Heron

Dont think it's embarrassing that folk want to join together and have a good time to be honest. Just think it's more of a concern that we're kinda happy-go-lucky runners ups. Really want the fans and team to bring their A game on the final day and not the night before this time.

Possibly a really stupid question, but is it just like North Eastern teams who take over an area of London when at Wembley? Like are Liverpool fans being advised to go to another part of London and congregate somewhere like our lot are? It seems like it's only our side (perhaps for the distance we travel and lots are staying overnight)...

O'Nien - was that their last time in the PL?

I am keen to see some of the RTG gems that will be unearthed following this debacle.

With a Shelvey winner...

What makes it better is my plane taking off late so all the obnoxious Mackems on board missed kick off. #RyanAirMagz

What a fucking crease.

That accent man

It is also worth noting that we didn't have the same start as some clubs with regards to our expenditure. We were absolutely stripped back to the bare bones as a club and almost nailed on for relegation. Howe has been backed, but has been limited in the backing he has received owing to PSR and FFP. When we got out of a relegation fight and almost into the top 10 in half a season that was almost miraculous. When we got into the CL that was almost miraculous, given the general standard of around half (if not more) of the playing squad, to see us nearly achieve European football last season given the horrendous injuries we had to deal with (and the difficult cup ties across all fronts) was almost miraculous. You only have to look at Spurs and the bad luck portrayed by the media every other week - and big Anges whinging and whining each week. None of which we really received or took part in when it was us. Howe did a great job last year with the players available. We haven't seen anything of that level this season but again, we're 3 points of the CL spots and in a cup final with another potentially on it's way. So by the end of the season, it could quite rightly be miraculous. Howe is getting the absolute maximum out of half a dozen players who regularly play for us. When they don't play to their maximum we get dicked. If Man City don't play to their maximum they bring on top drawer players to fill the gaps. It is more alarming the games against Fulham and Bournemouth, etc. But even so, all this immediate talk of Howes day's being numbered and questioning how long he has as soon as we have 2 or 3 bad performances or a bad loss away at Man City who were the best domestic side in the world around 12-18months ago and who won the league last season is just a bit (to say the least) toys out the pram and knee jerk. We are 90 (albeit very difficult) minutes from him being immortalised in our clubs history. If we win that, then what will folks excuses be when we have two or three bad performances? Last time (before Christmas) everything was his fault for the transfer activity, it was him versus Mitchell, it was he's a one trick pony, he's hit his limit. Now it's, he can't win big games, crunch games or season defining games. What would people have done differently at the start of yesterday's game? Trippier out maybe? Okay - fair. But what else? Like it seems to me plenty of folk offer radical statements and problems but I see very little by way of alternatives or solutions... We all know the Saudis may not be as forgiving and patient as the fans - but so far - I've seen a lot more evidence of toys out the pram from supporters not the other way around.

I'll be honest - performance wise, I think this has probably been Howe's worst season to date with us, and yet he's got us into a cup final and the 5th round of the FA Cup at present, and only 3 points away from CL spots. That shows how mental it is that people seemingly have him on borrowed time - to me anyways. It still has the potential to be an absolutely phenomenal season results wise and we're halfway into February...

Fair. We will learnt hat through experience though, as everyone does.

Aye. Because they're all relative. Quarter finals aren't now big games to us on the whole but that's because we've managed said "big game" previously and now consider it a normality thanks to Eddie Howes ability to have won such fixtures...

It is until you make a final though, surely?

We are our own greatest enemy because we go into a tailspin whenever we lose and think we're the best team on then planet when we win. We seem to be flip-flapping from big to season defining to crunch games now in an attempt to categorise games and tbh I find it all a bit bizarre. Today wasn't a crunch game for sure if we're saying crunch games are the final games to make something specific happen or be achieved. Nor is it season defining - its 3 points in a league that is highly close and competitive - in which case it can only be argued as a big game (which it absolutely was). We were shite, we lost. However, we have beaten sides and not lost to sides who are above or around us this season in equally as big games and therefore, if that's the basis for this debate as moreso as @J7 alludes to then it's incorrect what yous chaps are saying. You are absolutely correct if we're talking cup finals as being those games though...