Dr Gloom

Isak will be away in the summer if we fail to get champions league, no question.

where we were in 2020? Well yeah. But as we’re getting on for five years into the takeover I’d say it’s par. Not a disaster but another nearly season would be disappointing given how promising it was looking. Reminds me of the chances missed under Ashley to kick on from a position of strength. The difference being we then had an owner who didn’t care. Now we have ambitious owners who seemingly can’t find a way to invest due to a mix of financial regulation and failure to boost the commercial revenue to allow us to spend.

it’s all hypothetical paper talk at this stage but I would be amazed if he’s on board with his squad being weakened by three players. I was struck by how weak the bench was yesterday. Willock and Osula our only forward options - Willock is low on confidence and he doesn’t trust Osula to bring him on earlier than the 80th minute. Barnes is out for another month. Wilson will apparently be ready sooner but who knows if he manages to stay fit this time. We’re desperate for reinforcements in that area. If we do shift another two players, it is asking miracles of Howe. Perhaps they’re just resigned to rolling the dice on his ability to galvanise a threadbare group of players once again.

If we sell Kelly and one of Targett or Longstaff without an incoming player, you have to ask wtf is going on? What kind of psr hole are we in exactly? Eddie will have been stiffed for the run in if these rumours are to be believed. These are all players that could be moved on if better quality was coming in but it leaves Howe horribly exposed for the rest of the season. We saw from the Fulham game that the squad is already thin. It’s not the first time this season when we looked even poorer after subs were made. I think we’d see Eddie make subs earlier in games if he had players on his bench he trusted better.

You’re right. Schar has been unbelievable since the takeover and I don’t think we should sell him but he doesn’t start on current form

This is a decent conversation about the psr conundrum

we would be seething if Ashley was still in charge

Wankers. Makes me sick thinking scum like that support our club but they’re sadly everywhere in society

Schar has just looked off it all season man. His Hollywood balls to no one are starting to boil my piss. Any manager who has done their research knows that’s what he tries every game. I think age might be catching up with him. I know Botman is coming back from a serious injury but he hasn’t done much wrong since returning. Looked much more like his old self then when he came back from injury before he had his op. He’s our best central defender. I know Howe loves burn but Botman has to start and if that means playing two lefties, fine

deadline day swoop for a RW?

he should start ahead of schar, who has been well below his best rbis season

I dunno man, he was electric during the loan spell then went off the boil a bit under Bruce. I thought he was excellent the season we finished 4th.

you don’t think he was good in the season we finished 4th? that ball with the outside of his foot for Isak in the 6-1 demolition of Spurs was noteworthy. Agree he’s been poor the last couple to seasons struggling for both fitness and form. I thought he was good prior to that

I agree, the gap is smaller. However, on paper our squad looks better than Bournemouth, Fulham, Everton, Blackpool, Brentford etc but we consistently drop points against these sort of teams. Our squad isn’t as good on paper as the traditional “big” six teams and yet we haven’t lost to any of them yet this season. Weird innit

I would agree that it’s been the most interesting league for a while (other than Liverpool seemingly running away with the title). It’s not the first time we’ve failed to show up against one of the historically smaller clubs though. We consistently bust a gut against the legacy teams. I don’t know if it’s a mentality or form thing but it doesn’t feel like a coincidence. The big players just seem to get more up for those games. I thought we’d got past this after the winning run but the warning signs started creeping back in against wolves. Bournemouth and Fulham are both good sides and it’s no shame losing to either team btw, I want to be clear on that. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we raise our game against arsenal. We’ve been a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde side for a while now

I’m not sure what it’s down to - tactics or mentality - but we weren’t right in that second half. That’s taking nothing away from Fulham btw. They’re only five points behind us. A very good premier league team, with a good manager, who thoroughly deserved to take six points off us this season.

Most of our losses have come against sides that we “should” beat on paper. We usually turn up against the “big sides” and I expect us to win on Wednesday for that reason. Bit of a concern though. If you want to be a regular champions league team, you need to turn up against the “smaller” teams too

Some of the teams that have been allowed to invest for years are behind us (spurs/Man U). you could argue we have better squads on paper than some of those we’re battling for too 5 with (Bournemouth/Forest/Fulham)

Kelly for Hall was a head scratcher when we were chasing an equaliser. Didn’t overlap and when he did get in behind he took an extra touch and wasted an opportunity to put a good ball into the six yard box

yeah but that was later in games and often with a two goal cushion. I could understand it if we had a two goal lead, but Fulham are a decent side and if it was tactical it was naive because we we invited them back in before the game was won with 45 minutes to go

I can’t believe how passive we were at the start of the second half. Okay you can say Fulham upped their game but we just sat back and handed them the initiative after the break. I don’t know if that’s tactical or a mentality thing with either the players or management looking ahead to Wednesday. Ref absolutely stiffed us for their second goal not giving the foul on Gordon in the build up. And of course we got 5 minutes to find an equaliser - what did Spurs get against us, 13 in total? V disappointing result. Thought we were the better side first half, hit the post twice and we came back into it later in the second half. Draw might have been a fair result but fair play to Fulham. Too many of our players were off their best and they outworked and outplayed us for long periods in the second half.

all the mood music suggests it will be within the city limits. The council are surely going to be more cooperative this time if there was a risk of the new ground being build further out. They can’t afford the hit to the local economy. And I think the club know there would be a backlash if they proposed anything beyond Leazes park (I think the arena site is a non starter)

If we could rebuild on SJP I’d do that but there’s nowhere to play while the work is carried out so it has to be a new ground on Leazes park. If it’s done right it could be transformative. A tarted up SJP isn’t going to the deliver enough additional normal or commercial seats