Tiresias

Brilliant!

Just minor grumble, listening to Athletic's podcast preview of weekend and they are talking about us and what we may do if we achieve champions league and the only talk about what we may do is that maybe we'll try and sign neymar? Of course we fucking won't that completely breaks our whole model, we are not going to sign a superstar on 3x the wages of the rest of the squad combined ffs. Is it too much for pundits to have a bit of a clue?

Hands in the air I was concerned about his defensive record, I wasn't a fan of the 3-4-3 he sometimes used at bournemouth and concerned he wasn't tactically sophisticated to play a modern high press. (Having said all that that isn't to say I wasn't willing to give him a chance, I absolutely was) I was completely, utterly wrong and very glad to be.

We will likely have champions league fixtures and everything next season. It all depends on his attitude to me, if he's on board and knows his fitness is going to be managed as he is never going to be fit enough to start every match and he accepts that we should keep him, and bring in another attacking option. If he is convinced that he should play every minute and if he's not would rather go be the main man somewhere else sell him. I would love him to stay and as those stats point out, when he's been on the pitch this season he has been really really good mostly and I trust howe to get him to string that together more than any manager previous

Totally Football Show, journo on there said she had just interviewed them both

Just heard on podcast Joelinton is going to be Bruno's best man at his wedding

No pressure, weirdly confident on this one

FFS Spurs lol never rely on them

Get in

Howay

Relax i didn't watch the spurs game, nor the Everton game and now I'm chilling in The Town Wall with my Everton mate. It seems if we stomp Southampton i can never watch us again

Eddie doesn't go radgie on touchline but literally employs tindall to do that lol

Fair enough apologies

Yeah describing the arsenal of viera and henry as not a force is a somewhat odd take

He's better than his performance though i do think it is likely just rust

He doesn't give a shit either way one suspects

If you told me at start of season we'd be 20 points clear of Chelsea at this stage I would have assumed we'd walked the league somehow

Rafa staying in touch with our players what a class act he is. Meanwhile Howe talking to Longstaff more in first month than bruce did in 2 years. What a fucking dope.

Fair enough really, but I do think some of the season has to be about having a fun adventure. I do agree it is a difficult balance to be made, and yes would be great to solidify place in league, but this is all about Howe learning to (and I definitely think this is an area he needs to address for next season) rotate efficiently. I think player morale will suffer more for fielding weaker teams for europe more than anything. I think if we signed 7+ players we would be disappointed either way as I don't think so many will all fit in well immediately either. It's going to be tough I just don't think we can afford to field 'weakened' teams in champions league, we will get torn apart, half the players will think well I didn't sign to not even try and we will lose momentum etc. I can totally see us missing out on 4th next season as Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and Man U are all likely to be substantially better. Maybe it will be that we get knocked out with a slightly weakened team, but I just can't get behind saying brentford away is a bigger game than a champs league tie. We want to be competing at the top we need to learn to balance it all, not throw one for the sake of one other competition. If we finish 6th next season, so what, we aren't in financial trouble, the club will keep refreshing the squad, we will get there to winning the league one day. Maybe it's because I think that's still a waaaay off anyway.

We are not going to end up like West ham or squad is already significantly better, but yes i do anticipate there will be a negative impact on League performance. I guess unless we are actually going for the title i don't see the point of finishing in to 4 if we're going to write off or European games. Now i could understand under those circumstances doing what you suggest in domestic cups. But the best players who join us will join us to play in Europe. I don't imagine we will easily get out of the group stage anyway first attempt but just putting all our eggs into accumulating more points is a soulless objective imo.

Really? Happy to throw champions League for finishing closer to the title? We wait nearly 20 years to get back to the champions League and you want to throw the bteam in? I know League team will suffer but what is the fucking point of finishing top 4 anyway if not to play the best and try out best? No chance we'll get far first time out but playing the b team to beat Brentford? What?

If he does should be allowed to. Not impossible he has personal life all set up here, is well liked in dressing room, and as said could get coaching badges, however it is kinda sad for a CB to be 29 and not playing week in week out.

If lascelles is happy to that's fine, get him doing coaching badges he seems the type considering how much he seems to be valued on the training ground. He should be under no illusion though. In summer we will likely sign a new left back, Burn will likely be ahead of him as a backup CB if he's not at left back. Equally we will likely sign competition for Schar who will likewise be ahead. Unless one of them is odd his playing time will be minimal, but equally we will have a lot more games next season.

Funny mention that FourFourTwo literally just dropped video on exactly that lol

Offer Schar and Burn 2 year extensions, Wilson 1 year (sorry but he is running out of time, gets on with eddie so may want to join coaching staff?), move on Kraft and Manquillo, whom both have been decent servants ultimately but won't be needed.