Saint_lambden

Well it's common knowledge that Howe went for the job when we sacked Pardew so there's clearly interest there but I'd like to think we'd be setting our sights higher than him should Ralph go early next season (whether it's realistic for us to or not is another matter).

Another Southgate f*ck up. If he'd have just picked Tomori, who was exceptional for AC Milan towards the end of the season, rather than Mings who isn't even the best CB at Villa he wouldn't be in this situation. Hard to feel too much optimism about the Euros with a man who got relegated with Middlesbrough and failed with the Under 21s in charge.

Surely even Southgate can't make the same mistake twice and leave out JWP again.

Nearly a month since the fans forum where Semmens said news of a new 'investment structure' was to be announced "soon". Whilst that doesn't necessarily translate to a takeover, it was clear acknowledgement for the first time from those running the club day-to-day that we are actively seeking new investors. There haven't been any links/stories in the media for a while, but it's hard to know whether no news is good news as hopefully any serious investor would not be going to the press every 5 minutes like DaGrosa was.

Scrap that. Ward-Prowse set to miss out, apparently. Victim of our second half of the season form... https://t.co/M4eIa78a9O?amp=1

JWP might play in the third group game if we win the first two and are already through, but agree he's unlikely to feature much. Suspect it'll be Rice and Henderson (if he proves his fitness in the warm-up games). If we move to a 4-3-3 then those two alongside Mount or Foden.

Cole-Johnson used to work for Sky, so he's used to ripping off football fans in fairness.

Men's first team: Bunch of fannies

Added JWP in, who's been named in the provisional England squad which will be reduced down to 26 men on 1st June. No place for Ings as expected.

A quite pathetic and cowardly move from the club, something they conveniently neglected to mention at the fans forum a few weeks back. Do the people who come up with these ideas seriously think they'll go down well or do they give that little of a sh*t about the average fan that they'll just press ahead with it anyway?

Best price 5/1 to go down next season. May as well profit from the misery and get the season ticket money back...

Whilst I appreciate the optimism, playing 20 minutes of decent football per game is of little use when only one of your players is remotely clinical enough and your defensive shape/individual mistakes lead to conceding 5 more goals than the team that finished bottom of the league.

Totally out of their depth - manager and 90% of the players. No character or leadership anywhere in that team. Soft as sh*te.

Provisional squads starting to be announced so thought it would be good to start this off. Will update with any more players called up as-and-when. Scotland - Matches: v Czech Republic (14th June), v England (18th June), v Croatia (22nd June) Stuart Armstrong & Che Adams Poland - Matches: v Slovakia (14th June), v Spain (19th June), v Sweden (23rd June) Jan Bednarek Denmark - Matches: v Finland (12th June), v Belgium (17th June), v Russia (21st June) Jannik Vestergaard ------ No Antti Niemi in the Scotland squad 😒 Full squad lists here: See the provisional UEFA EURO 2020 squads | UEFA EURO 2020 | UEFA.com Tournament kicks off on 11th June with Turkey v Italy.

The game was like a playbook for our entire season really. Promising first half of good build-up play leads to nothing and as soon as the opposition make a tactical/personnel tweak at half-time, we've no way of responding to it and revert to playing on the back-foot again as the energy drains. Sideways, backwards, a complete lack of urgency and ideas and of course, conceding a horrific goal which leads to the heads dropping. How any professional goalkeeper is letting that first goal in is beyond belief to be honest. On the plus side, Tella and Armstrong were bright in terms of trying to make something happen, even if it didn't always come off. Salisu looked solid again. It shouldn't be forgotten that Leeds spent nearly £100m last summer but they're coached brilliantly, are tactically flexible, well organised and having a cutting edge - all things we so often lack. As others have said, we're some way off being a top 10 side and if the recruitment isn't right this summer, we could be bang in trouble come May next year.

Lee Mason retiring from officiating at the end of the season. Last game tonight between United and Fulham 🍾 But he'll become the league's first dedicated VAR from next season 😩

Suspect they'll look to target the out of position left-back (presumably Salisu) as they did with Bednarek on the opposite flank in the reverse game. Raphinha had him on toast that night. Hopefully it's at least a free-flowing game with nothing to lose for both sides. They do play ridiculously open at times in away matches and they're a bit of shambles at defending set-pieces so we should get our chances, it's just whether we'll be clinical enough. Only once since Koeman left have we won 3 in a row at home in the PL (WBA, Everton and Newcastle earlier this season) and I can't see us repeating that unfortunately. 1-2.

Yes. I plan to take a big pointy stick to make sure nobody gets near me and will be reporting anyone who even dares to even utter a word about Stuart Armstrong's hair being in good condition over their mask to the nearest steward.

What a shame that #TonicLikeLemonade can't play and showcase what we've been missing. I look forward to his compilation 'come and get me' video on social media in a few weeks containing some clips which aren't even of him. Knobhead. I think we just need to accept that Jankewitz just isn't going to feature now and will likely move on. Start Tella ahead of Minamino, especially if the latter isn't going to be here next season, and Salisu in for Bednarek. Keep Forster in goal and commit to him being number one and keep the rest the same as the other night to try and get another win and build momentum in to next season.

Rarely have I seen a player that relies so much on confidence as with Adams. We've got a fair few in the squad like it (Redmond being the main other one) but his streaky goalscoring record tells you everything you need to know really. His biggest issue is composure and something that others have picked up on - that he seems to think about it too much rather than just instinctively finishing a chance off but when you're full of confidence, that tends to come naturally. Ralph used to be a striker and in Ings we've got a superb finisher so I'm sure they work with him on it but I guess there's only so much you can coach and the rest comes down to natural ability. In answer to the exam question - realistically no we probably can't do much better with the budget we have. 8 goals and 5 assists is a big uptick on his tally last season and his all round play is decent when he's got decent players with the ball around him to work with (Ings, Armstrong etc.). Hopefully he finishes the season strongly (mainly because I've got an 8/1 bet on him to finish on 10+ PL goals 🤣).

Would certainly take the first three. Not sure how much Henry would go for but I'm assuming that if Brentford don't go up, with two years left on his contract at 23 years old in a COVID world, being the best LB in the Champ it would be £10-15m? Olise certainly has a lot of growing to do - a few Reading supporting mates I know say he's a bit full of himself - but he's a talent and he's only got a year left on his contract so they may want to cash in on him rather than letting him go for nothing next summer. Gallagher I mentioned on here before. I think he'd fit like a glove in our current system and he's versatile too. We'll have a lot of competition for his signature though but I'm not sure if he'd want to go out on loan again. From what I've seen of Williams, he's really struggled in his cameo appearances for United to do the basics at the back. And would he want to move down south for a year to become a back-up full-back?

Zaha getting rattled again 🤣

Does Forster know he is allowed to catch the ball?

Get Tella on for Minamino at half-time. He's pony.

In the breakout session I was in, the Leeds game was talked about. The club are awaiting the green light from the government next week that England is proceeding to next stage of easing restrictions from 17th May. They said they don't have all the detail yet on entry requirements etc. but will be prioritising firstly those that were allocated a ticket for the West Ham home match that then got put back behind closed doors at short notice. Then it'll be remaining season ticket holders who didn't get to go to either the Man City or Sheff Utd games.