Geordie Ahmed

They can't really afford to slip up today Anything less than a win would be an awful result because their next 3 games are Norwich (a) Leicester (H) Southampton (a)

We were linked with him at the end of Jan (can't recall if it was a reliable source), apparently he rejected a contract from Man U

For Lingard they wanted more money if we stayed up, we should do the same and make it the exact same clause

What Ratty is struggling with is we aren't criticising Dan for wanting to leave, the problem is with Man U, they either wait just under 2 years as per his contract or they lay what we deem to be a reasonable Him crying to the press is a waste of time and just makes him look like an absolute amateur

He's right that it's understandable that Ashworth wants to join Man U However he's delusional if he thinks we should just release him from his contract I hope the fact Ratty has went crying to the press is because we told him to piss off and pay up I get the feeling an agreement will be reached with some element of a compromise but the way he's crying to the press I would love for us to not budge a penny, if anything I'd be tempted to up the price and we can call it a "doylem talking shit in public tax"

City looked heavy favourites a couple of games ago but these last two performances have been underwhelming They are bottling this Klopp or Arteta are going to win the league which is nauseating

We hold all the cards in this situation. I hope we make good progress and have a replacement sorted soon. And we should play hard ball over Man U, if he's the guy they've identified that will restructure their club then we can test how much they value him. If they think our demands are unreasonable then that's fine, they can then either wait 2 years or move on and find someone else.

What a save by Neuer

Are you not sure he's the right fit long term? I'm absolutely convinced that he is As for the next 8-10 months, for me it's a case of get this season out of the way, back him in the summer by making a few additions (obvious areas of weakness are RW, LB and Striker situation due to injury prone players) and I think we start the next season well and we'll be amongst the mix for a top 4 race (subject to just having a normal injury situation of course)

I find it fascinating that there are some that are either done with Howe or think they are close to that. Even if this season was a stinker I think he's earned the right to have that, the idea that a manager has to have mint season after mint season is utterly bizarre and there doesn't exist a manager that's ever had that. Pep is the best around yet seasons 1 and 4 were poor from him and season 8 looks like it will be a drop from the previous season (I guess after a treble it's always likely but their points total will be less). As it is I don't even consider this season to be a stinker, think the majority felt top 4 would be tough and a good season would be Europa League spot, cup run and not embarrass ourselves in the CL. So far that is still very much on, in fact if we weren't robbed in Paris we would still be in the CL. The above expectations would have been under normal circumstances but we've had a brutal injury situation. It's not just the number of injuries it's the positions that we've got them which has caused problems and given us very little flexibility. Miley has been forced to play way more minutes than would have been planned, long term that isn't necessarily a bad thing for his development but it's not ideal for the team. At that age players either go out on loan with no pressure or they get blooded in to the team gradually. Miley has played 1066 minutes in the League this season at 17 years old. As a comparison Phil Foden at 19 years old played 893 minutes in the PL (2019-20 season), the following season he managed 1614 minutes with 17 starts. There's be a pretty solid chance he surpasses that. Of course I understand some will ask questions about the injury situation and what part Howe/medical team play a part in it but we've been hit with freak injuries that are just down to bad luck (Barnes, Burn, Anderson, Targett, Murphy, Pope, not injury but can add Tonali in this list) and not something we can blame anyone for. The performances recently have been a bit all over the place and overall we concede a lot of chances, I do think the reason for this is due to a combination of no Pope, Burn situation and the midfield profile (which can't be helped as there is no other midfielder available). And yes you can make the claim that Howe should do better and learn to adapt but we live in a world where City struggle with just Rodri missing. As things stand we are missing 4 players that walk into the starting eleven (Pope, Joelinton, Willock and Isak) Ultimately, I hope we finish the season strongly and get a European spot but even if we don't I hope there isn't even the slightest bit of pressure on Howe. I 100% believe he needs to be here for the start of the next season and I am absolutely convinced that we'll have a good season as long as we don't get brutalised by injuries again. Many wrote Howe off in January 2022 and he made them look like a bunch of mugs. Anyone writing him off or even strongly questioning him will be made to look a right mug when we look back in 8-10 months time.

All clubs have to be shown a minimum number of times (can't remember the exact number) so Sky/BT will reluctantly show some shite fixtures

Brighton going to give their GD a big boost here

That did look a blatant pen on Mitoma

Quality from Hamer that, shame he couldn't finish it

Awful tackle, 3 match ban doesn't seem sufficient He's absolutely shafted his team as well, 80 mins to play with 10 men is going to be brutal

In terms of the fouls I thought he mostly called them right, for both sides The criminal part was the lack of yellow cards, all that did was give them a licence to kick us more and more Christie should have been on a yellow already before he raked the back of Bruno's leg, he makes that challenge he wasn't booked already Same for Senesi, clear yellow card on Miggy not given, which then allows him to bring down Barnes in the second half That made it a shocking performance from the referee, allowed some players an extra kick/foul

Haaland the fraud

Plus having Chelsea level on points is shite

Howay City, pull your finger out you useless scumbags

That should be a pen to City like

With most people triple captaining Haaland think him missing sitters was inevitable

He was superb, composed and the part of his game which was great to see was the physical side, seemed to win a lot of tackles and was nicking the ball in crucial situations He picked up decent spaces in that second half just ahead of Bruno but it was annoying instead of playing him in Bruno would try to take on one world, the rest of the players need to trust him more, he's shown he's very capable

Miley has been superb, Dubravka quality too Ref has been honking, giving them free licence to kick us

At the time we got him we were rightly excited about the appointment and his credibility, people dismissing him now are clearly doing so as some sort of coping mechanism. He's clearly highly rated and losing him isn't a good thing, however it doesn't need to be a bad thing either. If he's replaced well then hopefully we won't feel any impact to him moving on. I'm not concerned about him knowing about our transfer targets/plans, there's plenty of players out there so we can easily pivot. My only wish is for us to make this as difficult for Man U as possible, they were being pricks when it came to us wanting Lingard and we should absolutely be the same back. I'd rather make them wait than accept a few million quid.

I think Howe would probably stick Gordon up top and then play Anderson in midfield or on the wings