AyeDubbleYoo

While Man City have won the league nearly every season.

Good post @HawK, I'll read it all eventually. FWIW I never said I didn't understand people who want the selling model, or who think we have to go down that route. Not that I remember anyway.

I can’t see any successful strategy that involves selling all your elite players, surely. What would be the point? Just so you can continue to buy lesser players and finish in the same position? Like I’ve said before, I can’t see the Brighton strategy working for us on its own. That can only work if you’re happy to finish in a mediocre league position. If you have ambitions to be higher than that you need to have elite quality in your team. This may be wishful thinking, I admit. But I feel there has to be something more than just selling good players to buy potential all the time. I don’t think any top club does that.

Absolutely cannot sell this lad.

Fair play to Manchester for fitting 5 defenders and a DM into the lineup.

Superb post.

If we’ve stayed in touch since the summer it looks like he’s off.

Depends on how it happens IMO.

I know what you mean, I love Wor Flags and all they do but it's not really a major factor in the overall atmosphere after the game has started. A spin-off Wor Songs might be worth a try. Hand out song sheets, and/or have people in each area dedicated to starting chants etc. Could even coordinate the different parts of the ground. That said, there is much more to football atmosphere than singing, especially in the UK. Personally I think overall atmosphere has been decent recently even if it's more in the form of shouting, abusing players, making general noise rather than consistent chants.

Deciding on a manager based on a league position here and there is idiotic anyway TBH. It should always be about overall performance, future possibilities, fit with the strategy etc. Last year we basically only missed out on Europe due to bad luck, even with an injury crisis I've never seen before and incredibly difficult fixtures. When Howe shows that he has given up, can't solve problems, can't motivate players etc... that's when we should be thinking about sacking him.

I know he doesn’t score or assist much, that’s not up for debate

I always believed that last summer was all about chaotic timing and not anything fundamental about the people involved. Especially the assumption that Howe was some kind of control freak dinosaur - just silly. I still hope we don’t entirely become a Brighton-style production line with endless replaceable players. That’s soulless and I imagine quite limited in how high you can achieve. We need to combine the Howe character and the odd iconic player like Bruno/Isak/Tonali with the more developed technical operation to really get the max return for the club. IMO.

He’s been treated slightly harshly IMO, I guess it’s because we want him out. Think he’s been generally a bit underrated in his time here, and also very unlucky with Bruce coming in. Glad he got that purple patch anyway.

If Delap is out we should be looking to absolutely crush them. Not much to worry about going the other way.

There’s no chance of a manager change this season. Therefore there’s probably no chance of a change in the summer either, because the rest of our season will be positive. I don’t expect us to win the league cup but we can only take it one round at a time.

I don’t think turning corners and all that is very helpful. It’s not like we’re suddenly going to beat everyone. Are we playing well recently? Yes. I’m happy with that and will enjoy it.

Happens to me every time in the east stand too. Then them saying it’s a shame their mate/brother/grandad gave up their ticket and doesn’t sit there every week. It’s pretty annoying.

In some ways he's the anti-Bruno but in others they have the potential to form a really great partnership. Can't be many better pairs in European football when they're on top of the game.

There's no coincidence we signed this guy, we just needed a bit of faith in the process. He's top drawer and a player we desperately needed.

We'd beat them this time. Shame how strong the other remaining teams are, but we'll see how it plays out.

Yeah, the Tonali volley was in the net before they announced it Who was the co-commentator by the way, Bridges?

Feels like one of those periods where things click, every selection finally makes sense and hopefully we get on a roll. Nothing to complain about, picked a strong team, players looked to have some real confidence. Hopefully the start of a great rest of the season.

Another one who was never going to be a bad signing in a million years. Post gambling ban obviously

Even with PSR it’s not clear for me. Maybe the best strategy is to keep your best players and try to fill in the rest of the squad with youngsters and cheap players. As a fan, it’s really not clear to me which one is better. Then just use your TV and commercial income to try and sign another star player as soon as you’re able. Might be more fun, I dunno

Good points, I just meant a very young player who is coming in a position where we need a starter ASAP. Medium term I’ve no doubt it would be great.