TRon

Well, either he's better than we thought, or Gerrard isn't as good as his spell of subsequent good form at Villa seems to suggest. For me it just shows that you need to judge managers over the longer term. Remember Souness started off here with four wins on the bounce.

Lingard would be playing for his England place, and when he's played for England he's done quite well tbf. Alli, yes I can understand those concerns, but if you had to bet your life on him scoring a winner vs Almiron or Fraser, who would it be on?

No, it was the one he hit first time and tried to bend it low into the corner. It was going in but the keeper just got a finger tip to it and that was enough to push it wide.

I saw him in that game of the season contender against Liverpool and he nearly scored a belter, only a fantastic save by the keeper stopped that.

Says it all tbh. Even he knows he's a massive cunt.

They can't fix the midfield issues, but they could provide the goals that Fraser and Almiron just aren't capable of. Play them off Wood for a double up chance of scoring?

I watched the same interview, he looked like the transfer business was frustrating him, but some things were out of his hands, which is true. I think what he said about the current bunch of wankers who are playing for us was just to keep them onside. He isn't in a position to do anything else.

I don't think £10 would be spurious to that grasping fat bastard.

It's a pretty pointless debate tbh, why do you need metrics to determine we aren't that good? Is it going to make Bruce any better in hindsight? Is it going to mean Howe must be rubbish based on his results after 10 games?

Very informative post. Thanks for that, opened my eyes somewhat, although I won't pretend to be surprised. I hope some of those who are moaning "why haven't we got 8 players signed already, its been 2 wks ffs", have a read.

What is really shocking is that you could argue before the window, the whole spine of the team was missing. A keeper who has been making mistakes, no decent CB, no competent CM, and with Wilson crocked, no CF either. So basically a team with the backbone of a jellyfish.

Tbh, I was hoping Bruce would succeed in getting him in during the summer. Not because he's a good footballer, just that he was a midfielder who might close down the opposition players and win the ball now and then. We still don't have one of those.

Dele Alli makes sense tbh, if we are not going to get Lingard, then at least Alli is along those lines in that you know he can actually put the ball in the net.

Well, here's hoping. I must admit I am not getting too caught up about any potential signing until we see some solid momentum building after all the Cantwell, Ekiteke and the rest of them have come and gone. I'm gonna wait for a thread to go up before I get too excited.

What I meant was that they won't sell because we probably aren't in for those players. I haven't heard on serious football journalist suggest any of them as genuine targets, in the same way we've been hearing about Botman, Carlos or Lingard.

I feel Wood would end up being isolated again, just the same as happened against Watford.

You believe these links are genuine then?

I have a horrible feeling some might be saying this about our squad when this window closes.

Time for Jeffy Hendrick then, obvs.

Mate they aren't going to sell us one of those players, let alone all three. These all feel like really random links which are being chucked out there on twitter with no genuine source to verify.

I'd absolutely love it. In the unlikely event we can buy 3 top class players from one club ( )I'll take it every day of the week, we'd be helping them enormously in their fight to balance the books.

I was talking about the journalist, not Pep, obviously he wouldn't give a fuck.

We were under less pressure at the start of the season though, far harder once we are already fighting relegation. The mood and momentum was set by Bruce in those early fixtures.

We won't pass our way there for sure. Get the ball up there to Wood, and then have another forward sniffing close by to pick up the knockdowns or lay-offs. The only one capable of doing it for me is Willock. Not ASM Not Fraser Not Miggy Just Willock.

I get the feeling it's one of those made up rumours though, nothing at all to suggest there's been serious feelers put out.