gjohnson

Underestimating Villa this year, they are very much a team to be scared of. Moreso than City/Liverpool/Chelsea given the way our team mindset seems to be (turn up with effort against the biggest, but already won games in their head that havent even had a ball kicked) we look lethargic and sloppy against anyone at the minute and although on paper the form looks decent, its been poor to average opposition and we've made bloody hard work of it. On the plus side being so consistently unconsistant can be a benefit....no team playing knows which version of us are going to show up from one game to the next, so they're always going to be wary of the threat we are capable of. Problem is if they see our threat not working in 10 minutes it sets the tone for the whole match...moments of amazing skill trickery and intritcate clever football undone by a player making a short hospital pass or failing to make a simpe pass. Overall its not working brilliantly this season where a few games can have you up in top 4/5. Id say it is fortunate for us that the table is so tight that despite our mixed results and consistently poor performances were sitting in 6th. It would be awesome to rewind two seasons back where we did genuinely believe we'd win every match...through our play, not by worrying what the other team is going to do and ballsing it up with the obligatory 60 min substitutions

Southgate, Southgate, Southgate....please for entertainments sake be Southgate

Man U have become the basket case job we were after Keegan...the only way to succeed there now if being as good as Ferguson was

Rosenoir might make it to the end of the season at best. Screams "caretaker". Might do enough to get a permanent appointment, but wille be Roedered out the door the second a slightly better option looks available

How's the bacon did you say?

Big Sam says hi from Casa St James

Luuk de Jong for shooting

No...clearly too costly for even PIF to stomach. An extension would be almost as much as a new stadium, and no matter what the nay-sayers on here say a large cheque would make the environmentalists saying Leazes Park is essential for environment/conservation (in reality a few permanently angry dog walkers) go away. Best we can hope for in the short to medium term is a spruce up...no serious expansion/move until the concrete crumbles so much its unsafe

Bilbaos inability to break us down doesnt make an immaculate performance for me. They were rubbish in the final third, and we would almost always win it back and within 3 attempts at passing forward they had it back to attack again...due to a careless misplaced pass. Everyone of our players was guilty of it last night not due to pressing but due to dithering and not knowing where a teammate was actually going to be. Spending 3 to 4 minutes passing around defence mighjt make possession and passing stats look good, but a bit of luck the other way amd that could have easily been a draw or defeat. That doesnt include Gordon forgetting that he plays for Newcastle and not Bilbao. We dont have to be amazing every week bit some of the play last night was complete amateur night and was every bit as bad as West Ham.

Were you watching same game? If that was immaculate you must be eqsily impressed. It was the very definition of the word sloppy. The amount of short passes going astray would embarrass a sunday league team. It wasnt like they were intricate fast one touch passes either. The whole front 6 looked like theyd never played together at all. Good result, but thats the only positive thing that can be said for that performance

We will have to disagree in that case. Any achievements in the CL will be forgotten by the end of the season if we arent in it again, and will once again be further restricted by psr without the funds just from qualifying. If we dont qualify through league position we'd pretty much have to win the thing for it to make a difference to our profile

Getting to the next phase of the CL will do us little good if we don't qualify next year

Probably a bit of snide revenge on the various media t*****rs constantly shouting that "big club x" are looking at a cut price deal for Tonali as his contract end gets closer

This totally. We had a team more or less built around him, he was the main guy and worshipped for it. Then the £££signs started rolling in his eyes, so got the move to a 'bigger' club where he's no longer the hero, no longer the tip of the spear, and is not looking as good as a player as he was for us. Its only a few games into the season so could go either way but is looking more like a Carroll trajectory than a Suarez one

Debatable...look at the chancers Ashley was touting us to...Barry Moat and the like. Wealth doesnt guarantee competence where owners are involved...look at Blackburn with their Venkys debacle. Even Radcliffe with Man U. I dont recall what he paid for his 25% of them, but could have easily got us 100%and have change left over, and his decisions with them have been comedic

Probably cos we didnt actually want him in the first place. Probably turned up to training and Howe was like "who the f are you?"....go sit in the cupboard under the stairs

All about context...despise as a person certainly not. The posters terminology is harsh, but some on here (although theyd never admit it now given how much better he has become) probably despised seeing his name on the teamsheet at LB in his first season. Like going to a family party and seeing Uncle Knobhead and knowing hes going to get pissed and try to pull a dangerously close to jailbait girl. You know sober in the right place he's ok, but despise his actions in those situations

Think it was a fair comment...Burn while at left back was widely seen as the weakest link, routinely targeted by opposition and often at least indirectly responsible for a fair few goals conceded. At the time he didnt have the pace or skill to really excel in that position. However...since being put back in the middle his use to the team has improved massively. If anything he looks (to me at least) like he has actually gotten faster despite being older. Nothing spectacular but he doesnt look like he could be outpaced by a sedated geriatric like he was on the left. Also looks a bit more skillful now too...capable of the odd turn or dummy to get out of tight spots rather than just hoofing it as hard as he could.

3 times out of 5 now. Statistical anomaly? Possibly but given the state of questionable officiating and governing bodies unlikely. Wouldnt be surprised if we get 20 years down the line and find some massive Juventus style scam has been going on

Man Citys 'bespoke' deal is apparently worth 1.5bn...even for them rodgering the PL over APT rules surely this is way above FMV? Oh forgot...that only applies to 14 clubs

Exactly...the Cartel also have 'organic' growth. Unless our growth is bigger than theirs (which the rules all but ban) theyre just going to get further ahead. Stuff organic...get the artificial fertilizer (Saudia, Sabic) on and deal with the pests (cartel/pl) with insecticide (lawyers)

Arent they just, spent ages chasing him, and then saying we overpaid and cant compete. Their bitterness suggests a decent player...theyre not exactly known for signing duds. Guess its a bit easier when youre winning the league 9 times out of 10

Since when has the legality of the rules bothered the PL? Isnt the PL virtually the epitomy of anti-competitveness and corruption?

Reads to me the PL have said ok you can have this one if you drop the case and agree to stick by our rules going forward

Bound to be Lampard...knows the club and all that garbage.