SteV

Never played an English team in Europe have we? Totally understand why people would view it as ‘boring’, but I do think there would be something a bit different about it. Maybe I’m slightly swayed by being old enough to remember the Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal/Man Utd European games against each other of about 20 years ago, but they definitely seemed ‘bigger’ than league games, to a neutral anyway.

Man City’s academy team must be like 1970 Brazil.

That’s about right, but Hall and Miley more wing-backs than midfielders.

All TNT

We can’t ever have had four CB’s this good?

Find out on Friday

Need a visa don’t you? This had been a league stage game I would really have fancied it, but trying to sort everything out in less than 2.5 weeks will probably be pushing it. Probably cost a bastard fortune to get there as well. edit - assuming we get them obv

Aye, no same country avoidance from here on in.

Finishes about half 4 (probably).

Reckon Gordon’s got the legs on Tommy Smith these days.

Qarabag’s a bastard of a trip but they are shite. Even if it went tits up in the first leg, you’d feel we could overturn near enough any scoreline in the second leg.

Well, it was probably Spurs…

Same formation. Bruno in for whoever’s the most knackered of Tonali/Ramsey. Gordon and Barnes for Willock and Elanga. Possibly Wissa for Woltemade.

Disappointing 0-0 away to Palace and an extra 10 ‘Yes’ votes.

Remains unbeaten v PSG.

Are we getting fucking Qarabag here?

Surely Hall, Livramento and now Miley contradict that? Obviously the further into the elite level you go, the more difficult it becomes, as the raw talent has to be significant to give them a realistic chance. Maybe we could shop more in the Hall/Tino bracket, but neither were cheap, and spending a reasonable amount on a ‘development’ player, has become more difficult in terms of PSR. Maybe it will be slightly easier come the summer, if our financial situation is better than the last couple of summers. Where the club are essentially failing Howe (and it’s not quickly fixed) is in providing him with next to nothing to work with from the academy. He might be excellent at developing talent, but he can’t turn water into wine. Hopefully over the next couple of years, the likes of Alabi, Sahar and Neave buck the trend. I wouldn’t hold my breath like.

They do. But Emery builds his squad in a very transactional way, players come and go quite regularly. Howe obviously takes a very different approach. He’s all in on developing players, rather than swapping them in and out. You can take your pick on which way you prefer, but it’s clear that loans lend themselves far better to Emery’s method than Howe’s.

They have, but you can’t discount the squad strength they had when Emery took over, versus the squad strength we had when Eddie took over. On top of that, they’ve benefited massively from a strong academy, something which we’re still significantly behind on, thanks to the years of neglect under Ashley.

Ashby was in, and he’s now punted out on loan, so that’s at least one place.

In isolation you might be right, but quite a lot of them don’t have the squad to cope with the additional demands of the extra games, which is now as much of an issue as the quality of CL opposition.

You’ll get a podcast gig with that attitude…

It’s actually 3-3 CL v non-CL (in terms of the ones Gordon’s taken). Actually 5-3 in favour of the non-CL in total this season.

Works the opposite way round.