Interpolic

Those quotes from Howe are magnificent like. What a classy person he is.

Sorry @FLUMPO235 I had just skimmed the thread and hadn't realised I was making the exact same point you had

It's a funny one tbh as much as I'd like to bash Merson. I'm a recovering alcoholic but if I had to do a campaign at work where the client was an alcoholic drink manufacturer it wouldn't even cross my mind to say "No" because of all the damage I did myself. Just because I can't do it in moderation doesn't mean that applies to millions of others.

Keith Downie saying NUFC are "surprised and shocked". Wonder what Tonali and his agent told the club this week before the hearing, probably not the full story.

Oh they needed an Al Pacino reference.

Show this match to Al Pacino in Insomnia and he conks out within seconds. Film over.

Relentless

Class news, that. Hadn't realised his contract end was imminent. Whatever you think about his abilities on the ball, he's clearly a good defender and a brilliant character at the club. Us being more than the sum of our parts last season was due to a whole load of intangibles like that. Ideally I'd like to see him as more of a squad player eventually but we should keep him in the squad as long as we can. And very happy for him living his dream like this when he probably never thought it was possible.

Rattles cages Bets his wages Against fucking Sunderland Seriously though this is bad news

oh fucking hell you just reminded me I forgot to put my black armband on for the rest of the day. Will stick it on now. Re the game anyway, the spell we had second half had me thinking once again what a fun time it is to support us. Absolutely battered them for about 25 minutes and the second goal in particular was brilliant. Wish Isak had managed the hatrick. First half we dominated the ball but looked a bit toothless and last 20 minutes we decided to mostly let them have the ball. Whether that was tactical or due to fatigue I don't know, but we probably thought we could ride it out and get the 3 points. Overall annoying to lose 2 points right near the end but I thought we played alright and am fairly happy. It's a performance that continues the momentum rather than halting it, and in a long hard season where we're not full strength then that's priority #1.

He's taking the piss I think, pretending to misremember what you said. I thought it was funny anyway

Needs to be less of this like. Can't be digging out personal posts from elsewhere on the forum and using them in a tedious football argument.

Nope, thought we were the better side for the vast majority. Not too bad a point though.

Don't think we've been too bad but we are mainly passing it around prettily and struggling with ideas to break down their low block. West Ham won't change plan second half so we need to come up with something. Wilson up top with Isak on the left will presumably be the setup for 30+ minutes at least.

Catrick Kluivert

I can't, sorry.

How does one sleep, ever again, after that ffs?

Rio Ferdinand saying how in awe of the atmosphere he is. This is the type of fixture he said we couldn't dare dream of under the previous owner. Utter plank.

Heard the other day it was max 2 slots. I think the idea atm is to have all 5 nations go into qualification, then somehow dish out the 2 slots depending on who hasn't qualified.

The Champions League goal show is the absolute pinnacle of armchair football viewing like, I wish I could do it every time it was on

It's Man City making the game boring, mostly. Just holding on to the ball forever, as they can do against almost any side while very rarely attempting a more risky but incisive pass. Then when we get it, there have been lots of tactical fouls as always. We have been wasteful with the ball after the first 10 minutes but this is what they did to us at the Etihad, just bored us to death til we were demoralised. Not a fan

Exactly my thoughts. Don Goodman said they'd dominated every single metric. No, they've just completely dominated possession and not done much with it at all. They bore me to tears tbh, was the same at the Etihad.

A few days late but for next time, it's on the red button on TNT now.