Marmoset

Not having that he's better than Cabaye yet mind, let's see this form continue in the premier league first.

He'll never be Dani Alves, but of course with time and an easier ball in front of him he can get better at playing simple passes. Funny how people think a decent manager and a few years will without much doubt make a more attacking but less solid fullback better defensively, but never entertain the idea the other way around.

They aren't that bright though. If you were earning say 50k being a middle manager somewhere, and an opportunity came up to earn an extra 25k per year, was a bit shady but as far as you can see you wouldn't get caught, a lot of people would be tempted. And it's clearly been happening a long, long time. With hardly anyone getting caught. The other guys say they've been doing it for years and years, no repercussions, you can see how people get involved. Obviously daft, greedy and immoral, but you can see how it would become quite common.

Telegraph causing chaos in the betting for this I imagine

Still early days, hopefully he'll improve over the season, has still young enough to learn. Will always have certain limitations but can hopefully make the best of what he's got. Absurd we relied on him to be our main striker and score our goals last season with hindsight though.

What exactly is a PFM? What are the criteria?

He obviously needs more time but that doesn't mean he's immune to criticism/worries. People so rabidly defending him are about as weird as the people already completely writing him off. Probably a touch weirder actually.

Fair enough!

Like we would be if we won a cup?

I'm absolutely dumbfounded that fans would be happy to accept crumbs from the table (that was a Keegan expression btw, for a team that dared to take a point from us in the old second division) when we are finally showing some belated signs of ambition. Winning a cup was a cop out for Ashley to aim low as possible and hope for the best. A cop out for Ashley? He hasn't given a f*** about the cups in a decade. Neither has anyone else in the last decade. Ask some of the fans of losing FA cup finalists if they cared. Absolute nonsense.

As a manager it's about instilling a group mentality of professionalism and giving 100% though. It's more the impression allowing someone who doesn't take training seriously to suffer no consequences conveys to the rest of the group than the actual impact on their ability to perform. Obviously should have been starting for us, but if those clips are the norm you can't be expecting to get away with that for a team like psg who have very talented but also hard working players fighting for your place.

We can have mundane league seasons anytime. The experience of 'fluking' a cup would be something you'd look back on and talk about forever.

I doubt he was handing out bibles to Muslims at training like

this one

He's great but he clearly can't be that arsed about the less exciting bits of being a footballer.

Wasn't there a video of him here doing star jumps of similar quality?

If we're talking best possible realistic circumstances, lets say we're as good as spurs are in 5 years time. They've won 1 league cup in the last 10 years. People talking about multiple cups in the future are being a bit optimistic, even with Rafa.

Yeah you can't be doing that if you're a big star, nevermind some young lad on the fringes.

Why would Rafa be so much more likely to depart us if we won the fa cup and narrowly lost a playoff final than if we were promoted? Surely he'd stick around an extra year in this hypothetical?

Surely if you are the weaker team it's better to have a one leg game?

It's just all media hype though

And if Rafa gets pissed off with the regime and leaves within 2-3 years? Back to bog standard (or worse) managers without any great cup winning memories to look back on?

League first, both hopefully. The cup will come anyway if Rafa's still here as long as Pardew was. I think people are underestimating how hard it'll be for us to win a cup, even if Rafa stays 5 years.