HaydnNUFC

I absolutely love Ian Wright though, he's sound.

Mostly, but I absolutely despise Gabriel, Jorginho and Havertz and I can't stand their holier-than-thou shite craic fans.

Developed a pretty strong hatred of Arsenal personally. Of Arteta, a few of their current players and many of their fans anyway. Cannot fucking stand them.

Chants with lyrics on the screen. Bloody hell.

This is pure nihilism, need to stop. Getting depressed. But replacing Isak would be incredibly difficult. I struggle to think of many strikers out there as good as him or better than him. The ones I can think of aren't coming here with no Europe or serious chance(s) of silverware when they'll have the pick of other clubs that can offer both. If they're not already at one.

Maybe, but his injury record before signing for us is very good. Barnes likewise. Perhaps it's us.

Yep. Isak is the one I worry the most about. We consistently don't get the best out of him and given how good he is to think that he wouldn't entertain the thought of leaving for an Arsenal or another big club closer to challenging for the top honours either here or abroad in Europe is delusional imo. Obviously we would get top money for him if we were to let him go, but to replace him with a player just as good as him or better would take £80m+ at least. And the players that cost that much will have better offers than from us.

Fuuuuck me. There was some shocking ideas put forward at the ballot thing I was at n'al.

Fuck sake.

I made continuous jibes about that poll and posts in this thread and the Howe thread after Watford (H) in January 2022 when Howe proceeded to turn it round and have the success of last season. It was clear that we had improved tactically but just needed signings to implement what he was trying to do at a good enough level. It was mid way through January, getting rid for Benitez then who was sacked by Everton the same weekend as that Watford game for doing a shite job there would've been absolutely mental.

Will always love him for what he did here. But his stock has fallen exponentially, especially from when he was appointed here. Also would not have him back in any capacity whatsoever. He'd never be anything other than a manager for one so that rules almost every other role out, but I want(ed) a clean break from everything Ashley and that includes him.

The poll at the top of the page. Good lord.

That's worded much worse than it is. We have 1 more game until the international break which we would lose with Barnes anyway.

Howay, man.

'Lots of good' isn't what I expected to be amongst the first things he says in this.

He's abysmal and has been for ages now. If he's regularly starting games for us in the PL next season, fml.

Yep. The positions that Forest found Wood in ( ) at SJP is exactly what we should be aiming to do with him.

Crackers if they do. This tie knocks pretty much every club out as soon as the draw is made.

We continually don't get the best out of him.

It's holding onto Isak and Bruno I'm more worried about if, say, an Arsenal come sniffing about. Especially Isak.

Tonight was crap. Wrong approach and too many abysmal performances. I'm still behind Howe, he has the rest of the season for me. I won't start asking serious questions of Howe unless we have the clear out or overhaul we need in the summer but still look as lifting at the start of next season as we have done tonight and a few times this season. IMO though I think us doubling down on the style of play from last season has backfired. The plan in the summer window, I think, was to pad out the squad with almost having 2 XIs that we could run into the ground with playing with the same intensity week in week out rather than sign a different sort of player attacker or midfielder that we didn't have which could help us play and win matches in different ways. Alas, when the going gets tough with injuries we can't/won't change or adapt the style and with tiredness and varying levels of ability of lesser players replacing injured ones, the style becomes nowhere near as intense or jointed as it was last season. Therefore it makes Howe look quite naive, as the same issues in matches keep on happening again and again and nothing changes.

Yep, they're a midtable, ordinary side yet we've conceded 3 goals to them and deserved nowt. 22 goals conceded in our last 8 away league games.

They're 11th and had only won 5 home league games before tonight.

Yet another shit away performance and result. Season's in serious danger of fizzling out. Rerun of the heady days of March-May 2014.

Longstaff's definitely got Howe's nudes, like. Fuck me.