brummie

Spurs. I think we can all agree, there is little to be loved or admired there.

Yes, 1.8 PPG since he came. He's doing a good job with a slightly uneven squad.

I am writing this with care and caution as I know I am an outsider. There isn't a manager out there who is above questioning or discussion, I totally get that. We have similar discussions about our own manager. But from the outside looking in, what Howe has done in a short period of time is absolutely transformational. I think there has been - not on here necessary, but in the media in general - a degree of prematurity in that it's not being in the top four halfway through the season that gets you into the CL, it's what happens half a season later. I wonder if expectations have been tinted by that wider discussion? What I think is most impressive is that, yeah, you have spent some money - although after years of spending nothing under a wanker of an owner - but I don't think what you've achieved in a short time is about spending, it is about excellent coaching. Look at some of the names on your team sheet and look what you've achieved this season - these are (some of them) players who absolutely would not get into the teams of the clubs you are bothering this season, some of them are players who have underwhelmed even by your own recent standards, but what Howe has got out of these is nothing but remarkable. Yeah, he'll make a ton of mistakes still and there will be ups and downs because you are a club and a team going through a transformation, and it's just not that easy to do quickly, regardless of how much cash you have (and even with that, it's not as easy to buy rapid advancement as Man City did 10+ years ago anymore). This is almost exactly the same discourse we have - we have weirdness like winning away almost every time, but then shipping four at home to Leicester, and it's because it's a work in progress, which is exactly what you are. I am not in any way at all saying there is anything wrong in questioning the manager - I'd say the same about our manager, and I am an outsider here so have no right to be telling you anything - but I think if you take a step back and look at the huge advancement in such a short period of time, the manager has definitely earned the right to make his own mistakes.

First player to score in five consecutive games for us for a while.

He is an absolute cunt isn't he?

Watkins just missed the easiest chance you'll see all season.

If you're going to lose matches, you're better off having it happen against two of the three most in-form, strongest teams in the league.

except Dion Dublin obvs.

Nothing good ever comes from Coventry City. local knowledge at work, here.

Gary Neville constantly referring to 'United'.

They actually BEAT us.

No, not in the sense of a direct player to player comparison, but more in the sense of having circled the plug hole for a few seasons, looked increasingly shit and like we needed to be burned down and rebuilt from nothing. A proper sick malaise eating away at the heart of the club that will do for it.

Everton are totally fucked. All they are is bluster. They spent a decent amount of time attacking us today but they have absolutely nobody on the pitch to reliably score. Their only tactic seems to be giving it to McNeill (who is gash but at least puts in a shift) and hoping for the best. They so, so remind me of us the season we went down, and have done since the start of the season.

I am starting to worry these lot are going to match the 7-2 we had against Liverpool.

BOOM!!!! Ha ha ha, brilliant, fuck off Liverpool!

Apologising for a bit of swearing FFS. I think the commentators should be allowed - encouraged - to swear. It'd be much better than listening to McManamanmanaman droning on.

Incredibly bad from Gomez,. Liverpool are so fucking mediocre these days.

Will this be the first time you've played at the new Wembley? It is, isn't it?

I reckon we'll sell Martinez in the summer. There's definitely something up with him and Emery. Emery clearly doesn't think he's good enough with his feet for the way he wants to play out from the keeper (dropped hints before), was fucked off with him for going up at the end yesterday (I understand his reasoning, but think it's a bit meh as a subject to fall out on), and has hinted heavily he's going too far with the shit-housing. We're going to do a mass of business this summer, so many of them clearly not with enough technique to play the way he wants us to. Even Mings with his new contract, I wouldn't be surprised if he moved him on and it turned out to be a protect-his-value thing. I fucking love Emery though, he's so intense and 100% with everything, and we show signs of being a very good side in the making. This season will be a rollercoaster of making do with what he has, but - and I think this explains why we spent almost nothing in January - I think he'll be onto a total squad reshape in the summer.

Listening to Carragher doing commentary on a Liverpool match is genuinely like listening to a Liverpool podcast. It's like there is no opposition, or there is but they're not relevant to what he's talking about.

Good news, Spurs 1-0 down.

O'Leary FFS. The one cunt who managed to be more obnoxious and deliberately divisive at our place than Carpethead.

Leeds would have to be brain dead to appoint Gerrard.

Ha ha yes, marvellous stuff!

Great name, Harrison Ashby. Sounds like a National Trust property in Wiltshire. Extensive gardens, oldest part of the house dates to the Tudor period, suffered damage during the civil war. Cafe does nice cream teas. Access to the house via timed entry tickets only.