brummie

Of course not. Worth recalling, when we binned Gerrard, we were in the BOTTOM four. If only we'd had this manager the whole season and not started playing 1/3 of it in.

Truly unbelievable state of affairs in the 15-16 games of Unai Emery. The Gerrard media fans can go and fuck themselves. What a job he's doing.

Come, come!

I've told you before, we can work through this together, lead you to a better place.

We've scored in every single game under Emery. That alone is a hell of a stat.

We still have to play Liverpool, Spurs, Man United, Brighton, you lot, and Brentford. That's a lot of points to possibly be had from teams above us. Maybe, just maybe.... Nah. I never learn, really.

Boehly is a fucking moron. The absolute definition of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. What a horrific club Chelsea are.

Oh, please!

Impressive by West Ham to have a 25 minute silence for Jacqueline Gold, mind.

Problem with Maddison, who I think is a very good player, is he's injured way too much.

I reckon London clubs have 10-15k tourists wanting to see a Premier League game every weekend, and West Ham, being big, will be the easiest to get tickets for. Imagine their disappointment when they get there, though, and realise they're in the least 'English football' English football ground in the country. If you look at the crowd at Spurs, too, you'll see there are tons of far east tourists there (prob in the hope of seeing Son).

I think I can win you over, given, say, another 3 years.

Last week Sam Matterface was venting about how Villa fans are not happy with the football, and how we're not really any better than we were under Gerrard. Seriously.

Although also, the rectangle followed by the hand crossing "no goal" or "no red card" thing. That's even better.

Does anyone else find themselves thinking if they were a referee they'd LOVE doing the make the shape of a rectangle and point to the penalty spot thing?

Yeah. *shifts uncomfortably in chair*

I know. If it makes you feel better, it doesn't normally last

Evening, all. Players improved under Gerrard in a year: Ramsey (at a push). Players improved under Emery in 15 games: McGinn, Watkins, Ramsey, Luiz, Mings, Buendia. And there are probably more. I still feel all this sticks in the craw of the cheerleaders for the traditional wanker British managers who can't handle Stevie G failing, but the difference here is absolutely night and day, no comparison. Under Emery, we play like we have a plan, and a collective brain and an effort to make it happen. I never really feel like we are going to lose - we do lose, obviously, but I go into matches thinking we'll quite possibly win. Week after week. We've scored in every game under him. We had one game against Leicester where we made four poor mistakes and every one of them was punished. We lost at home to Arsenal, but were at 2-2 until the 93rd minute when a shot hit the crossbar, bounced in and went in off our keeper's head. I was wrong about a few of these players. I thought Watkins wasn't up to it, I thought McGinn was a busted flush, but we're seeing the impact a proper coach with a properly professional backroom staff can make, it's remarkable, and I just wish we hadn't wasted the first third of the season on that cunt Gerrard. EDIT - and another thing, in 15 games he has entirely changed the way we play, totally different. He has us playing out from the keeper to the defenders, ball to feet, all the time, something we never did under Gerrard. We now keep the ball, he goes nuts when we give it away cheaply. 15 games, remarkable.

This is the sort of signing that, at first thought deeply underwhelming (and let's be honest, it would be) depends massively on who else you sign.

Looking at the table in recent years, I don't really get what Spurs fans are moaning about. A series of top four finishes, a CL final, a brilliant new stadium. Yeah yeah no silverware for a bit, but this is a club whose last title win was closer to the reign of Queen Victoria than it is today, and they've only won it twice, so a degree of "much fart, not so much shit" is to be expected from them. However, myself supporting a club which for decades also had a man who made himself as high profile as the club itself, I can understand why they'd have had enough of Levy. He and his right hand man are by all accounts highly visible at the training ground, which straight off is a red flag. It seems to be what Conte was referring to, the running-to-the-chairman thing (see that Danny Rose All or Nothing clip for an example). Anyway, ultimately, it's Spurs. Fuck them.

Pretty incredible that Bellingham is still only 19.

Kalvin Phillips looks like a teenage girl struggling with puppy fat.

Some dreadful tattoos on show from the Italians. Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo by HMHB playing in background to this post.

They're 12th so normally, you'd think no need to do anything rash - how many seasons in the last 20 years have you and us had where we'd take being mid table? The difference is that this year's table is insane - 4 points between 12th and 20th. Fuck me, that's got to be stressful for the nine clubs involved in that.

Randomly, I have just remembered when Spurs offered us Josh Onomah plus £2m for Grealish. Spurs, ha ha ha.