iancognito

Ha, the same. Used the same method as taping the charts on a Sunday, as soon as Dennis Coath popped up at the end I'd hot the stop button in record time.

Wilf isn't technical enough on the ball for a lot of the top 6. I don't see him at Liverpool or City for instance. Chelsea have Kante and Jorginho. Which would just leave United who aren't as picky these days. If Fred can hold a place in their side, Wilf would have every chance.

Repeating the Hodgson 2016 mistake in leaving an in-form midfielder out of the squad in favour of a half-fit Henderson. Something like 75% of our goals at the last two tournaments have been via set pieces and he leaves Ward-Prowse at home. Remember the quote Southgate, 2017 Explain Jesse Lingard then. Explain 4 right backs. A simple bottle job in not telling players like TAA & Grealish - who has missed two training sessions this week - that they're missing out. Can't see such a one-dimensional & predictable team making it past the QFs.

There would have to be some serious inflating of the Hot Chocolate and Bovril prices to hit those numbers. Or a clapper tax.... The sub-station will be needed within ten years just to cope with the 1000s of electric cars being plugged in pre-match

Haven't seen it mentioned since, but the link for the E.on building has now gone. Optimist - it was a formality to advertise it because we'd already snapped it up Pessimist - It's gonna be another car showroom

Remember the game (v Spurs?) when Nacho was booed on to the pitch as a sub and the absolute look of disbelief on Maddison's faith. Think he was near Kop corner waiting to take a kick and looked disgusted when Nacho was booed. Booing the whole team when they've been mullered by Bolton at home (or Palace in Puel's case) is one thing but targeting individual players is just a no-no. It always seems a bit of an Arsenal thing to do.

Schmeichel generally performed to a high level, captained the side to the FA Cup win and produced his best save when it mattered. Maddison had his usual good month then when we were hoping he'd put his soul into securing us the top 4 place we'd aimed all season for, he pissed off to a Covid Party after the city had been in lockdown for 15 months. On the day he was left out of the England squad he's releasing a shoot for Booty Man or whatever they're called. Whoever his adviser is needs to stop cashing cheques and read the room a bit.

Any of the Bergkamp goals in the 3-3. There's been a few bangers over the years but any of those 3 would be in the top ten, the hat-trick goal was sensational. And then to re-produce the hat-trick goal in the World Cup a few months later was unreal. Viera and Petit v Lennon and Izzet was like men against boys too, that game was the closest we got to laying a glove on that Arsenal side.

True, think there was a fee for him but there were definitely doubts about Simpson and they were probably still there until Ranieri came in because Simpson was still competing with De Laet until that point. Albrighton had to work hard to get and keep a place here, it took him 6 months just to get up to our fitness levels when he'd been one of Villa's fittest players in his last season there. I think the fact he just stuck at it, worked his arse off when he got in the side won a lot of people over. Bertrand would have to do the same because we're setting top 6 standards now.

My thoughts on Praet were from his quotes the other week where he said last season he was more competing with Youri for that position and this season he's had to be up against Maddison. KDH will get opportunities but as with all the development players these days, you're not getting in the side at 17/18 and working your way up, it's 19, 20, 21 if you're lucky and he'll want to be establishing himself rather than being an understudy (more like Barnes than Thomas).It's one thing breaking through and keeping another full back out of the side, it's another to get in and stay in ahead of the star men & top earners.

I'm not going to look it up but I'm betting there was similar doubts in the ranks when we snapped up Marc Albrighton for a free. There's that modern football phrase of "trust the process" and I've seen our club do so much decent business in recent years (more so when we spend less) that I'm happy to trust the process if we sign Bertrand and be pretty sure his experience, attitude and versatility will be handy.

Thing is if Praet can't get in the squad ahead of Tillymons, Maddison & Wilf, I don't see KDH doing it. I know he wants to play but he'll be best doing a Barnes, taking a loan somewhere with a recall option and see how we're doing mid-season, rather than snatching 10 mins here & there

See fans can sit there and say "oh booing it is disgusting/racist/ignorant etc etc" but team by team, clubs are slowly stopping the gesture. In the PL only Zaha has stood up against it but their opinion is all the same - it's a meaningless gesture and it's not changing anything. And it's not. All season they've done it and how many reports per week has there been of racism on social media towards players? Loads. Zaha's right, why should he HAVE to take a knee? He feels degraded having to do it. The social media blackout a couple of weeks back....have the companies changed their policies? Have they employed more people or set up algorithms to root out the perpetrators? Nope, nothing. Look at the abuse Amartey got from Chelsea "fans" last week. Look at the posts popping up about helicopters crashing. The blackout was a gesture and nothing has changed. You can't say that because people boo taking the knee that they're racist. You've no idea what people's thought or prejudices are. Same as saying , they're not booing it because it's linked to BLM. You don't know that. Taking the knee to a lot of people is a sign of submission and especially when used with the clenched fist. Also, are we really saying we kick people out of the ground for booing something they don't agree with? I personally wouldn't boo it. I think it's had it's day and it's been ineffective but it's up to the players. If people in the ground want to boo, that's up to them.

The side needs a leader on the pitch, an actual general. When we're on top form we're as good as anything in the league, when we're not we're headless chickens. Kasper can organise a backline, he can keep the defence alert but there's no-one further down the pitch talking and organising, literally dragging players through a game. As it goes today, we lost that game because rather than trust a Morgan, a Fuchs or an Amartey with coming in to the backline we brought Ndidi out of midfield so we lost control of the midfield and weakened two areas of the pitch rather than just one. If we hang on, we all celebrate a top 4 finish despite the injuries, instead we're all wondering if it's injuries or fragile mentality.

Kasper and Evans, end of discussion

Really do hope this doesn't become the norm next season, games being spaced out over 4 days for tv coverage. It's one thing doing it when there's no fans in but games being moved to all sorts of stupid kick off times needs to end once fans are back.

Not sure we need too many additions, the only thing this team lacks is a leader, a voice on the pitch. Kasper can organise a backline but he's not in the middle of the park orchestrating things. Every GREAT side needs a Viera, a Keane, a Terry to be it's general and I just wonder if we actually have that. And is that element something you can actually buy in?

Reminded me of Diaz saying we were lucky after hitting 5 past Man City. Classless.

TBF James and Rudiger marked Vards and Nacho out of the game, they'd clearly prepped that for days before to leave Thiago spare but that's what gave Youri the space. BT showed it in their analysis that no-one got out to Youri because the front two made runs and Silva had too much ground to make up. Chelsea will need to be more on the front foot at their place and won't be as tight again, which should give Nacho a bit more freedom.

"what else can I say he was totally shit from the start"

I understand the understanding but having something out in the open air should be relatively risk free by now or at least in a couple of weeks? There won't be the time or will to do it in the summer because of players being away at the Euros or away on holiday. Never for one minute expected the powers that be to back the idea though.

The Iheanacho experiment has to end soon. Just loan him out and get someone else in. He's a confidence player and doesn't get enough games to build up his confidence. Miss one and his head drops. He just isn't up to it at the top level.

Ndidi-less, over-reliant-on-Vardy football. VAR's not helped but win a couple this month and we're fine

Wolves took him apart at Molineux last season too. They must see him drifting out of position and work on it. He was sluggish in pre-season, which is okay, that's what it's there for, but he needs to look at Ricardo and how he's improved in the last 12 months and carry on working at his game. Playing for England doesn't mean you're a great player. just ask Carlton Palmer or Steve Hodge.

Perez has taken his place in the match squad. 3 years of potential and his career has plateaued. He's barely better than when he signed. The longest serving U21 international whilst others have come through after him and progressed before him, he's still there. He has pace, he just has such a frustrating end product. It's up to him, if he wants to be a success or just another Jermaine Pennant.