Mattoon

I think most sensible people will agree with this, even Howe's staunchest supporters have complained about stuff in games, I'd like to think I'm mostly a glass half-full kind of guy but I've also embraced the emotional rant from time to time, completely acceptable I think. It's the relentless negativity that's hard to be a party to, but I guess thats what the block function is for, some people revel in it a bit too much.

Yeah, but they'll see that as him being some mastermind, amazing manager and do what they always do and give him the job full time, rinse and repeat.

Let's be honest it's nothing to do with Champions League, wanting to win things or playing for the best team possible, it's a cattle auction on who can line the pockets faster and quicker and we can't match the "big boys" on wages that's the bottom line. It's a short career, you can't blame the players for wanting to make as much as they can to set themselves up for the rest of their lives. Before we vilify and ostracise Sandro, let's see what happens over the summer, also, let's not rewrite history, he was instrumental in getting us into the Champions League last season.

They're all at it, we have one iffy season and they're like buzzards waiting for us to die, I've already seen Tonali to Arsenal or Man U, Gordon to Man U, Livramento to City and Bruno to City. They'd love for us to get picked apart and be insignificant again.

I love Sandro, proper gladiator, he's been a pit pony of late but the system isn’t working for our players and he's just another casualty of that, probably a number of things that have attributed to his form, not least having a tiny human in the house. An agent wouldn't be an agent if he wasn't hawking his best assets to bring that sweet lucre in, whether that be an improved contract or a bumper deal with another club. Interesting comment there from Riso that Tonali is attached to the club, I don't think he goes unless it's beneficial for everyone.

Something is intrinsically broken at the moment and it seems to be beyond Howe to fix it in the short term, but there's a heck of a lot of mitigating factors to consider here: 1. A rudderless summer transfer window where unqualified personnel were asked to take up positions well out of their remit. 2. The sly 6 having fortunes to play with and kyboshing every transfer we tried to make. 3. Our world class striker downing tools and causing disruptions in the squad. 4. PSR restrictions meaning we had to wait until the "big boys" were done with their business to pick u0 the scraps left on the table. 5. Little to no preseason for our new arrivals, specifically our world class forwards replacements. 6. Little to no training time between games meaning those that missed preseason have never really had the chance to work with Howe properly. The list goes on, but given where we are, where we came from and a litany of issues, Howe deserves the chance to have a drama free summer to get us back on track and we revisit this in 12 months time. He still has my full backing, I still believe he is thr right man for the job.

Tbf my hands are clean on that one, hopefully this is his turning point because that was an excellent goal.

The come back is on!!

We didn't come out for the first tbf

Can't defend this at all

Hmm, call me a conspiracy theorist but it seems a bit convenient that Sandro comes out in November and says he's happy where he is but will be reviewing his future "year on year" then proceeds to play pony from that exact moment on? All seems a little fishy, especially when you throw the January rumours into the mix. We need the old Sandro back or a decent fee for him while his stock is still high.

I'm not attributing blame specifically to Howe or the club, we tried to rectify the situation in the summer but we were thwarted by PSR and the club's that don't have to follow the rules and we weren't to know that Elanga wouldn't take the step up very well.

Such a simplistic view and purposefully ignorant too. Wood wasn't in any stretch of the word, prolific for us, but he created a focal point to play off, held the ball up well and changed our game entirely. We went from relegation certainties to CL form and saved our season. 60% loss or £100m gain from survival?

Madness that were almost 5 years into the takeover and we still need a decent option at RW, its been a problem area since day 1

I'd imagine the promise of first team football probably made the difference. We'd be buying him for the future and he's thinking of his career in the now, not such a bad thing and not a failure on our part.

Wanting to lose this to concentrate on the league is proper cuck energy, who cares about next season just yet? We fight on all fronts and see where we come out at the end of the season, we go in windmilling tonight, we might drop a lucky punch, we might not, but we have to try! It's been said to death but the league has another 14 games, plenty of opportunity to put things right if we don't make it tonight, if we lose to Villa in the FA Cup and if we crash out of the Champions League. Until then we hold on to every opportunity we have to win something as slim as it might be. Never give up, never give in, no surrender!

The way I see it is we play every knockout game at full pelt, we're not winning the league so there's no point in focusing on that, if we get knocked out of every cup then the league becomes the focus, 1 game a week, time to prepare, we will go on a run and move up the table pretty quick, I guarantee it. City aren't invulnerable, they've had some pretty poor showings this season, we catch them on a bad day then there's every chance we can turn this around. Is it likely? No, will it be easy? Again, no, but we have to have a never say die attitude.

That was one of the most turgid cup games I've ever had to witness, proper waste of 2hrs of my life I'll never get back. Arsenal are the worst best team I've ever had to witness.

Stokenal

Ahh mate I couldn't, I've had to put it on mute. First time Ive wanted Chelsea to win a game of football and it's 90% Peewee Hermann's fault

I'd just come on to mention this, someone got his tiny balls in a vice?? Its making it unwatchable. That and every 5 minutes "Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal..." the least imaginative and most irritating chant..ever.

So many reasons to give up, 2-0 down, playing away from home, even if we're winning come the second half they can swap their entire team out for a second string that would beat most teams in Europe, but I honestly think we play our best football when we're up against it, when we're not expected to do well, unless it's in the league that is. I fancy us to at least make a game of this and I know for damn sure that Howe will put out his strongest team possible and will have a plan to win it, it's not over until it's over and we're so close to the chance of another cup.

Shackles off, expected loss, no pressure, you know we're going to go hell for leather, at the very least it'll be an entertaining game to watch, I have no idea why but I do have a glimmer of hope for this