ponsaelius

Pope 15 matches, 16 conceded, 5 clean sheets. Dubravka 23 matches, 42 conceded, 1 clean sheet. That's league stats last year. We started conceding at almost double the rate. So the summation is we simply can't go into next season with Dubravka playing anymore football, as he's miles away from the required standard. Another injury to Pope and we're back there again with basically a 10 point handicap. A better backup is one option, but most career backup keepers aren't good for a reason. To me going for a first choice upgrade is very sensible squad planning right now.

We scored more goals than any NUFC team ever in the PL. As much as we all want and need attacking improvements, scoring has not been a problem. Having Dubravka for half a season was a problem, however. We conceded goals for fun when he came in - and I think it cost us at 10 points easy. Focusing budget on a goalkeeper makes perfect sense to me - and to be honest even moreso if we see them as an upgrade on Pope and not just Dubravka. First choice goalkeeper hitting 32 and having had two major shoulder injuries, with a crappy back up, is another disaster waiting to happen next year.

Thing is he's not going to be free. Signing on fee, large agent fee, and what was rumoured at 100k a week. If you sign a promising defender from Europe you could be paying 1/3 the wages so overall be a similar price over length of the contract even if they cost 20-30 mill. What was best about this signing is more that he's PL ready and I'd be confident in Howe throwing him straight in.

I do think there's a genuine chance that missing out on Europe might be a deal breaker for him if other clubs are in - it's more of a guarantee of playing time. Man United will be down two CBs this summer as well. I'm not gonna beat myself up about it if it happens. There's other players out there and we'll obviously have other irons in the fire if this doesn't come off.

Was fortunate enough to be in the Atalanta end for their win on Wednesday. They've had 8 years of building with the same manager. From a provincial yo-yo club, to Europa League, then to Champions League. Had to re-build the team over and over. Lost three Coppa Italia finals along the way. They dropped back to 8th two years ago but rebuilt again and back into Europe. Finally got the reward lifting their first trophy in 61 years. I'm all on for us having a similar journey. Obviously we have significantly greater financial backing, but with the restrictions and competition we have the gap that needs to be closed is basically similar. I personally don't think we get there by chopping and changing managers. We don't have the room for error to do that yet. We need continuity and building season to season. If Howe had finished 7th last year and say 4th or 5th this year it wouldn't even be a question as we'd be on a linear progression. The fact he got a cup final and CL in his first season was a ludicrous overachievement that he's now paying for due to the fact we weren't ready to sustain it and have dropped back slightly. If we struggle next season and finish outside of top 6 then I'd certainly revisit this perspective. But for now there isn't even a question that he deserves 100% support and backing from all fans.

I said a few weeks ago that whatever happens, happens. Conference League would have been fun but equally having a go at next season with one game a week and going for both cups will be a good reset. My only worry is if it makes any difference to signings. Europe is a big deal for players just because it is an extra 10 games potentially them - and makes it far more likely that you're guaranteed to be playing in some form.

It's more likely to be 3 or 4 for Man United than a turnaround.

Oh well

I'd personally want somebody younger and with less historic injury problems but you can definitely see the logic in DCL. He's a player who would likely be happy coming in as clear second fiddle to Isak and is at a point where he would actually represent value due to the contract situation.

People definitely overestimate players' values on here or more particularly underestimate how important age is to setting value. No matter how good a player is once they're hitting 31/32 they rarely go for any kind of money because 1. By the end of their next contract their value is nil 2. older players have the highest wages. PSR has only made this far more acute than it was 5 years ago. There's no way at 32 with a recent shoulder injury behind him you make a profit on what we paid for Pope. The only thing that changes this market reality is if you get a Saudi club operating entirely outside the need for resale value in any signings they make.

Yup. Throw in his shoulder injuries and there's a chance we can't bank on Pope in the medium term. Ultimately we're probably going to need to buy a keeper in the next couple of years anyway. If a player they want is available now then it's best to act. Buying a young understudy to a first choice is rarely the solution the way people suggest it - because young keepers need to be playing to develop but you don't really rotate. It's actually the one position where you usually need to be ruthless and upgrade. Just like we did with Pope 2 years ago.

Had a brilliant day yesterday. Atmosphere around Dublin with both sets of fans was great - never saw any trouble at all. Delighted for Atalanta and Gasperini to get the trophy their work has deserved over the last 8 years.

He's only got a year left on his deal, that together with the compressed market I think the fee would be lot less than previous years. I'd still question whether it was the right profile of player though.

Atalanta have head to head. They can't finish any lower. Edit: forgot they could overtake Juve.

Grown men crying all around me. Not sure what I'd do if we were ever in this situation

2/2 win record for big Mark Gillespie in shootouts?

You're not all actually watching this are you? Absolute deviants.

To be fair there is a lack of credible left back options and Shaw has always played well for England. I don't have an issue with giving him a chance to prove fitness.

Probably not, though. There's a pretty good chance some of the lads who were on our bench in CL this year and got PL game time when we were stretched won't even make it as footballers. I can see the merit of keeping Dummett around if his wages are cheap enough, even if he doesn't get named in the PL squad. Ritchie I can't see the point. He should be retiring and going into coaching.

Olise would be a dream signing but I think he's a smarter lad than his moody disposition gives him credit for. He turned down the Chelsea move last summer and has kicked on massively as a result. He's onto a good thing now with Glasner so wouldn't be surprised if he gave it another year to flourish and then has his pick of clubs.

The problem is our youngsters are no good or have no long term future here. We're strengthening that massively now but all those we've added since the takeover (Sanusi, Shahar, Harrison etc) haven't been here long to count as club grown so wouldn't be able to play them unless you actually named them in the squad.

Dummett kind of makes sense if you keep him around purely for a European squad on very low wages. With homegrown rules it's an extra player you otherwise just won't have as we'll just have to name a smaller squad in that competition. It differs from the PL because you can't just include the recently purchased U21 players (e.g. Harrison, Sanusi etc) as they won't count as locally grown yet. It's why we had such dramatically restricted subs benches in the CL this year during the injury crisis. However I think we could really do with just clearing the decks at this point, even symbolically.

Can somebody explain how it wasn't a pen for us today? The actual trip on Hall that caused him to fall was comfortably inside the box.

To be fair he never really stood out at League Two level over here, so I'd be surprised. A career in the MLS is not to be sniffed at.

Scored again in a 5-1 derby win against Montreal. Tried his best to miss like Nice to see him rebuilding his career over there.