MarkD

Whilst Mo is not the Mo of old, I thought he had a good game and tracked back last night more than I’ve seen in a long team. Helped the team and he seemed happier.

I hope we batter them and build to secure a CL position. The above does not make me want the manager remain but I feel the consequences of non CL will last longer than him staying until season’s end

We are the reigning champions with 39 points. That says it all for me We are the reigning champions with 39 points. That says it all for me

This is consistent with what I posted a fair while ago. The players are angry, upset and have arguments with him often about selections, tactics and coaching. A right clusterf***

We have that performance in us (and it was excellent) so that needs to be the benchmark. We ran more, pressed better and looked cohesive with the full backs doing what they were bought for.

Bodo lads doing mad stuff. Running, pressing, shooting

Aside from the love/hate/avataring (can that be a word?) of Phil, a little news from the mothership. Our overlords are concerned mostly not with on pitch performances directly but with the impact said results and performances are having on revenue. More specifically the ability to sell match day hospitality at full price or even sell out at all. Major sponsors and other financial interests have been spoken with and words such as “flat atmosphere”, “boring football” have become common place. This is as likely to do for the manager as performances themselves. There is a feeling that a lot has been invested (ground, hospitality and players) and there needs to be year on year revenue growth to move forward. Not player news, sorry, but is more and more being discussed.

Will it have The Ashes commentary?

Nallo hat trick ?Time on pitch before red card?

Right - wasn’t aware. Not sure of the strength of the link, just mentioned in conversation. Cheers

A name mentioned to me last night, Charlie Cresswell at Toulouse. Ex Leeds, England u21. One of the “to keep monitoring list”, but we like him. Can’t add anything else.

Had a “pointed discussion “ at full time with an obnoxious Gooner who was adamant the stretcher was a prop to cover time wasting! Bizarre fella! On the whole, I was happy with that performance - grew into it, bossed the second half and had we had a natural forward, I’d have been confident of scoring. A couple of things: The weight of passing by both Wirtz and Dom in tight spaces was excellent. Virge was really on the front foot and very vocal. More like his old self. A good base to build from.

I can’t be having us losing irrespective of what transpires. Ideally we win, the malaise lifts and the manger finds his mojo. If not, we win and see where that takes us.

I don’t. His agent was annoyed with both us and Palace in the summer and has been active for his client across a number of clubs since. No idea if we are still his preference. Re: Wharton: we like him, he knows this and has done so for a while, and we’ve asked to be kept informed but nothing concrete.

Guehi’s agent told us over the weekend what terms he is looking for and we know the price Palace want. City and Chelsea also know these. To the surprise of no-one, as of last night, we had not followed up.