tomsky_11

10th would require one of Chelsea or Fulham overtaking us. Seems pretty unlikely at this point.

In PL, last time was O'Neill 29th Oct 08 to 7th Feb 09. 10 wins in 16 which started and ended with wins against Blackburn. Smith had a run of 11 in 16 that included one PL win. Bruce had as many as 11 in 16 in Championship as well. Prior to O'Neill only Atkinson (10 in 16 on multiple occassions) and Gregory (13 in 16) got a least 10 in 16.

Looking fairly likely now that Emery will finish with a better record than Howe had in his first season. Don't see any reason why we can't be up there next season given the opportunity to add to the squad this summer.

Projected points totals based on this season's PPG of current manager for remainder of season. (Spurs based full season to date.) 60 should definitely give us a chance, but Brentford and Liverpool could always pick up form. But then Brighton or Spurs could drop off.

Already managed it with us though lol. I should add these are league games only btw. Still not bad given that's 658 games. It's 7 times total he's had 3 straight defeats. Besides us it's twice with Almeria, three times with Sevilla and once with Arsenal.

Emery's longest results runs by club

Tbf West Ham fluked that win against us.

Less than 1.8 ppg now…

19 points from our final 10 games gets us to 60, gives us an outside chance of 6th and decent chance of 7th. 19 points from 10 games is mariginally below our form to date under Emery. Feels less miraculous and more achievable right now.

Next 5 more winnable than the final 5 on paper, would back us in any of them. Leicester (a), Forest (h), Newcastle (h), Brentford (a), Fulham (h). 10 points probably minimum aim from these to give us a shot at top 7. If we could get maximum or close to it (13-15 would put us on 54-56 with 5 still to play) then we are in a really strong position. Man Utd (a), Wolves (a), Spurs (h), Liverpool (a), Brighton (h) is a tough finish. Would feel pretty good if only needed 4-6 points to hit 60 for the season. More likely we'd probably need closer to 10. Doable, but the Utd and Liverpool games are the toughest left as both are solid at home.

VEE FC

Updated to now: 4th Newcastle 68 5th Liverpool 64 6th Spurs 61 7th BHA 58 8th VILLA 56 9th Brentford 54 10th Chelsea 49 11th Fulham 48 Win tomorrow would tie us with Brighton. Or move us ahead if they also drop points at Bournemouth. We are definitely in the mix, now even with Brighton's games in hand.

Can’t find anything that suggests 8th would earn a euro place. It looks like it’s possible to have more than 7 teams in Europe, but only with sides outside the top 7 qualifying by other means. Suggested scenarios where you might expect 8th to result in qualification seem to result in losing the conference league place entirely instead.

Back above the 60 point line for the first time since the Leicester lost put us under it. My original projection for remaining games has us with a 57-58 point now.

Chelsea in the mix now though…

What a relegation battle though…

Not a lot of faith in these websites given some of the clearly nonsense figures theyve reported for others. Highly unlikely they have anything like the kind of sources they have for US sports, which is what they are really for. Either way like I said even assuming he's on £80K a week the total cost of him is still reasonable for his position in the squad, hence the Dendoncker point because at this moment in time he's costing us more than Cash is, and I'd expect us to get a lot more use out of Cash than Dendoncker next season even in a diminished role. I'm not missing the point about his value dropping. I just don't think 1) his minutes would drop off anything like what you are suggesting, 2) he's as bad a player, either going forward or defensively, as you are suggesting, 3) his value is going to tank drastically enough that we need to sell now, given his age, contract length and the level of involvement I'd still expect him to have and 4) we wouldn't get similar cash in for a number of players contributing less and costing us more right now. What price do you think we'd get for him now? How much worse would that realistically be a summer down the line when he's still only 26/27 with 3 years still left on his contract. Is that drop a price worth paying to keep a settled player of his ability in the squad? I think so. Especially as FFP is unlikely to be a critical issue this summer for our spending, and given the current run we are on, I'd lean towards keeping as much of the squad who are contributing now as we can and adding to that in 3/4 areas.

Pretty close to my thoughts. Would add a few more names to the outs (Wesley, Davis, Hause, possibly Barry and JPB as well with their contacts running down) and could see any of Chambers, Coutinho (could be a him or Buendia situation), Olsen, Bailey and Archer staying. Bailey there's definitely a decision to make regards cashing in or extending with where his contract is at and how much he's costing us. (Same for Watkins actually, though his performances make the latter seem much more likely than the former.) I think Bailey could find a place in the team, he's definitely got the ability and I don't think his current role is necessarily the best for him. He could do with an uptick in form before the season is out to help his case. Olsen is a weird one. He's clearly not good enough to start regularly but then he doesn't need to be. If he's happy in that role and he's not costing us a lot (I imagine any replacement would be at least as much) then it's not too much of an issue. He clearly has some ability and some flaws, the latter possibly appear worse due to his minimal playing time. I think it would come more down to suitablility for Emery's style than level of ability.

He's 25 and contracted to 2027. There's little risk of his value dwindling in the short term. And I very much doubt he'd be permanently sat on the bench if we do sign someone - I'd expect more of a rotation and use for specific circumstances like we've seen at left back, and like Emery appears to have operated with previously. I think there's a reasonable chance of this being the case. I could see Young staying but perhaps in a player coach role where we'd probably still look to have two RBs ahead of him. And KKH is much less suited to the defensive RB role than Cash (though IMO Cash is nowhere near as bad as is being implied) and doesn't seem to be getting much of a look in right now so seems unlikely he'd be involved. A better loan next season seems likely aim. We've got enough leeway to make the changes being talked about without major outgoings this season. I'd expect sale of loans and more fringe players would be the priority, which will be more than enough to keep us the right side of FFP. And as I said before I'd expect us to get plenty of use out of Cash even with another player brought in. He's not costing us a lot right now (I don't believe for a second he's on as much as £80K pw, but even if he is his amortisation cost is probably less than £2M a year, so he's £6M max hit to FFP. Pretty sure Dendoncker for example will be costing more than that. Wesley probably is as much in amortisation alone lol.), is performing well, is a good age and is secured for the long term. Unless someone pays well over the odds or he's genuinely not fancied by Emery then I don't see why we'd let a settled and decent option go and risk the replacement not being as good while possibly costing more.

So we are selling and bringing in two new right backs? Just don't see that happening. I don't see us selling much beyond the fringe guys tbh. This summer should be focusing on the gaps and few key areas where we need to improve, not having massive turnover. Right back I think we have a gap, which we fill with a different profile of full back to Cash, and one who is better or at least as good as Cash because I think majority of signings we make now need to improve first XI, not just add back ups. (I don't think Cash is anywhere as bad as you've made out btw, his biggest weakness is his delivery and that's less an issue when he's holding position.) None of that means we sell Cash. I don't think we'd be actively looking to sell. If we do it's just another player we need to go out and get that probably costs more than Cash in the long run. Cash will still get plenty of minutes in changing systems, in rotation during games, could also an option further forward. If we get a crazy offer from someone for him? Maybe then he goes, but that probably goes for a lot of the players.

Saw him live at Leverkusen a couple of times while Havertz was still there and both times Bailey looked by far the better player.

The RB talk is a few things: Emery has history of playing the 442 with one attacking and one more defensive full back, the latter perhaps closer to a centre back a la Foyth. This may be a direction Emery wants to go in again and given who we already have at LB, then RB is the more obvious position for this. we are potentially light in that area if Young doesn't continue next season, so it becomes an easier position to improve on without upsetting the current squad too much or forcing sales. we should be aiming for two quality players in every position, perhaps even more so at full back where in-game rotation I think tends to be higher (see our left backs) the majority of signings from now on should be improvements to first xi, or at very least on par with existing option. RB is still in top half for me in terms of where this is most possible as there are a number of other positions that would be more difficult, if not impossible to realistically improve on. talk of bringing in another right back started when we were still flipping between him and Young and so there was perhaps more of a question over this position. Though his recent form doesn't neccessarily invalidate some the points above. I'm not sure much of the talk is about outright replacing and selling Cash. It certainly isn't from my perspective. He's a good player, good age, long contract, relatively cheap and helps with home grown quotas. It's just through a combination of factors as mentioned above that position is IMO likely at the higher end of our priorities this summer.

Yep. First time taking 3yo daughter to VP. Mate is taking 2yo so couldn’t not lol. Will see how that goes… Do they normally have food on the concourse or just drinks? The match day guide only suggests the latter.