Jarakka

Not even mad, expecting something against Bournemouth though.

I think I'm in love with Charlie Austin.

Shocking performance. But I hope the board keeps their cool and doesn't bring in just anyone off the streets to replace Pellegrino. Even with him in charge, we won't be relegated. But if we chop and change all the time, bring in managers who we just fingers crossed, hope are an improvement, we'll eventually be relegated.

A win's a win's a win, but we still need to do something about our attack. I mean the only goal came from Steven Davis, sheesh...

Well, Sevilla is on the same level as Premier League's top six imho so as long as it's not a 7-1 I don't really care what happens. Just wish we'd score some more goals.

Looks like the board, fans and Puel himself are unsure about going into a new season with him as the manager. Shame, I thought he was a decent coach despite the negative football. But I guess if there's not any genuine trust we might as well go for a new manager. I heard Paulo Sousa is leaving Fiorentina, not sure if he fits the profile, but I think he could be an upgrade on Puel.

Roger Schmidt would be like Martinez at Everton, terrific attacking play but he simply cannot organise a defense. We would probably get a good first season and then drop off massively. Still not a bad shout imho. Honestly though, there's not many clear options right now. At least ones who would be -clearly- better than Puel.

Sure, I just don't think it's healthy for the club to have the players to dictate whether a manager should stay or go.

Too good for us sadly. Still a bit annoyed we didn't get Favre while it seemed we had a chance, but... I think the club has to decide if they want to keep Puel and plan for the long term by bringing through academy players and keeping the net spend low. Or they sack Puel and get a better man manager who is going to make the present players overachieve. The first one is going to be a huge risk, because I think if we keep Puel we also have to sell players like Bertrand on top of Van Dijk. If it doesn't work out, we have sold our better players and might just be overcome by other clubs like Stoke or possibly even Newcastle etc. If it works out, we have a young, competitive homegrown team. If we sack Puel, then I'm afraid we have a situation where the players might have too much power over who is the manager. We might be good for the short term, maybe even back in Europe, but eventually it will backfire because we chose the older players over a manager who was supposed to youngen the team. Honestly, I'm on the fence. But also I'm edging towards Puel In, just because he has a good track record with young players. I don't think one season of poor results and defensive playing style merits the sack if we still end up comfortable mid-table and there is a feel we are building towards something. Also, most teams usually don't fare too well on their first season in Europe. It takes time to learn to play against the continental sides. Also if we decide to sack Puel, I would get the ex-Fiorentina manager Paulo Sousa.

I got to say, I'm starting to get a bit mad about this. I can stand losing if we play well and lose only narrowly... But losing 4-1 to Spurs, 3-0 to Palace 5-0 to Arsenal and then this? If we had played well against Arsenal, I could maybe be a bit more positive, but instead we got pulverized. I don't care who we put out, we should never lose by those margins, even if it's Real Madrid against us. If the results -and- playing style doesn't improve right now, Puel out. Sick of this.

I was beginning to doubt, but for now... All is forgiven, Claude Puel.

Don't rate Breitenreiter or Mancini, Rowett is promising but has never managed in a top league and I'm not sure his style would be compatible with ours. FDB could be a good fit, but if the major complain against Puel is that the football is dull, then FDB is certainly not an improvement.

If our form gets worse and there's no improvement in play, we should start probing for a new manager. Also no matter who is the manager, we will not be relegated this season. Problem is though, I really can't think of a manager in Europe who would be better than Puel (who we could realistically get. Also Pardew would certainly takes us back as a club, wouldn't touch him with a ten-feet pole). Favre, Emery and Montella are all too big for us now. Marcelino maybe? Or someone under the radar who plays the type of football we're more used to?

I think the weaknesses in our style of play is that if Tadic is neutralised, we're going to look pretty toothless (like Arsenal without Özil) and dependant on our fullbacks to play the ball forward. It's going to work out against defensive teams because they're probably going to let us play our game more and we can deal with set pieces and long balls quite well. However, I feel clubs like Liverpool and Spurs who press a lot are going to give us a hard time. Harrying our midfield and defense, forcing Romeu to make fouls and take cards, not letting us build anything. We might be okay against the likes of Arsenal and United though, it was early in the season when we lost to them after all. Kind of excited how we play against tougher teams, I think we are going to cause some upsets this year.

Right. These are the toughest games of the season imho, I would be well pleased with a point. I think people severely underrate teams like Be'er Sheva, this is not some random mid-table from who knows where, most likely they are the previous champions of their own league. Theirs might not be as good as the bigger European leagues, but certainly if they managed to beat 19 other teams to it they are a lot better than out-of-form West Ham or Swansea City lingering in the at the bottom of the table. Also, Sparta apparently rotated heavily and that's why they were such a shambles. If these guys take this competition seriously, which they apparently do as they just beat Inter Milan at San Siro 2-0, then we absolutely cannot afford to be too arrogant with our lineup. They're not unbeatable, but they deserve the same respect as at least another PL club would get. That's all, go on Saints.

He never seemed like a bad manager to me and glad it's starting to work out. New Arsenal manager in 2018, calling it here right now. (Tongue-in-cheek, of course.)

I feel like we are going somewhere, it's just that it hasn't clicked yet for us and the start of the season hasn't been easy. I have faith in Puel, but he needs to start getting some wins because this year's Premier league is tough all over the table. The Championship is getting tougher by the year and if we don't start going forward, we're going to get trampled by teams which might have less quality but actually work.

Last year we had 2 points after 3 games: 2-2 draw with Newcastle. Lost 3-0 to Everton. 0-0 draw with Watford. And still managed to improve pointswise. I guess we won't be finishing in the top 10, but I think Puel has a plan and with right players we're going to improve. I don't think we looked that bad against Watford and United either, United would've won against any team that friday. What we do need though, is a clinical striker. Fingers crossed, hope we get as many points as we can before the Europa League begins proper.

Weeell, wouldn't scoff at a manager winning 3 Europa Leagues in a row...

Just a suggestion, but I think Paulo Sousa could do a good job if we got him from Fiorentina. I think he has grown as a manager since he left Swansea and his team played good football at times this year at Serie A. Also I feel he could be persuaded more easily and would be more eager to work in the PL compared to likes of Emery/De Boer etc. I would love it if we got Emery, but in all honesty I feel he's going to a bigger club. Pellegrini would be ok.

It doesn't have to be Blind necessarily, but I'm just wondering how we're going to cope when Fonte gets too old and Van Dijk leaves us at some point. Replacing them is not going to be easy, especially Fonte.

Yeah, just wondering now since it's a 3rd consecutive season in top 10, if just getting 40 points and a good cup run is going to be enough in the future for fans.

Right, so maybe not the right thread, but I'll ask it anyway just to see what people think. Expectations for next season?

Never would've believed during the Christmas period that we would be getting 6th, maybe even 5th(!) place in the Prem. Well done everyone, have a nice summer.

Man. Sun is shining, comeback victories against both Liverpool AND Spurs, same points tally as last year, Leicester winning the league... Feels good man, this feels good man.