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I think you're being really hard on yourself here. You took a brave decision to go into consultancy - I say brave cos I would never have the balls for it - and at the minute it doesn't appear to be working out. But that doesn't mean you're bad at life. That section of what you wrote really worried me, cos it sounded like you might be on the verge of doing something daft, and I really hope that I'm just misreading it. What you might not be cut out for is the uncertainty that comes with the potential irregularity of consultancy work. And that's completely normal, the vast majority of people couldn't handle that, and I think you've spoken about having some level of anxiety in general anyway. It's hard to have anything like advice for how to get out of your current situation, but I assume you're currently looking for permanent roles rather than more fixed term stuff? Are there any recruitment consultants you could talk to? A lot of these people are just sales people and are hopeless but the decent ones can genuinely match skills with roles and you might find something that way. One job that seems massively prevalent these days is project management and business analyst type stuff. Most big firms have big change departments with huge teams of these people. Is that something that would appeal? Part of the reason I ask is cos there's a lot of contract work in that area, which I would assume would mean they wouldn't baulk at someone with a freelance background. I might be completely barking up the wrong tree though. Anyway the main thing I wanted to say is please don't feel too despondent, you're not failing at anything, you're just in a rough spot at the minute and it's shite.. And definitely keep talking about it on here and don't write things and delete them.

That sort of activity is demonstrable as to why PSR is a flawed concept. You've got hooky business deals going on all over the place just to satisfy some bullshit framework. The whole Anderson / Vlachodimos thing last summer reeked and then you've got Chelsea signing players on 8 year contracts / selling their women's team / etc. There's always been questionable transfers in the past mind you - Clive Allen / Kenny Sansom at Palace / Arsenal and even Mick Harford coming to us early 80s were all a bit odd.

their away record is pretty shit so you could be right

Do you not think though, if you see a deal that doesn’t make any sense to the football public in general, that it is in some unknowable way actually bent? Take the Boumsong deals, from Rangers > NUFC on a free > recently relegated for corruption Juventus.. the media won’t blow the lid off it but they’re very likely to know what’s going on…

Atwell wasn't it? The bloke famous for giving that goal in the Watford / Reading game all those years ago when it went a mile wide?

If it was at Villa Park, I'd agree with you. But they'll be desperate to avoid finishing the season with a defeat. Forest have their key players back and I reckon Chelsea will choke like they did against us.

Nah, the referee missed it at the time.

i can't see man u getting anything against villa and i've got a feeling forest might bottle it against chelsea, annoyingly. i expect us to beat everton though and am not bothered about who joins us

I never really do this on here but today has crashed in on me harder than usual so I'm going to vent, if people will indulge me. I don't remember how much I've shared of my professional background exactly but I'm self employed working as a management consultant. Have been for about 6 or 7 years. I was in senior management before that, on the ops side, and my consulting work is really focused around technology implementation pieces, project management, that sort of thing. 2 years ago I was doing really well with this and making good money, but last year a lot of the projects dried up as the industry I worked in became more cautious - it's academic, scholarly and edtech primarily. So long story short I made almost fuck all last year and had to eat into savings considerably - that was the year I had finally managed to pull enough together to buy myself a house, which I had to put on hold once projects dried up, and which is now as far away again as ever. It has improved since, I'm back with a minimum level of projects again, but it was a bad enough run that I decided to get out of it. Problem is, I can't seem to get hold of any permanent work for love nor money, even outside my industry. I have a pretty strong CV on the face of it, but I think the entire market is so saturated with people looking for jobs that even getting seen is a barrier - plus I think people are generally reluctant to hire people who've worked as freelancers? That's the vibe I'm getting from it anyway. I'm obviously trying to open doors for myself within projects that I'm part of, but it's never been something I was that good at. So here I am, approaching 40, and still not really managing to get my life together. I've got few savings now after last year, which is part of the risk of the work I do, so I'm not beating myself up about it too much, but like... getting back out of this into something stable just feels borderline impossible. And for the record, I'm looking for jobs 'beneath' what I should be at this point, but it doesn't really seem to matter much. And the longer it goes on, the more hopeless I just feel about it all. I'm getting by with the work I have but it's sort of month to month. I just don't know if I'm ever going to recover at this point. I honestly think I'm just pretty shit at life generally, like this whole process wasn't meant for me. I'm absolutely my own worst enemy with it but I don't know what to even do to fix it now, I can't will myself back into things working out again - what if I'm just hanging on forever? Can't build a life, family, anything. Not until this is resolved. Every day I wake up with guilt and dread about my situation, this yearning to do something about it held up against the desire to hide from the reality that I can't, that I'm just inadequate. I accept that my situation is down to my own choices, I probably never should have gone into consulting at such a young age and stuck to a more stable path in order to develop a foundation, but at the time I did it, I really believed that I could just slot back in again if things didn't work out (and for 3-4 years I did actually do very well with it). At the moment I feel like I'm in prison, locked in by bad choices that I can't get away from no matter how much I try. I have precious little in my life at the best of times, which I'm ok with because I've never needed that much to start with, but I just, idk.. I'm not imaginative enough to perceive of a way to get out of this. My one long term shot is that I'm buying a business with a colleague (he's fronting all the money, I'm working my ass of to pay my share - I consider myself insanely fortunate to even have this) but it's not something that's going to help me for a couple of years yet, and even then I shouldn't assume that will come off. Nothing else seems to. Idk what I'm really saying with this post in a lot of ways. I appreciate no one can really help me with it, it's just life. But I never do this on here really, I've written things like this out so many times and just not posted it - largely because I'm ashamed of the situation I'm in. I should have done better than this. I'm really fucking ashamed of myself. Sorry for posting, I appreciate I should still be grateful I have some work at all, etc, but it's all relative in the end and the whole situation is having a big impact on my life. I accept this looks weak and self pitying. That's about where I am at the moment.

Havertz has put the elbow into the head of one of our players each time he has played us recently if i remember correctly?

I'm disappointed Lascelles didn't make it on the pitch to chin Havertz tbh.

Nothing to see here ... just BDB taking out the trash! Outstanding

I hope he gave Lascelles credit after the game.

What an absolute horrible thundercunt! As you point out, even Trump Snr has had it within him to wish the Bidens well.

As long as you don't confirm the probable outcome we'll be fine thanks.

Yeah, a GK handling the ball outside the box isn't an automatic red card, it needs to be denying a goalscoring opportunity. In most cases these two go hand-in-hand but they deemed on Saturday that Haaland was moving away from the goal. It was absolutely an offence though as he clearly handled outside the box. Was a free-kick given for it? I can't remember.

Yeah that would be my preferred outcome. Be careful though, I've learned that some people on here are incapable of holding multiple possible outcomes in their head at the same time. We need to be mindful of that and make sure those posters are wearing their crash helmets before we discuss them.

Yeah I know on both elements. I still don't expect to see Isak next weekend though. If he is playing then a massive bonus. And yep about Arteta, although he wouldn't have able to boot the ball had he not strayed. He's always fucking doing it, I remember him once acting as a fucking ball boy and getting it to one of his players quick and they scored from it. If we're going to have technical areas then it needs to be policed else get rid of them.

Yeah I want Spurs to win it. They're financially secure enough to not need CL next season whereas Man Utd are on a cliff edge. They fail to qualify for Europe and I reckon they might spiral. As for next weekend (assuming Liverpool win tonight & Man City win tomorrow night) I have a feeling the following might happen: Bournemouth v Leicester - HOME WIN Fulham v Man City - AWAY WIN Ipswich v West Ham - DRAW Liverpool v Palace - HOME WIN Man Utd v Aston Villa - DRAW Newcastle v Everton - HOME WIN Forest v Chelsea - HOME WIN Southampton v Arsenal - AWAY WIN Spurs v Brighton - AWAY WIN Wolves v Brentford - DRAW Final Table 1. Liverpool 89 (CL) 2. Arsenal 74 (CL) 3. Man City 71 (CL) 4. Newcastle 69 (CL) 5. Forest 68 (CL) 6. Villa 67 (EL) 7. Chelsea 66 (EL - for winning the Conf) 8. Brighton 58 (Conf) 9. Bouremouth 56 10. Brentford 56 11. Fulham 54 12. Palace 49 (EL) 13. Everton 45 14. Wolves 42 15. West Ham 41 16. Man Utd 40 17. Spurs 38 (CL) 18. Leicester 25 19. Ipswich 23 20. Southampton 12

Couple of things, Howe stated no need for surgery for Isak and Arteta was booked for kicking a ball onto the pitch to delay a quick throw in. Agree with rest of it though.

Hugely frustrating day. A few observations: Wilson is finished at this level, but as a few have pointed out, it's not his fault - the last injury was clearly one too many to recover from. Let's not forget however that he's more than done his bit over the years - 47 goals in 110 appearances. Gordon fucked up, but he's not the first to do so this season. Bruno has done so as well a couple of times. They've both massively contributed to this season so whilst it's fucking annoying, it happens and we can't get too hung up over it. 2nd striker has to be a priority this summer along with CB and ahead of RW (sorry, not sorry Gloomy). Osula might develop into the player we need but he's not there yet. I wonder with hindsight whether we should have tried Gordon through the middle yesterday with Barnes & Murphy either side of him. Howe et al really need to address this failure to turn up in a 2nd half. It's happened way too many times this season - Forest at home springs to mind and Brighton in the cup too. In reality we lost to a stunning strike away to the league runners-up, and that was without several key players - Isak, Joelinton, Trips, Hall. As disappointing as it is, 3 or 4 years ago we'd have left the Emirates on the back of an absolute hiding. I don't expect to see either Isak or Joelinton next weekend. Isak has been game managed for months now and has a groin problem needing a operation. If we risk him Sunday we could be starting next season without him if something goes wrong. Need to learn from the saga with Botman last season. Arsenal really are a bunch of horrible cunts who are clearly rattled by us as a club - that was evident from their fans and also the way their players reacted - we're a massive threat to them and it's delightful to see how far under their skin we are. Thank fuck a referee finally had the balls to book Arteta for being outside his technical area. He does it all the time! What a crying shame there's nothing for them to play for next weekend. It'd serve the cunt right. I can't see anything but 3 points for us next weekend.

I'm hoping for a Spurs win as I don't want to see those Manc cunts spawn another trophy.

If Man U were to lose it, (unlikely because they can have poor sides and still win stuff), I think there's half a chance they'll beat villa for some bounce back/get some pride back final game in front of their fans. If Man U win and get the CL spot expect half a team of youngsters plus casemiro and Erikson building sand castles on the pitch as villa win 3-0. I'd definitely prefer a Spurs win because of the above.

I think if they do win the final, it'll be a bit of an occasion and the crowd will be up for it - might make a difference. If they lose the final this will be a write-off imo.

Spurs for me. Man U are fucked financially and in need of another massive overhaul of playing staff which they can't afford. No Europe next season definitely fucks them more than it would Spurs.