SteV

14th May has the potential to have you in a right tricky spot…

Only 12 starts like. *actually that’s not counting the FA Cup, so may be a handful more

That seems a reasonable explanation.

There’s a story behind this that the world needs to hear. Also, he can’t have had much kip!?

Two of them played on Sunday like, so you would think if it were them they’d have left them out given the circumstances. Mind you their track record in dealing with this kind of thing is….

We gonna have a process of elimination whereby, one by one, each club comes out and says it’s not their players?

Ah yes, I always get them confused with Maritimo for some reason, so was thinking we’d played them.

How do Braga fall into that category for you?

As an apropos to nothing, here’s the teams currently on course to be in the ECL (and no, I can’t be arsed to find out why there’s six pots)

You’re right of course, but the differential between EL and ECL is tiny compared to the differential between EL and CL, so the idea of it being ‘easier to win’, has a fair bit more sway.

I don’t think we necessarily have to win something in that period, but we have to be genuinely competing to win things. So we have to be getting to semi-finals and finals, qualifying for CL etc. Further down the line, I’d probably say, yeah, we genuinely have to have won something.

Obviously this doesn’t really mean too much with a few league games still to go, but it gives a rough indication of where we’d be placed should we qualify.

Prefer Caicedo getting booked tbh.

I assume you mean won in three FA cups in your lifetime? Which would be 1950/51. Otherwise you were born about 1927, and I doff my cap to your continued forum usage in your late 90’s.

As a fanbase, have we ever been as collectively wrong in our expectations of a players character?

Tbf, if Gazza had stayed in and around Newcastle, he’d probably have been dead before he was 30.

Doesn’t look like that was the case when Roma won it and finished sixth two years ago?

It’s not that often I read a word that I have absolutely no idea as to its meaning, but “phantasmagorical” is definitely one.

Study must have been done by a Mag marra.

So are the one-year deal players free to move to a new club in the same way the men are?

Wharton went off with a knock yesterday, although doesn’t sound overly bad. Would be a bonus if he was out though.

What kind of contracts are the lasses on? Is it just year-to-year, or do some of them get multi-year deals? And if it’s only year-to-year, is there anything to stop us hoying a bit of wedge at Sunderland’s best players before next season and just taking them?

Reasonable chance we relegate Sheff Utd next weekend. Then not out of the question we do it to Burnley the week after.

Exactly. The last system was ‘better’ because you could cheat it. And in saying that, it’s not a slight on anyone that did (I did it myself). But clearly, it didn’t work as it was supposed to.

This is the kind of record keeping we can all get behind 👏