Rayvin

This. No one is coming back to vote for round two of Starmer's nothingness. The one thing he has going for him atm is the Tories being total shite.

Apparently the handball rule is that for a goal to be chalked off the infraction has to be intentional (which this wasn't) OR it has to be unintentional but committed by the same player who then scores (also wasn't). This is a new rule for this season apparently. EDIT - beaten to it but aye, was the right call to permit it.

I reckon we lose this one and I'm not fussed if we do really. Means a bit less fixture congestion in a season where I don't think we've got the squad depth to handle all the games yet. If we do win it, I expect Liverpool/Arsenal away in the next round.

I actually respect that from him. It's a depressing indictment of the game (society?) that telling the truth is respect worthy rather than a bare minimum, but this is the world we live in I suppose.

That sucks indeed, he's going to miss loads of CL games. Bet he's gutted.

Howay man, that one was a more obvious penalty than the one he won against Brentford. He's tripped, he goes down.

Yeah I wasn't convinced on Longstaff last season because of his wastefulness in front of goal but I'm sold on him now. Vital player to the team, and frankly it's great to see given his background and affinity for the club.

Aye this one is going to be interesting to watch play out.

What changed in this one though? Was the other one post-Brentford only?

100% this.

Beautiful. Brings a tear to the eye.

Idk how you're resisting the urge tbh, whenever I maintain this sort of shit the second any new data point comes in I have to update it, followed by excitedly staring at it for a bit. Then I undo it and allow myself to relive the moment. I wish I was joking.

North London Derby I assume.

Gordon definitely shit mind. Hugely overrated... ffs.

Sunderland would torn it up though, the world, nay the universe, has missed out here. The delusional pack of fucking weapons.

Good half, great to see the local lads scoring and nice for Botman too. Gordon brilliant as ever. More of the same please!

Just because Sheff Utd are collapsing doesn't mean clear and obvious penalties can be ignored you dozy fucking cunt of a ref.

Tbh I would actually find this fairly interesting - do we have any sort of resource at the moment to understand which of our players are currently out on loan?

I think £100m is fair tbh - I also don't see anyone paying that right now so unless he returns to form we should be pretty safe. It'll likely be down to our wage structure more than anything, that we had to put it in. i.e. he's accepted a lower amount than he may have wanted and so has this as a back door. We might just need to get used to this sort of thing.

We should be winning this - I don't think it's actually all that crucial that we do, but the media will be all over us if not and that might dent the confidence of the players further. So for the sake of positive mindsets, it has some importance there. Joelinton coming back in would be huge for us if he's able.

Congrats man

This is always the key difference IMO. They put time and energy into following Newcastle so they can rage about us. We just laugh at their message board. I genuinely thought they hid it to stop that guy on twitter poking fun at their insane takes.

That is actually incredibly embarrassing. Even if you disagree with the guy he is a foreign head of state and what is Richard Madeley? Fucking nothing.

Fair but we'd take 0-0 away against a top 6 side too IMO. Also you need to factor in the sense of occasion somewhat. City were arguably the best team in Europe for several years before they won the CL because the the mental barrier they had to overcome to establish themselves. But yes, lack of energy is fair and a bit surprising. I get Tripps being tired by the end cos he was playing just the other day. Isak though is a bit of a confusing one. The press has fallen away somewhere in the mould, idk if we're trying to take up a new style or what but there is something to look at there.

I mean, Howe needs to grow into managing at this level too, I'm sure he'd be the first to say the same. But he works so hard, he's so committed that I'm personally prepared for it to take a bit of trial and error, some rough patches here and there, to be able to allow him to get to the point where he's got it all nailed down. We don't need to be the team that smashes elite clubs around in the CL yet - in fact I almost don't want us to be because it's going to be way more satisfying later having had to grind through the levels and really earn it.