The Fish

To be honest, we take the piss out of them, but they haven't half been through the shit.

If that kind of deal was possible I'd do it all the time. "Here, Dortmund, I'll give you £80m over 8yrs for Aubameyang in £10m instalments? Deal? Ausgezeichnet" "Hi, PSG, Newcastle here, wanna buy Aubameyang for £50m? Deal? Parfait!" "Hi, Dortmund, bad news, sold Aubameyang. Entschuldigungen. Byeeeee"

Wouldn't be surprised. Atsu has done well, but I'm not sure if Rafa really wants to risk playing him 3 games in a row.

That's fine on an individual basis, was looking for a term that referenced the shared nature of the delusion. No biggy.

FAKE NEWS I'm still trying to find a good term to describe the acceptance of a unprovable falsehood (or rejection of an provable truth) by the masses in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary. Mass Hysteria is the closest, but it implies a frantic lunacy, rather than shared self-delusion on a massive scale. Folie à plusieurs (Lasègue-Falret Syndrome) is a psychiatric condition that shares some qualities, but it's probably too fancy a term to use on the terraces. Also, it doesn't scan with Sloop John B or Seven Nation Army so,

Some of them are all right, but there is a decent number who are incapable of being objective about us, even when we're not in the same league. Had Villa sold Amavi for £30m they'd all be pissing themselves at Spurs, but as it's us, there must be a way to spin it as a negative. "Ahhh, they only get £6m a year so if he's sold this year that's their lot." On what world is that a likelihood?

Me too, and if the fixtures were the other way round and we were facing Huddersfield now instead of Reading, I'd expect the Yorkshire club to take advantage of that complacency. As it stands I think We're more than capable of beating Reading, even with the shadow of complacency looming large. Gayle will be keen to get amongst the goals and Yedlin, Gouffran will want to get their 1st team spots back too.

Who're you kidding? The sun setting and subsequently rising would have you spending all your time in your masturbatorium until 2020

NUFC to Score 0 - 1 - Kevin Carr's Gloves, ewerk, StoneColdStephenIreland, Renton, wykikitoon, Holden McGroin 2 - The Fish, Rayvin, David Kelly, Dr Gloom, rogerbarton, Dougle, Anorthernsoul, strawb, Ant, Lackie92, OTF, LooneyToony, Kitman, barnabox 3 - Howay, TheGingerQuiff, Andrew, Tom, tooner, Happy Face, acrossthepond, MiddleAgeCool, ohhh_yeah, scoobos 4+ - adios, zico martin NUFC to Concede 0 - The Fish, Kevin Carr's Gloves, David Kelly, Howay, Dr Gloom, rogerbarton, TheGingerQuiff, ewerk, Dougle, Anorthernsoul, Tom, tooner, Happy Face, strawb, wykikitoon, OTF, LooneyToony, MiddleAgeCool, scoobos, zico martin 1 - Rayvin, adios, Andrew, StoneColdStephenIreland, Ant, Lackie92, acrossthepond, Kitman, Holden McGroin, ohhh_yeah 2 - Renton, barnabox 3 - 4+ -

17/18 Lower half of the table, but safe. 18/19 Top half & a cup 19/20 European campaign has us struggling so lower half but safe. 20/21 Top half

I'm trying to explain it...

Fuck.

That link comes up as an error. Is it the bit about Sissoko's fee?

... I don't get it.

Aye, I heard that and was a bit baffled. Shelvey has been integral to the best team in the division, has scored and assisted, and is technically superior to Mooy. I'd say Conor Hourihane is better than Mooy too.

What have ITV got left? The internationals, but do they have any Cup rights yet?

Holy shit... Have we found him? Do you ply your trade alongside the apocryphal "Mag at Work"?

​Having a Brighton wobble.

Behave, I just wasn't going to tempt fate by declaring the league was over with over 30 minutes of the game left to go. Predicted before a ball was kicked we'd win the league and haven't waivered from that since. Huddersfield dominated possession and shots, but didn't dominate shots on target or, most importantly, goals. I can't think of an obvious chance that Huddersfield had, the saves Darlow made weren't spectacular and were mostly from potshots. So while they had the ball loads, they didn't create much if anything with it. High marks indeed for a well disciplined, well organised, well martialled defence that followed through on a well thought out plan. A plan that included sacrificing attacking intent fully aware that if we stretched the game, Huddersfield's movement and high-press would undo us. A plan that included getting the ball back into their half quickly, which is why Clark and Lascelles went Route 1 and didn't calmly knock it about at the back. High marks for an attacking display that got 3 goals at the 3rd best home defence in the league. Murphy lead the line well, Atsu and Ritchie were more focussed on providing defensive support and denying Huddersfield space, and they did that very well. We don't always need to dominate teams to win. Understand playing Anita, Yedlin will be tiring and Anita is more defensively minded. Diame wasn't great going forward but was busy defensively. Most on the pitch for successful tackles (8/10), and blocks (4). The wide men that Anita and Dummett were tasked with stopping produced no assists and scored no goals. See above. It was. Think you're being harsh on Huddersfield, they're a very good Championship side with a young promising manager. They were undone by a poor Premier League side with an exceptional manager. If they get promoted they'll cause a few of the weaker Premier League sides problems with their energy and movement, but they need to add quality up front. A mobile, pest of a striker would have caused us plenty of problems yesterday. It doesn't take a tactical genius to work out how to beat Huddersfield, but it takes a top coach to drill it into average players, and to give them the confidence in the plan, and in each other. Mind, I'm always nervous when that's the game plan as it only takes an early goal the other way to tear that strategy up. Had Huddersfield got an early soft pen, would we have kept with the plan or pushed out more?

I am what I am.

You're one of those monsters that spell it alright, aren't you?

That's about 5 higher than I was expecting from you.

Not criticising him, he's been all right and done what we've asked. That said, he's fluffed a few good chances and is a pretty stationary targetman which likely wouldn't have worked out well against Brighton's two monoliths.