Stottie

That penenka he chipped into Pope's arms in that Palace game where we got 4 in the first half was hilarious. (my most recent game at SJP)

That'll do for no red cards all season.

It looked like Madueke hooked the defenders arm.

I reckon the last WC final and the Bayern-PSG first leg were better than Italy-Brazil in the 1982 World Cup, the old fogey's watermark for a brilliant game of football. The current Premier League, which is newly devoid of thrashings and has everyone playing for argy bargy set pieces is grim, I'll give you that.

Extra time. PSG dominant here, so good to have Ramos who will stay in the #9 position and not go walkabout like Dembele. If anyone is joining late, here's the story of the game.

Got to say it was coming. Enrique has adjusted and Legohead has not got his lads to manage.

Ref's bottled the second yellow. Through the player, so not attempting to play the ball. 1-1. Thank fuck!

Saka unlucky. Only a foul on the reaction. Not that I care. C'mon PSG!

Dire game, with dreaded early goal from all too predictable scorer, predictable even to me before kickoff. The scripted narrative needed Arsenal to miss a chance at 1-0 they would go on to rue, so we've at least had that. Enrique will have to come up with something though, because there is only one way this is going without changing things up.

Full marks to ref for not allowing time wasters to take a corner.

If PSG's Woltemade can set up one of their strikers against Arsenal with the chance Wissa had, PSG score.

Yes, this is the CL with its alternative universe rules that are more than capable of coming up with the required logic. I assume that had Trossard ran onto the rebound, it would be disallowed.

This is very true. You could also say it about some of those teams' players when they join new clubs, including the one we bought. On a similar tip, Liverpool are yet to get 30% of what we got out of Isak. On peak form, the Carabao semi vs. Arsenal for example, Isak terrified teams.

Blatant elbow on Woltemade. Well into "what's the point of VAR?" territory. Just seen the lineup and its Rice, Odegaard and Lewis Skelly in a three. Looks lightweight to me. Havertz up front, who's scored in the final before and strikes me as a wild card for big games. He's far from clinical but can get you a goal when it matters most.

After the 10 goal 10 assist season, he's been underwhelming to the point where 60 million of PSR headroom promises more than Gordon would have done playing in the PL only for us next season. I think he is talented, is a good talker, and is potentially a better fit in a better team than he would be in a Howe NUFC team, especially a team not playing in the Premier League, which as Gordon himself pointed out is currently quite agricultural. For us and the time being, what matters is how good players are in an Eddie Howe NUFC team in the competitions we play in. The transfer fee itself is mostly irrelevant, and what matters is the PSR headroom, which is a much bigger sum given how transfers and wages go down on the books. It should get us two or three players, not just the one.

I don't rate Slot, but I also don't rate whoever did their transfers last summer. Unlike NUFC, I doubt it was their manager on his own. Even Carragher said straight away that Isak, Ekitike, and Wirtz could not play together. Someone at LFC decided to buy them, to let Diaz go, and to let Quansah go when they have little CB cover, which is why Konate had to play through that ropey patch. Liverpool may have had transfer special sauce when they bought Robertson, Mane, Salah, etc., but they've not got it now. Even if Iraola can bring some Bournemouth transfer data with him, it will not be focused on the Doue-level players Liverpool are likely to buy. I expect Iraola to get more out of their squad, 45 points from the last 33 games isn't hard to beat, but I doubt they will challenge for the title, especially not with Ekitike unlikely to play again in 2026.

Don't slate him!

I thought his allround play at 9 was pretty good. He terrifies the opposition with pace, has high shot volume, gets into many goal scoring positions, presses like a bastard, draws many fouls/wins many penalties, and initial signs for linkup play with Woltemade were good, for the very short time they played 9 and 10 together. The glaring issue is that he's currently a poor or very poor finisher. He's young, so this could go either way. Barca have way more goals in their team than we do, so they can be more patient with him hitting air shots than we were. For us, that might be the only clear chance we get all game.

If we are signing old songs about Lee Ryder Lee's the storyteller, and his stories must be told. In France Div. 2 he's "Jaouen", in England he is "John".

A correct observation, and by conventional thinking, a fine conclusion. The complication is that this is exactly how the system is designed. Every up and coming club has to sacrifice players, because its the only way they can pay the others and add squad players for the extra burden of playing in Europe. Having the "richest owners in the world" makes zero difference. If this means Bruno is back on penalties, I hope Tindall gets him to bin that stutter-step runup. It sends my heart rate through the roof!

With Lewa's age, it'll be interesting to see if Flick uses Gordon up the middle. In the future, if not necessarily straight away. I reckon Bayern may have also seen him as a future 9. Kane's skillset is a one-off, that vision and long passing!, so they won't find a direct replacement.

39 goals, 12 of them pens, 28 assists. 7 game winning goals. Scored against the mackems, but it will be forgotten unlike the lads who scored winners against them. Beautiful for him to wait one more season, play for us in the CL and then get the move Isak wanted, on what sounds like more wedge than Isak. If one of our obstacles was to get enough PSR headroom to unleash the PIF cash cannon, we must be there or thereabouts now. I just hope PIF are still interested.

AI reckons Gordon's book value is about 13 million quid. So we'll do very nicely out of this for PSR. Lets hope Ross spends it wisely. I was expecting Gordon to step up against Barca in the CL games but thought he was quiet in both legs. Whatever he did wasn't enough to put them off.

I'm not surprised elite clubs want him, and quite like it that he's going to a bigger club than Isak. Get the money in and see what we can do. Gordon was not on the pitch in the promising flashes of 4-2-3-1 we saw recently, so his "replacement" could be a very different player. I'd be happy for a quick sale because I cannot see him being a standout player at the WC. I do not see upside there, given his England record so far.

fwiw, if you take the last 33 games of the season. Liverpool only got two more points than us. They kind of fluked wins in their first five games, including 10 men trying to beat them in the last minute at SJP and that mental Burnley handball gift penalty, again in the last minute. After those first five games, they actually got fewer points (45) than the mackems, and again, only two more points than us. Just on Wissa but we did actually create chances for him, but he missed them. With Chris Wood, we struggled to create anything for him. In terms of a bad fit for the team, I think he was worse. Wissa is just on bad form, which has drawn extra attention to how limited he may be as a footballer even when fully fit. I hope he gets his finishing back at the World Cup. Without finishing, there doesn't seem to be much there.