David Kelly

Aye that's fair enough. I was thinking more conversationally that we wouldn't use it so yes, totally agree with NJS. I also agree with NJS about the songs, but then again we can barely ever get a decent rendition of The Blaydon Races going at home or away matches these days which is far more concerning.

Would you have said something like "did you see how united played on Saturday"? Not being old enough to be in pubs til the mid 90's, I might have missed the boat on that time but I honestly can't remember such talk. Tbh I would just expect someone to say did you see the match and everyone would assume you were talking about us, I don't think you have to really refer to us by any name most of the time if you're in the city. I suppose with the sheer volume of matches on the telly these days (not even counting the fact that you can see every match if you have the right access to streams) it's more possible people could be unsure which match you meant.

In what context? I'm not doubting you here btw, I'm just interested in how you would do it. I honestly can't think of a time when I've heard anyone say "I'm off to see united today" or something like that. I suppose I could envisage someone saying "for fucks sake united come on" or something like that I suppose. I certainly would never dream of saying that I supported united if someone asked me. And not just because I would expect them to assume I meant Manchester. Newcastle would be the name that always immediately came to mind.

Do any of us actually refer to us as United? Obviously there's the United chant at the matches but I don't think I've ever heard anyone from here or anywhere else refer to us as United. I mean it annoys me a much as the next person when the press and sky pundits refer to Man U as United as if they're the only one, but I think the reality is, we don't use it for ourselves either.

Can't see us letting Ashworth take him to Manure. I'd hate to see him go to Liverpool but lets be honest, they're way ahead of us at the moment. What I wouldn't want is to see him go to someone that he helps move miles clear of us. PSG would be the preference.

It certainly suggests he should have had the operation earlier in the season. Oh well at least this means he's one of our star players that won't be sold this summer! This makes me think even more now that Bruno will have to be sold so that we can spend some money on the squad (real money I mean).

Come on, give us a clue.

Cue Ashworth taking up the role in Manchester next week after we've accepted a couple of mil compensation.

I think we're seeing the effects of having Gordon on the left and not having Willock for basically the whole season and missing Joelinton a bit too. We're not the defensive unit we were (Pope's injury is hurting us too) and Burn in particular seems to be suffering from it. The change in how we are going about things in an attacking sense has certainly weakened us defensively. Howe still seems to be struggling to find the right balance, we're having less games where it looks like we can't score but we're not keeping the clean sheets that we were, particularly earlier on last term. And I can't see that changing this season without having Jo or Tonali back. Even when they are, it still seems to me that we need a proper number 6 instead of playing a flat midfield 3.

I think the 4th innings was a pretty good effort, Root aside, and don't think we can have too many complaints about it (other than the iffy ball tracking for Crawley's dismissal). It's the first innings for both teams where it went wrong. We were a good hundred runs short of where we should have been looking to get to. I suppose we have to consider the inexperience of our attack too mind. The three spinners have done incredibly well when you think about how little first class cricket they have under their belts. Obviously Leach's injury has hurt us (again) but you have to wonder whether it would have been better to take another more experienced spinner (I know we're not exactly overstocked with them but surely Liam Dawson was an option) or play Wood/Robinson along with two spinners and Root.

Missed opportunity against them without Kohli, Jadeja, Raul & Shami. I still don't understand the way Root is playing. He was the one player who didn't need to change anything about the way he played to meet Stokes and McCullum's MO but he seems to have just gone too far. He should have been the player who won the match for us but instead he was our lowest scoring batsman in the match.

I was calling him it years ago but cunt seemed more fitting so I just moved onto that.

Couldn't be happier about this but it does mean that there is absolutely no chance of me watching any sky sports football programming between now and August. Everything will be about the cunt.

Totally agree with this. We fielded a weakened team with a 17 yr old starting in central midfield and basically no substitutions that we could make to positively effect the game and those lads did us proud. We were on the wrong end of a poor refereeing decision and that's disappointing but they happen all the time and sometimes we get the benefit from that, this time it went the other way. We can still qualify, I'm confident we can beat Milan (how amazing is it to be able to say that!) but if we don't we haven't let ourselves down in any way.

We haven't and that's the problem. Even when we have we haven't really looked to play our best team (although I'm not sure anyone knows what that is any more). Think Robin is spot on, in that there isn't a standout candidate to replace Butler as captain and god know who the options would be as coach. They probably won't be very interested beyond T20 any more. Mind that's the only real interest we're showing at the moment full stop. It's a real shame that we've finally climbed to the top of the mountain and then we've just forgotten about it.

Well we don't know what evidence there is at the moment. His agents latest comments suggest there's actually less to it than what is being suggested so who knows where it will end up as. But I guess the fear is that gambling can lead to spot fixing (or worse in Italy) so that's why they come down harder on it. Not saying that I agree with that, just that's what I'm assuming the reasoning is.

I suppose it's to do with gambling having possible knock on effects to the integrity of competitions that Tonali, or whomever, is playing in. i.e. players could bet on things they could ensure happen in a match that they shouldn't. Clearly racially abusing someone is a worse thing than putting a bet on, but it isn't going to bring match fixing into the equation.

This time last year I dreaded to see his name even on the subs list. His turnaround in the time since is almost at the same level as we seen from Joelinton. He's a lad who made his feelings about the club known from day one and it was sad that someone who wanted to be here so much was completely unable to perform at this level. I delighted for him that he's managed to turn things around so much.

Could that be why someone would support a certain Mr A Johnson?

We prepared poorly for this world cup (which could quite easily be the last of the format) and the balance of the team isn't right at all. I'm wondering if Butler is the right man to lead the team. We seem to have dropped a level in white ball cricket (despite the T20 win) wit Butler and Mott leading.

Aye, dubiously.

We signed Isak about four days before we played Liverpool, he'd have struggled to get many minutes before that you daft sod. He may have only been in because Wilson was injured but he scored in his first game a few days after signing and then scored again against Bournemouth before he got injured. That's in no way taking time to find his feet. Bruno didn't either, Howe just decided not to start him straight away while we were doing ok. He never for one moment, in those short appearances before his full debut, looked like he was struggling at all.

That the Bruno who scored that back heel volley against Southampton on his full debut and the Isak who scored within minutes of his first game away to Liverpool? I get what you're saying and I do think it applies to Tonali and Hall but not sure using those two examples works. With regards to Tonali, from what I'm reading it's sounding more and more likely that the Juve player was that fucked with debt from gambling he was desperate for a way out and coming clean about it was that for him. Before he grassed up Tonali there doesn't appear to have been any investigation into him. So I think those who are suggesting Milan knew or that we can get some money back on him are in dreamland. We're just going to have to put on our big boy pants and suck it up. A loan move in January, particularly if we're still in Europe and challenging for the top four, seems a good bet. But more immediately, it's fortunate Willock appears to be nearing a return and Anderson is starting to look more and more like he can compete for a starting position.

Surely Ivan Toney would be more like for like?

It doesn't take any insider knowledge to see that someone there is clearly lacking in the required ability to run things properly mind. I wonder if other clubs have the same problems. A mate of mine was told by someone in the box office last year that nearly every club has the same computer system in for their box offices. Maybe it simply is that we have morons running ours.