brummie

I said similar the other day, thank fuck we are not involved in it this year too, it would be absolutely horrific,

We are much better away than at home, although in recent games he's started to improve us at home too. The guy is doing a truly phenomenal job. 26 points from 14 games - across a season that'd be 70 points, exceptional, and he's done it all with the same players Gerrard had, with Moreno added and with Ings taken out. If we had a really prolific striker we'd be doing even better. Worth noting that in that period he has completely changed the way we play, starting right from fundamentals - play out to feet from the keeper, hold on to the ball, pull opponents out of shape by using a bit of in game intelligence. Compare that with that fucking relic Gerrard. What a change.

Indeed they do - I have long not understood why people don't get this. Do they think that every time a club posts an exact-capacity attendance that means that every single ST holder was able to go?

Keown: "This could be the start of something special for Arsenal" *five minutes pass, in which they lose* Keown: "Well, this could be a blessing in disguise for Arsenal, how important will this result turn out to be?" So fucking annoying to hear pundits commentating on 'their' clubs as if they're doing a fucking club podcast.

Fucking hell, Southgate is so predictable. I've got almost as many PL minutes this season as Kalvin Phillips. The likes of him and Maguire getting picked, that must be soul destroying for players who play in that position but don't get a look in. Also, Eric fucking Dier.

My concern with the likes of Frank, Potter in the past and now de Zerbi is how much their achievements are down to them and their assistants, and therefore transferrable to another club, or how much do they actually reflect the fact that they are in a role at a club which is extremely well run, much deeper than just the coaching staff. Look also at Silva, disaster at Everton - a poorly run club all round - and excelling at a relatively well run club like Fulham. So if you were take someone like Frank to Spurs, is he going to be able to be as successful there, with their set up, and the way they are run? What is there about Frank that will succeed where Conte has not? If Frank then does go there, he finds himself without the all-pervasive support network of a very well run club, and exposed to the elevated expectations of a club which has a bit of a weird set of expectations. A club with a marvellous, very large stadium, which has played in the CL a lot and generates a lot of cash, but then hasn't won anything at all for a long time now, has only ever won the league twice (and the last time was closer to the reign of Queen Victoria than today), and appears to have developed a bit of a crisis of identity (which isn't unusual with clubs going through the amount of change they have the last few years). I am not having a go at Spurs here - I have nothing against Spurs at all* - just wondering aloud how much the success of some of these seemingly excellent managers is transferrable elsewhere, and whether the real problem is much deeper within the club. * - well, I do actually, I fucking hate them, but that's not why I am saying this.

Awful against us last week, and dirty cunts with it, too.

Palace's tactics against us at the weekend were awful. The dirtiest bastards I've seen us play in a very long time - Doucoure got sent off for two yellows in a short period, both of which merited instant reds for me. Horrible one on Boubacar Kamara (out for a couple of weeks) and minutes later, goes over the ball on Callum Chambers. Genuinely like he wanted to get sent off.

I honestly don't think he would be. Having Haaland is worth more to Man City than £100m. I also think the FFP improvement thing is a circular argument. You sell those players for those profits and boost your FFP figures, but then you only have to go out and spend that same money again to replace them because everyone's seen what those two went for.

Let's hunt down whoever mentioned Watkins in the first place and KILL THEM TO DEATH.

There is definitely still a route through - we've got plenty of money to spend, and finally are bringing commercial operations into the modern world (new north stand end of this season, increased capacity), new Man City style inner city academy nextdoor to the ground, plus our owners have bought half of Vittoria Guimaraes and are bidding for the Vegas MLS franchise (Las Vegas Villans) and going down the multi-club route, so the ambition now is a world beyond what it had ever been before (even Lerner, who provided money and absolutely nothing else). It's much, much harder to do what Man City did these days, it has to be done significantly more incrementally, and I am happy that we can do that and start to punch our weight way more than we have thus far. I saw a table the other day showing since Emery arrived and we were fourth or fifth - that to me shows the damage we did to ourselves in playing the first third of the season with the managerial equivalent of playing in clown shoes. Gerrard averaged a point a game in his last 38 games with us, which is pathetic. It's impressive what Howe has done thus far, but the season is far from over, it's where you are after 38 games that matters. We're only 7 points off top 6, rather than relegation fighters under Gerrard. I am really positive, it is all looking good. After a sluggish couple of years, the youth policy is producing some proper quality (Archer and Ramsey at Boro, Iroegbunam at QPR), and we've got a top quality manager in. It's positive all over the place, the only mis-step has been in hiring Gerrard in the first place and setting ourselves back a year.

Actually, I will contradict myself on the 'more of the same' thing as I'd love more Boubacar Kamara's.

Why on earth would we consider selling him to you? Why would you want to offer £100m, as you said? I think he's turned it around with us recently, but there's two things absolutely sure here - firstly, that he's never worth anything like £100m, so anyone even prepared to offer that much would be setting themselves up to get financially fucked every time they go for a player, and secondly, there is absolutely no way the owners would sell him unless the manager expressly wanted them to, and I struggle to think of a player Emery loves more than Watkins. And that's before the whole argument over whether he'd want to go or not. The bigger point here is that there is no point the likes of us or you buying players like Watkins in any case - he's not the sort of acquisition needed to move to the next level, and worth remembering - even given the manager's love for him, one of our pressing priorities this summer is for another proven striker. To explain that a bit better - I like what he has done under the manager, and wasteful though he is, he definitely does add a lot to our style of play. But even having said that, I'd be disappointed if we spent this summer buying players of that level, that's not going to be enough to move to the next level. I don't watch enough of you to know which players to highlight here (maybe Almiron, but I know Howe has done this with several of your players) but to use our squad as an example, it's about getting better results from players you already have (in our case, Watkins, Luiz and McGinn obvious examples) and then buying better quality players to add in. More of the same isn't really going to be enough.

Yes.

If you support a club with, err, let’s say, a recent history of thinking about relegation way more than most would like (ie us, you) this season is definitely the one to have pulled away from it. it is so tight down there. Going to be fucking nerve shredding for a few clubs. Anyway, I would like Wolves with their “finish above Villa for first time in about 50 years, so invent a rivalry that never existed and sing about us every single match” dynamic to fuck off back where they belong so they can play their actual derby again. Someone asked about Leeds. It’s an age thing I think. Growing up in the 70s they were thugs on and off the pitch, the dirty cheating bastards. I also remember their cunty fans throwing bottles at kids and families before the 96 LC final so fuck them too. Finally, Everton, for having the worst home support (screaming penalty or handball every thirty seconds) and the worst away support too (sitting down, FFS, and making no discernible noise). So those three for me. A mention in despatches also for Leicester City.

Also one thing about Watkins, I think Emery is one of those managers who is happy to see goals from across the team and not load so much expectation on the striker(s). Watkins has six in the last seven games I think so is improving, plus we’ve scored in every game under Emery so he’s probably got a point. Watkins though, he’ll do something brilliant and then minutes later he’s missing one from six inches. We put a brilliant team move together against Palace which he fluffed by screwing wide from six feet. Genuinely, i reckon I could have finished that nine times out of ten. But then again, I’m not running non stop and making intelligent runs any time soon.

Misses so many chances. Works his bollocks off though, pulls defences out of shape to create chances for others. Although improved a lot under Emery. In couldn’t name a single player who improved under Gerrard, not one, but I can name several under Emery and he’s near the top of the list Emery loves him - so much he sold Ings and sent Archer out on loan and stuck with him as our only striker other than an MLS kid for the second half of the season. He’d never sell him.

Ha ha that’s exactly it.

I can’t stand palace. They were thuggish at our place last week. those drum wankers can fuck off too. I’ve always found Palace a plasticky, pointless gimmicky club. I think it’s all that ‘team of the 80s’ bullshit. Their ground is a shit hole and a pain to get to too* * at least it was the last time I went there, 92 or 93 - the Dalian Atkinson wonder goal game.

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.