Yorkie

A lot can still happen this season so I'm stubbornly still going to resist making a judgement, but the odds are clearly stacked in the favour of it being a failure - certainly if you're using the metric of how it's impacted this season. What gets to me is how the failures are painted as this sinful thing for which heads should potentially roll. But transfers misses are a reality for basically everyone; what's variable is in how different clubs are able to absorb the impacts. Take Chelsea for example; not satisfied with their recent striker signings of Joao Felix, Nkunku and Jackson - they go for Delap last summer: a player who'd had a really commendable first full season in the PL with a terrible Ipswich team, 14 goal involvements. Physically imposing, scrappy as fuck, bright lad, bags of potential. A good signing in anyone's book. But he's been a total failure for Chelsea this season. Fewer goals than even Wissa has scored for us across significantly more minutes on the pitch. Luckily for Chelsea, the rules are accommodating enough for them that they could go and get literally one of the best strikers in the league as well. And what a surprise, Joao Pedro has been a massive hit; his 27 goal involvements completely absorbs the impact of the total failure of Delap. This is where we're knackered in this market. Fair enough, there's probably a reasonable argument which suggests Woltemade was too high a risk given his playing style and we should've looked elsewhere, but with Chelsea and the rest of the cartel bulldozing through the more coveted options - this is the pool we're shopping in. Not to mention Liverpool left it until the 11th hour to make an acceptable offer for Isak. We didn't have access to a likely contingency in the event we had a Delap situation, which turned out to be the case with Wissa. I've not even mentioned the ~£130million Chelsea spent on wingers last summer. Gittens has scored once. Lucky for them it doesn't matter because they could also sign a serviceable PL winger in Garnacho (in turn also assisting another cartel club) and an unbelievable talent in the form of Estevao. It looks like we've made errors in the transfer market but I still think those who orchestrated the last transfer window should be given a fair amount of grace. Errors happen, the problem is they only matter when it's us.

Gambling ban and:

Imagine being in a position to just let someone like that go for nowt before their contract is even up. I can only imagine the stick our lot would be getting for not being better sellers. Doesn't mean a fucking thing to Liverpool. They'll just sell one of their expendable assets worth tens of millions or, falling that, there'll be a few more academy lads down the back of the sofa.

Can't believe that result for Gateshead. Happy for them but can't deny my disappointment at the result from York's point of view. Hopefully Rochdale drop points too. You expect they will; phenomenal effort from both sides so far.

I don't fancy the Conference League but if qualification is absolutely necessary to keep Howe in the job then bring on Breidablik's low block.

This is a good video which sums it up:

He's already got another two years left on his deal at the end of the season, so I assume hiking his salary up to the maximum we can possibly afford will have an impact on our financial flexibility in the transfer market. Suds and the scouts are gonna have to really earn their keep if we're to execute the scale of rebuild we supposedly need. That said, peddling Tino feels like a more inviting prospect by the day.

The other thing with the Qarabag home game was that it was at the beginning of a run of home games and he wanted a good win to kick things off for that run. It made sensen to play a strong team from that point of view. That's one of the other things I like a lot about him tbf; whether I agree or disagree with a particular choice, I believe that it's reasoned and logical. Even with poor results in the league this year I generally trust him. I like trusting the manager.

Genuinely, no, I don't see it that way. I don't think it's a case of us having a cracking striker just waiting to be unleashed. Woltemade is a rookie and Wissa just seems like a total car crash; he just isn't at the races at all. Beyond filling gaps left by absent bodies, I actually think Howe has got Woltemade in midfield with a view to helping him long-term. He's getting on the ball more and expanding his understanding of how Premier League football is played and how we play; something he wasn't getting as a lone observer up front. Hopefully the rewards will be in the long game with him. You're being harsh on Gordon imo. Him making the CF spot his own could literally save the whole season. He's doing an admirable job up there and the manager deserves some credit for backing him.

Well that's definitely not true. They were routine wins because we played our high intensity game, and our opponents couldn't handle it. The CL schedule has clearly had a massive impact on the season.

You're being very kind to Woltemade there like. Right now he's a so-so PL striker; he got on the end of a few chances early on but doesn't have the strength, pace or the instincts to make a meaningful contribution up front. That said, I remain really excited about what he might become - he was clearly never meant to be the main man this year. I liked the Wissa signing; it made lots of sense and I was relieved when we got him. Sadly it's been a total disaster and he's been the opposite of everything that Brentford fans adored him for: impeccable fitness record, high work rate, dependable goalscorer. For us he was injured until December, doesn't work very hard, and doesn't score. We haven't had a good striker all season and it's absolutely a legitimate defence of Howe imo. (In fact it's a minor miracle that his faith in Gordon has paid off, not that he's getting any praise for that decision). And, going back to the original point I quoted, the Isak saga/sale has a lot of responsibility for that situation.

I thought he got a free pass on wasting £130m of the club’s money as they weren’t his first choice Sigh. Ah well. Enjoy your evenings, lads.

Good job we brought in 2 expensive strikers and a goalie in the summer then Well yeah, the recruitment hasn't worked, certainly in the short term. In the post of yours I quoted I offered a theory as to why.

It's refreshing to see a defence of the summer transfer window like. Certainly wasn't on my bingo card for today.

Aye totally; that's the other big issue. The striker situation was one thing but stick a much better goalie between the sticks and we might have got away with it, and I can repeat what I said about us having more points on the board. Not a hope with our current pair. If you've shite strikers and shite goalies, you're going absolutely nowhere.

It's not all down to selling Isak - and to put the spotlight on the manager, it's his job to find solutions and work with what he's got - but there's definitely a ripple effect. 'Selling Isak' - and the fact it was a saga which spanned the majority of the window - was lots of things. It was losing our golden ticket to becoming challengers. It was an absolute cast-iron guarantee that we would regress. It was putting us in a situation where we were incredibly weak (and eventually desperate) in the transfer market. So when you apply the implications of Isak leaving to what's happened on the pitch; the ripples are evident imo. You need pick only one or two fixtures this season where, if you put a competent striker on the field, we've got more points. We've had issues with the midfield shape out of possession for years, but ultimately covered for it more often than not because we've outscored the opposition. More goals takes the pressure off the defence too. There's no hideously nervous football and a last gasp equaliser/winner if we're already 3-0 up. Put incredibly simply, everything is easier when you've got a good striker. We lost ours and couldn't replace him with anyone of even proximal quality. Like I say, you still need your manager to find solutions, I'm not absolving him of all blame here. But the impact of the Isak sale does get underestimated by some imo. Right now it looks like a sliding doors moment akin to the likes of Partizan.

Surely the Isak saga went some way to proving the opposite? We were extremely successful but the ability of another club to pay him more (this is the 'higher power') meant he left.

What are those circumstances providing mitigation for if not what we're seeing on the pitch?

For those who are in the camp of wanting him to be sacked, I'd be curious to know what stock they put in all things not results based. Like how he represents the club publicly, his commitment to the job, how he "gets it," how he stacks up to his peers in terms of things like touchline conduct. Not trying to be incendiary with the question; I'd extend it to those in the camp of wanting him to stay as well. For me, that stuff means a great deal and provides a fair amount of my reasoning for why I want him to stay. The scales would get tipped eventually or course.

Fantastic news for him and us. He's already played 50 games this season though and we'll need him for the run in, so hopefully he doesn't feature much.

Yeah I think the next time Botman gets a consistent run in the team (which - in the final run of the season - is dependent solely on staying fit, you'd think), he'll demonstrate that he's the best CB on our books, as he has done before. When he's in and out the team his form is patchy. I do share the frustrations about him not showing enough for us on the whole. Hopefully get a big season from him next year.

Names of those who wouldn't. Now.

Wanting him to leave I can understand. Talking about him on a par with something you'd find on the bottom of your shoe I'll never understand. Thank God social media only turned up when it did. We'd have no legends to speak of.

Regardless of where you stand right now, if history has taught us anything, it's that losing to the mackems actually doesn't cause irreparable damage to your reputation - at least among the nameless mass of the matchgoing support. As of October 2013 we'd lost to them twice in a row but no one really gave a fuck when we were 6th at Christmas, with no tangible evidence we would sustain that (and didn't). A year later and it was four in a row and still there wasn't a consensus (despite everything else on top of it! ) As someone who wants to see the manager keep his job this gives me some comfort, where back then it gave me sleepless nights. A few wins always keeps the lid on the toxicity at SJP, and hopefully that's what happens on the remaining seven games.

I don't think this is how it went down. I don't think we had a list of strikers under the subheading 'Isak replacements' and another under the subheading 'Wilson replacements'. We just wanted to recruit as best we could in the striker department; and 'best we could' was massively influenced by PSR.