Moose

Bournemouth are about to find out what happens when you have the temerity to eat from the cartel's plate. The cartel will be all over their squad like hyenas on a carcass. That said, if there's any team which has shown that it can withstand losing key players, it's probably Bawnmuff.

I agree, but a cartel team like them can afford 250m and 500k a week worth of flops, Our flops have been far more damaging

There is that as well, they only did what Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea and Blackburn did but a lot better

There's nothing the PL can do that will realistically damage them long term. Their ownership have such deep pockets that any fine is immaterial so we can forget a Rangers style liquidation. A recurring points deduction is the best anyone can hope for. Stripping them of trophies will cause more problems due to amount of teams that'll be aggrieved

If anything ever comes of the charges you just know it'll be something inconsequential like a 100m fine which is a drop in the ocean to them, but they'll probably never pay up as they'll spend the next decade appealing it and kicking the can down the road

"So which name would you like on the back of your shirt Sir?" "Yes."

He looks less like a Tangy Tom and more like a Space Raider now.

It's fine, we've got 'have you ever seen a mackem in Baku' as a back up option.

Now we have the benefit of hindsight, I'd like to revise my rating from a stupidly optimistic 7 (I think, it may have even been an 8) to a 3. Such a shame, I was scunnered for about 95% of the time during this window but I thought that we'd pulled it out of the fire right at the death and came out smelling of roses. I didn't think that we'd done much to raise the ceiling of the team but I was certain that the floor has been boosted significantly and Isak aside, we managed to hold on to all our key players. In fact I distinctly remember being pissed off that Osula's move to Frankfurt broke down, I thought that move would've been the icing on the cake, never imagined that he would end up being our 1st choice striker by the end of the season! Elanga: Unmitigated disaster, missed a sitter in the first few mins of his debut and never recovered. I wasn't 100% sure that his style of play was compatible with the way we play but even when he does have the chance to turn on the afterburners, he never looks particularly fast. Can't cross, can't beat defenders, shit defensively, not a goal threat, poor technically, a meek, cowardly mouse who is scared of his own shadow and probably the stupidest footballer I've ever seen for us, his inability to pick the right option every time is mind blowing. He should've been the end of Jacob Murphy, instead we've been discussing if he's worse than Obertan. Ramsdale: Crap. Marginally better with his feet than Pope but a marginally worse shotstopper. Two cheeks of the same arse, pick your poison, both bombscares and neither should be starting for any PL club that takes itself seriously. Thiaw: Started very well for us but his brain farts have started to creep in more of late but I can give him the benefit of the doubt given how shit the team and defense has been collectively. By far the best summer signing and he easily gets pass marks for this season, happy with him. Ramsey: I'm cautiously optimistic about him going forward, I've seen enough from him to know that he'll be a useful player for us over the piece, solid if not spectacular. I don't feel like he ever really got going this season, mainly due to injuries, which will likely always be the problem with him. Underwhelming but still gets pass marks, more to come next season. Woltemade: Oh boy. I really thought we'd won a watch when Nick landed onto our lap, his technique and football IQ is brilliant and it's the sort of thing we desperately need in our squad full of cloggers. But the way he's been utilised has stunted any sort of progress we were seeing from him, he doesn't fit the mould of an Eddie Howe striker but despite that he was still getting his fair share of goals before being bombed out to CM or the bench, Eddie sinply doesn't know how to get the best out of him. He isn't fast and he's weaker than cats piss but there's a very good player in there somewhere and I don't want us to give up on him just yet. A square peg in a round hole. Wissa: Just read his thread. An apocalytpically bad signing. We all knew that 55m was far too much for him given his age and contract situation but that's the mess we got ourselves into so I won't hold that against him, in fact, part of me thought that 55m for a sure-fire, plug in and play 15-20 goals a season striker was par for the course. But by God, I don't think even his biggest sceptics could forsee the unholy macabre this rotund, lazy, unprofessional shitebag was about to serve up. He'll go down as the worst transfer in the clubs history, everything about it has gone spectacularly wrong. A bum, get him to fuck, I hate him. TL;DR, out of 6 signings: 1 good, 1 decent, 1 crap, 1 enigma and 2 of worst signings in our history

Anyone thinking that the World Cup will be the boost he needs to find his form here has clearly not seen the portion sizes in American restaurants

This. You could dock them 100 points and punt them to the conference north for what it's worth, pandoras box is already open, the damage has been done. Aside from Spurs, City are the most expendable ESL club, the red mafia and Chelsea would simply fill the void

2/10. Relative to expectations, the most depressing season I can remember. The relegation seasons felt inevitable and ultimately deserved, in the Ashley era, expectations were low so it was hard to get too scunnered by the club, but after the highs of last season, it feels like we've been taking body blow after body blow, football's way of telling us 'you've had your fun now get back in your box' Recruitment was truly abysmal and could set us back years. Stale quagmire of a squad with tired out tactics, the easiest team to play against in the PL. Only Bruno, Miley and Hall emerge from this season with any credit, a few other players elsewhere get pass marks, most were somewhere between underwhelming and abhorrent. 2x pathetic derby performances. An untold amount of late goals conceded. Very few enjoyable games, our football is really boring to watch for the most part. The CL campaign was fine, but truthfully, we beat the teams we expected to beat. Howe looks like a broken man and hasn't shown any signs of being able to adapt or rejuvenate this shambles of a squad. Done fairly well in the cups until we faced the financially doped City. The hard graft and intensity that used to win us games alone is completely gone, we're now passive mentality midgets. There's probably loads more I could go into, like the rat saga but I really CBA, you get the idea.

Maybe it's just cause I'm completely scunnered with football at the moment, but I really couldn't give a fuck if we keep him around or not right now. Honestly, if he's angling for a move and his agent is flashing his skirt at cartel clubs I'd rather he just fucks off, I can't be arsed with the bullshit sagas this time around.

Nah lads it's OK. He said on a podcast that's he's trying really hard and he'll be better next season. Don't lose the heed!

What is a football manager if not a problem solver? He isn't the first manager to lose his star player, have players in his squad with one foot out the door, juggle multiple competitions and navigate injuries. He hasn't been pragmatic or creative in circumnavigating any of the obstacles thrown at us this season, instead it's the same tired, predictable boneheaded tactics that is easy for the whole league to nullify. Sticking with him for next year will haunt us.

Yep, anyone saying that they'll suffer from 2nd season syndrome or that Europe will kill them is just huffing copium. It's far more likely that they establish themselves as a decent top half team amongst the other spreadsheet shaggers like Brighton and Brentford. I'm concerned about next season tbh, look at the fucking state of the teams in the EL semis the last 2 years and look at the teams who will qualify next year. Who would you trust to stop them winning the bloody thing?

If someone told me at the start of the season that we'd finish 7th and they'd finish 12th, I'd have been a tad disappointed as I was hoping we'd establish ourselves as a top 6 club and they would be comprehensively spat back down to the championship. If you then told me that it would be us in 12th and them in 7th I think I would've found myself a garden boules team to support for the season and save myself the pain. Fair play to them, they've outperformed us by every metric this season and they've thoroughly deserved to finish 7th. They're not the prettiest team to watch, but they've got character and guys, there's a lot of lessons our spineless flannels could learn from them.

Intensity....Is.....Our.....Identity

I'll reserve my judgement until I've heard @toon25's opinion on him

This team is pathetic.

It's the hope that kills you

A lazy knuckleheaded shitebag, get him to fuck, how is it the year of our lord 2026 and this chump is still getting significant game time for us?!

If you're a plucky, hard working team on the verge of making history and you need to win one game at home, you couldn't pick a better opponent than Chelsea. A flimsy rabble of hapless cowards. Fair play to the mackems, the European spots have been on a plate all season and they've shown the testicular fortitude to go out and grab one.

I hope I'm wrong, but I really think that the club have made the wrong decision to keep Howe for next season. I can't guarantee that his successor would be any better, but I know the look of a dead team when I see one