Shak

Aye, personally would have thought that a younger CB to potentially sit behind Schar for the year would have made sense. RW is the more glaring weakness for me. Hopefully we have something sexy lined up, be it a loan to buy or maybe we'll be able to offload a couple of squad options and get a permanent deal done for a quality option.

Think if Trippier leaves and we sign a new RW we might see a bit of Murphy at RB as well as Krafth. Think if Murphy is to stick around another few years it'll be as someone who can play multiple positions and do a half decent job, hard to keep him around too much longer as just a wing option.

Aye, but I think that was mostly due to Hall falling out of favour with Eddie. Think Hall last year was a major disappointment and the expectation for that outlay was that he'd be far more involved.

I'd say if we're spending 40m on a player we're expecting him to be fighting for a first team place pretty quickly. Project player to me would be a highly rated younger player that we think has potential to develop and challenge for a first team place over the next couple of years, while not being completely out of their depth if they had to play sooner rather than later. Osula and Minteh spring to mind as examples. But the club could have a different definition, of course.

I like that he spells his name Edmond and not Edmund like some sort of nonce.

Honestly, no real sympathy for him at all if his career rots away in the reserves there. If he's not bright enough to see that it was an incredibly risky move for him from a pure footballing perspective then he's probably not bright enough to have any concept that what's happening to him now isn't good. If he just wanted to stay in London and be rich as fuck that's fair enough, mind you.

If we signed Guehi and that was it I'd be pretty disappointed, have to say. Offset somewhat by the fact that Guehi is as close to a sure thing as you'll get, to be fair. Back in early June, the idea that a young developmental striker like Osula would be our only signing in midfield or attack, while selling Minteh and Anderson, was near unthinkable. We have three players in Gordon, Barnes and Isak that I'm confident in playing extended periods of football this year as part of the front three without having some pretty severe limitations at this level exposed. Two of them play their best football in the same position. If we sign nobody in the next week, I'll see it as a substantial failure. Sign one of a RW and CB, it'll be a disappointment. Sign both, it'll be good (obviously if we sign two worldies it's better than good, or if we sign two less highly rated players it maybe becomes just solid).

The fact that there's a slow motion replay of Diaz moving his head towards Schar at least deserves looking at, surely? I've no faith they'll overturn it but adding an extra game for a red that pretty much everyone agrees was an absolute joke would be fairly shite, even by the FA's standards.

Any thought has to why he decided he wasn't really arsed anymore here? Early in the game and he just lets him go basically. I know we had the numbers but it was still a dangerous looking situation. Bruno not exactly busting a gut either but we know Gordon can move and he seems to just not? Was really poor yesterday, really hope his head hasn't been turned and it's just rust from the summer.

I personally think the thread title change was beautifully timed and the new title is ideal.

Aye, surely if you don't see what's happened you can't give anything?

I mean, presumably the selling point for him would be a hefty wage for the next two or three years? Don't think anyone would be expecting Fraser to go out of the goodness of his heart.

If you think he was attempting to use excessive force there then you're a lunatic, frankly There'd be a fair argument if Schar had actually headbutted him super lightly and Diaz had gone down in an OTT way. But that's not even what happened.

Eddie is always diplomatic in the media. I'd be amazed if once he's seen that he holds it against Fab. Do we get annoyed with a defender for giving the referee a decision to make when he's standing near an attacker who dives to win a penalty? He was cheated by a scumbag player, a shite referee and a video replay system that isn't fit for purpose.

Anyone who thinks Schar is in the wrong is an absolute fanny tbh. Guy fucking cheap shots Schar from behind and people act like he's supposed to just smile and carry on. It's a physical, emotional sport. You should be entitled to stand up for yourself to some extent and in no way, shape or form was what Schar did in any way dangerous for Diaz. Incredible that they've got things wrong to the point that they have video replay on place and THAT can be reviewed and held up as a red.

Willock is the stylish but unreliable French electrics.

We're gonna fuck these to death.

About as bad as the day could have gone for his first choice LB credentials, that Looked fairly shaky early, then the red meant we sat back which he's not great at. Then Kelly came on and was very solid. It's important to remember he's only 19, still far from the finished article. He might grow into a really accomplished LB or he could end up as a CM that can also to shift to LB. I don't really see the harm in having two very different options at LB in him and Kelly, though. Gives us some great options to change it up during games.

Was never positive throughout that, felt we looked bad early and once we got that red I felt it was inevitable that we were gonna lose or draw. Lived and breathed the last ten minutes of it though when I realized we looked like hanging on, fucking delighted because I really think we needed those three points. Sign a few cunts and we'll have a great year. Southampton did well the first twenty minutes or so tbf, looked like a decent side. Loads of snide shite and then that display from Diaz, really hope they have an awful season where they get no luck and are relegated, with none of the playing or coaching staff going on to anything better in their professional lives.

Aye, convinced he wasn't gonna give us the free until he saw we had a promising attack he could ruin.

I hope Schar bangs Diaz's mother and his family falls apart, leading to Diaz feeling a sense of emptiness for the rest of his life.

Barely celebrated the goal, I'm still fuming from that red

Madness that's a red, there's no contact at all he just gets right in his face and the pathetic gimp just flings himself down. You're basically rewarding cheating by giving a red there. Pathetic.

Well timed.

I say push on and get it all done, at the end of the day if we take one of their star players and he does well for us nobody is gonna remember all of this public posturing and acting the hard lad. It'll just be a top player making a step up in his career from a club aspiring to be a mid table club happy to just be in the league to one with real aspirations of competing at the top of it. If they feel they won the posturing then that's alright.