ponsaelius

Probably not, though. There's a pretty good chance some of the lads who were on our bench in CL this year and got PL game time when we were stretched won't even make it as footballers. I can see the merit of keeping Dummett around if his wages are cheap enough, even if he doesn't get named in the PL squad. Ritchie I can't see the point. He should be retiring and going into coaching.

Olise would be a dream signing but I think he's a smarter lad than his moody disposition gives him credit for. He turned down the Chelsea move last summer and has kicked on massively as a result. He's onto a good thing now with Glasner so wouldn't be surprised if he gave it another year to flourish and then has his pick of clubs.

The problem is our youngsters are no good or have no long term future here. We're strengthening that massively now but all those we've added since the takeover (Sanusi, Shahar, Harrison etc) haven't been here long to count as club grown so wouldn't be able to play them unless you actually named them in the squad.

Dummett kind of makes sense if you keep him around purely for a European squad on very low wages. With homegrown rules it's an extra player you otherwise just won't have as we'll just have to name a smaller squad in that competition. It differs from the PL because you can't just include the recently purchased U21 players (e.g. Harrison, Sanusi etc) as they won't count as locally grown yet. It's why we had such dramatically restricted subs benches in the CL this year during the injury crisis. However I think we could really do with just clearing the decks at this point, even symbolically.

Can somebody explain how it wasn't a pen for us today? The actual trip on Hall that caused him to fall was comfortably inside the box.

To be fair he never really stood out at League Two level over here, so I'd be surprised. A career in the MLS is not to be sniffed at.

Scored again in a 5-1 derby win against Montreal. Tried his best to miss like Nice to see him rebuilding his career over there.

I personally can't even countenance some of the things I'm reading and hearing (outside of here TBF) about it being time to make a change, particularly if we miss out on Europe. I'm glad to be confident that the club obviously aren't reactionary enough to make a strategic decision like that based on the difference of 2-3 points. Like even if/when we do decide to make a change in manager - it would be done with more visionary scope and based on longer term trends. At the moment I simply can't imagine that any other manager would come in and do demonstrably better than he has done. Is he perfect? Obviously not, and this season has shown that quite clearly in terms of tactical flexibility and squad management. However we need a manager who can coach and motivate players, squeeze value out of substandard players and can develop and improve young players to increase their value. That is how we bridge FFP until we can build a squad that can compete at the next level. He's ideal for this and has undoubtedly exceeded the remit since he came in. I do think the role of a manager is actually overplayed. They are just one part of an overall structure from ownership, corporate management and right down to playing staff. It's far more important to have everyone pulling in the same direction on the same page and with continuity. There will come a natural point where perhaps there needs to be a change in management to progress, just like replacing a squad player with an upgrade, but we're clearly not there yet. Maybe next summer if we have another sticky year we can revisit - not now.

He's got 8 goals in all comps. It's a good return, shows genuine improvement on previous seasons. It's a skill in itself to keep getting chances even if you miss them.

As somebody who regularly watches both, I much, much prefer watching football without VAR. I'd hppily have this go through tomorrow even if it meant worse decisions.

Not a good look that to say the least.

I've got a ticket in the Atalanta end for next Wednesday. I also have a Cat 3 neutral that I need to shift if anybody Dublin based wants it.

He actually wildly overhit the pass I thought.

They beat 3rd tier Saarbrucken in the semi who had themselves skittled Bayern, Gladbach and Frankfurt.

New stadium would be an easier design and build. Whether it was easier to get it through the planning process would depend entirely where it was. Arena site would sail through, mostly Leazes Park not, mostly Castle Leazes somewhere in the middle. Planning process can also get highly politicised. Whether we see any designs or not early on will depend on whether they keep it confidential or go public early on.