Dr Jinx

They were misreporting figures based on Karen style assumptions. "We didn't sue our resident sex pest and then we fired him - so we just knocked 10 million off the figures" Its like watching one of those hopeless hopefuls have their business plan torn to shreds on dragons den. It's as Hunter S Thompson alluded to.. The only thing worse than committing a crime is the stupidity of getting caught. Man City or Chelsea will never get that sort of punishment. They actually have smart people working for them.

The amount of injuries we've had would have decimated Man City. We were fucked tonight. It can only get better, even if we only have 1 or 2 back, at least they'll be better rested. Can't in any way blame Howe, he'll have us bounce back.

Second to everything today. Same as Dortmund, we deserve nothing from this game.

The majority of us wanted him sold this summer.. it just goes to show the improvement he’s made as a player. Now I’d still have Botman straight back in when he’s properly fit but Lascelles has been fairly flawless the last month and has totally cancelled out what should have been a massive blow.

That was honking ?

His shoulder popped out but they got it back in.. not every player needs to have it pinned and to miss a whole season with it. Murph is made of sterner stuff! ?

If he was doing it here I’d wager that Milan didn’t know about what he was doing there either. Useless speculation at the moment. Journos reporting the investigation as fact without any direct press release from the FA.. the only quote from today about an investigation was an internal one that Dan Ashworth mentioned.

We’re better off getting them sooner than the final to be honest. *not counting chickens but there’s not a whole lot of quality left in it now. We owe Liverpool a hiding. The cunts

Well done Eddie Howe, got it spot on!

How long has he been out already?

Last update was that he was running on the grass so he must have had some sort of breakdown on it again. At the time it looked like he'd done ligament damage. He jumped and came down very awkwardly on it. Was more a freak accident than blaming the schedule of games but that's an issue as well. He's a massive miss.

For where the club owners said they want to go with the club I think nearly every current squad player will be replaceable by the time we get there. Pope is an excellent shot stopper although he does have a rare lapse of judgement. I don’t mind that.. he’s human. 98% of the time he’s more than decent. The only thing which would make me say anything negative about him is that his distribution is poor for this level. He just doesn’t pass the ball well and his long kicking is weak and aimless. As a pro getting paid more in a week than maybe I do in a year, the fact he hasn’t put any effort (or at least any effort that’s worked) or time into leg strengthening and conditioning is annoying. It would make a massive difference to how he could strike the ball. He’s got proper skinny legs. I’m sure there’s a way of doing it where he can stay nimble yet improve massively on it.

Can’t really complain, we were a little below our usual level but Dortmund played well, really well organised without the ball and always dangerous on the counter. When games are going like that it’s probably our biggest weakness.. chasing but against a team that’s happy for us to have the ball.. we didn’t have the ideas to break them down enough. The frustration grew. Snatched at chances we did have and looks like a costly game with injuries.. Isak may be out for a spell and Murphy who’s been excellent this season with a dislocated shoulder. Tonali ban incoming.. it was good to have Willock back though. Can't complain about Dortmund.. they did their homework. Ref was an absolute tosser though.. he wasn’t giving us anything tonight. So much blatant stuff he let go

Reports in Italy that we're threatening legal action over Milan. They could end up having to pay us millions. This will complicate whatever decision is going to be made, the Italian FA have to look strong but they also have to protect their institutions as well which Milan certainly is one of.

What jurisdiction does the Italian FA have over the Premier League or UEFA competitions? Surely the ban would have to come from UEFA or FIFA?

If Milan is his boyhood club, that clip is the moment he properly fell in love with this one. Eventually this kid is going to be great for us, he’ll walk over broken glass for this club when he has the opportunity.

I wonder what sort of monster lawyers the club have representing Tonali currently!? He’ll have to get some sort of punishment but who does the punishing? The Italian FA don’t have a remit over players playing in the Premier League. So if it’s with UEFA, then that’ll be a bigger process which opens the opportunity for our top legal counsel to wrap them up in litigation. Likewise the FA can’t act on something that happened elsewhere. It's not straight forward.

It should have been every season with the lack of investment and apparent trust in absolute fools. He got away with it so many times. Made an absolute mockery of the promoted clubs who would invest heavily.

There were fleeting moments when things were ok under Ashley, notably HBA, Cabaye, Demba Ba, Cisse etc.. Bruce was the lowest ebb for his whole 14/15 years or whatever it was. Yes he was a symptom of the regime but honestly, i think the regime were the type to listen to Paul Mersons advice when it comes to footballing decisions. Not one clue on success. Only to just survive without spending much.

I cannot tell which was a darker time for the club, Mike Ashley or Steve Bruce, i think I hate Bruce more which shouldn't be the case, but it's a gut reaction thing. Mike was capable and had us barely surviving on a shoestring down to a fine art, the thin skinned cunt. Bruce is just absolutely shameless, only out for himself. Using his mates in the media to position himself towards his next severance package.

Being at his boyhood club, the move didn’t make much sense but if he was in the depths of it, all that self loathing, he might have just thought a fresh start was needed. It’s all speculation right now, but maybe he was getting threatened by dodgy fuckers as well. Now if it turns out his gambling followed over to here, then I’ve less sympathy.

I just saw that. Fairly smart to get ahead of it. Gives Eddie a standard response now as he can say that he can’t talk about it. When they say full support I very much believe them.

Will be very interesting to see what Howe is allowed say about it on Friday. It’s highly unlikely he’ll be involved at the weekend in any case but it will be reassuring if we hear him say “Sandro has our full support”

The club won’t be happy about this but he’s our player so unless there’s some obvious legal get out clause, let’s assume we’re going to take him under our wing and give him a second chance. His head must have been all over the shop and god knows who he owed money to. There’s literally no rock bottom with gambling, doesn’t matter if you’re on crazy money or on the dole. It’ll take pretty much everything and changes your whole character as a person when you’re an addict. He’s young enough to come back much stronger.

You’d think for 55 million quid that due diligence would be fairly extensive on a players background. Bit of a balls up by Dan Ashworth if they failed to pick up on this.