Wullie

Assist for Woltemade at Everton

Yeah it's unheard of for teams to cede possession and attack on transition.

Not a popular view I can see but I actually didn't hate the gameplan. Ideally not the way you'd want to play against that mob but they're on the crest of a wave while we're in a bit of a slump. Let them have the ball on the basis they have absolutely zero quality in that team, kill the crowd then do them on the break, and on paper Gordon and Elanga were the clear choice to try and do that - if Woltemade plays the pass to Gordon it's 1-0. I don't think they score in a month of Sundays without a gift from us, and I don't think they get that gift if Dan Burn stays on, just an awful set of circumstances. The problem was that the front three were all indescribably awful. I can't actually believe how poor Elanga looks.

Remains to be seen how long football will be the way is the minute with a heavy emphasis on set pieces but Ramsdale looks so unsuited to it compared to three years ago when it was all about using your keeper as another outfield player. You can't have a keeper right now who won't come and claim a cross, it's terrifying to watch.

The thing that really puzzles me about Elanga's signing is that he's right footed. The main aspect of the 4-3-3 with wide forwards is that the wide players cut in to provide an attacking threat which is why, generally speaking, they are always inverted now. Jacob Murphy is the only example I can think of in the modern Premier League of a wide player in a 4-3-3 not being inverted and we've had a lot of success with that, possibly because it's something different but I really can't get my head round signing another right footer to complement the three we already had. I know there was a lot of talk in the summer of Elanga being genuinely two footed, I have to say I've seen no evidence of that whatsoever. I really feel like we've hamstrung ourselves by again not having anyone on the right hand side who is going to cut in and shoot with their left foot in the way that this formation is supposed to operate. It makes us very one dimensional down that side as the full back only ever has to worry about someone going down the outside, whereas on our left, Barnes and Gordon will go inside and Hall outside.

Kendal Tow Law Guisborough Ryton Carlisle City

5 for me in NL2, should tick off Park View on Friday night.

Aye that was us! The only NL ground I've been at which has as little character is Ford Quarry, home of Sunderland West End (we went there last season when CLS United played there as well but they've moved and renamed now). It's like today but also has a load of other games on other pitches going on around it, it's like being at a school complex.

Nee idea, we just went to tick the ground off, can't imagine we'll rush back!

Ah never, gutted for you, liked seeing the NL photos on Instagram. We were also behind the goal that Alnwick were attacking first half, between the goal and the entrance. 4 of us, 2 in red, me in my grey coat and hat, and a young lad of 10.

Thought you might have been there, was keeping an eye out for someone with a camera but no luck. Not much to take a photo of tbf.

Whatever happens this week, I'd rather burn £150m in a massive bonfire on the Town Moor than sell him to those fucking bastards.

I've just seen Rhian Brewster has gone to Derby on a free, Blades have given him away. They gave Liverpool £23.5m (!) for him in 2020, he's played 106 times for them and scored 8 goals. Does my absolute fucking head in how much money clubs will give Liverpool for any old shite rattling round in their reserves.

That's all fair and it's certainly derailed things but I don't see a Liverpool, Arsenal or Man City allowing themselves to go into a campaign with such a bare bones squad because of a situation with one player. It feels like the club has nobody at the wheel.

I say this because I'm as much a sucker as anyone for getting attached to players. On a run the other day I went past that shop in Shields that Isak brings the dog out of and it made me just feel really sad. I think the other clubs (and the fans of those clubs) we are now competing with take a much more pragmatic approach to the players now (Chelsea fans can't exactly get attached to the players) and we need to learn it too. I think that's unfortunate tbh but that's the modern game.

If the club really wanted to keep him when he started making waves, surely the way to do it was to make a couple more big first team signings with our supposed PSR leeway that we've built up and convince him that he can achieve his career dreams here, or at least some of them. When this first started a few weeks ago it felt like he was trying to escape a club that was going places after Elanga joined but it doesn't feel like that now, we are in no way prepared for the coming season and I'm now starting to feel a bit like who can blame him?

No and I'm not advocating we adopt some sort of entirely dispassionate approach to the club's history etc but I think, for example, putting out that video in the Irish Centre where Isak calls Asprilla over, to the tune of Local Hero, when the club was apparently fully aware that he would want away this summer, I'm aghast that was given the green light. That was like a month ago FFS.

One thing that this whole rather sad affair has made me think about is that the club could really do with pulling back on all the nostalgia and local pride stuff, thinking particularly of all the kit reveal videos, as depressing as that is. In a PSR era, and when you're actually trying to compete at the top level with other clubs who operate like ruthless corporate machines, it's actually detrimental for fans to become so attached to the players. It's become obvious to me that it makes player trading much more difficult.

This has stunned me.

"Naive princess" it was Absolutely off his rocker.

Who was the poster on here who had a bee in his bonnet about Howe as a "special snowflake" or something similar? Gallowgate End maybe?

You'd think it was impossible to buy so many players for so much money and for them all to fail, every single one other than Bruno Fernandes, going back much further than that as well, basically going back to when Ferguson left . Quite impressive really.

Really lovely for the camera to pick out the lady at 4:15, her husband is a mate from work and she's had the most unimaginably terrible last couple of years.

So great for it to be this group of players and staff who have been with us for so many years now. Every one of them has their name in club history forever.