Kid Dynamite

Tonight's our 25th game of the season. No one expected instant results, but everyone agreed the Summer window was vitally important in giving us a squad that can compete on 4 fronts. And Elanga and Ramsey appear to be 4th choice winger and 6th choice midfielder respectively despite accounting for almost half of our transfer spend this Summer. Howe has said himself, multiple times, we can't afford to make expensive mistakes in the transfer market because of PSR. Until this Summer, I think most would argue his transfers were a success. How long do we give these 2 signings before we can judge them?

I had hopes that Howe would do with Elanga and Ramsey what he did with Burn Schar Hall Tino Murphy Joelinton Gordon Isak He got those lads playing the best football of their careers. The likes of Targett, Krafth, Almiron, Willock, Osula are the other side of the coin though. I wouldn't say they've regressed, but I certainly wouldn't say they improved under Howe

That's all he's got left these days. Living off a playing career from 30 years ago and slagging off the fans of every club he's failed at in management.

There's not much hunting to be done in Sydney. And even if there is, you should be limited to one gun. I suspect the laws will be tightened after this.

Any news on Botman's return date? He's gone from being a Rolls Royce to a sicknote

Im not clear on weapons laws in Australia. But what legitimate reason is there to allow a civilian to own 6 different guns, including shotguns and long rage rifles?

Anyone else try to press play?

I assume a decent chunk of his voters struggle to square away shit like this with their own moral compass. Cognitive dissonance is doing some heavy lifting atm

It seems like Elanga, Ramsey and Thiaw were on the wanted list. They were all linked months if not years ago. Trafford was obviously our first choice GK target, but Ramsdale has been consistently linked since Howe joined as well. Wissa can't be judged yet, and Woltemade is hardly a flop. I think he's scored more goals than Sesko, Isak, Gyokeres, Cunha et al. He was also a bit of a Hail Mary given we'd been shafted by Isak and fucked off by Ekitike, Delap, Cunha, Mbuemo and Sesko, and only had days left in the transfer window. I think the point I'm trying to make is, whilst we didn't get our first choices in Ekitike, Mbuemo and Trafford, we still appear to have got players Howe was happy with and had been on his list for a while. He wasn't chucking mud at a wall and hoping it stuck. It's up to him to make it work.

When Wissa was a whisker away from getting a toe onto that ball over the defence I said to my dad that Nick would have been 20yds behind the play. The quickest solution to this malaise might be to get Wissa fit and just drop him into last seasons setup as Isak's replacement

I had to check this was real

It's nuanced though. It's nigh on impossible to be a standout player in a team that is underperforming. If you haven't got people moving into space to receive the ball or to pull players out of position it's going to be much tougher to look like you're having a good game, even if you haven't really done a lot wrong. I think that's why the likes of Tonali and Bruno look off the boil at times, even though they are our best players by a country mile

Other than City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, I think every club in the league would swap their squad for ours. Theres only really LB where we haven't got a specialist backup. And that's because Tino and Burn can cover there. Howe should be doing more with the squad he's got and the money he's spent. Pope/Ramsdale Tino/Trippier Thiaw/Schar Botman/Burn Hall/(Burn/Tino) Tonali/Miley Bruno/Ramsey Joelinton/Willock Gordon/Barnes Murphy/Elanga Woltemade/Wissa

With a fully fit squad we have 2 first team players for every position. Part of the issue is Howe has his favourites that he flogs. Schar is an able deputy for Burn Ramsey and Elanga at £100m between them should have been knocking on the starting XI. Miley should have been rotating with Joe much more often than he has

We were worse against Brentford and West Ham. Defensively we were solid today. Literally 1 shot against us in 98minutes. We were just shit everywhere else

I largely agree with this. But Villa, Arsenal and City appear able to balance 3 competitions at a time. Ramsay and Elanga cost us the best part of £100m and haven't improved our starting XI. Elanga was coming off the back of a good season at least, but we'd been linked with Ramsay for a number of windows and I can't see why? Pretty much a like for like replacement for Willock.

Villa, also playing in Europe, have won 10 of their last 11 in the league. We don't seem to have learned any lessons from 2 season ago. The players look lethargic as fuck

If Burn was still on the pitch then he's probably clearing that header instead of Nick.

Aye, hindsight is wonderful but we should have chucked £55m at Bowen. Madueke looks half decent at Chelsea too.

I hope they all get a fucking rocket after this. 98th minute and they're fucking passing it across the back line ffs

Stop fucking pushing people over!

Aye. Sunderland have been shit and we've gifted them a result by being equally as shit

Howe's got it all wrong today. We've shown these far too much respect. Playing like we're up against Barca again. We should have taken the game to them with the high press

Been disappointed in Nick today. Tallest player on the pitch and he's been beaten in the air for everything