Mike

Not sure if it's true but saw after the derby someone say if we'd kept all our winning positions this season we'd be 2nd. Without the fucking Rat. We were going to win the league this year.

To me they're flukes not because we lack astute minds, but rather the circumstances and timing. Trippier being available when we needed leadership Bruno being willing when we were just as likely to go down as we were to stay up. Livramento being available because of his injury history Chelsea choosing James and making Hall available Isak not being half the player he's capable of being (Foil hat) Milan cashing in on Sandro before the gambling scandal The Joelinton move to midfield working Dan Burn being local. Add to that all the purple patches that have papered over previous cracks and I feel like our luck was due to run out. We got hot at the blackjack table, blinked twice and bet half our chips on Wissa. Now when we venture into the market we're competing with the scouts at the teams with no restrictions and we're struggling to push on because we just are not allowed to offer what the other clubs can offer without concern. We have to re-evaluate how we determine who will or will not improve the team and I'm hoping this is the summer we do it.

Honest question and I'll likely out myself as a mentalist when I ask this but still. Pre Isak bullshit, how many of us had us as dark horses to win the league this season? I will happily raise my hand and say I was convinced we were gonna Leicester the dump this year.

My feeling is Howe hopefully has enough support in the club to break through whatever he's dealing with tactically here, rather than this being another landmark in his journey. SAF would be selling insurance if he was 45 now.

imo we've hit a ceiling in our progress because the team we've assembled and won a cup with was a series of flukes that will be nearly impossible to recreate going forward. So we've plateaued for a bit because the next challenges are a bit beyond us for the moment. 2030 is a fucking joke. In 2030 I'll be wearing Hathaway's thighs like a scarf. See you can say fucking anything, doesn't make it true. We are who we will be for probably the next few years. We're a cup team inexorably climbing the ladder rung by rung.

I will sew your mouth to your hoop and hook a feeding tube up you fucking pendejo. Fuck out of the thread.

Shut the fuck up Declan.

Everyone has to take equal blame for the summer and the winter and there needs to be a reaction this summer for certain. But imo we'd been increeedibly fortunate in the market prior to this year and that good fortune was impossible to maintain.

We spent so long catching breaks we could be forgiven for thinking it was the new normal. We're like a band that released an all timer album as a debut and then the followup is a bit shite.

So...are we ok? As fans we seem to be a bit mental and I know this season has been absolutely fucking horrid but we're all old enough to remember how fucking terrible it was to support this club as recently as six years ago. I wonder if we spent so much of the dark days fantasizing what it would be like to support a competitive club that the contrast between dream and reality has spun us for such a loop that we can't see how much better things are now compared to then. Is the football shit? Hell yeah, but this entire generation of football is shit. It's not just us. Are the results frustrating? Absolutely. Every game being the same or feeling the same is awful but we've got a cup, two CL campaigns and we regularly compete deep in competitions. If we can finish in a position to compete for the Europa or the Conference we're immediately favorites to win that. Everyone in every position of authority in our club is learning on the job. As we grow, they'll grow too. Just have to hope we've got the right people in the right positions. The good old days of oil barons and oligarchs filling the coffers with blood money and building a super team are long gone. We missed that train, and I doubt many of us would have enjoyed that kind of unearned glory. We're in the midst of a journey I think we'll look back upon fondly, it's just going to take a hell of a lot longer than we anticipated. But is that not still better than the purgatory of the Ashley era? The hate watching, the apathy from both club and fanbase? As fans we need to take a moment from time to time and turn around and see how far we've come in an incredibly short amount of time.

Vini howay.

I made the v into a u, but aye.

I will skullfuck your brain into oatmeal you piece of shit.

Wasn't it Bruno a day ago though? Hope can eat my ass, mind. Both the person and the concept.

Listen, if banning @Froggy fixes this, let me know.

I'm all for that but is it based on owt beside us being mental?

Lads what's going on in here.

@Beren iirc.

Only thing that can stop him is Slot, imo. He'll score 25 next season.

God him getting the yips and then his groin exploding would be amazing.

People aren't going to not go after investing so much so booing is the only feedback left for fans. The seats will rarely if ever be empty. They deserved to be booed this week, no matter how fond we are of them.

It was unbelievable how fit he was.

I suppose it could be worse.

Bullied everyone for 90 minutes.

Just end the fucking season.