TheBrownBottle

No

Oof - proper ‘eyes shut’ header that

Other teams are at their most dangerous when we’ve just scored

Baaaals. It was coming though.

Shite

Murphy’s drilled cross wasn’t bad either

Get in Wissa lad

I don’t think Local Hero is much of an issue beyond being shite. The atmosphere today doesn’t sound any better or worse than it has in decades

Of course, no arguments from me on that front. No idea why anyone wouldn’t.

Most likely, though I wasn’t when Alan Robson and Barry in the Box started playing it - which is why it was stopped for a while in the ‘90s. People are used to hearing it now, drowning out any ability to get an atmosphere going before kick off

It’s a complaint as old as time. The atmosphere this century has been shit as far as I can tell - the ‘90s were too. Folks tend to remember the best atmospheres they’ve experienced and they wonder why they’re not hearing it at a run of the mill league match. Christ, I heard ‘sit doon’ so often in the ‘90s once SJP was all seater that it should have been a chant of its own. Away game atmospheres are always better, fuelled by beer (and other stuff) and the fact that you’re on a jolly. SJP always had spectators - the west and east stands (upper sections) were always this way. It’s where the old men sat down. All-seaters (meaning groups of mates can’t stand together) and the cost of tickets (meaning loads of mates can’t even afford it) changed forever the atmosphere in grounds.

Gun to my head, I’ll take the bullet Honestly, neither would be my choice. Local Hero is asinine wank, borderline elevator muzak.

Its the ‘bumper new deal’ thing which hacks me off - we don’t know the lad will ever be fit again, we definitely don’t know if he’s anything like the same player (he didn’t exactly pull up any trees when he did appear), it’s a cheek if he’s running around expecting a pay rise. He’s 26 next month and still hasn’t won a single international cap.

Agreed. This isn’t the ground.

He’s pretty much fully amortised at this point, especially with the new contract last year - it would almost all be ‘book profit’ (though not necessarily actual profit). With PSR selling well is as important as buying well - and we have been shite sellers, always waiting a bit too long.

There’s definitely games where Joelinton works in midfield - when we know we’ll be on the backfoot against powerful opposition. He’s almost designed to play in midfield vs Arsenal. But he’s a great example of the failure to evolve - at this point, we should be taking the game to at least 75% of the division, and Joelinton is really poor at that from midfield. He really should’ve been cashed in on some time ago - but as per, we’ve left it far too late to maximise selling potential.

It shows how long it’s been since I went, b it the fact that the Platinum club is 10-20% more expensive is indicative of some of the struggles that the club will have to grow. I think that’s possibly cheaper than it was in the ‘90s, not even allowing for inflation.

Yeah, I think too much of it is made by the support - it gives passive attendees a sense that they’re ‘part’ of it. If shit atmospheres made a difference then Arsenal would be as successful as Leyton Orient.

I agree that’s definitely part of it

It’s made for the weakest midfield we’ve had in yonks despite the personnel available. We are really easy to play through.

We were shite last season until Bruno and Tonali were swapped into their best roles. Howe has swapped them back - fuck knows why, but it doesn’t work.

Rice is a superb and technically able midfielder. Joelinton isn’t a midfielder.

I still think the match vs Fulham is far more important - now we’ve tasted winning a trophy (thanks Eddie) I know that I’d quite like to experience that again. But I don’t see how recent performances can be waved away based on past record - to me, Howe’s past record is what should give him this season at least; but it’s not a blank cheque. We’re also not in a position to waste hundreds of millions in fees on flops - and Howe has opened himself to shitloads of criticism by bringing his nephew in instead of the best possible available personnel. I give a shit about NUFC, not Howe or any other manager’s legacy or reputation. If keeping Howe on for a decade is best for the club; great. If sacking him is best; great. I don’t care about Howe either way in that regard. Again, Howe should be given the season to fix the issues - some of which are absolutely of his own making. But carte Blanche so that some daft cunt who supports another club can’t call us ‘deluded’ or ‘spoiled’? Fuck that.

I was there at the last home game of 03/04 vs Wolves - and it was most definitely the majority; not in terms of booing (who the fuck even boos in any case?), but pretty much everyone fucked off at the final whistle. The 5k-ish who stayed back to clap the team may have still backed him. And it isn’t fickle at all to expect better results based upon significant spending in the transfer market. Managers shouldn’t get unlimited time.

It seemed to for Bruno. I also think that the local press actually grew some bollocks and asked some challenging questions for a change. Howe - for the first time - seems to have been a little taken aback by the criticism. Howe shouldn’t be fired, but he absolutely should be under pressure at this point. Hopefully that gets funnelled positively into an ‘us against the world’ mentality in the squad.