PRL

FT. Get in

Fuck off Chelsea.

While I’m no fan of Edwards, for once I hope he does have some kind of inside track as he’s posted a follow up tweet saying Howe already on mend

I don’t think it’s guaranteed. They were run ragged on Wednesday, are still in with a chance in the home leg so will have one eye on that, and Southampton will have some degree of freedom with the coach gone and relegation confirmed. Not saying it’s unlikely Villa win, but it wouldn’t be a big shock to see a draw

Sadly it is. £9m for their coefficient payment and £3.5m participation prize, as well as other prizes per win and draw. All in (according to ChatGPT at least) they’re about £45m to the good from the run to date. Which is pretty nuts. Stand to lose about £15m on PL placing and the £50m or so from the CL last season, but if they went on to win the Europa League they’d likely have better revenue than last season.

To be honest I think I’d be more frustrated with Spurs or Mancs winning Europa and parachuting into Champions League after season they have had. It doesn’t guarantee a turnaround next season by any means, but it gives them more of a chance.

I get the comments about better squad depth with certain teams around us, but this is our last week coming up with three games in a week, we move to once a week for the rest of the season, while all other teams around us have 1-2 cups they’re still involved in to add distractions and congestion. If we keep our team fit I think our first 11 is better than all bar maybe City’s from those in 3rd - 7th, which I think we forget at times, and it’s not unreasonable to expect 9 or 10 of the 11 to be fresh to play one game a week for the rest of season. It’s this next week that is absolutely key to not obtaining injuries and still wracking up points.

If someone asked me to call the top 4 next season I’d struggle. Until case decision known then no idea where city are going to place with realistic risk of transfer bans and possibly point deductions, scousers losing three of their best players, Arsenal feeling like they are in reverse and Chelsea, spurs and Mancs all being basket cases to one degree or another. There is varying chances the whole old order could struggle for one reason or another, while those queuing behind are getting stronger and joined by others. Very interesting summer coming up.

Wasn’t Isak’s best game, still had a goal and very nearly an assist. Wasn’t Murphy’s best game, another assist in the bag. Wasn’t Bruno’s best game, but worked it wide to Murphy rather than trying to thread through middle for the goal. Decent state of affairs when we can pick holes in players when they’re contributing to a win against a team that had won their last 5 away games on the trot and are no mugs.

To be fair, it should be fairly quiet when the second half has only just kicked off...

So, Howe will have to change his tactics, which he hasn't done to date, or a backup striker would play a minimum of 30% of our minutes, in the best case scenario that Isak is fit all season, something he hasn't ever been? City now have Marmoush who can play up front, with Alvarez before, Arsenal have been absolutely shown up due to lacking strikers, Liverpool have the best and deepest forward line in the league (albeit there's a few grumbles of late, but Diaz, Jota, Nunez, Salah and Gakpo are all pedigree players) and are running away with the league despite not playing scintillating football for big chunks of the season. Miley, with a proper pre-season, maybe another young CM with a high ceiling in January or next summer (someone like Rigg), plus Willock, would be a reasonable back up line. Elliot, Jones, etc have only come through at Liverpool by playing games. At some point in 18 - 36 months Miley should ideally be passing one of our current CMs and claiming a first team spot - he can only do that with game time. I hate shit like footballtransfers but I'm assuming they're using some kind of objective metrics and they have Miley in the top 20 (17th) most valuable under 20s in the world, very close to Dibling (15th) and Nwenari (14th). I'd rather he was next in line for us next season, we established his best position and didn't send on loan or push down pecking order, with limited resources available.

I’d argue drop off from Isak to Wilson/Osula is far greater than drop off from Joelinton to Miley or Willock.

I think the talk of CM underestimates Miley’s potential. If we were signing someone of his calibre we would be looking £40-50m+ judging by some of the fees bandied around for other midfielders with big potential. The idea of loaning him or signing a more established midfielder to push him down pecking order would be an error in my view. He really influenced during some of his limited game time this year and needs to develop in our system, with our squad and Howe managing. Really hope we allow that in Europe and cups next year.

Looks like he was reading - thread pulled!

Other than quotes from BrettNUFC which were disagreed with by all, every other quote they’ve used was sarcasm or in jest, but being played off as sincere. Particularly enjoyed them using one where it was claimed we would rather be NETD rather than win that cup, with a ‘marra’ chucked in to really emphasise that it’s mocking them, but now being relayed as a factual view from us as fans. They’re truly broken by all this.