TheBrownBottle

Goalkeepers are defined by their mistakes, particularly if they occur when it matters most

I’d heard PSG had a fair few knobheads

Ye

Loan to buy - maybe, given that we’ve likely got nowt to spend due to FFP. But we’d be daft not to ensure that we’re confident with the man in nets. Far, far more important than a RW or a covering centre back.

I’d say there is no other time than now. Watching Dubravka and Karius in nets for the next five months could cost us a lot of points. Who is more likely to win you more points - a first rate goalkeeper or a third choice centre half?

Goalkeeper should be prioritised ahead of any other considerations. If the view is that what we have isn’t good enough, then strengthening elsewhere is meaningless. If your GK is costing you a couple of goals per game, I’m not convinced that getting a DM or a RW really is going to make up that difference.

I wouldn’t, tbh, if offered that Faustian pact. A cup run including beating the Mackems would be sumptuous

I just love the fact that the soppy cunts think that the KSA govt gives a solitary shite about away allocations in the FA Cup. Their sense of their own importance is incredible.

Love that everyone’s favourite footballing pop intellectual and philosopher doesn’t know the difference between AM and PM. I’m worried that he isn’t a footballing Marcus Aurelius after all.

Yep. Livramento is the only player signed in the summer who has had any real impact on the side (and of course I’m aware of the circumstances around all the signings). This can’t happen again next summer.

Is that normal pooing you’re doing, Moyes? Doesn’t sound like it. Doesn’t smell like it.

He’s every bit a centre forward for me. Wasted when moved out wide.

Bringing him off the bench is still an appearance - and from memory, it was something like one match to trigger the permanent move. It was an FFP fiddle, not a genuine option.

I still think that Pickford being handled by our current management / coaches could be significantly better than Pope. But it’s never going to happen, so we’ll never know

I’ve a lot of sympathy for him, he’s a model pro and a top player who is so completely cabbaged at this point that it’s sad to watch him. Glad he misses Fulham, given that Howe simply won’t rest him a ban is the only way he misses a game or two. Hopefully the knowledge of a week off to rest after it will see him back to something like his best vs Milan

I think Pickford is a better goalkeeper, and the only reason Pope would play ahead of him here is the obvious - I doubt we’d go for him (for obvious reasons) and I doubt he’d sign (for obvious reasons).

You’re right, but for this one it’s a case of savour it and see how it goes for me. Fantasy land stuff playing Milan in the European Cup - and we only need a draw to go through

Milan were Europe’s dominant club when I was young. Their 4-0 demolition of Cruyff’s Barcelona in the 1994 European Cup Final remains the greatest performance I’ve seen by a side in a big game. They absolutely were levels above them - Romario, Stoichkov, Koeman, Nadal, Guardiola et al included.

I’d have Pickford ahead of Pope for England

I’d be astonished if whatever means we have to bring players in is not used on a GK first. Howe has never rated Dubravka - and Howe isn’t wrong on much when it comes to football.

Perfectly reasonable to ask questions or even criticise managerial decisions. Absolutely crackers for anyone to be wanting this man out - I haven’t seen that, tbf. Howe is a first rate young manager who will (hopefully) grow with the club long-term. He’s very, very unusual - an intelligent, ‘European’ style English manager. They are rarer than hen’s teeth - I’d want to us to be losing at least five or six times the numbers of games in a row than we just have before more serious questions are asked. If we lose the next eight to ten games in a row, then possibly escalation occurs.

PS for Mags of my vintage, Milan pretty much is the world’s greatest club. You can’t shake off where the football world was in your youth. Milan are comfortably the biggest club in our group - I dreamed of seeing them playing at SJP. Unbelievably exciting, this - whatever happens.

I’ll be over the moon if we’re in Europe this time next week - regardless of which competition it is

Gordon played consistently last season, also Howe wasn’t making un-Howe-like comments in pressers about him. He’s also playing 17 YO Lewis Miley regularly in MF, despite Hall also being capable of playing there. It does feel like there’s a rabbit off of this one at the moment. You’re right to take the longer-term view, though.

I agree - I think if we’re potless by the end of the 2025-26 season then Howe isn’t here. But that’s a fair way away yet - plenty of time