SteV

Very true.

That’s a fair point. There’s far too much pissing and moaning for the sake of it. Well, I say that, and then I also think people have the right to have the opinion that something is shit, whilst not really knowing what a viable solution is. You’re completely right though that the club is never going to just ‘put it back’. Exactly like digital home ticketing, it’s here to stay, so people need to accept that, and think about ways that it can be changed to improve. FWIW I actually think an eventual move to fully digital away ticketing will help. I reckon that free’s up the ability to transfer tickets in the manner you can with home tickets currently. Even if it’s no loyalty point involved and only a limited number of times a season.

Who would you bring in? I can see Livramento, Dummett, Targett, Willock, Hall, Ritchie, then I’m struggling.

Yeah, I mean however bad things have been, there’s always been demand for 90% of away games.

I guess it kind of depends. If we weren’t in the situation we are with tickets, where people are desperate for them, but can’t get them, there probably wouldn’t be the negativity towards perceived ‘outsiders’. A ‘tourist’ taking a ticket that nobody else wants isn’t doing anyone any harm.

Could be worse. We could have sent him to Ajax…

Would imagine the fact that refs are whacking yellow cards out for next to fuck all now is having an effect.

The Shearer pre-Goodison injury was phenomenal for us. Isak’s brilliant but not sure he’ll ever quite reach those levels. Obviously he’s probably better than the one-legged, couldn’t run Shearer, that scored 20 a season through sheer willpower towards the end.

It’s not that I think we’d never spend that on a keeper, it’s more I can’t see us doing it anytime soon whilst we build our squad and navigate FFP.

Yeah, maybe. I just don’t think Howe would feel that spending would likely be a pretty sizeable chunk of our budget on a goalkeeper is the way to go in the short term.

Eddie does have a (little) bit of the Kenneth Williams about him when he cracks a funny.

And that’s kinda the crux of it. To get someone with the actual keeping ability of Pope but who also has good/very good distribution, you’re either trying to unearth someone that isn’t really established at major club/league, which I always think is a massive risk with a keeper, or you’re looking at a £40-£50m outlay. Maybe there’s other alternatives like getting lucky with someone’s contract/clause, or bringing in someone older who’s probably short-term like a Navas, or that ilk, but barring that, I expect Pope to be here for the foreseeable, and that’s fine with me FWIW.

Yeah, however it is an absolute killer for atmosphere when you can barely get a touch of the ball. Easy to say it shouldn’t matter, but City are absolute masters at killing a home crowd.

From what I remember (sit underneath away fans but reasonably towards the front) they were very good/loud in the first half but tailed off noticeably after they went behind. Kind of understandably like as they were given very little to get behind on the pitch from that point.

Not sure Joelinton plays tbh. Howe said after he took him off v Dortmund, something along the lines of ‘working back to full fitness’ and ‘managing his load’. Given he did the full 90 yesterday, he might get a rest.

True. Hopefully their current plight will convince the owners to give Ten Hag some money to spend so he gets a fair crack, and doesn’t have to continue to operate on a shoestring.

Is there any major European club that doesn’t have unlimited membership? Genuine question.

Might be sooner than that. Howe said last week that he would be out for four weeks but he was already two weeks into that. Whether he can jump straight back in after that like, I’d not be so sure?

Howe saying in the post match presser tonight “we fear he’ll need surgery”.

This is very true. As fans we’re all (naturally) very ‘now’ orientated. Things can happen that can derail in the short term, even for a whole season (see Liverpool), but as long as everyone stays calm, we’ll be up and around the top end of things for a long time to come.

When I was at that ticketing workshop, the head of hospitality was on my table and he was absolutely adamant that hospitality hadn’t received an increase in away tickets since the takeover. Now I’ve know idea if he was telling the truth, although given how adamant he was I doubt he outright lying, perhaps he could have been circumnavigating the truth if additional tickets have not gone through the what was/is traditionally hospitality? I’ve no idea really ??‍♂️ He said something along the lines of “we don’t take nearly as much for hospitality as some Premier League clubs, Liverpool take 25%”. Although I did say to him that the club should really be more transparent as something gets said on social media and however true or not, it ends up becoming fact with many people. He seemed to agree at the time, but doesn’t look like the club as whole do.

It’s back on now.

Loads of random folk in the away end doesn’t really make sense if people can’t give tickets away anymore? Wasn’t there like, so will defer to anyone that was.

Aye, tremendous tonight. MotM by a distance for me. Passing a cut above anyone else on the field.

Do you not think that gambling on something that you know could potentially get you on massive trouble, when however much you win is likely to be financially insignificant to you, is actually a clear indication of addiction?