stevegrant

There's every possibility of that happening at any time. We were apparently quite good last season but still took a 6-1 shoeing at home to Liverpool. If that's genuinely impacting people's attendance at games, then I'd suggest that perhaps football - or sport in general - isn't for them. In terms of people being unable to get time off work, surely there aren't many jobs (other than, for example, teaching where if it's term time, you're pretty much screwed) where nearly two months' notice isn't more than enough to book anywhere between a half-day and two days off? The draw was made on 30th November. It's not as if we've been given a week to make arrangements.

Assume you missed the first leg of the semi-final, then? That was barely a week ago, FFS. I'm looking forward to when someone complains that they've missed out on a ticket for an away game because the club didn't think it was worth bothering taking the full allocation. Nobody will be in any position to complain. This is a ****ing semi-final of a major cup competition, we've only had one of those (2003) in THIRTY years, FFS, and yet nobody seems arsed about it. People complain, rightly or wrongly, about a lack of ambition at the club at times, and yet they demonstrate none of it themselves, but of course they were the first to complain when previous managers didn't take the cup competitions seriously.

You are aware of what the concept of an average is, right?

Didn't he join them from Chesterfield in the first place, at great expense?

Yawn.

Train ticket available from London Liverpool Street to Norwich on the day of the FA Cup game, out at 10:00, return at 18:30. £18 return (same as paid).

Yeah, as much as Howe is rightly deserving of praise for the job he's done there, he's also wasted an absolute ton of cash in doing so. Even when they were in the Championship, the only player he paid any sort of decent fee for that turned out well was Callum Wilson (£3.5m). He's another one who seems to be a bit "style over substance" - with a back 4 that wouldn't be the best defence in the Championship, that's not a good look.

I largely have no great issue with our playing style, only that we switch up the pace of it more frequently. The theory is sound, passes between defenders and midfielders to draw opposition midfielders out of position to create a space behind them and then that gives the creative players the freedom, but too often the switch in pace doesn't come soon enough. It needs the central midfielders and full-backs to be a bit sharper. Cedric makes a big difference on the right with that, as Martina's first touch generally goes about 5 yards away from him and any space that he's earned with his pretty decent positional play is then surrendered immediately and that's what often forces us to go sideways and backwards and start it all again.

This is basically Mike Bassett.

As if he reads any of them anyway. His social media accounts are all run by his agent/management company. Personally, other than a brief cameo against Sunderland in August which basically persuaded the club not to send him out on loan, I've not seen a great deal from him that suggests he looks likely to get back to anywhere near the level he was at before his injury. On Sunday, in the first half particularly, I doubt a central defensive pairing will have had an easier game all season, his movement was non-existent, didn't want to come short for the ball to feet, didn't want to spin in behind to run the channels, and those were two of his key assets when he was on top form. Added to the fact he's had two chances put on a plate for him this week from a combined distance of 1.5 yards and STILL not managed to score, I don't think it's unreasonable for people to take a view that he's perhaps not up to it anymore. We'd all love him to come back and be how he was in March 2014, but from what he's shown on the pitch this season it's looking less likely by the game, IMO.

There's no price cap in the cups. Clubs can charge what they want, hence why West Ham fans paid £30 for their league game at Old Trafford a few weeks ago and then £45-50 for the same seats in the EFL Cup a few days later. We've decided to make it cheap, which I think is a good gesture considering the number of additional home games we've had this season already, the time of year, etc. It benefits far more Saints fans than Liverpool fans. Liverpool are charging what they believe is fair, that's up to them - if people don't want to pay it, they won't. They charged Leeds £25-28 in the previous round, so a £5 increase for a semi-final isn't completely ridiculous, IMO.

Not really an awful lot of choice at right-back with Cedric ill. Martina has had games where he's looked decent enough, but most recently he's been pretty poor. Think I'd have had Clasie - who was superb on Sunday - in ahead of either Ward-Prowse or Davis for a bit of added midfield steel, but other than that, it's pretty much the side I'd have picked.

Leeds were charged £25-28 for their quarter-final at Anfield, so would expect ours will be around the same price.

Fairly clear that the club aren't overly happy with the pricing, judging by the wording of both the article on the OS and the linking tweets/Facebook posts.

Historically they've always been published on the last possible date, 31st March. Last season, I believe, was the only exception.

Current third-placed teams (italics still with a game to play): Lyon 7, 8 or 10 (or Sevilla 10, requires a 2+-goal win for Lyon over Sevilla for positions to change) Besiktas 7 Copenhagen 6 (or Porto 8 or 9, requires a Copenhagen win over Brugge and Porto to fail to beat Leicester for positions to change) Tottenham Hotspur 5 (-2) or 7 (or CSKA Moscow 6, requires a win over Tottenham for positions to change) Rostov 5 (-6) Borussia Mönchengladbach 5 (-7) Sporting Lisbon 4 or 6 (or Legia Warsaw 4, requires a Legia Warsaw win over Sporting for positions to change) Ludogorets 3 Theoretically, Copenhagen could end up being unseeded, but they'd need to lose to Brugge (who have 0 points from 5 games), for Sporting to win in Warsaw, AND for there to be a 6-goal swing. Realistically, it's probably going to be Lyon, Besiktas, Copenhagen and Spurs as the seeded 4.

It has already been moved back to the Sunday at noon.

Luton's secretarial staff blew the whistle on their previous owners having paid a number of agents through bank accounts not belonging to the football club, in direct contravention of FA regulations. Despite having raised the alarm when they first discovered the situation, the club was punished with a 10-point deduction by the FA. This just happened to be at the same time that the Football League imposed a 20-point deduction for failing to exit administration with an accepted CVA, so they were pretty much relegated to the Conference before a ball was even kicked that season. Worth noting that Bournemouth were also docked 17 points that season - had Luton not had that deduction, Bournemouth would have been relegated to the Conference and they sure as hell wouldn't be where they are now.

He's already spent more than £45m, which would have been £75m had Sissoko not done one to Spurs at the last minute! Ageing back line, certainly, but there aren't that many younger players in their side. One of the very few positives from last season under Martinez was that they often fielded very young teams. I was bored earlier and worked out that nearly 35% of all Premier League minutes played by Everton players last season were by players aged 23 or under. This season under Koeman, that's plummeted to 20.6% - Lukaku, Barkley and Deulofeu all contribute to that figure as well, which suggests Koeman basically just isn't playing any of the other youngsters they've got. A shock revelation, I'm sure you'll agree

Seems a bit of an OTT reaction, considering some of the other comments he must receive

Has anyone still got that tweet saved?

That Chelsea side is ridiculous

Alright, MLG

If I remember rightly, it was widely reported in the press towards the end of the season that there was either a clause or an agreement that if we went down, he'd be able to leave unimpeded.

Worth noting that pretty much every away game this season has gone beyond what most people thought would be the cutoff point. Sunday at 1:30pm, the week before Christmas, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if this gets down to members.