Abacus

On the second point, if he's negotiating a new contract here on the best terms you can get, then you absolutely wouldn't say that you'll stay no matter what.

I get the rest of it. But Madri lager!? ffs

Luton to go up for me. Harsh on Coventry's fans, but Ashley owns their stadium, so I want anything associated with him to fail. Plus, it'd be quite funny to see more mackem rage at Jimmy Hill's statue when they play them next season.

Also, we may have had this second favourite / likeable tag for a little while under Keegan or SBR, but that's pure nonsense under Ashley. Why would any neutral like a team that played like that, or appointed classless oafs like Bruce etc? More nonsense clickbait.

I suggest we have a poll. Scott McTominay, or Nott McTominay

Ta - didn't realise he'd played that much, though may be partly due to injuries elsewhere as Froggy suggests. I guess fringe was a bad choice of words by me - but if the noises are right, he does seem disposable.

Just a throwaway line in the Times today, by Paul Hirst (their north west correspondent), saying that Man U need to clear out fringe players to help with their rebuild. When discussing which of those would attract a fee to help them comply with FFP, it says "Dean Henderson, who is of interest to Nottingham Forest...is one of them, as is Scott McTominay, a target for Newcastle United." May be nothing, but there's too much noise for me to think there's nothing in it. It just makes me want him even less, as it's helping a rival to buy better players.

Chelsea are such a rabble Lampard doing a fine job once again

I think the comments under that tweet, which are all happy to let McTomminay go, ring a few alarm bells. If he'd been playing under a poor coach already, or in an underperforming team, you could make a case that Howe could improve him. But I think ten Hag looks like a decent coach. Maybe it's just that he doesn't fit Man U's system and would fit ours better, but I'm reaching there - l'd much rather look elsewhere.

Wow

It's one of the things they said early on, isn't it? From where we started after the takeover, there was plenty of potential to grow commercial revenue as it is, without having to challenge the PL.

I could be completely wrong about this, but I'm not sure the PL could stop a sponsorship at any level even with a related party. But what they can do is limit the amount that is then counted from a FFP point of view. If that's right, go as high as possible, and then if the PL set the FFP qualifying amount from that deal as too low, tangle them up in legal arguments about it for years. Anything we get that's over and above a fair FFP amount, we could presumably just use on non FFP spend - like the stadium etc. Which stops the owners needing to put in more capital as cash for that kind of investment.

I'd like to win it, but I kind of agree that we should rest players carrying knocks. Maybe it's time to get more minutes for the likes of Anderson/ Gordon. But on the other hand, it's just one game and they'll benefit more from a rigorous pre-season. I did wonder if Howe might give a few minutes to some of the squad players who contributed well behind the scenes in training and in the past few years, but probably won't be here next season as a bit of a thank you. I'm thinking of the likes of Ritchie and Lascelles.

Yeah, similar - all decent folk. I've never actually raised the topic of RTG with them, but I do think there's such groupthink on there that you can't diverge from their ridiculous conspiracy theories or else you're labelled a "mag". Awful site, and no surprise if any decent Sunluns with a brain want to give it a swerve. I've never posted on there, not a member, but skim it most days. It started when they were plummeting out of the championship because I wanted to know why they were so bad, and you don't get much media coverage outside the PL, other than one sentence in a "championship round up" type report. The main reason I go on now is for the daily TV thread. But it's amazing how many new topics are posted daily which are thinly veiled 'mag' topics, because it's seemingly all they really want to talk about on there, even though they're not allowed to.

Another poke in the eye for Grealish last night. Other than that one miss / save at 2-1, he was superb.

It's so impressive how far and how fast Anderson has come on. I was thinking he needed another loan season before being in the squad, but he's become a real valuable member of it now as a sub. Might even need to start the next match depending on injuries etc.

Commentary team sound gutted Brighton have scored. Screws up their title race narrative.

I think part of the criticism of Gordon isn't actually about him, it's about the January transfer window in general. So, it's unfair to lay it all on him. We all wanted reinforcements in certain areas. Selling Wood and Shelvey left us exposed up front and in midfield. No-one would argue with those deals on their own AT ALL. But, for Wood, it left us exposed to another injury to Wilson without having a replacement. I'm pretty sure taking him off at 2-1 yesterday was to protect him for future games, making it obvious that's one place we had needed to strengthen. Likewise, an injury to Bruno would've put us right up the creek. Shelvey, for all his faults, could at least come in and cover for a game or two under Howe. So, we were running a risk in a couple of key positions. And now Bruno seems to be carrying a knock and not able to play like he has been, so we probably could have done with Shelvey for a game or two (as much as I dislike him). Instead of which, we seemed to chase Gordon for all that window, who was neither and for a role that I couldn't really define. I still don't really know what his role is yet, though I understand he needs time, patience and proper coaching. However, and this isn't on him either, on top of that I don't know why he has been brought on or started in certain key games. The sub yesterday was a mistake - he doesn't seem to know how to press in a game we just needed to close down and where people were already losing their heads. As for him, he's at least more two footed than Almiron, much like any biped, but he doesn't seem to know what he's doing. He so far can't seemingly dribble, tackle, or make the right decisions and then acted a bit petulantly with his substitution a few games back. Yes, he may well become a mainstay in the side in the future. But I think the frustration towards him is that in January he wasn't what we needed. Now, maybe that's because they weren't available or perhaps because I just don't know what he is. And then, of course, being thrown into certain games before he seems to know how to fit into the team makes him a bit of a lightning rod for criticism, even though neither of things are his fault.

This is the thing for me. We were all over them at that point and a goal was coming - you could feel it from all the pressure we were building. And Arsenal couldn't afford to timewaste as they needed the win. Then the ref gives a wrong decision, it takes an age to be overturned by VAR, then they get the chance to release the ball upfield and relieve the pressure, and they score shortly after and then break up play and frustrate afterwards No complaints with the way it panned out after that - they were then the better team. But I'm pretty convinced that had we scored first instead of them, as was coming before that cock-up, it would have been a very different game

That bad penalty call really cost us. We were all over them and a goal was coming. VAR probably got it right but after that long delay our momentum was broken, and almost straight after they score. After that they could have had a couple more and we just haven't been at it as much.

I've only just watched his interview and that's one of the oddest things I've seen. He managed to combine knowing nothing, being unable to communicate intelligibly and sounding like he has a huge chip on his shoulder all at the same time. Obviously, a huge chip would be a good thing for him but he definitely didn't look like he should have been doing that press conference right then. Now watch this young up and coming prospect win the last 4 and be hailed as a misunderstood renaissance man.

We'll batter every last team we're up against. It's Arsenal that should be worried next.

To me, this is nowhere near as stressful as the relegation seasons. In those, you seemed to have a chance every week to get out of it and then we always cocked it up. It was just a never-ending feeling of sickness and disappointment. I've enjoyed games so much this season, more than in years, with a team and a manager I'm totally behind. We're basically guaranteed some form of European football next year which was beyond our dreams 12 months ago. And we've got a genuine better than good shot at Champions League. I'd easily rather be in our position than anyone outside the top 4. Your lass is probably right. And you can explain that in your own way when we thrash Arsenal.

Well first I wanted Everton down, but now I want Leeds down because of BFSA. Oh my, just what's a hate-filled fan supposed to do?

With Klopp, a stadium ban just means he can't verbally abuse the officials in person for a few games, which is hardly anything. It's the culture he's set and is a part of which is the problem. Even his (much younger and less experienced) players don't carry on like him. I'd be all for a very heavy penalty here. If Mitrovich gets a lengthy ban for his behaviour, then an adult who is in charge of the whole team with many more years of experience should get worse. Ultimately, for persistently implying that officials are corrupt and haranguing them in front of a baying crowd should be sackable as it undermines the integrity of the league. But, on the other hand, maybe I just can't stand the whinging idiot