Kid Icarus

Can't have Villa sniffing around the Champions League the year we win the League Cup man, fuck that.

Yamal

Eyeball theory: Martinez is weak on that side

Schar playing it perfectly letting other people say it and him saying nothing.

Think I said it in the match thread but that save from Vicario was Sancho's first shot on target since Boxing Day. He's ridiculously one dimension and predictable when he has the ball on the left.

That's top bins of the top bin. Ridiculous accuracy.

About fucking time this happened to Real Madrid. About a decade overdue.

Lovely stuff

Can't stand Arsenal but absolutely fuck Real Madrid man. Also, we want that 5th place CL place confirmed ASAP.

Not Schär vs PSG? It was already a 10/10 performance from him before he stuck one in the top corner from 30 yards.

As rubbish as he was, Carr away to Southampton was class. Venison vs Villa too.

Great shout. That match is so funny like, just everyone shooting from everywhere.

Albert's vs Man City is really underrated as well. Superb technique

Schär vs PSG is the best

Yeah, a week after Beckham and against the same 'keeper.

Yeah I remember that argument but again think it's mostly without merit, albeit he obviously wasn't perfect. His weakness at Liverpool was undoubtedly wingers though, he never cracked that despite getting everything else (Aquilani aside) spot on. There's obviously the Barry for Alonso attempt too, but tbf Man City signed him and he was a mainstay in the side that went on to win the league.

IIRC it was well publicised that Muto was bought over Rafa's head.

Hard to tell who would do what when we have a manager far better than their's. DJ Spenk wouldn't get in over our full backs though and Vicario is a joke. Under Howe Kulusevski would, maybe Micky hamstrings and that's really about it.

If I thought his signings were poor I would say. At the time he still had more good signings than bad. Gayle, Ritchie, Hayden, Hanley, Clark, Diame, Yedlin, Daryl Murphy, Atsu, Lejeune, Merino, Dubravka, Schar, Rondon (loan), Kenedy (loan), Fernandez, Manquillo, Almiron were all very good signings considering the restraints that were put on Rafa's purse strings. Of the 'dud' signings that Rafa was responsible for, Sels, Joselu, and Murphy have all gone on to vindicate Rafa's decision to sign them. There's absolutely no reason to ignore hindsight, it's the same as when Jon Dahl Tommasson failed here and then vindicated Dalglish's decision to sign him when he went on to tear it up at AC Milan. Really, the only signings that were duds then and haven't vindicated Rafa choosing them since then are Jesus Gamez (free), Lazaar (£3m), maybe Slimani on loan, but that again typified the restraints on him. Like you mention, the restraints he had on him with signings were ridiculous. Once we were promoted he was resigned to rumaging through the bargain bins to build a squad, did a good job in the circumstances, and has been even more vindicated with the benefit of hindsight.

Muto wasn't his choice IIRC, but even then Lazaar and maybe Jesus were the only poor examples in a sea of successful ones, or ones that didn’t work at the time but Rafa has since been vindicated for (Sels, Joselu, Murphy)

If this was on an evening I'd be very confident. Still relatively confident though, providing the crowd and team are up for it.

Mad how quickly time flies and things can change like. 9 years since they won the league. 4 years since they won the FA Cup They beat us 4-0 in December 2021, now they look like a terrible Championship team and we're on the hunt for Champions League football and have just won the League Cup. Make hay while the sun shines and enjoy it.

Not the same watching football tbh, it was so obvious at the time that we were watching the best player and best team we'd ever see.

I'm your biggest fan...