Marmoset

I'd take an FA cup this year and promotion next, or even the year after, or the year after that, than promotion and focusing on establishing ourselves as an average premier league team any day.

How long do people think Rafa will be here anyway? He's a great manager but not a magician, he could be here 5 years and not reach a final.

It depends on the frequency of his errors though. It's not a one off. Hopefully he'll cut them down with more experience.

So obviously cup. Rafa could get pissed off and leave next year, or simply offered a better job. Cup lasts forever.

Did you join this morning?

You can't really go by what those planks say. He did sound like he made a couple of gaffes though, which can happen. The question is whether it is a one off or is he going to be another Titus. He has made a few mistakes for us before, hopefully he's bright enough to learn.

Thanks guys

A good yet fairly obvious point

I know it's a cliche but he just needs a good big no nonsense guy next to him. Hopefully Lascelles will be that guy. Very good dealing with attacks on the deck and carrying the ball forward, still slightly concerned from last season about him dealing with crosses.

What's a PFM btw? I get 'proper football manager' but who does it apply to? Saw someone describe Hasselbaink as one which confused me

Will completely depend on how he handles the less time he'll get on the ball if we go up, his passing and ball striking is without doubt good enough. He had that period of form for Swansea which showed he is capable of it in the premier league, just depends if he can do it consistently and how he can adapt if teams really get a midfielder to focus on him and not give him an inch.

The emotional confusion on here if Rafa vs Hatem did happen

I like him for some reason and he'll be very useful this year, but long term I wouldn't want him to be one of our first choice eleven. Saying that, I'm always open to how Rafa might improve players so we'll see. Think at times he has had a bit of emperors new clothes syndrome due to his past at Ajax and his few Holland caps.

His football is what it is and he doesn't lie about it, it's up to other teams to beat it to put an end to it. Wouldn't want to have dinner with him but don't hate him.

He even says in a paragraph near the start that he seemed quite nice, then the guy writing it has a pop at him about results.Of course that's going to piss Elliot off.

The boss that is.

If you were in a nightclub and some randomer came up to you, criticising among other things the people you work with, the boss who took you from a s*** company to a top tier one, knowing full well it could get out in the press, would you lay into him?

I'm not saying he's making it up though. I'm sure the conversation happened and it went similar to how reported. But you think it happened word for word, tone for tone with the way it was reported?

So?

I've said it before and it was unpopular, but you're taking a conversation during a chance meeting in a nightclub as gospel. When something is repeated later especially online you can't take everything as verbatim.

perfect

I rated him for us and think he's got the 'good player criticism syndrome' on here, where he's been one of our most creative players during his tenure here but because he quite often has bad games he gets more negative attention than some players who have contributed so much less. Doesn't help with his embarrassing constant pleading for a 'big' club to buy him though.

Pretty much on this subject and it's a bit Milner, but recently met a Polish Brazilian, which I thought was a very unusual combo. Turns out due to immigration in the early 20th century, Brazil has the 2nd biggest Polish population outside of Poland. Would never have guessed that in a pub quiz and found it quite interesting. :milner: :milner: :milner:

I had little doubt he'd got for £30m+, he absolutely isn't worth that though and will fail in the long run, simply because he's thick as mince. You had little doubt he'd go for £30m+ yet consider him as thick as mince. I don't really want to equate you with the daft f***er who wanted rid of him for £3m but how does this compute? You've never known a player was going to go for a big fee, but didn't rate him as worth it personally? It's surely a very common thing?

Stray Mackem's publicist necking espressos and pulling her hair out at the moment generally seemed decent in the past though. We all have our regretful posts at some point I guess.