The Prophet

Always thought we were vulnerable to losing Tino and Tonali this summer, but fairly confident that Bruno is going nowhere.

If he absolutely must go, do Juve fancy a Yildiz plus cash deal? He's pretty much my dream signing.

Ben Jacobs almost certainly sniffs bus seats in his spare time.

In what sense?

Serious questions are being asked at last.

Yeah, but there's also some really, really stupid comments. It's a packed field.

Overall he's had a very odd time here. Clearly a very good player. Great intelligence, ridiculous engine and solid enough technically. That said, through no fault of his own, the midfield can look incredibly unbalanced with him in it, particularly when played alongside Bruno. He took up a position as more of a six last season and we looked formidable, but we've since seen a return to more of a flat midfield three and I'm not convinced it's by design. It's noticeable how much better the shape is when only one of Tonali or Bruno play. He's also been quite steaky form wise, but that's probably more to do with personal stuff. The gambling ban, having a bairn, etc. I really hope he stays and kicks on, but it's also not the end of the world if he doesn't. I don't think we've seen the best of him, for long enough, even if that's due to misfortune.

It'll almost certainly be bogged down in the appeals process.

It's not a great ball, but Elanga should still do better.

Also worth remembering he's played most of his senior football at left wing. One of his motivations for moving was to become a CM, he's still learning.

He looks a good player to me. Needs to impose himself a bit more, but very good technique and generally moves the ball well under pressure. If he continues to develop, can see him becoming a big player for us.

Trying to look at it objectively. Hopkinson said it himself, wage bill correlates to league position. We have the 8th highest wage bill, which means 8th is about par. We're currently three points and three places out, however: We've gone deep in the league cup. We're into the Champions League knockouts. We're still in the FA Cup. We're coming off the back of another turbulent summer resulting in executive churn and arguably our best players leaving. Howe has previously finished 4th, 7th and 5th, along with the cup win, despite said wage bill constraints. Unless things nose dive considerably, they'd be hard pushed to vindicate a managerial change. It seems like a bit of a non-starter.

I'm just jesting. There's no doubt they added a human touch to the whole operation, even if at times it could be a bit of a hindrance.

If they think we should be consistently finishing in the top four and winning cups, with the eighth biggest wage bill in the league, then they'll end up burning through a lot of managers.

I thought that initially, but he followed the Villa performance up with some decent showings (particularly in Europe), including a MotM award. His nosedive came afterwards

Why is this fat slug's thread sullying the forum landing page?

The most noticeable thing over the last week is how much cup runs are now taken for granted. We have reached ANOTHER semi final, the third in four seasons and that in itself is never really taken into consideration when assessing the season. If we keep that up, it won't be long before we win another pot. Chuck in our first ever (favourable) Champions League knock out tie to reach the 16 and an FA Cup 4th round v an injury hit Villa and we could well progress elsewhere too. It wasn't long ago we used to dream about this sort of stuff. Now League position seems to be the only thing that matters. PSR has a lot to answer for.

Until they beat Villa last game out, this lot had a worse away record than us.

As well as not defending our eighteen yard box well enough, it does feel like the fine margins haven't really fallen our way all season.

I'm tired, boss.

I've enjoyed the season in parts, but it's been absolutely exhausting. With the sheer volume of fixtures, I'm starting to see why fans of the larger clubs take certain games for granted.

@HaydnNUFCI wasn't responding to your good self. I completely agree with your point It was more aimed at the comment about a number ten. There aren't many about these days and you'll barely ever see one play alongside a striker that isn't an absolute workhorse. Depressingly, to do so a modern day Premier League team would lose too much physicality. Creativity usually comes in the form of overloads these days. You need midfielders who are technically solid and move the ball efficiently up the park. In Bruno, we already have one of the best players in the league at doing so. It's a shit state of affairs mind, the old school number ten was an absolute joy to watch and sorely what football is missing at the moment.

An AM with Woltemade would be suicide mind. You wouldn't see a single team in the league trying it.

I've not watched much Serie A this season, but presumably Fabregas doesn't have too much experience of managing a two game a week schedule?