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They’ve got a chequered history

The club is evolving in every element other than the one that I think everyone forgets. The boardroom is absolutely fucked - what Howe and this squad have achieved (cos its the whole team not the manager and coaching staff only) is incredible. I'm getting the rage over how entitled and angry some of the fuckers in my local pub were last night (Away to Marseille) . Shit this and that, and hammering the team cos we suffered a mistake in the second half against a Champions League away game. This game was always a bad omen in my mind too , I remember this was the first game I was at where the fans turned on Bobby and that was even less shocking than this - Eddie has won a trophy with our club in very extreme conditions given the fuckery above him. (Pardon Darren Earles, obvs - hope he does well) We need to be sustainable and play with the resources we have. Its not a game of FIFA and we aren't a club thats had 10 years of unfettered spending on world class players through 2 generations (man city are gen 2 now, as are liverpool etc). We absolutely have to learn to have gears - but this away form is baffling - especially given we seem to score in the first quarter of the game and go on to lose. <end rant> much love.

Got no problem paying more tax if it goes on services, but is it? From what I can see it's going on filling a fictional 'black hole' which is a product of Reeves stupid promises to balance the books and the OBR's dodgy forecasting. Also come and ask me for more tax when all the billionaires and other wankers are paying as much as a proportion of their wealth as I am. Solution: Get rid of the OBR, massive (as in 90%) inheritance taxes on anyone with an estate worth more than 50 million (no one needs more than that), CGT equalised with income tax, exit taxes on rich cunts leaving the UK, and bring the Bank of England back under democratic control so it's powers can be used in the interests of the whole country rather than bond traders and spivs in the city.

Nah I think you're right. We were on the verge of relegation 4 years ago. We've now won a trophy and been in the CL twice and it's proper toys out the pram tantrums and wobblers cos we lost an away tie in Europe. Perspective has gone right out of the fucking window and the expectations are now ridiculous. At one point last night we were 4th in the CL and had it stayed like that we'd have gone ahead of one of Arsenal or Bayern tonight if one of them beats the other by a couple of goals. We've got an away problem at the minute, but that is genuine miracle worker stuff from Howe and his team. And we're in ANOTHER Carabao QF. There are gonna be setbacks, but in the grand scheme of things, our current away form is a relatively minor one which I have absolute confidence will get fixed.

If you’ve got players in key positions out injured and just recovering fully from injury and you’re in the champions league and trying to retain the league cup and still prioritising the league itself then you can’t realistically start your strongest XI every match. When you leave people out who would ideally be starting it’s a calculated risk. I assume the thought process behind that is our already having a strong position in the CL and Marseille being perceived as not particularly strong opponents. It didn’t work out as planned but it should have, as even with the ropey performance they should’ve got at least a draw.

He played Burn cos Hall is only just back from injury - he said himself in the press conference that he would have to take the advice of the medical staff on Hall and Tino. Eddie Howe isn't a fucking idiot, he can see how limited Burn is at left back, what it's costing us, and how much better we are with Hall playing.

Ridiculous amount of stick that Pope is getting. He's been a fantastic keeper for us since he arrived. Given is the only keeper I've seen for us who compares to him, I loved Pav but come on he wasn't a top class keeper. Pope is going through a bad spell, which has cost us in the last three away games (and could have cost us early on against city), and the concerning thing is his decision making more than anything else. He should be dropped now because if players aren't performing they shouldn't retain their place in the team, and what would be the point of bringing Ramsdale to the club if we're not prepared to play him when the other player in his position is out of form. But honestly, I thought I'd accidently clicked on twitter rather then toontastic when I read some of the shit over the last few pages.

"........ May I approach?"

A jowl wobbling "He's done WHAT?!" from TBD of the Bailey.

I think more of a question mark for me is why not rotate the midfield for last night. If Howe doesn’t rate Miley enough to start him then he needs to be replaced. If the same is the case for Ramsey then why did we buy him? Because the amount of running required by Tonali and Bruno on top of playing v Man City isn’t sustainable. Plus Howe was clearly willing to leave other players out. Hindsight and you can understand wanting them in to exert control but I just feel like those two need game time if they are to be genuine rotation options.

Have you considered doing less peyote before lunch?

Hey if you'd started a patreon when you ran the place maybe you could have one too!

Two years ago Howe continued to press both home and away. Most people were on his back given the number of injuries. It was not sustainable. This is a more sustainable approach that is not working yet. What do we expect him to do? Should we try and press every game? What happens when Woltemade is injured and Gordon is the only person up front? It is such a one dimensional criticism of him. It is not like Amorim where he seems to have 1 system regardless of anything that happens. The game upset me tonight as I thought we were the better team but they played the better game. If Pope had not had a brain fart, the result may have been different.

vote cast for the rat's half a dozen touches and one weak as piss shot.

cheering me up a bit this.

It’s not the result last night that pissed me off, it was the manner in which it happened. The complacency for 4 minutes cost us. Perhaps we’d overachieved to take the lead but we took our eye off the ball for 5 mins and it was an absolute turnaround. And somehow, despite there being 40 mins to play i felt we weren’t going to get back to it. Sure, when you take a step back and look at it it’s something to be proud off that we can play on that stage and compete. I think I’m in part frustrated that we had the chances to have a decent lead by half time and didn’t take them.

Can we at least all agree that him turning and chasing Aubameyang and SCREAMING at him to try and out him off was fucking hilarious?

£100 fine and 3 points seems reasonable to me.

There used to be a picture here. Deleted.

I knew he'd be a poor buy even if I'd never played in goal myself, KK didn't make many bad buys but if he did, fair chance it was a keeper.

Power mad tbh

He appears to be making the assumption that Howe has a footballing IQ which exceeds CT's and didn't deliberately try to throw the match. I think that's a fairly safe assumption to make.

No but as I mentioned earlier, the idea that he just willingly made the team a lot worse by picking Gordon up front cos he felt like seeing how he did is fucking idiotic. Gordon up front is a last resort move. So the logical assumption is he made the move as a last resort because he couldn't flog Woltemade again.

Again though, Howe isn't picking Gordon cos he thinks he is suddenly going to become a striker. He's doing it out of necessity because he's been told by the medical staff that Woltemade needs a break. It's square pegs in round holes because we've only got one round peg and it's on the verge of breaking. It's absurd to think otherwise. Playing Gordon up front makes us worse. Howe isn't doing that willingly.

Re Gordon, it's the perfect opportunity for Howe, in a season when he's desperate to get to the WC to sit him down and tell him he's out of the side until he plays his way back into it. Tell him Barnes is deservedly first choice now, and Gordon is going to have to use sub appearances to make something happen and force his way back into the team. And if he doesn't, his WC place will likely be at risk. It's been too easy for him so far. He always gets back in ahead of Barnes as soon as he's fit or back from one of his stupid red card suspensions.

I totally understand starting Gordon up front. Flogging Woltemade will eventually lead to him breaking down and we can't afford that. I'm right on the verge of being completely done with Gordon though. The only thing holding me back is that he looked either still not completely fit, or like he couldn't really be fucked last night, and I don't know which it is. There's certainly been enough evidence this season to suggest that his head is elsewhere and he thinks he's better than us. Which he absolutely fucking isn't on current showing.

Welcome to Toontastic where we currently have three lecherous, middle aged men discussing which female day time TV host they would or wouldn’t grace with the pleasure of their flaccid penis. Has anyone figured out yet why we don’t have more new members signing up?

Gerrard trying to make a joke at the end looking at Macca saying 'She's a Newcastle fan' as though she's loving it and asking the question should questions be asked about Slot?

I've just seen it too, looks like the cunt gives away a penalty because he puts his hand up appealing for a foul and the ball hits it the stupid cunt.

just seen the psv penalty, hadn't switched the game on at that point. how in the name of fucking god can the surly dutch cunt even consider claiming he didn't mean to handle the ball?

I've only been following it in passing via this thread so I've only just realised they were at home. Class.

Huge miss, but strong suspicion it would have been chalked off for offside. Or maybe not!

I missed the story that Polanski used to be a hypnotherapist who promised he could make lass's tits bigger. I mean who wouldn't vote for that.

Its not like fiscal drag is something new. It's shit, but the amount of times I've heard people on here say they'd be happy to pay more tax if it went on services, and then they actually get taxed and moan like fuck. Basically it comes down to whether you believe fiscal responsibility (balancing the books) is important or not. As we as a country spend more now on debt interest than education, I'd say it was quite important whatever Polanski has us believe.

Alright, Roy Keane...

tbf it's the people living in the shed from Dobbies over the road that I feel sorry for, looking over at him with his two cars.

You'll be sticking a bottle of Bollinger up your arse next.

Main reason I’d see Pope drop is last night is the kind of mistake that not only destroys his confidence but it’ll bleed onto the back four.

Howe isn’t infallible (if he starts Pope on Saturday, it’s a serious misjudgment) but last time wasn’t on him. We should have easily had a point and if Pope doesn’t fuck it right up, we definitely get a result

He only got 20 minutes last night, and Hall 30. That was done for a reason, and we know that Howe said he would make a decision on Hall based on advice from the medical staff, so we can assume Woltemade was the same. He can't start them and give them 20/30 minutes.

Yeah, you could single most of the team out from last night. Even Tonali was sloppy. I think Gordon is beginning to grate on fans now because it’s coming upto 10 months now without any consistency. I thought Murphy was terrible last night, although it’s not his fault he was out of position. Still, we are at a stage where we are fuming over losing an away CL game. Realistically this might be as good as it gets for us. Enjoy it lads.

Last night our players seemed intent on giving the ball away at every opportunity. It was this complete lack of passing ability did for us last night (alongside Pope’ s”aneurysm)

Aye. I’ve never taken to him tbh (maybe it’s the Scouse thing). He talks a good game but his body language tells a different story, pretty much since he got here. He clearly thinks he is better than he is. I’d flog him to Liverpool tomorrow for £80m. He has never been one of our blue chip players. He doesn’t have the finishing ability or composure to get to that level. A very good player when he is on it but will never get any higher imo.

I love Eddie. I just don't see him dropping Pope

Was a bit slow at FT but that was probably the server creaking under the weight of everyone calling Pope a useless cunt

Shouting at their player to try to put him off. 🙂

I know many disagree with me but Srnicek was of similar ability. Unbelievable shot-stopper but little beyond that. We need a more complete keeper if we’re going to continue to challenge at this level.

Fuck me. There’s nowt worse than the 2 day break between matches.