Niall1905

Ferdinand saying he's 'hearing things' that suggest Poch is off, which almost guarentees that Poch will be here next year. Would love to see him given a chance to impact who we bring in and who we move on and see if we can make more progress next year. Think 3rd and 4th are up for grabs (and hopefully 5th if the coefficent thing is happening again) to get us back in the big time.

All the media talk seems to point to Pep moving on in the next couple of years, which feels natural with Klopp goinng now. Arsenal look well placed to be the team to beat but you could make arguments for any of the top 8 to have reasons to think they are ready to step up.

I think he's finished the season well but I don't know if he has done enough to clearly distance himself from 2 other CB's in our squad. I agree, right now I think he would start but is the gap big enough and clear enough to convince the board. Which, when they plan our squad for next year and we need to raise funds, I think he'll be seen as someone who we can get value for in a position we have already invested heavily in

Id stick with Petrovic over Ramsdale, I think his positioning is awful on top of his eratic decision making

Probably a bit of a mix of what I would want and what I think is possible. I've got Chilly going, that wouldn't really be by request but if we do move on a LB i think he is the most likely given how Cucurella has performed. I've also put Trev leaving, again not my choice but I do think if we had to sell for 'pure profit' Poch would stomach Trev going better than Conor. Im getting rid of Sanchez, dont know how given how long his contract is but I think we get a new number 1 and petrovic is a fine number 2.

Going to be really gutted to see him go. I can't remember the last time a player built such a strog relationship with the fans, despite being around in a fairly bad time for winning things (Obviously the CL but we've been riddled with failure in the league and other cups). I wouldn't give him the armband, it should have happened last summer but it didnt. I don't think a token gesture like that does him the justice he deserves (unless all other potential captains aren't on the pitch).

That France squad doesn't look as scary on paper as it has done for a long while. It's still littered with quality but there was a time where it looked like they had 2 teams worth of players who would win the lot

Im not sure basing our financial structure on how much we paid Malang Sarr is the key to success

I was thinking this just now actually, this is the first time this season I have felt confident about us getting Europe and that scares the sh*t out of me! It would be very on trend of our club under Clearlake to throw this away having worked ourselves into the position of being favourites ahead of Newcastle and United. That said, I though Brighton would have been the beginning of that meltdown and we put in a decent showing so here's to hoping!

Really excited for him to get some chemistry with the other forwards. He looked great with Jackson in pre season. If we can get him and Palmer at a level of understanding where they interchange positions and find eachother then we will be very dangerous.

Its a red all day if we are being honest. I screamed from the rooftop when Maguire didn't get one for doing the same against us a few years back. Anything less than a red would have been a mistake. That said, its hard to swallow when Lamptey gets away with his one and previous incidents (Maguires as mentioned) have previously got away.

Its a fair point and one that I hadn't considered. But the 2 (what should have been) reds were definitely missed by the ref and are perfect examples of why we need some sort of video review. I suppose thats where the lines are blurred, VAR should simply be a way of notifying the ref "Did you see that hit his hand", "Did you see that elbow", "Did you see he got the ball there". If the ref has missed something, giving them the chance to review it with the new evidence.

But you do realise that all of the above, were decisions missed by the onfield ref too, right? James deserved a red, the ref didnt see it. Lamptey deserved a red, the ref didn't see it. Jacksons goal was disallowed on the pitch. The Ref gave us a penalty, that wasn't a penalty. Ref didn't give brighton a penalty, which could have been a penalty. If we had the ref on his own last night with no var, the decisions would have been worse than what they were! It is impossible for 'VAR' to not work, all it is is a video replay system. In fact 'VAR' works perfectly, it shows the referees all of the replays they need to see and lets the onfield ref watch some back when needed. However, the officals designated as the referee using VAR are just as useless as the ones on the pitch. I've made my points previously on how I believe VAR officials should be non matchday refs and specially trained just for reffing via VAR and I stand by it. Every other sport has a much more effective use of video replays, POGMOL are just incompetant. EDIT: You know what, reading your response again, you've just said the same as me. I think I need another coffee!

You know what, fair f**king do’s. We need a point to secure 6th, guaranteed to finish above United and have the potential to get 5th if Spurs do some Spurs things.

Caicedo for me, some of the balls he was given with his back to pressure and he played out really well, helped us beat the press on numerous occasions.

Reece needs a serious wake up call, he's done that far too often for us given the amount of games he misses through injury. Apparently its a 4 match ban because its his second of the season, so thats the last game and the first 3 next year already on the chance that he's fit. As others have said, England call up was unlikely but is gone now too. Should have been a comfortable 2-0 win and instead it got very sketchy.

Hijacking this quote to agree, absolutely outrageous. Really spot on, even down to her manorisms. Do wonder if Netflix will catch some heat regardless of if they are deemed to have made it clear about any fictional elements or not. She's clearly someone with some issues and the fact its got to the point of her getting interviewed by Morgan indicates Netflix have dropped the ball on protecting her and her mental health.

For the same reason players get booked when they go to block a clearance and end up catching the player clearing the ball. In the same way that if Ederson got there second and ended up clattering into Romero whilst trying to divefor the ball, he'd probably give away a penalty but wouldn't get sent off.

Was it reckless? I've watched it back a few times and the contact is with his hip, with both Romero and Ederson's momentum from their original actions carrying them together. The ball is 100% there to go for. If he was late and caught him with his foot, then fair one. But this looks like a genuine accidental collision. I think Romero is a horrible bastard and would be the first to jump and say he's left one in on someone, but this isn't it.

I agree, this Ange meltdown has thrown this one into doubt. It depends on how they react. They could go out and finish strong to send a message or they could all down tools and completely throw it. That said, the above is reliant on us winning both of our last games, which I can see a draw in there to be honest.

I know the league is different to what it was a few years ago and is probably generally stronger than it was, but I was shocked to see the points totals that City have won the league with. The media make them out to be a machine like we have never seen the likes of, reaching points totals that no one else could dream of becuase all they do is win, but heres a breakdown; This year (if they win sunday): 91 22/23: 89 21/22: 93 20/21: 86 18/19: 98 17/18: 100 Obviously the 18/19 and 17/18 are freak seasons that fit the above narrative, those points totals leave no room for anyone else (even if liverpool almost did get them). But the others are, as far as I am concerned, standard title winning points totals. For reference we got 93 under Conte (even with our awful start) and 87 with Mourinho the second time around which are in and around what City are achieving. The fact that Arsenal, who are a very good side don't get me wrong, have been able to push them as close as they have both this season and last after some pretty poor showings under Arteta is evidence that City can be matched. Of course they are a brilliant team and the fact they have hit these points totals consistantly for the last 5/6 years is crazy, but Chelsea and Liverpool have all shown that if a side can put together a season worthy of winning a title, you'll win the title. The only exceptions will be Arsenal this year and Liverpool when they got 99 in 17/18.

On this weeks episode of Niall reading too much into a press conference, I think Poch handled this one much better. I liked him trying to draw a line in the sand on the repetitive questions he has been asked about pressure, injuries and the young squad. I also think he handled the question about his previous comments on not 'feeling the love' from the fans very well. He's right, it would have been weird if he came in and faked love out of nowhere. Hard to see a day where we worship the bloke, regardless of what he achieves but he is right, he'll have to earn any love he receives. I sort of can't wait for the season to end now. Unlike last year where it was just to end the pain, this year I am just hoping we finally turn a corner and leave these last 2 years behind and move on.

We've beaten them narrowly a couple of times already this season, they have nothing to play for and only a win is good for us. Therefore im fully expecting to get battered 3-0. Im only joking (I think). But I do think they are about as consistent as we are which makes this particularly hard to call. We're probably one of the only clubs in the league they don't like, given our history of taking anything good they have (or at least trying to) so I can imagine their fans will have them ready to spoil our late push.

I don't think Southgate will pick him, he got funny about taking him to the WC becuase Reece pulled out a squad previously to protect himself from injury and Gareth seems to hold onto stuff like that. However, I'd love him to go. The Euro's are a month away, he's already back playing for us. A month should be more than enough to build up to fitness. If he is going to break playing for England this summer then he would have broken for us next season anyway. We supposedly delayed his return to make sure he was fully recovered. It will be a good test for if this surgery has been effective. Plus I don't see him starting every game for England either. Walker seems to very much be Southgates choice, I think Reece would come off the bench when needed and maybe start a group game if we had already qualified.

The lack of footballing brain argument seems to centre around decision making, he’ll try a fancy flick when he has time to keep the ball, and he’ll keep the ball when he has no time.Go and watch his clips from the Spanish league, heck even watch pre season. The things he is getting wrong now, he was getting right then. The lad is 22 years old, first year in what is known as the hardest league in the world and playing in one of the poorest chelsea teams for decades. He’s returned 14 goals and 5 assists and that’s without all the of the missed chances that he’s been slated for. There’s a player in there I’m sure of it. He’s still finding his feet. He’s already shown progression in getting his bookings under control, he’s definitely more clinical recently and he’s got the arrogance of a bloke who’s going to make it. The type of arrogance we haven’t seen since we had Costa or Drogba. Everyone loved Timo cause he seemed like a nice bloke. So nice that he hid whenever things would go wrong and we all felt a bit sorry for him. Nico seems like a bit of a twat, we saw that with the penalty issue the other week. But sometimes a striker needs to be a twat, I hope he proves a lot of people wrong.