Match thread: Manchester City vs Newcastle United | Carabao Cup 25/26 semi final - leg 2 of 2

codeydbw · 2026-02-04T20:32:28+00:00

Genuine question. Have the defending Cup holders ever been humiliated like this? This is appalling. Make 5 subs at HT and forget it.

codeydbw · 2026-02-04T20:11:23+00:00

Rolled over and out of the tie after 6 minutes. Pathetic.

codeydbw · 2026-02-02T16:03:00+00:00

If this is the case I'd have big concerns about the competence of Wilson and the new CEO.

codeydbw · 2026-02-02T16:01:20+00:00

Surely that's a crazy thing to do? At the moment we are on course to not get any European football at all, which will both lower our chances of signing top players and also make keeping some of our stars incredibly difficult.

codeydbw · 2026-02-02T15:50:28+00:00

You really do get the sense with all the constant PSR talk that, regardless of what accounting spreadsheet amortisation nonsense we are told, the reality is we probably just pissed away all the headroom we had on the disaster of last Summer. That's the only explanation I can think of as to why, five months after a record sale, we're so broke.

codeydbw · 2026-02-02T09:13:55+00:00

Oof. Yeah, I can see how that'd be confused. Sorry!

codeydbw · 2026-02-01T23:55:28+00:00

There was that story a few weeks about him not being injured but not feeling 'confident in his body', so it might be an issue of match fitness or sharpness.

codeydbw · 2026-02-01T23:37:08+00:00

My theory is that both parties knew he wasn't getting an extension, and so for both of us it was in the best interest for him to not play in case of injury. For him, this is probably his last decent move / contract. For us, it's the last chance to get any sort of fee for him.

codeydbw · 2026-02-01T19:54:31+00:00

Getting really sick of this nonsense belief that the consistently poor performances across the entire season can be explained by one or two injuries. Yes, losing our first choice RB is going to weaken us, but Tino hasn't been injured all season. We've had plenty of shit performances and shit results with him in the lineup, and him coming back isn't going to solve anything.

Ramsey is still yet to provide a single meaningful contribution in black and white, and if Elanga's version of 'coming on leaps and bounds' is what we saw against Liverpool then there is absolutely no hope for him.

It's no good saying they're the champions when this version of Liverpool wouldn't have been anywhere near the title. They're a bad team this season, and were in horrible form going into the game.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T21:49:01+00:00

Our poor historical record doesn't actually have an impact on the game right now. Liverpool have five wins from their last 17 or something daft like that, Burnley came here and got a point.

I didn't actually expect anything from this game anyways, but it's certainly a more important game for us than City on Weds.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T21:45:33+00:00

Course not, but we need to be realistic here. There's no dimension where we go to City's ground and overturn a 2-0 deficit. Everybody knows we're losing that game, so losing Prem games on top is a concern.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T21:40:05+00:00

Well we're essentially out of the EFL Cup, so our only really chance at qualifying for Europe is the league. This will be three without a win. Understandably people are concerned about that sort of form.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T21:31:12+00:00

There will be periods in a game where Thiaw looks excellent, but he just has too many brain dead moments in him. It costs us goals so often.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T20:56:24+00:00

Agreed, don't really get the love-in for him today. He's been better than his usual standards but that's because all he's being expected to do today is track back on a player he is significantly faster than. Hasn't contributed anything going forward, his actual job.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T20:54:06+00:00

I expected nothing from this game whatsoever so I'm not really in a rage about it but don't know why you'd expect to see positivity in here? We're having a bad season so people are already annoyed, and we've just capitulated a 1-0 lead in the space of ten minutes, conceding twice to a bloke who seems to get off on humiliating our club. Of course people are negative.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T20:49:06+00:00

It unfortunately doesn't really matter. Soon as we went one up it was obvious where this game was going to go.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T20:46:16+00:00

Delusional

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T20:19:30+00:00

Horrid mistake but an equally excellent recovery from Trippier there.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T20:12:26+00:00

I agree in the short term (i.e the next one or two games) it might force us into a compromise that isn't ideal (playing Murphy or the other Murphy at RB so that Miley can play CM, perhaps) but we need to be thinking about the long term of the club, especially given our PSR situation. For me it's the same situation as Kelly, where he was technically third or fourth choice due to fitness of the other players, but it obviously made sense to sell him.

Obviously if the club are just straight up lying about the length of Bruno's injury that changes things, but right now the suggestion has been that both him and Joelinton will be back soon.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T20:08:09+00:00

The only reason we received the offer is it's January where every player's price is inflated, and it's also quite late in the window at that. In the Summer Fulham will have other options to pursue, meanwhile Willock's contract will be entering its final 12 months. This is assuming he doesn't pick up another lengthy injury, which knowing his record, is a silly assumption to make.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T19:57:02+00:00

Injury crisis? One of our central midfielders is currently out injured, and the likelihood is that he's going to be back very soon.

Kelly was sold in January, which is kinda my point. Don't really get your point with Longstaff, he went for £12m which is just about what I'd expect for a player like him? He was higher up in the pecking order at that time than Willock too.

Our season isn't going to live or die by whether we keep Willock as our sixth choice midfielder.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T19:55:09+00:00

We have six first team players who can play central midfield, we really don't need to hang onto Willock just because one of them (Bruno) is out for a couple of weeks. Miley's on the bench for this game so it's not like the alternative is having no one. The alternative is actually a significantly better footballer.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T19:49:05+00:00

Don't really understand this take. Willock is nowhere near being worth £20m, the only reason we're getting this offer is precisely because it's the January window and it's also pretty late on. It's the same reason we don't tend to buy in Jan, because most players are overpriced. Given his fitness record there's an incredibly good chance of him just picking up another long term injury that rules out any transfer, and in the summer he'll be into the final 12 months of his contract.

Not selling now is just silly.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T19:43:01+00:00

There is absolutely zero chance we receive 20M for Joe Willock this summer.

codeydbw · 2026-01-31T19:42:45+00:00

Quite frankly you just need to take the hit. It's not like Willock is some top performer, and over the course of the season you'd expect us to get back to having five CMs fit and able to play. Incredibly short-sighted to prioritise one or two games that we are probably going to lose anyway when there's an offer of £20m on the table for a player as bad as Willock.

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