toonotl

Guilty.

Love ya Toonpack.

Not only can Tino's injury be traced back to the decisions of Bunce who has given him too many minutes, it can be tracked back to Bunce's eighteenth century ancestor who was interrupted right on the cusp of copulation by Bunce's great-great-great-great-grandmother asking if said ancestor had forgotten to wind the clock. This confusing incident involving time experienced in the passionate throes of Bunce's great-great-great-grandfather being conceived has caused untold misery down the years. Tino is merely the most recent victim. But at least we've now all learned that everything is connected in a long long sequence of events that can be reconstructed by pure logic. For instance, we also know that Beatty's problems can be traced back to centuries of rampant inbreeding.

Yeah, mate. Agreed. I had that inkling as I was typing out the above that perhaps my detachment (as a non-Geordie NUFC supporter (of 30 years but still not a Geordie)) means that I fail to fully appreciate the frustration at Howe's tactics and its contribution to the result. I can definitely appreciate that it should be win at all costs and not about holding something back because of match load and what have you when it comes to derbies. That's perfectly legitimate. It's how I treat all sporting events against the English. Football (and sport) is about emotion at the end of the day. Derbies and old rivalries are a big part of that. Hopefully next time, we set out the fucking thump them and leave nothing to chance.

I might have strayed from the general consensus here but I don't fault Howe's tactics. We could've beaten them one of umpteen different ways and I think that Howe chose to go with the way that conserved the most amount of energy. I can understand that rationale given the amount of important games we have coming up. I blame the players, entirely. It was a tactic designed to nullify their attack and capitalize on their poor press and porous midfield to create chances in attack. We did the first and had ample opportunities to do the second and failed miserably every single time. I can completely concede that, having lost, losing that way looks weak and pathetic like we showed them respect, etc., but I actually think it was the opposite. Yes, we could've won it another way. Yes, in hindsight, we should've done it differently. But I think Howe reasoned, these are so shit that we can play the whole game in second gear, conserve energy for other matches, and hit them on the break since they're too naive to not press us with their dogshit press. He was right. For me, it's the players who let him down shockingly.

Spoil sport.

The whole thing sounds amazing but that little bit of history is fuckin brilliant. Enjoy! Make sure to post a pic once you have it.

Happy birthday mate. What guitar did you get?

We've been as bad as them today. Very little quality from either side.

The co-commentator has just noticed that Tino and Hall are stepping into midfield. They've both been doing it all game. Stealing a living, I swear.

Yeah. It's a bad one.

They haven't had a shot on target. There wasn't even a Sunderland player near the ball. A complete gift.

We've been poor in the execution but you can see that the gameplan is correct, I reckon.

Yeah. Arguably he already has done looking at that foul on Miley. Should be off.

This Brobby is an utter sook.

Broken rib? That sucks for Burn in any case.

Ouch. Hopefully Burn's just winded. Don't think the foul was particularly dirty. Just badly timed. Still a definite yellow.

I don't think we've been too bad. Not massively composed but there's a lot of emotion at the moment. We're playing very direct when we get it. I think it's clear Howe has picked that they'd try to press us. They are and they're not very good at it. There's space everywhere behind them and we'll punish them as soon as we string a few of those high risk passes together. We just need to not concede in the meantime and so far they've offered nothing too threatening despite the possession they've had.

Great pass by Hall. Tino was almost away.

First goal is massively important because they are very open at the moment at 0-0.

Gosh that's poor play from Woltemade not to see Gordon there. He had nobody anywhere near him.

They look like they want to press us which is a positive with Gordon's and Elanga's pace. Bit of quality and we'll be away on the break.

Comfortable victory coming up today.

I expect Tino to leave in the summer. CL or not for us doesn't hold much relevance, I fear. City can offer basically permanent CL football and greatly improved wages. And the wages matter way way more. Players aren't sentimentalists about this stuff, rarely ever have been, and especially aren't now with agents in their ears making sure that human emotions don't come into it. And who can blame them? This will continue to happen. We can't offer the wage so we can't compete. This part of football history will be remembered as the beginning of a truly protectionist era, as a response by the established giants to the rise of City and PSG. I also don't see how it ever ends. Not that I have any insight. Anyway, in our lifetime, sport has evolved out of the end of amateurism and local loyalties (at least in a lot of disciplines) to become utterly enmeshed with geopolitics and international business. And that sort of trend doesn't seem to show any signs of reversing. Football is a closed shop. NUFC may manage to overcome it in time but only because we're owned by one of the only entities in the entire world with the financial and political muscle to push its way into the conversation. And we may well do so eventually for reasons that have nothing at all to do with football because there are a lot of people in the world who want to do business with Saudi Arabia. It's all very icky stuff really. I guess we're all complicit so long as we're paying attention. But, hey, I'm a moron and a hypocrite so expect something more than nothing at all from me at your peril.