Stottie

Since August 2019, Calvert Lewin has managed only 93 more league minutes than Callum Wilson. For the same money, easily north of 50M, you probably get Raphinha, so no thanks. Ekitike for me! A double punt on Ekitete and Brereton Diaz would be cool too.

With Mbappe and Pogba walking and PEA buying out his contract, I think things may be changing in the transfer market. Salah and Rashford are set up to walk in summer 2023. Player power has always existed, but perhaps not to this level. If the aim is Top 6-8, I don't think we need big names just yet. With the current focus on sportswashing in football due to Abramovich, it may be wise for the club to keep a lower profile and build through reasonable investment and undoing the competency gap that developed under Ashley. Harry Kane for example would vastly improve us as a team, of course he would, but at this point, three-quarters of the headlines would be "murderers trying to buy the league". For all the claims about sportswashing, I think the biggest objections people had to Chelsea and Man City were about unfair competition. Anything that can be claimed on that front will amplify the new-found concern about sportswashing. It didn't get many headlines, but the club has signed up with Statsbomb, the data analytics people. With the people Howe is putting in place, and the clear success we had in January, I have faith in the club finding good players who are not necessarily high profile. Good enough for Top 8 at least. We've just managed a third of a season of Top 6-8 form with a bottom six striker who hasn't even been on form.

TAA is wicked. I've always thought Liverpool fans over hype or or are at least overly defensive about Firmino, and think Jota has come in and proved it. The same buildup contribution, but 30-40% more shots and twice as many goals. Stats from this season and last. I thought we made Declan Rice look very ordinary at their place. At SJP under Bruce we just stood off and watched. As a rule, I think DMs, and especially English DMs soon get hyped.

I'd definitely keep Wilson. My temptation would be to use him as a tried and trusted fallback, and gamble on a potential sensation like Ekitike. If Howe likes Lingard, him on a free would also add proven quality and flexibility across the front line. I wonder what the Eddie Howe masterplan is. The 4-3-3 is working well, but may not be the intended destination. If so, the midfield situation completely changes. Just on the "Project", but if the next target is is Top 8, that should be possible without smashing the wage structure at this point. There will be clamour for big names in the summer and lots of agents and websites putting our name out there for attention, but I don't think we need big earners just yet. An overall strengthening, organization and squad unity should get us to that goal. Getting into the Top 4 is when you start needing superstars.

I reckon many destroyer-type DMs are overrated. My favourite DMs are all capable of playing box to box, even if the tactics don't let them, or double as playmakers.

Yeah, I remember that one! It was tagged "Chuckles the Clown, he's a barrel of laughs" or something like that. My favourite three panel strip from early Viz was "Tom And Gerry" (sic) The first panel was a Roy Lichtenstein-type big "Whaaapp!" exclamation. The second panel was a close-up of Tom saying "A-ha!" The third panel was zoomed out to Tom, next to Jerry dead in a mousetrap, saying "Got the bastard!"

Lingard provides decent cover for many different positions. Another bonus with him is that we can get him and Trippier to tap up Rashford to come on a free in summer 2023, when we should/hope to be a top half club looking to kick on and threaten the top 4. Pogba's walking and PEA just bought out his contract. The times they are a changing. In the meantime, if he was half up for it before we won six games out of eight, I'd be tempted to go back for Ekitike. Lingard costs nowt, Ekitike whatever, and spend the rest on replacing the last of the deadwood, maybe a CH like Botman if the funds are available. I wouldn't spend big on a DM unless the idea is to change formation. The three is working well and we've not really seen it in a match where we are playing through Trippier and Targett to a Ekitike/Wilson/Lingard/ASM level front line. I think that would get us solidly Top 8. If we do get there, that'll be where difficult decisions and big signings would have to be made to take the next step up.

Two defeats but both by single goals to pretty much the only good chances we allowed. In the 10 game form table, we are third below only Liverpool and City for fewest goals conceded (7). Despite these two defeats, our goal difference for the 10 games is still +6. To get relegated, we need to collapse from Champions League form to something like 4 points off 9 matches. That's pretty difficult for a team that hasn't conceded two in a match for three months.

I didn't think it was especially dangerous play and would have been happy with the ref's decision in real time. It was definitely cynical, but tactical fouls aren't subject to special treatment. Many of us will have thought their goalscoring attack should have been stopped in similarly cynical way.

Shit performance which would have been forgettable at 0-0, but ended up vexing as fuck due to the goal. We got an essentially free red card but were too leggy and clueless to do anything with it. We weren't able to stretch the play as we did against the 10 of Brentford. Second half blowing smoke, hoofing, and late conceding all reminscent of the Bruce era. It looks like the lads need a break. If its any recompense, this was a reschedule due to Covid from late December. Had we played it then, I think the result would have been the same, only with the points going to Rafa. I think Everton are in a much worse place now than if they'd got a win against us back then. Instead of having Lampard and Dele Alli, they would probably be in a late season Rafa revival.

There's some pretty shocking stuff in this thread. I do not like our owners, but I think the club is only guilty through extension and association. As the reporting here says, the British government are actively complicit and using Britain's own armed forces to help. That's not what lads and lasses in the forces signed up for.

It's worse than that, it's six defeats in seven games. They've not scored in five of those games, or six given that the goal against us was a goalline clearance that hit Lascelles and went in.

If anyone's got a ticket, there is still time to buy an inflatable T Rex or make a wearable one out of paper mache. Go on, you know you want to.

Just on the Carragher comments, but what percentage of the acrimony over the years about Chelsea and Man City been about them buying the league, and not about the specific sources of their money? Aren't there who've folks been upset about the perceived affect on the league as a competition, not the idea of Drogba etc. being bought with money from an appropriated Russian state asset, what should be the Russian people's money? Man U, Blackburn, etc. have bought the league before, even Brian Clough was very well backed at Forest, so I am not suggesting this is a new phenomenon. With Chelsea and Man City, it was simply on a take-the-piss scale not seen before. I'm sure it is calculated, but if PIF don't do this at NUFC, e.g., buying Mbappe as they could presumably afford, they will avoid a lot of the spotlight. Regarding other clubs poaching Tuchel etc. from Chelsea, I will quote a good Geordie, Paddy McAloon, "I was the fool who always presumed that, I'd wear the shoes and you'd be the doormat"

The Guardian has regularly defended Tony Blair over Iraq and hundreds of thousands dead, but couldn't lay into Corbyn hard enough over perceived anti-Semitism. Their refusal to support Corbyn, especially in 2017 led to the current shitshow of a hard Brexit (=Russian foreign policy) and tens of thousands of extra deaths from Covid. This happened because the center left is just as divisive and intolerant as the far left.

To do that with our first choice midfield out and about one day's preparation on the training ground due to two distant away games played Thurs-Sunday. Incredible!

11 v 13, one cunt on the pitch and a bigger one in the booth. Hard to bear lads.

Roman's money is still good

Quality half, I hope the lads have enough in the tank to keep the pressing up, because that was intense. An overall lack of threat as expected from the attacking players we have on the pitch. ASM would weaken us defensively, but he's about the biggest stick-or-twist going in the league. An intriguing situation for big Eddie.

Bruno still starts, so let's see what he can do against some of the best.

After seeing that lineup, I rescind all comments about 9-1 odds being generous and us not conceding three. Iin Eddie we trust, but many fringe players in there and not a lot of threat. It looks like this match is being written off to have a full go at Everton.

Just regarding this and the Abramovich thread, but what Saudi Arabia do is indefensible. It is also indefensible to sell them arms like the UK does. What Israel does to Palestine is also indefensible and most importantly has been going on the longest, but saying it gets you labelled an antisemite. While I do not like our owners, I think its a bit premature to be massively sounding the sportswashing siren, because they have not sunk an Abramovich/PSG/City level of spending in yet. What we've seen so far has been more akin to an attack of competence following years of mismanagement. A bit like Liverpool's new owners (world record center half and goalkeeper remember) vs. their previous ones. It may happen someday, but they have not used a money bazooka to buy shiny things that win over gullible people and make a mockery of the league as some kind of fair competition. We may have spent a good whack in January, but Aston Villa signed two players on wages we wouldn't pay. We got their reject left back. That's a big difference to how Chelsea or City started off.

I don't advocate gambling, but our chances of winning are better than that. Chelsea have played mostly away recently, but have drawn three of their last four home games. Everton (Rafa) 1-1, Brighton 1-1, Liverpool 2-2, and then Spurs 2-0 Big Dan Burn played for Brighton in that game (against Lukaku) and it sounds like they were unlucky not to win. 18 vs 11 shots and they hit the woodwork.

Watford do have winnable fixtures but cannot defend even with Hodgson.

We have passed every other previous test against better opposition, W Ham, Brighton, and Soton away, so I see no need to fear this one. I seriously can't see us conceding three or more. Chelsea have drawn three of their last four at home, and since we're second top, they must have been against teams lower than us in the form table. Maybe a draw or we may even sneak it. Can Chelsea defend set pieces? We won't have much possession, so will have to make good use of the few chances we'll get.