How do you think it would go at West Ham if at the end of every midtable campaign we sold off a player for £50m, not on the rare occasion like we have just done with rice, but every season? It would be carnage. It is true that we haven't been a selling club under Sullivan, but the manager has still...

I reckon Lille are going to knock Villa out of the Conference League on Thursday, which is going to start some level of domestic clamour for Fonseca. One of my long-time footballing convictions that is based on nothing of substance – genuinely nothing – except vibes and bad juju is that Fonseca and ...

Doc H Ball wrote: ↑Mon Apr 15, 2024 1:26 pm Once more the barrel is spun, Moyes is handed the revolver and puts it to his bandana.

Each and every time before the chamber has been empty. Wolves, Fulham, Everton, Prague...

It’s a fair point. Moyes in a crossroads game has been an irresistible force these last two years.

I think my hopes for this match extend no further than an early goal to at least provide some thrills and tension for the rest of the 90, and see where we go from there. Hopefully a combination of their woozy few days after the title win and an early goal would create the conditions for a bit of upl...

One for Antonio’s bulging portfolio of comedy misses

My guess is that Moyes believes our chances of beating Fulham by 1 goal over 90 mins are bigger than beating Leverkusen by 3 over 90. (We'll run out of steam in extra time, for sure.) He’s right, and if it works it’s a good trade-off. I’d take 3pts and a tired Antonio on Thursday if offered it. Wil...

Amazed Antonio is starting.

With Paqueta and Bowen out we’re going to need a long shift from him on Thursday and he was our most effective weapon in the first leg.

At the rate the punishments are going Newcastle may just think - **** it and decide to go way, way over and just take points pain. One earned win could almost be enough to negate any points deductions if they continue to be as low as seen so far. Given the points deduction is subjective, and the in...

The one time in my life I back Spurs and this happens. I think I understand Spursiness on a deeper level now.

Baring in mind last time they proper shafted us I wouldn’t weaken the side for this one. Antonio is the only one who has a cast-iron case for a day off. He’s played a lot of football but more importantly was the only player who managed to unsettle Leverkusen. Need to have him fresh enough to be abl...

There’s a plethora of teams that have gone to Leverkusen and had a go including Qarabag in the last round. I accept they went to Leverkusen in the second leg, but across the two they still attacked them and took them to the wire, is our squad now worse than Qarabag? It’s *because* we have better pl...

I think Fornals would have started ahead of Cress and we would have had a back 4. Fornals and Benrahma would have played over the last few weeks and therefore we wouldn't have had pretty much everyone playing 4 games in 12 days. It's possible, but it should be remembered Hodgson himself confirmed w...

Fornals and Benrahma being here or not had no bearing on what happened last night. I can scarcely imagine Moyes throwing Benrahma on last night at all even if he were here as he'd lost trust in him (imo rightly if you remember the Liverpool and Bristol City games) by the time he departed. Even if we...

The second goal was deflating but the mood around the tie will improve as the week goes on. By kick-off most people will be back to a state of measured belief.

Wasn’t sure quite where to put this, but since multi-yellow bans have become a live issue for us in this tie with Alvarez (Europe and in the league), Paqueta and Emerson it’s probably relevant here. Was interested to read the below this morning. Was the second Gordon card the other day against us di...

Chances of getting European football again through the Europa itself are probably a bit less than 5% now (and that percentage is only that high due to Liverpool looking like they’re out). But they’re still reasonable in the league - 4 wins would do it, and 3 wins and a draw *might* do it. And helpfu...

terryturbo wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:32 am Was never a fair match up without Bowen and Alvarez.

I don’t think Bowen’s absence was much of a factor in the end. He wouldn’t have had anything to work with, same as the other forwards. Will be more of an issue for the next leg if he’s still out given we’ll have to build a lead.

Denzil wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2024 11:04 pm perhaps the Emerson one wrong but depends how he saw it in the flesh I guess, as he did plant his foot on his ankle albeit completely unintentionally.

Been a bad week for Emerson and accidental contact with opposition heels.

The one benefit from shipping that second goal is it probably helps renew the focus on the European push this season. The road back to Europe for us is basically win the next two, hold Chelsea, beat Luton. At 0-0 or even 0-1 I think we struggle to focus for Fulham, and rightly so. While not writing ...

So far so good.

With Bowen likely out and Paqueta def out, it’s imperative Emerson emerge without a yellow otherwise we’re going to struggle to put out a team next time.

Paqueta only needs to get through another 25 mins and then we can replace him.