Chicken Dancer

Unrelated to the topic at hand but I think it's absolutely glorious that Newcastle & Villa have upset the apple cart and broke into the Top 4 back-to-back to upset the precious Sky 6. Thankfully, it seems a lot more fans of other clubs have had their eyes open as to how the whole thing is completely and utterly anti-competitive and designed to keep the good teams good. Long may it continue. I see no reason why Newcastle & Villa can't continue to challenge the likes of Man United, Chelsea & Spurs in the short term, despite restrictions. Obviously Villa being very good makes it more difficult for us, but ultimately it makes the league a better place with Newcastle & Villa challenging at the top end. It wasn't too long ago we were both in the Championship together. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in Daniel Levy's office over the past 18 months.

To be fair that mock up isn't for me either. I'd be gutted if the Gallowgate lost the low roof. But I'd be more than happy with it if it meant an increased capacity and therefore more way for my mates to get a Season Ticket again.

I’m definitely in the camp of I’d definitely not want us to win if it helped Sunderland do something significant. It may be small time, but it’s a tiny price to pay in the grand scheme of things. Though I would also argue Arsenal’s title window will be open for a good few years yet, especially given Liverpool and probably Man City (relatively soon) will be going through transitional periods.

If anybody needs cheering up on their dinner break, I'd suggest going on RAWK. Glorious. There's even one spoilt bastard who thinks its pointless going back to Anfield this season It must be pretty crazy for those 50+ who've only seen them win 1 title in 34 years after being so successful in the 70s/80s (assuming they don't win it this year). For what it's worth, prior to their generally consistent challenges under Klopp, to me they were always a huge club that were mainly a cup team. The odd flirt for the title under Benitez & Rodgers aside, they were always floating behind Man U/Arsenal/Chelsea. I can't stand them but they've been incredibly unlucky to finish 2nd twice with 90 + points. Hilarious though. I do think they'll have a couple of 'down' years now - it seems pretty inevitable to me. I know everybody likes to gas him up but Van Dijk looks nowhere near what he was to me. Likely famous last words but I do think this season was their best/last chance for a while, but I wouldn't be shocked if they won the Champions League in the next 5 years either. I do wonder if TAA would be tempted by Real Madrid too, especially since he classes Bellingham as his best mate in football.

Merseyside reds will still win. Feel kind of dirty rooting for Everton but needs must.

Man United winning the FA Cup and the scousers winning the league would be a horrendous end to the season. Howay Manchester blues.

Aye Rondon was absolutely sound, I should have specified that. But I’m not giving him credit for Joselu Plenty of players are late bloomers or just not suited to a league and that’s fine. Like I said though, it’s a pass because we just know that Joselu (and probably Rondon to be fair) would have been number 3/4/5 on the list of targets.

He was class at buying defenders like. Forwards not so much He gets a pass for the sheer fact I know they'd have been 4 or 5 on the list of targets.

Interchanging will be key as I always get nervous about shoehorning a player to another position after being so successful in another position. But I agree that it was probably the plan after signing Barnes. Would still like us to sign a player comfortable playing on either side in the summer but is left-footed. Maybe they fancy Minteh for that role and to be gradually eased in.

Forever indebted to this bloke. Not only did he sort of initiate the takeover, but he was a shining light in a prolonged dark period for the club. I absolutely hate how in recent years his impact has been downplayed by many of our fans (certainly in my friendship group). Yes, it was fundamentally pragmatic - but it had to be. We comfortably stayed up with essentially the 16/17 squad and picked up some decent scalps along the way. Ran on a shoestring and made us hard to beat and really bought into the cloob/city. Even when we didn't win in our first 8 or 9 or whatever it was I never really thought we'd go down - in fact I'm convinced we'd have stayed up in 15/16 had he been brought in a game or two before he did after we were beaten by Chelsea 5-1 before a 3 week gap in fixtures. The second half of 18/19 after we signed Almiron was probably the most enjoyable period of the Ashley era for me personally, including 11/12. Love the bloke and always will.

Seen a post on Twitter last night and it is probably right. Either Cole Palmer or Gordon (probably the latter) will likely miss out on the Euro squad due to Southgate playing/taking Rashford For me the wide left position for England is wide open. It very much feels like the Gerrard/Lampard/Scholes dilemma all over again in trying to get the likes of Saka/Foden/Palmer/Bellingham in the side at the same time.

I still think it's a bit early to be saying it's ruined We will know more after the next 4 (all away but reasonably decent fixtures), but I still wouldn't put it past these twats going through on Thursday. They play twice in the league before City next do. That seems like it could be big, as one of City's 2 games in hand wouldn't be till they play Spurs in between the last 2 weekends of the season. They'll probably have one eye on 2 finals too. Definitely not over yet and I think Arsenal losing sort of let Liverpool off the hook. 4 points and a far worse GD would have been hard to overcome in 6 games. FWIW from the discussion on previous pages I can't stand Arsenal & especially Arteta, but I'm firmly in the anybody but Liverpool camp. Fuck them.

Whilst I agree on the sentiment of that letter and also believe our new owners do genuinely care about the club - I really doubt they give a toss about pricing when demand is so high. Fair enough if attendances were dwindling but they're not and will not at any point in the near future. Has been a mad jump in pricing this season though, but always going to happen.

Agree but even both of them are a pain in the arse for us to get to in terms of having to start your match day in the AM probably. I know you can easily get the train to Darlo but would need some form of system in place like the derby back in Jan or obviously more trains.

It is a shame there isn't a realistic option to play at for a few years if there were to completely rebuild on the current site. Pop-up stadiums etc are pipe dreams, unless they could somehow expand the International Stadium to house at least 30k as a short (ish) term measure.