Rich

I LOVE THIS GAME

Thought we were only after Targett and Nketiah, @Penn, you clueless knacker.

Clark’s the obvious one, if Burn completes. The others are dependent on the remaining business, you’d think. Gillespie, if a GK. Krafth, if a LB. Gayle, if a forward. Ritchie and Hayden the other two potential ones, based on recent minutes when others have been fit.

Debuchy is sad.

Aye, it hasn’t just been Ashley January transfer windows that have been trash/non-events. 03/04 Bridges (loan) 04/05 Babayaro, Boumsomg, Faye 05/06 Onyewu (loan) — 02/03 Woodgate was the only decent one under Shepherd and Co (and the first January transfer window ever).

Might’ve had COVID or something prior? Got dropped for Young at LB against us the following week, but had clearly got back into things before Digne came. If Rafa rated him, he’s probably decent.

Just checked, he got hooked at half time “While the new boys didn’t impress, it was one longer-serving player who had a particularly awful game – Matt Targett. The left-back certainly wasn’t helped by Ashley Young seemingly allergic to doing his defensive duties and tracking back, but Watford’s Ismaila Sarr took him to the cleaners with his combination of pace and trickery. As per Sofascore, the English ace lost all five duels in which he was involved and made no tackles or interceptions whatsoever. He also lost the ball on eight separate occasions and couldn’t find his passing radar either, completing just 79% of his passes. Such were his struggles that Smith actually decided to take him off at half-time and spare his blushes, but some journalists didn’t spare the 25-year-old in their assessments of the match. The Birmingham Mail’s Ashley Preece claimed that Targett was “all over the shop” as Emmanuel Dennis opened the scoring for the home side, with the left-back’s nemesis on the day Sarr playing a big part for the goal. Writing on Twitter, The Athletic’s Gregg Evans said: “Feeling a little bit for Matt Targett here. 14 mins in and Sarr is causing him all sorts of problems. Hard to watch. #WatfordFC #AVFC.” Hopefully he was just a bit rusty back then…

Didn’t Sarr absolutely destroy him at the start of the season? Almost Hatem vs. Luna levels?

Could be a decent wildcard? We’ve got absolutely fuck all on the bench at the minute and that hasn’t changed with the signings we’ve made. Darlow Krafth Schar/Lascelles Lewis Willock S. Longstaff Almiron Murphy Gayle Zero game changers there, and that’s pretty much the best bench we could name in the here and now.

Average. Solid enough defensively, doesn’t offer much going forward, great for a yellow card bet. Rafa wanted him two summers running, though, so he clearly rated him. Might be the right sort of player to have behind ASM. I always try to look on the positive side, but he’d be more underwhelming than Wood in my eyes. There’s a reason Villa jumped at the chance to spend £30M on Digne.

Bring me Divock Origi.

Has Bailey got one right in this window yet? The 90min model appears to be chucking as much shit at the wall in the hope that some sticks. Looking through his January Tweets there’s: Bakker Rogerio Zapata £10M loan for Lingard Mina Caleta-Car Ekitike Leno Bergwijn Ramsey Barbosa Suppose Edward’s has claimed the Targett interest, too. The dynamic duo.

Frodo leaving Mordor, pretty apt.

Dieng?

We’ll be on it, no worries there!

Coming up, coming up, coming up… it’s there.

Eternal optimist, with some rationale. Two loan slots still to use (Hope already saying Henderson is likely coming), and we’ve spent far less on the first centre-half than we likely expected to. It’s been clear all window that we’ve been pursuing a left-back, another centre-back, and a forward player. I still think we can get them.

5/10 now, provided no hiccups. Still think there’s at least two to come, more likely three or four.

We were smashed and it was about 15 years ago. Bit hazy.

Class, great to get this wrapped up today after Bruno yesterday. Still every chance of two or three more.

Papa Lazaru. Me and Bluf were present, but think we’d just left.

Potentially puts the Lingard loan to bed, and shows Howe hasn’t been too chuffed with Dubs’ performances.

How have we done this?

Absolute embarrassment to the great region of the North East, this lot, in every single way. Shameful result.