Unbelievable

Not impressed at all. Anita and Colback just doesn't work. Wijnaldum doesn't get involved enough in that position. Obertan still starting ahead of Aarons (and Thauvin which is more understandable). Mbemba at right back reeks of Yanga-Mbiwa treatment.

Danny Blind should never have been appointed NT manager.

I don't think we can criticise the outlay of players too much (providing no more are leaving to fund for them), but HTT is absolutely right about the type of players we have brought in, players with potential but completely unproven at this level, and even more so about the manager. You can also question if how the money has been spent was the best possible use, with the defence once again severely neglected. It's a step in the right direction compared to recent years, but it's also a missed opportunity in a way as you sense more could and should have been done. This time though, it's more the decision making letting us down than the (lack of) funding. If things stay as they are, I expect us to be solid midtable at best, which is decent considering where we're coming from but disappointing considering where we should have been.

Maybe those in charge didn't see anything either so not really worth giving him a chance. I can forgive TT for missing a few games last season in what was a rare bright patch in club form, partly because Abeid shone in that defensive midfield role, but for the entire club to have missed that run of games is a stretch of the imagination for me. The "never seen anything to suggest he was going to make it as a premiership player" is nonsense; he looked one of our best players for that short while, before being jettisoned inexplicably, in the same way that Bigirimana shone for a short while only to disappear in the shadows again in favour of such luminaries as Dan Gosling. Anyway, I'm sad to see him go but happy for him that he's moved to a club where he may get his chance to impress once more. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we saw him back at a decent level playing for a good team in a few years time.

We've let a fair few decent players leave for peanuts this past year or so. Hopefully the unproven ones we've brought in hit the ground running and prove to be real upgrades, or we'll just have done one step forward then one step back.

By reasonable results I mean results that would have kept us safely in midtable rather than staring into the abyss. It's all they're interested in, as evidenced by the fact that they even thought they could get away with not appointing a proper manager for half a season in the first place.

Don't know about spending nothing but it should be clear as day that if Carver had managed to achieve reasonable results rather than setting us on course for the most unlikely of relegations the job would have been his, absolutely no doubt about it. Such is the idiocy of this regime.

Too right

This cunt has really signed for us in the end then?

We've ended up chasing him longer than actually having him at the club. Wonder if things will go better for Thauvin.

Replacement for imo

Mbemba is not a right back, so to play him out of position to bring in Willo is just sheer madness, especially if it means you drop our only actual right back and best player. The whole idea is just

Wat

No surprise if he's just got sick of pumping money in each year and they're still s****. Situation with Ashley is completely incomparable in terms of what Short has put into the club and what Ashley has taken out (in "free" advertising). They're running each other very close for cluelessness when it comes to football to be fair.

Agreed. Taylor's biggest problem is not even his lack of a brain, it's the fact that he spends at least half of the season on the touchlines. Seeing as he's currently fit and we are (predicatably) getting rinsed by headers, he should be in instead of Colo, who is a long way past his best now and should never have been offered an extension, let alone been appointed captain.

Good. I've had them telling me they'll be playing us with Armstrong in their side next season. Should probably inform them that the likelihood of us selling him decreases by about 1400% should we get relegated. It would take a decade for that to sink in tbh. By which time he'll be captaining England having scored 70 goals in 60 internationals.

Agreed mojo. That decision alone has the potential to become a serious millstone around his neck.

Why? We need Cisse's goals, but we can't afford to leave Mitrović out. We need Cisse's average of 7 PL goals over the past 3 seasons while contributing next to nothing to our general play?

Another worry, just two games in admittedly, are his subs. Not sure what he is thinking at times, but he doesn't seem to read the game as most people would.

I didn't watch the game, but it appears our midfield two of Colback and Anita with Wijnaldum in an advanced position once again failed to both protect the defence and provide much offensive threat. Baffling when you consider the wealth of other options at his disposal, and that's before we even get to Obertan getting almost two complete games whilst the likes of Ayoze, Aarons, De Jong and Mitrovic are feeding off scraps. Huge warning signs there imo.

Fair play