TheBrownBottle

It’s the decision making which has been off. Some lovely play then a bizarre finale. It as if he’s in his own world beating players then wakes up, realises he’s meant to do something, panics and does something a bit shite.

ASM doing his ‘best kid at football on the playground’ impression second half. It’s amusing to watch but not particularly effective

We’ve lost one league game this season, conceded 12 in 20, and just went nearly 10 hours without conceding. At some point Burn’s role in that gets acknowledged - he’s more than a CH plugging into LB. He moves across when Trippier bombs on to create a 3 man back line. Willock and Joelinton usually cover each other. There are times where I think I’ve been watching different matches this season

Joelinton looks fucking tremendous in the middle mind. Please leave him there Eddie

I do think Bournemouth have played well mind. Pressed really well and always looking for a clever pass to split our defence. We should know what consistent pressing does to the opposition’s passing accuracy. The goal was conceded due to Isak not arsing himself to continue tracking his man. Utterly dogshit play, really poor. Happy to be level

‘That goal was not beautiful enough’

YES! Great ball by ASM

Ho’way Gordon you beaut

Yep - seems to have avoided the pellets here. Just utterly half-arsed. Needs a rocket for that

Has to be said, our defending and attacking dead balls has went down the toilet since the restart

Bournemouth are pressing quite well here

I just logged in. It’s nowhere near as grim as made out. Not great but not abysmal either

I particularly enjoy the fact that they seem oblivious to the fact that Mitrovic is a lifelong NUFC supporter. ‘Why are yoo obsessed with them? They bewted yoo owt’. Because he supports us, you six-fingered bellendds

I thought you’d have known which ‘’philosopher’’ said that. Gazza. And people say he’s just a big pair of …

My mind keeps flitting from this being the game when we gobble up all those chances we create and hammer them, or the game where we unexpectedly end our unbeaten run. Hopefully it’s the former as I fully expect us to lose vs Liverpool the week before the final.

No, it’s a wind-up. You can rest easy - Bruno’s suspension still ends before the final!

Edit: I’m not sure if younger / non-UK NUFC fans will get Dan Burn’s reference Double edit: I also quite like the flag

Aye, fair enough. This is all minor stuff in the grand scheme of things; I see the flag talk as a bit of piss-taking fun tbh. edit: if I was off to the match it wouldn’t cross my mind for a second - this is all crack between matches. The one bit of piss-taking about a flag I do remember was away to Blackburn many years ago where one lad on the coach had a B&W Union flag with an SR postcode on it. The flag got comedy boos and piss taking when that was noticed

Yeah, whatever the stated aims this is ultimately true. ’Doing a Leeds’ is often the cited example of why FFP exists. The problem is that FFP wouldn’t have prevented Leeds’s ‘00s collapse. They actually had the income to sustain what they were doing when they spent big - the problem is that was based on the assumption that CL qualification would be a regular occurrence, and not (as it was) a one-off. The panicky fire-sale that followed caused a domino effect. It isn’t unimaginable that the same fate could be Chelsea’s if they have a season or two without CL qualification. Everything they’re doing is predicated on future income increases - always a risky venture (not in our case, as we know there’s plenty of room to grow)

There is an argument that he should have went to a lower level for this part of the season - the SPL is a step up from the A League and he wasn’t getting a game there. But he’s getting minutes for a good side in a half-decent league. He’ll also be adjusting to life on the other side of the planet for the first time. Patience needed, I think - it looks like some have built this lad up in their own head in terms of the standard he’s at. He’s raw as buggery, there’s talent there but who knows how he’ll progress. There’ll be loads of these signings in the coming years - this is what the likes of Chelsea and Man City do all the time. Some will pay off and become members of the squad, others will be sold on for a profit. Let’s see which category he falls into n

The ‘boycoutt’ was an online shouty campaign, with one march on a shop. I doubt the majority were aware that there was one, and if they were weren’t going to pay more to get their kids PE clobber in order to get warm fuzzies and internet kudos. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t shop in his stores and refused to return to SJP - but I can’t condemn people in the poorest region of Grear Britain for wanting to buy sports gear as cheaply as they can. It feels like the middle-classes having a pop for the working-classes for not ensuring everything they buy is organic, whilst being blissfully unaware of what really having to budget looks like.

Tbf WM it wasn’t as easy to produce a flag that wasn’t a union flag / St George’s cross with ‘[insert part of Tyneside] Mags’ written across the middle of it. Don’t get me wrong, most of what I’m writing is completely tongue-in-cheek, but I reserve the right to eye-roll at some of it. If you saw someone on an away coach pull some of them flags out there’s no way a piss-take wouldn’t follow

Sure, but contempt for either is not mutually exclusive

I also get irritated by knackers without a dook of an idea how to comport themselves public-wise. I’ll add myself happily to the ‘stop making weird flags with St Bobby of County Durham talking to one of his successors from behind a cloud like the baby in Teletubbies you oddball fuckers’ crowd. Yes, they’re free to do so. But it’s fucking cringeworthy.

‘Live round the corner, you only live round the corner, live round the coooorneeeer, you only live round the corner’ If you haven’t chanted that to Man U at Wembley, you’re too young to do Shearer flags in the first place.