2 million 2017–18 Matz Sels Goalkeeper £3.5 million 2018–19 Alex Mitrović Striker £22 million 2018–19 Chancel Mbemba Centre-Back £7 million 2018–19 Mikel Merino Midfielder £10 million 2018–19 Dwight Gayle Striker Loan fee undisc 2018–19 Total: £129m (All from ChatGPT so of course there could be mistakes - I don't have time to check it all but it looks about right) Merino had a release clause so we were never getting more than £10m but he's since gone to Arsenal for £30+. We'd not be overjoyed if we sold Murphy for £30m either, it might be a fair price given his age but his output this season means he'd potentially command a fee in that area. Schar we've discussed is one of the best £ for £ signings in our history. Diame was a monster for a season or so, Dubravka has been a fabulous servant and a wonderful bargain. Ritchie was value, as was Almiron. A lot of the rest I don't look back on with any negative memories either - Lejeune, Fernandez, Hayden, Gayle, Manquillo etc. They all played a part and were at least worth their pretty modest fees. Even many of his "flops" have since gone on to have good careers - Sels and Joselu the most obvious. Any criticism is just that he was forced to scrap around in the bargain bin and didn't have a 100% success rate in finding gems. It's hard to get angry that £2m Achraf Lazaar or free transfer Jesús Gámez never really tore it up here. When Howe signs a player for a similar amount, we just go "Punt for the future, not worth factoring in to our thinking" but for Benitez these were players expected to be integral squad members. Are we going to castigate Howe if Harrison Ashby, Garang Kuol and Lloyd Kelly (Seemingly already off) don't make the grade? I hope they do make it of course, but they're the kind of deals Benitez was forced to rely on for immediate results and he had a pretty good success rate. He also had to attract good players to a shit club, where Howe can at least promise the likes of Pope and Burn - affordable fees to Benitez too - that they're making a step up coming here and can challenge at the top of the table. Benitez had Ashley looming over his shoulder and players and agents knew they'd almost certainly never lift any silverwear here, which makes a lot of potential moves - even for bargain players - a hard sell.

Weird mix of people complaining that we're not putting more effort in despite being 3-0 up, and others complaining that we're not resting players despite us jogging round and being 3-0 up. Think we've probably got it about right?

Should sack him at half time. Likely though there's clauses in his contract that mean they'll keep him until relegation is confirmed that will lessen any payout.