Cf

Benitez I think was a special case. He joined us at a certain time in his career and looking back I still can't really believe it happened. Would Emery want it now? I'm not sure. What has materially changed since last time is it's clear the financial regs have put us in our place. More so perhaps than people might have thought back then. Obviously no relegation to worry about this time. There'll also likely be free roles at other teams. Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, City could all be up for grabs. Hell if Arsenal bottle it again maybe even them.

Parachute Guardiola or Arteta (the only 2 teams in the league firing in all competitions, and even then their PL form isn't what we've seen from similar levels in the past) and you think we're in a materially different spot than we are now? It's the squad. Howe can get this team to beat anyone on a good day but it's not a challenging for the league/CL level squad.

Retirement in the sun with Pulis and Pardew.

Reason was obvious: $$$$$$

I understand the comments about us not trying new things too much but think there's clear reasons and mitigations for this. Firstly the summer was not well run. Our lack of good people at the executive level really showed here. We missed out on plenty of first choice targets and got 2nd/3rd place instead and late in the window to boot. This really hurt though I still maintain there was plenty of not getting the rub of the green at the start of the season and we could easily have been higher up the league than we were. Regardless though in the past months I'm not really sure what Howe can do to be overhauling the way we play. Again, we've played every weekend and midweek since the start of the year. That's a game every 3/4 days. Once you've taken into account travelling (across Europe as well) and R&R there'll be very little time on the training pitch to practice new systems. Up until a couple of weeks ago we'd played the most football of any team in Europe. I think it's fair to say that compared to the other teams with similar numbers of games to us we were by far the least well equipped to deal with it.

I haven't read the last however many pages but Howe is still my man. We're allowed a below par season. Top 5 is likely gone but Europa/Conference is still doable with a good run of form. And below par is as far as I'd go. I wouldn't go as far as bad. We got to the semi finals of the LC as holders. Knocked out by City. 5th round of FA Cup. Knocked out by City. Last 16 of CL. Knocked out by Barcelona. There's no shame in any of those results. The team is now having it's first break since January. I think since the start of the year we've played single midweek and weekend since then I believe. And with some key injuries during that time as well I believe. This isn't an excuse for patchy form - it's a reason. I'm expecting us to start looking a bit more like our old selves as we now have the luxury of a game per week like the rest of the league. Then summer obviously needs loads of work and it's time to see what difference actually having an executive team in place makes. In terms of wanting a change I can't say I get it. If a player is going through a period of poor form but you know their quality you expect them to come through it. Same with the manager. And I'm not sure who we'd get. Just look at the current "big six" managers: City: Pep - Good obvs Arsenal: Arteta - Good though seems allergic to trophies and football is turgig Man Utd: Currently have a caretaker after previous disasters Liverpool: Slot - Shite, and we should expect movement here Chelsea: Rosenior - Probably shite, and a while since they've had a good manager Spurs: LOL Outside of City/Arsenal the other four have struggled with their managerial recruitment. And it's notable that the two that are clearly above the rest are the two with long term managers. Liverpool were in that group... And then they changed their manager. Ferguson at Man Utd, Wenger at Arsenal, Moyes at Everton. There's a lot of value in long term managers. We just don't get to see it very often. If we went for a change maybe we strike lucky. But there's every chance we just end up on the managerial merry go round with everyone else. And this isn't just the better the devil you know. Howe is quality. Give him proper support off the pitch this summer and I think we can have high hopes for next season.

Hall the weak link in our team confirmed.

The people who hired him probably are too. Can see this becoming a problem with lots of clubs. So much focus on is the manager the right man for the job but increasingly we should be looking more at those above them.

Awful from Guehi that.

Ah there we go. Another man city have given up goal.

That's one of the most we don't give a fuck goals I've seen. Offside, but still.

Ok I watched it. It's pretty bad

Steady on. I've not watched the clips but he can't be THAT bad surely?

Ref should have just booked each Chelsea player for surrounding the referee. Would have been a fun start to the game.

Wrong pass by Ekitike.

That was turbo shit by Liverpool. Fannying about with the ball outside Spur's box only to get hit on the counter.

Moaned it in.

Turned this on about 20 minutes ago. I'm nearly asleep .

I think the PL need to make an emergency rule change to add or remove points to teams depending on how many injuries they have for fairness.

I saw this multiple times. Was one as well where a Barca player went down, we got the ball, and he moved the whistle over his lips and only put it down again when the Barca player got up. Had he stayed down he'd have blown.

It was the Yamal one for me that just screamed corruption. Cynical? Yes. No attempt to play the ball? Yes. Overly aggressive? Yes. Yellow? No.

Big call to bring Ramsdale in for Pope according to Rooney because Pope has been doing really well. Good lord.

Ramsey's technical ability is so well regarded he gets sent off for falling over.

We're a team who's just played their 19th game of 2026. Let's not read too much into getting beat off arguably the best team in Europe.

They're just exhausted. This is our 19th game of 2026.