80

In theory yes but don't think that'll ever happen. Think he's a lifer here. Probably not a great price, desperate to stay, ultra willing team player, probably cheap wages, big for morale. Makes too much sense to keep, over all. What a ball for Gordon's goal. Top tier stuff.

Well, smacking Villa home and away has become virtually a tradition for us now. Not saying we can assume anything in the slightest, but I don't think we should be shy about all those fixtures. Got hopes for Arsenal away, too (in the league) - I can see this being the year for floods of tears.

Dubravka deserves plenty of credit for the latest run, it's night and day compared with last season and has been a rebirth for him. But people are going way over the top attributing our improved form to his presence. If we melt as soon as Pope gets back in, without an injury to Tonali etc, we can re-discuss it.

Basically all of his appearances have come in games where virtually every team mate has been - at best - below par and frequently a shadow of their former selves. Unless we're saying Kelly was personally responsible for making them all terrible, I'm not going to single him out as being beyond hope. But yes, he's probably going to be playing a game of patience for a few months.

There's no future in this formation.

+5. Noice. Seen a fair bit about us having a nice run of league games coming up, as though we've done the difficult bit, but I don't think it should be taken lightly at all. By fans and media I mean. The players have looked really nicely businesslike for a while now. Wow this thread's quiet when we're not crap.

All logic tells me we're gonna win well today. But I too am nervous

Didn't watch, but heard that. Still, it's a big move. Shows a lot of confidence from both sides. Not so much in Kelly, mind. Exciting, though.

Wow.

That's a bugger. Any clue how he got on in the mean time?

And if they can't do the job against Bromley, we shouldn't delude ourselves into thinking we can compete on three or four fronts.

Trying to look at it that way myself. I don't think Kelly is as bad as people have it in their heads - he can't be, frankly. Was looking forward to Schär pinging throughballs, mind.

Unreal that we've signed a Trippier replacement without even sweating. He's just going to get better.

Very much so. Glad it looks like a corner's been turned. I think he's one of the most important signings in my lifetime, so I really want things to wind down in a way that he's happy to come back in the future, as a guest if nothing else.

Aye. I'm probably one of the most willing to stick up for him on here, but I don't think you can ever criticise the decision to sell him as we did - I know most people are joking, but anyone serious needs to give their head a shake. Now I think about it, I wonder if his sale gave us some false confidence re: the ease of buying players and worrying about balancing our PSR debt further down the road.

Not done this for a while, but to keep track, we're currently -1 point based on like for like fixtures played last season. Big opportunity to change that in the next two games - we got nothing from Man U and Tottenham last season. Then an important fortnight for us in the second half of January: Wolves H Bournemouth H Southampton A (in place of Sheff Utd) Fulham H We got 10 points out of 12 from those fixtures last season, but it feels like it will be an achievement to repeat that this year.

Good shout actually, I've noticed that a lot less than I used to. Although, I was always impressed that he never actually got in trouble for it, so had to assume he was just a master of walking the disciplinary line.

Massive opportunity. Let's not forget we already beat them there last season 3-0...

Nothing really that I'm aware of, but he's not tugging his forelock all the time so that rubs up some people up the wrong way. On the upside he seems to be loving his time here. No sense of him being wistful...

I get the impression it's his way of trying to mix in with the lads and be part of things, to be fair. Can imagine it would've been a disaster in the Dyer/Bramble days, mind.

Your posts have done a good job of summing up my thoughts on it all. I don't believe we live in the best of all possible worlds, but that doesn't mean Eddie is a terrible manager who is easily improved upon either. Plenty of the greatest managers have stumbled upon things have changed careers, but they've been in the position to stumble because they've kept trying and had enough about them for their players to keep trying too. Anyway, looks like we've built up a real head of steam. There's a serious chance of us picking up 6 wins on the bounce - you have you have to go back to Sept-Nov last year to see anything like that kind of form.

Have to give credit to him. I know overall they've been easy enough games for his part, but he's looked composed and contributive - not just like he's getting away with it.

To be serious, signing him when his reputation is at its lowest ebb in a long time is probably something the club's keen on. Similar to Isak after a poor season in Spain. We should know better than most that bad management can make good defenders look like shit.

It's not really an Almiron phase as he's been doing this for ages. It's genuinely part of his game. He's been producing bonkers statistics over periods of time for the past three seasons now. I forget the exact fact, but the past two seasons have both had something like 15 game runs where if he started we won (or at least didn't lose).

This has always been my view. I was surprised at how well he did last season, but I think it's in his nature that he will practice and practice and eventually become a very respected finisher in the game.