Andy

I've seen a few people referencing "trouble in the squad", but what is this in relation to? Apart from Trippier wanting a move for non footballing reasons, I haven't really read anything else to suggest there's unrest

Yes. You can show support through unwavering positivity and you can show support through venting emotion. Both are legitimate responses to this transfer window. Most people here want to see the club do as well as possible and are expressing it in different ways.

He never seems to ease his way back in. He was making full, intense sprints right from the start on Wednesday. Same when he was coming back last year. It's great that he has that desire, but he could probably do with just feeling his way back into it sometimes.

I'm absolutely convinced there are players across the world that fit that profile that are better than some of our starting 11, yeah

It makes sense that the club only want players who will improve us, and don't want to overspend. But the failure to identify alternatives to the players we've missed out on is poor, to me. We shouldn't be going into the last day of the window, having signed basically no one, with Marc Guehi at an inflated cost being the only remaining option. There are loads of players out there that would improve us. We aren't Man City.

What does "no time to divert funds to RW" even mean? It's not like we have to do some kind of time consuming, inter-departmental budget transfer, the funds are literally there. If the issue is we don't have a list of RW targets ready, that's concerning as and of itself.

Yeah I don't believe any manager would say "him or no one". Other people within a club's hierarchy perhaps, but a manager is going to take any positive additions to the squad they can get, given how volatile their jobs are.

Yup. I'm normally all for a bit of positive spin, but I just don't feel it here if we end the window as we are now. Especially taking into account our somewhat disjointed performances already this season and the little bit of negative mood that is creeping in. Some positive movement in the market would have given a massive lift and changed the atmosphere around the club. I still think we will have a decent season due to the lack of European football, but the aim has to be top 6 if we want to keep our big names next season. I think that is a big ask when you look at the business other clubs around us are doing.

It arguably is if you purely go off the names. If you go off age/loss of form I think it tells a different story. Also, "at least as strong" as a team from two years ago isn't generally good enough in the PL. If you stand still you go backwards in this league.

Squad definitely looks weaker to me than the end of last summer's window, if you take age into account as well. Trippier and Wilson in particular were huge contributers who seem to be on the downward slope, Almiron's form has gone, Botman remains to be seen if he'll get his pre injury form back.. Not sure the incomings to the squad since then offset that.

I think what's most frustrating is that at least a decent amount of money IS clearly there, but by all accounts it's Guehi or nothing. That mentality is understandable if you're Man City and the squad just needs minor tweaks/poster signings, but taking our squad into account, it's hard to believe that there are no alternatives that would improve us massively. Guehi will end up going to a champions league club once his value comes down.

We've seen before that a lack of activity causes, or at least contributes to, stagnation. Bowyer window, Anita window, as obvious examples. It's not even just stagnation that is a problem, we have some glaring weaknesses in our squad that need improving. Schar and Trippier aren't getting any younger. Krafth, Longstaff, Murphy and Almiron don't start for any other team in the top 10 but are in a position where they're getting (or are likely to get) significant game time. If we don't pull something out the bag in the next 30 odd hours, the club will be taking a huge gamble. Failure to secure Europe this season will almost certainly see the likes of Bruno, Isak and Gordon wanting to look elsewhere. This isn't negativity, it's just the reality of the situation. If (IF) we have put all our eggs in the Guehi basket, we have taken a big risk.

I don't get the argument that Palace have made some huge blunder by not taking the money like. Parish has done exactly what you'd want your owner to do, he's kept one of his best players. In a summer where they've already lost Olise and Anderson, keeping their club captain even for another season is worth missing out on the money.

Funnily enough his all round game looks a lot better but he's been less clinical than normal so far this season. If he can dust off his shooting boots he will be undroppable.

Starts on Sunday, for me. Looked by far our best player tonight.

Last 25 minutes or so I'd say that was the case, we were very poor before the subs When we find ourselves needing a goal we look a completely different side, as was often the case last season

Absolutely guarantee we'll play with high intensity against Spurs and look a completely different side, we just look so flat away from home and against weaker teams

Which is odd though, because those patterns of play came from these coaches It's hard to tell what we're trying to do when we go forward, unless it's a counter attack we're very aimless and terrified of having the ball

We have absolutely no structure to our play whatsoever at the moment, all of those clever little patterns of play we had in 2022/23 feel like a very distant memory. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what has changed and where it's going wrong.

Aye he definitely has a penchant for being right when it's bad news definitely not so good with positive news like I've always got the impression he wants the club to do well though, unlike Hope and a few others

Aye you just have to take Edwards with a pinch of salt and realise a lot of the time he's just on the wind up (or the wine). He's nowhere near as toxic with his reporting as Hope.

We seem to scout based on personality as much as footballing ability though. It may be that there are other targets out there with similar potential ability to Guehi, like Lacroix for example, but the club's interest is driven by more than that. Guehi is a leader and clearly a good egg too based on the way he has handled this transfer, also very popular amongst other players by all accounts.

I think the problem is that we've stopped doing it tbh. The intense high press was non existent in a lot of games last season (put down to injuries), and has been pretty much non-existent this season too. We aren't very good at developing play from the back, so without the turnovers we struggle.

It's not just to do with favours but also convincing players to go there. Not many of our deadwood strike me as the kind of guys that would up and move their families to Saudi.

Agree with this mostly. History should have no bearing on a football match. If you suddenly whacked a World XI in a Newcastle kit you wouldn't think "ooo but it's Bournemouth though, they usually do us". I think it's more that the teams they've recently had counteract our squad, style and system.