Dandy Man

Would have preferred to see Bruno start obviously but can see the logic given he's had a whirlwind last week or so. If it turns out to be a mistake then Howe deserves criticism but if it works out and we get a win hopefully people will allow him some credit, we're still well up to winning this imo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0b7h36c

3-1 win, let's get in to these

Wait till you hear about Fumaça

There were massive deficiencies across all areas of the team that needed addressing and those largely got addressed, if a striker had been the only problem area then fair enough they fucked up but they did sign one striker for 25 million (bad value or otherwise) and clearly tried to get at least one more of similar value. It's obviously a non ideal situation to be in right now, but it's hardly a shambles or a massive dereliction of duty when we've reinforced with genuine quality across several positions in the hardest period of year to buy any players, it's certainly nowhere near the levels of shambles of the last 14 years anyway. But people love complaining.

There will be no striker then, I'll tell the children

He is going to be away for NZ World Cup qualifiers from 18th-30th March (assuming they get to final) which means he is missing Palace at home at a minimum - fuck knows who will be playing up front in that match

Caulkin piece in The Athletic also saying he's expected to join

This is a shambolic trophy presentation

Having your best penalty taker anywhere later than 3rd in a shootout must be a bad strategy

Glad Senegal won, Egypt are a tough watch. Mane wasn't exactly exuding confidence when he was pacing around early in shootout though.

There is (a fairly remote) possibility of Bruce getting them promoted and us getting relegated, if that did happen I think I might disconnect myself from society and become a monk or something

The Egyptian left back with his shorts pulled up like swimming trunks has been the highlight so far

Cameroon v Egypt into extra time, not been great so far but getting bit heated with Queiroz getting sent to stands towards end of the 90

West Brom fans seem surprisingly upbeat about it, there's a significant percentage who seem to think it is a decent appointment

I have tried to switch off my moral compass as much as possible since the takeover because what's the point, football sold it's soul ages ago, I am not going to be able to do anything about anything and I would just like to be able to enjoy seeing the club actually achieve something for once in my life. But it is quite difficult to totally remove myself from the context of the situation and the willingness of some fans to conflate our owners with our club's identity does trouble me a bit. FWIW I think the guy who did the tweet was extremely stupid and he can have no complaints about losing his job as a result.

Interesting statistic on Crystal Palace there, reinforces my belief that they could get pulled into it. Going to have to have a tenner on them to go down at 25/1.

Think there is a (outside) chance that Crystal Palace get dragged into this too, they've been looking bad enough last few weeks and not convinced Viera is a brilliant manager - sort of went to shit towards end of his stint managing Nice too. Next two games away to Norwich and Brentford then home to Chelsea, will be under bit of pressure if not getting any results.

Does feel like he deserved a better crack of whip without handicap of Steve Bruce being manager but looks like Howe does not fancy him for whatever reason. Having Manquillo, Burn and Dummett as other potential back ups for the position with all of them giving bit better flexibility has probably counted against him too.

Clark, Lewis and Hendrick were Pete's three names then?

No idea what to expect beforehand but happy overall. We were never going to fix all that is wrong with squad in one window. I like that they seem to be relatively considered with valuations of players and we are not loading up on the obvious mercenary types 7.5/10

Think we've made a very clear sign of intent and made significant progress in first step of "the project". Not sure what needed to be done to "guarantee safety" or if that is even possible in reality. The fundamental issues with the squad were never going to be fixed in one January transfer window and we were never going to buy a whole new starting eleven of world class players, anyone thinking that would be the case is setting themselves up for disappointment.

I do agree we need more goals but we also had a lot of positions that needed strengthening and have addressed most/all of those to some extent. Getting a top goalscorer in January was always going to be hard and for better or worse we have got Chris Wood, not overly glamorous but he can still contribute. In my opinion we have strengthened as much as could be realistically expected and would have taken the current state of affairs if had been offered it at start of January.

Dread to think what this place would be like if we hadn't spent 100 million in January to be honest

Unlikely to be significantly more expensive in summer and also not sure how much of an impact he would make between now and end of season anyway. Would be an exciting signing and he looks a talent but he's only had limited playing time in a bad Reims team as it stands and probably not the right time for him to make the move.