The Fish

I'm not sure we do. I don't think we will beat PSG in Paris, and even if we beat Milan, we'd be on 7pts, behind PSG and Dortmund (on head to heads).

Look, we're not going to win the Champions League this season. I wouldn't even be too optimistic about our chances in the Europa. I do think we can win the League Cup, or the FA Cup, and I do think we can qualify for the Champions League in 2024/25 where I'd hope that; we have more quality in the first team we have more strength in depth our players would be more experienced in that competition we wouldn't get such a brutal group We weren't expecting to get Champions League football so soon, and our squad reflects that. Our first team is strong enough to compete for European spots, to progress in the domestic cups and that's about it. We're not yet in a position to get very far in the Champions League. My expectations for the CL before the draw was made was maybe get out of the group, then when the draw happened I just wanted not to be humiliated. If we now finish 4th, I'm fine with that. We haven't looked terrible, we haven't lost heavily, everything has been pretty fine margins but the experience and quality of the opponents told. Experience and quality that they've accrued over years and years in the Champions League. It's been amazing seeing some famous clubs come up against our lads, I've enjoyed each match. So much so I want to do it all again. We've a better chance of doing that if we're not stretching an already stretched squad to breaking point. I don't want to finish 4th, but I wouldn't be upset if we did. Were we to qualify for next season I'd raise my expectations to getting out of the group and like some of you suggest, if we do that, who knows how far we could go? I'd fancy us against pretty much anyone at St James'.

I wonder if, had he'd stayed, Keegan could have sorted him out a bit more? Maybe that's too much of a stretch even for that magician. Honestly, if it wasn't for the move to Newcastle, I don't think anybody would have heard of him. Just another waste of talent. Similar stories happen all the time, but without a 'big club' elevating them into the limelight they go untold. Ranger could have carved out a good professional career, maybe as high up the pyramid as the Championship for a while, but there's clearly something askew within him. Hanging about with the wrong crowd is one thing, but given he's played all over the shop he's had plenty of opportunities to put his past behind him. If that quote from his mam is true, she'd not done enough to put the fear of God in him, imo. ‘Listen, we had a blast, no matter what’ sounds to me like someone who wants to be mates, not a parent. I've no sympathy for him, not when there's kids with as much to offer professional football who've not had one chance, let alone the 6 or 7 he's had. Fuck him.

I understand all that and perhaps Man City was a poor example. I just meant that I understand why this rule could make sense. What would stop an ownership group with the wealth of an oil state behind them circumventing rules about wages or transfer fees by spreading the costs over 5 or more clubs. In theory Man City have a giant pool of talent they could pull from. 12 clubs in City Group, with I've no idea how many players at each. Some in countries without FFP rules to restrict them. Theoretically Mumbai City FC could 'sign' a player on huge wages and immediately loan them to Man City, thus circumventing FFP and spreading wage costs. Is that really in the spirit of the sport? I agree that FFP is less about ensuring responsible club ownership and more about ringfencing the established elite, but this new vote isn't about FFP, not really. This proposed change to the rules is about other clubs trying to handicap us when we're struggling. If the shoe were on the other foot, if Man City were 12 players down and hadn't the depth throughout their youth squads to support the first team, how would you react to them lifting a erstwhile Premier League player from a UAE state owned team to help them out of the jam?

It's frustrating that this has been looked at purely to stymie us (and make no mistake if we didn't have a stack of injuries this would never even have been considered) but, objectively I've no problem with backdoors for bigger clubs being shut. We'd be justifiably annoyed if Man City were crippled with injuries and they loaned players from a newly opulent state backed UAE League, wouldn't we?

Mate, that's not how you count down...

Did Eurystheus ask you to do anything else?

Isn't it available through Netflix ?

Not just them, but surely Chelsea, and Spurs too? The North remembers.

Have to hope that his directions at Man United weren't particularly aligned with long term visions for footballing excellence. To be fair, he's had to scout for 6 different managers in 8 years. Six managers with pretty disparate styles.

The difference is that Isak is more likely to drop deeper and drift wider to try and find the ball. Wilson wants to hang around the box (which is fair enough). I think if we had a settled team, Isak would link up with Bruno et al, but Wilson would remain more of a poacher.

Try again.

Honestly, I think that's a result of the way we play with the players we have available. He'd be more involved if we played with Barnes and Murphy. Hell, he'd be more involved if we had managed to play with a settled first 11. I do think we need a new striker though.

Funny how the graph for the Fucks you Get is identical.

This was always going to be a tough group to progress from, but once you are missing your first choice striker, left back, centre back you'll struggle even more. We were missing £270m+ of players, and have been for a few games now. So even our remaining quality players are fucking paggered. All players being fit and well, we'd likely have started Isak, a fully fit and rested Gordon and Almiron, maybe Tonali in midfield, Botman at CB and Burn at left back. With Anderson, Barnes, Hall, Lascelles, Livramento, Longstaff, Miley, Murphy, Targett, Willock, Wilson, as options from the bench. That's a very different prospect than what we saw last night. It's not just about fitness though, it's experience too. Botman, Isak and Tonali all have CL experience. As an aside I was talking about experience last night; Howe likes to sign players with PL experience because that competition was his focus, will we now see us pivot more to players with European experience as that becomes our focus?

Wouldn't be surprised if Livramento was at RB, Trippier at LB, Hall further forward.

"And they'll loan Neves from one of your teams and the proles will go crazy."

Updated

We got loads of injuries last season.

Nepotistic or Incestuous or...

There can be only one!