OTF

After seeing about 3000 marginally different AI generated variations of a new club logo in the last 24 hours I'm hopeful that the next graphic design expert to fill out a prompt will finally crack the code with the placement of the magpie(s), the castle, the river and the contentious matter of stars and foundation year. It's in your hands now Ian from Byker.

I love Eddie's responses to any questions on finance - a polite "don't know" equivalent moves thing along to the next question efficiently. In the pre-match presser when asked about Chelsea's sale of a hotel and their women's team a lesser man (like me, Klopp etc) would have gone on a rant about uneven playing fields and the like, but not our Eddie.

On the English one, after this season if he wasn't a club trained player we'd be looking to move him on. This could be both good and bad for Longstaff himself as I think he would be a very good starting option for a newly promoted side and here he is only going to get significant minutes in an injury crisis or in the odd cup game.

Prime time Sunday night for those of us in the Great Southern Land

Put a star on top and it's your namesake.

Closer each day.... Home and Away

That question was pure headline bait from the reporter but Arteta was thick enough to fall for it so it's fair that he will be ridiculed.

Apparently based on appearances his full transfer to Juve is already confirmed. Their European qualification would bump the fee from €14m to €20m.

As much as you may feel younger you definitely aren't, so don't go embarrassing yourself with your xG of 0.0.

This will be an Eddie Howe 'special' tactics event with a tweak to the formation / roles / marking to facilitate closing down Palmer and restricting delivery to their wide men. Whether it's Sandro given that defensive assignment or someone else remains to be seen. Could even see Botman come into the team with Schär marking Palmer. Offensively I'm expecting Isak to play a little deeper with Gordon and Barnes primed to counter down the flanks.

Their full name is Toss Offs

This is my position as well. I'd console myself by affirming that at the start of the season I'd have snapped your hand off for winning a major trophy and qualifying for Europa, but there no denying that qualifying for the CL is the only way we can truly resume our team building momentum and enable the hot Mitch summer.

Barnes, Gordon, Isak, Tonali (and Schär) can all hit a shot from distance which seems to be a recurring weakness of his. I'd be giving them all a license to shoot at will.

I don't care but here's my 5000 word dissertation on the matter.

It would be good for the development of our younger players like Miley, Osula and that kid with the terrible haircut.

Precisely

That's such a predictable response.

This is our second cup final.

At home we will be back to our best. Tonali and Bruno won't have stinkers. Howe may try to accommodate both Barnes and Gordon in the starting side by moving Barnes to the right. Harsh on Murphy who has had a fine season. I still think he will persist with Willock, but hope he doesn't. Joelinton gives a lot more defensive cover than Willock and Chelsea have been played somewhat back into form by a half arsed B grade Liverpool so it's important that our midfield shape is good. Miley has never really let down Howe whereas Willock has on multiple occasions. There's a point where you accept that getting far up the pitch with the ball without scoring or creating chances is a pointless endeavour. Willock has played in 30 PL games this season (averaging 33 mins per game) and has no goals and 2 assists. In the cups he scored 3 in 9 games. Miley has 1 goal in 12 premier league appearance, but that's averaging only 20 mins a game. In the FA Cup he started three games and scored once.

I thought Barnes was pretty good overall, Trippier defensively was good, Burn and Schär were ok as well.

Someone let Mrs Wyki know that another lass is making a move on her man Callum.

Extremely forgettable game that. Bruno and Tonali both off their game today as were Murphy and Isak.

Thanks, suspected it wasn't right when I posted it!