Hobsons Choice

We need him back and need cover for him, clearly. Tbh I would have kept Marv around for 1 season more.

Pochettino. Moyes. They still haven't got past the denial stage yet, have they? Can't wait until they get to anger when they appoint a credible lower league manager, hound him out because he's not won the champions league, and appoint Troy Deeney (Proppa Blues, Mate).

FKW

To be fair, he had the 3rd best progressive pass distance of any Midfielder in the PL this year, and got 8 assists from DM. I think he's a shoe-in to start for us tbh.

That would be the best away kit in my lifetime.

We laugh, but that shirt is f***ing mint.

No way he can stay there now though. He's burned more bridges than the 3rd Panzer Division.

Hahahaha. Idiots. He's only 28. This is why they play like lunatics chasing after an ice cream van.

I will be honest, whenever I've seen him (admittedly infrequently in league matches), Rice has been brilliant.

I hope that too, but honestly I don't think he has it in him to change like that. I would be delighted to be proved wrong and we win the final 4 nil, but I just cannot see it.

I am one of Dyche's biggest critics (as a manager not a person), but I have to agree wholeheartedly. Will he take them to the next level, no. Will they get into Europe under Dyche, highly unlikely. But he's done a tremendous job with them this year, especially with all of the uncertainty over points deductions.

That's the thing about international management. Most international sides have an inherent weakness somewhere that is dictated by the players available. The trick is to minimise these weaknesses by keeping the ball in areas of strength. In England's case, we should be set up to be the most attacking side in world football. No-one would be able to handle or outscore us. Instead we are set up defensively, and the ball is recycled along our back line- giving most possession to the weakest element of our team. It's bonkers.

Agent Carney infiltrated them and initiated 'Project Headless Chicken'. They are at least 2 years ahead of schedule on that one.

They might consider buying our players to weaken their league rivals next year

Can we just analyse the Pep manager of the season thing again. I will preface this by saying that I thing Pep is a very good manager. He does not play the football I would want to watch, but if the objective of a manager is to win games, then he is up there. But... This year he took a squad from 22/23 that was easily the most expensively assembled side in the league, which had won the Champions League, FA cup and the PL, added £260M of talent including high profile players such as Gvardiol, Nunes, Doku, and Kovacic. For this investment he achieved 2 more Premier League points, and beat the 2nd place team by 2 points (the year before they were 5 clear). I know MOTS is a Premier League award, but this year there was no Champions League (out at quarter finals), no league cup (3rd round exit against Newcastle). They may still win the FA Cup, admittedly, but the UEFA Supercup is like an international Charity Shield. Given the squad they have, that is the absolute minimum they should be expecting. Minimum. Emery took a side that was 7th the previous season, that had virtually the same players as when we were in a relegation battle, added £80M of talent, taking us up to the 9th most expensive squad in the league (£100M of which have barely played this season, and £32M of which were on loan elsewhere), with the 6th biggest wage bill, and he got 4th in the league. I'm not even saying that Emery was a shoe-in for the award, but I know Pep should not have been given it.

Ngggg. My eyes are getting impatient. I want to be one of those people.

See that's weird, cos I never had any of those on the original when I played it for like 100 hrs on PS4, haha.

Quite the opposite, it's where all the footballers from the 1950's live now. I'm representin' the Villa Massiv on the other side of Clee Hill.

PS5 also. I'm getting texture glitches, people disappearing, objects vibrating continuously on the ground. And that's only just after getting to Concord for the first time. It also didn't register that I'd already obtained a mission component before I was asked to complete it (i was exploring) so I had to go back to the place it was and then back to clear the glitch. It's a f***ing mess. I might just (ironically) give up and go back to playing Cyberpunk.

Just started replaying this on next gen. I don't remember it being this janky. Graphical bugs absolutely everywhere.

Wait til I tell you about the kid I saw in Ludlow yesterday wearing an Al Nassr shirt.

See I worry about that, because that flair he had, the mercurial thing, it's not something you can give or train into someone. It's natural, but like all creativity if you don't use it, or if it's beaten out of you, you might never get it back. The question is, does it still lurk in there somewhere? Jack's next move is unquestionably the most important in his career. I hope he gets it right for his sake, and for mine because watching him before he became cog No.2365 in the City machine was pure joy.

I mean, playing devil's advocate here, he played the same number of games for us that Omari Kellyman has so far. Not much in the way of material.

Jack is in.