James

I was going to say this was a bad decision but then noted that they haven't scored a single league goal in 2017 and it's nearly March Therefore something clearly had to change and it has to be the manager. Ultimately I think it was a mistake to let Kante go cheaply, he is easily worth 60-70m as this season has showed.

John Carver and Lee Stewart are now connected.

Bearing in mind Sammy was put up for media duties yesterday, I think he will start with Gouffran up front. Team will resemble that which beat Birmingham in the cup albeit with added Colback.

I highly doubt we were still in for Townsend yesterday as would have impacted their match preparations. He was just being used by the media to drum up attention More likely we bid for two players, off-radar. You never know, maybe bids were accepted and the players chose to stay put or move to a PL club. Anything might have happened so no point in any of us getting in a negative spiral about things that may not be remotely true.

. Don't get this 'shitting the bed/bed wetting' craic in any way, shape or form. He's clearly been let down by that fat clusterfuck's involvement. He's incapable of leaving well alone that fucking shithouse. 'Possibly' rather than clearly though right? No mate. Clearly. He said yesterday that he expected two through the door. Your constant blind optimism is fucking bewildering given the history of this regime. He said he was hopeful of two signings. Very different thing and all sorts of things could have happened

. Don't get this 'shitting the bed/bed wetting' craic in any way, shape or form. He's clearly been let down by that fat clusterfuck's involvement. He's incapable of leaving well alone that fucking shithouse. 'Possibly' rather than clearly though right? no one knows what really happened we must not let ourselves lose our positivity just yet.

Last time did we not just sign Tiote, and Ben Arfa on loan (who got injured all season), hughton and Pardew as managers yet finish comfortably 11th

Also we have a budget for playing personnel I.e their fees and salaries. Rafa could easily have forgone on transfers for Sels, Gamez and Lazaar, whom he never plays and could have used it instead on central midfielders or another winger. So we can't just absolve him if our team ultimately turns out to be too weak.

Everyone knows clubs and agents like to wait right until the last moment to maximise their income. I suspect we had a plan to get Townsend and others at a correct and agreed price. If at 4pm as alleged Palace suddenly asked for more money we were right to tell them to go and fuck themselves, as otherwise the same will happen every window. Show weakness and others will take advantage. Our transfer business in 2016 was excellent, lets see what the situation is like this summer before panicking and pointing the finger.

Townsend did not do enough personally to force a move. He could have put in a transfer request and if refused he could have made sure he was injured for the rest of the window.

I would have thought the insurance company we use would insist on having one or up the premiums. Unless of course we are going to do one afterwards. If a loan with a view to buy we could use a loan termination clause. He would still be insured by Palace. Permanent deal in summer subject to passing a medical then. Also we have his medical data from about 5 months ago so can be confident that any change to that is unlikely.

Wouldn't trust this deal to go through after his Chinese holiday last year. Having said that, knowing how our accountants work it may release some last minute transfer funds.

We gave it a good go in 2/3 competitions this season. That team should have beaten Oxford, the players just did not show up on the day.

We weren't going to win the FA Cup this year, but we didn't disgrace ourselves against Birmingham, whilst the majority of players used got is through rounds of the League Cup or FA Cup previously. Early season analysis of Rafa showed that he likes to pick his team a month in advance based on priorities and fixtures, hence he would win in the CL then lose to Fulham. I think this year priorities went Promotion > League Cup > Champions > FA Cup. On that basis I would give out performance in cups this season a score of 8/10

It will be the same team that beat Birmingham other than Dummett replacing El Mhani

Doubt Rafa will want a replay or will want to allow this great club to conced defeat to lowly Oxford. We will win comfortably.

He hardly has. He has been submitted by the club for interviews with local media, said he can't complain about being left out. Chronicle have just run a bad spin on it and stick an awkward photo of Lee Ryder onto it.

Going by our recent form splutter, during Shelvey's absence, I don't trust this team lumbered with a Colback fueled midfield (minus Shelvey, if injured) to maintain the gap between 2nd and the play-off spots. I'd much prefer to see McCarthy or Delph through the door, in preference to Townsend or the bloke from Swansea. Personally for me it goes Townsend > Midfield General > Barrow Should Shelvey get injured we would still be pinning teams back and creating chances with the wing play Townsend offers alongside Ritchie.

Excellent point. And the we only have Shelvey making things happen down the middle one. I do not agree that we can easily buy in central midfield as with Shelvey in the team we need another runner/tackler alongside him and in this division I think The emergence of Barlaser in addition to Hayden and Colback is sufficient. The issue lies when Shelvey is not available but I really doubt we can find a player of sufficient quality yet who would be prepared to be cover for Shelvey. Long term I would like to see a more influential player alongside Shelvey that would mitigate any absences but we are some way short of being able to attract that sort of player. Therefore the best way to strengthen and to retain attacking strength when Shelvey is not in the team is to improve what we have on the left wing, so I completely get what we appear to be trying to do.

If Palace are desperate to get rid Townsend can just say he only wants to join us. They might then be forced to loan to us under the reasonable gamble that they can bank £10m as a permanent transfer on promotion clause.

It would help if we started with 11 players mind. A goalkeeper would really help. The goalkeeper is the first name he mentions It's Sels, he's invisible.

We can't just make signings because we want to. The club needs to sell and the player needs to want to go. Often either or both will not happen this month and those who do are simply not good enough. It always surprises me how people forget this every year.

I am broadly in favour of the changes. Half of the third group matches are shit, i.e Argentina and Netherlands playing for a 0-0 draw as both teams are through, or an already eliminated Poland second team beating Iran 2-1 with both teams already out. Shit teams and stalemates will be removed quickly. Almost all second games will have a knockout flavour. Beyond whichever team you support, the final, and the semis, the best matches have always been with the plucky underdogs knocking out England/France/whoever. We will get more of these matches. Whilst th existing format has existed most of my life it has changed with the times before and we do need to see more places. I doubt it will happen but I would have even more suppport if there was somewhat more of a possibility to reduce the number of international games in a domestic season.

2 of 3 in each group go through leaving 32 in knockout stage. This will require one extra game for the knockout stage.

I had a newborn today. Probable consequence of a 3-1 defeat to Southampton last April.