Spudulike

Good point. I'm 99% sure Wenger will stay on the back of a May return to form (hopefully not a Cup win) and because the owners seem happy with the club's financial position. Wenger will talk soon about being able to buy in the Summer. He'll dawdle until a week or two before the new season and will then buy one or two artistic players, and then repeat this season. :-)

If Arsenal get 4th, it'll be terrible. Typical of them to suddenly turn up in May.

Well, it's all but in the bag. Well done CFC. A good performance :-)

Bloody hell.

Damn... I hope United can come back as any chance of Arsenal qualifying for the CL is too much, imo.

That might be it. I had better check before I do a Diane Abbot and start making stuff up...

Apart from Portsmouth :-)

Blackburn Rovers are about to be relegated (unless Bristol City can score against Birmingham City). No former EPL club has fallen lower in the leagues.

I'm speaking the obvious but, unless you win something, it's a drain on resources. There's lots of arguments for being in the CL or EL but, on balance, I'd rather we had some domestic success first.

I thought Arsenal would have a bad season (by their lights); they are in a deep rut and nothing will change while Wenger is there. It shows how easy it is to get into a run of being there or thereabouts but not winning things and it's something we'll need to watch out for. City/Guardiola not winning anything has been a real pleasure (with apologies to @Kinkladze)

That's a clear appraisal! I admire him in a footballing sense but he is going OTT on the 'history/size' of United thing. He's very, very focused and he's made a calculation it seems that he needs to abandon all nuance about past clubs and explicitly be the Utd Manager.

Funny you mention JM; is there a general view about him, from CFC fans? I'm still a big fan of Jose, tbh...

I 100% believe that tempting fate leads to bad things.

I agree; you're right to be cautious. Looking at this season, a lot of what has happened (Man City, Liverpool) shows that the sport is very unpredictable, which is good. The pundits were right about CFC and, being honest, I thought Conte would need more than one season to sort things out, so my prediction there was awful. The CFC (likely) win is much deserved and Conte seems to have a happy squad, which is a good setup for your next season.

:-) I genuinely didn't think we would BQ; it was in the category of possible but not likely. There's been a lot of hype about us. We are deffo much better than in previous seasons but we've nothing concrete to show for it, money aside (which is sort of only of interest to our bank :-))

Thanks. It's good to be back mate. A bad sense of timing given last night's result :-)

Good point about Everton stagnating tbh. Sunderland is more difficult to assess, for me, as few recent managers seem to have got much out of the team. There seems to be a general issue with the two main North Eastern sides making a good job of being in the EPL.

Bloody annoying, you'd imagine, for Sunderland fans that the team turns up a week after they are relegated. Sunderland will not be back soon if Moyes stays at the helm. I like the bloke but Everton seemed, in hindsight, to be his niche.

Blimey! That's a hell of a long time.

I agree. This may, in hindsight, prove to have been our best chance of doing something. The Wembley move worries me a lot to be honest, just based on our form. What timescale are you looking at for the Bridge being redeveloped?

Fair point but we've had to rely on CFC making mistakes; the issue wasn't entirely in our hands. We just had to keep up but, of course, fell away last evening.

True! :-). Looking back, it feels as if it's never been in doubt!

Cheers mate. Been through a difficult time but all's well now. How are you? I hope well.

Hopefully Palace can beat City. I'm a big fan of Sam; I'm impressed at the change he's brought about at Palace, particularly after a rocky start. Palace winning will also send some money my way, too.