Rayvin

Good. Hopefully part of that patience comes from the notion that rather than just 'sharing in responsibility' out of a sense of fraternity and team-building, they're also doing it because they recognise their own culpability.

Part of me thinks the real issue isn't that people aren't horrified - I imagine a good fucking number of them are - but that the US has no mechanism to do anything about this. Trump will either die in office or shortly after, so he's gotten away with all of this now in terms of legal consequences - he doesn't give a fuck, he's not answerable to anything or anyone, and he's the most powerful man alive. There is nothing anyone can actually do about him without breaking the entire system that he's sitting on top of - a bit like Brexit in a way. Everyone on all sides knows it's fucking mental, but they can't do anything about it without undermining democracy in the eyes of the people. This is a point in which the institutions needed to be strong, but Trump stripped them early doors, replacing key people with patsies. I can't believe how vulnerable our systems are when someone comes along who just doesn't give a fuck about the supposed rules. We are so ill prepared to do what must be done as a civilisation when our norms are challenged. It's a bigger issue than Trump now anyway, this whole thing always should have been about Russia influencing and subverting our democracies. The cold war didn't end, it just stopped bothering with the pretense of ideology.

It's a pathetic comment that makes him look like a fucking child, so hopefully he's deleted it out of some personal sense of shame. I doubt it, but I hope he did.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for any sort of earnest sentiment from players, but I really do appreciate Bruno saying these things. He may not be a leader on the pitch in the same way Trippier is, but he is closer to representing the 'heart' of the club than any player I've seen play for us in quite some time.

How is this utter cunt acceptable to anyone. Literally anyone.

I agree with you on this, so the question following isn't a challenge, it's just curiosity - Why do you think we're misfiring, based on the data?

I'm not saying by the way that Ramsey won't come good, or even Elanga - I'm just saying that based on how the side seems to be functioning, and the players we went for ahead of those that we ended up with in certain cases at least, I doubt this is what Howe was really after for the shape of this team coming into the season.

A happier way to look at that might be that without him, we may not have won the cup. He was important in the Arsenal games, I remember that much. Clutching at straws, I know.

It's starting to feel like a lot of our business over the summer might have been panic buys. Thiaw is the exception but then we'd been chasing him for a good couple of years so had done our homework there. The others though - Elanga was the first signing during a window when it felt that pressure was mounting around our inability to bring anyone in, Ramsdale wasn't the plan, Woltemade wasn't the plan, Ramsey was opportunism, Wissa maybe would have been on the radar either way. It's still obviously better to have all of them than not, but I very much doubt this team looks much at all like what Howe had specified he wanted prior to the summer window opening.

I agree with this but am going to add that the one area I think people can and do have legitimate grievance with Howe is that his approach to games like this is much the same as mine, on a philosophical level. To him, it's just another game. He understands that some of our fans care more about it than most games, but he doesn't really think it's that important in the overall scheme of his ambitions for himself and the club. He prioritises glory and success over the parochial elements - so yes, I can see him taking an approach such as you've laid out, 100%. But it's going to rub the fans up the wrong way because seemingly some of us would rather beat the mackems than progress in the cup, or whatever the tradeoff might have otherwise been.

Yeah am I fuck watching any of the media coverage about this. No thanks.

This is clearly the reality of this season IMO. It shouldn't have been the case but it reveals how important getting shit right at the executive level is, because it just fucks everything up if you don't. It's a transitional season because the board were asleep at the wheel for a year.

I think it's fair to say we were very poor and that this is an ongoing concern mind. That bit does worry me quite apart from the Sunderland element.

Completely agree. I'd be prepared to get relegated without binning him, frankly. Without Howe, the whole club would look unrecognisable.

Aye, I don't particularly invest in the rivalry anyway other than a Brexit driven disdain for their city, but would any of us trade places with them? Course we wouldn't. So in the end, who gives a fuck that we scored a goal for them to win a game against us.