afar

Who's idea was the "never defeated" flag ? Everything else looked great, but ffs that one with the run of form we are on was a bit silly, it was the focus for the TV cameras too of course. Hopefully that one stays in the lock up or wherever tonight. Seems to have caused a bit of a commotion over there, not that they are in any position to take the piss with their form and empty stadium: https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/delusion-on-an-unprecedented-scale-from-the-mags.1407316/

Douglas certainly loves a piece of Rafa doesn't he? Not that he's not totally right here mind.

Be interesting to see if he stays with 442, as both strikers scored against Leicester. I hope not, we need to tighten up .

That's awesome.

Just interested to see where are priorities lie. I'm clueless right now where Rafa sees we need investment most. I just hope we do as much business early on in the window as possible , we've got some winnable games coming up in January so the quicker we strengthen the better.

It's too widespread not to be as good as done, hand shake agreement would be my guess, with official paperwork being drawn up now.

I'm not saying he's bad or good, just that most people don't know how his career will turn out unless they've seen him for a prolonged period. That or they would need to observe him day in day out behind the scenes. The fact is we in essence traded Mbabu in for Lazaar, Gamez, Yedlin and Manquillo of those 4 only one looks like he has more potential or worth the investment over Mbabu. Not saying we should have kept him but the replacements have largely been underwhelming.

It's the lead story on both bbc sport and skysports

Does the poll need a reset ? All hail the king !

Fantastic news, surely there is nothing now to stop this one getting over the line. So how long does the fit and proper process take ? Wonder if they run that against Amanda and PCP or the actually buyers whomever they are ? Perhaps PCP will continue to front this post purchase ?

If that's true, we are fucked, no way he'll invest anywhere near the amount of money we need and Rafa will just get more and more disgruntled the closer we get to the end of the window, he'll not want another relegation on his CV, however out of his control either were. Rafa will be gone before he's booked a table for two for valentines, if this is anywhere near the truth.

The assumption is that if we have some decent money to spend we'll be safe, is that really a fair assumption to make ? 17 million net spend in the summer brought in very limited quality and didn't improve our overall squad ? If there is no takeover is Ashley going to commit to spending the same in January, a window he has always maintain you get no value in ? Where do you spend 17 - 20 million ? A few weeks ago you would be crazy not to say at number 10 or up top. Now suddenly the defence is probably our most worrying aspect, but can you really fix that with short term purchases ? A new CB ? Yet another full back ? Will that solve the problems we have shipping goals. Is it all just because we need a big upgrade at GK ? In all, it's more than just "throw some money at it and it'll fix the problems" for me. We've been set up poorly in recent games, the team selections have been poor and too many players have been horribly out of form. Rafa has to get them back to playing the way we were at the start of the season, defensive first and foremost, concentrating on giving little away at the back, even when we lost against Spuds, Huddersfield and elsewhere, we didn't give up a bunch of chances. Now we are so wide open that a clean sheet seems impossible. Against Everton, I would much prefer to see a 0-0 than a 3-3 or something because we need to first and foremost get back to what we've been good at under Rafa. Who else will be in a position to buy in January ? I think both the other promoted sides Brighton and Huddersfield over extended themselves a little in the summer and are struggling (although Brighton almost bought a big money striker on deadline day). I'm doubtful either will be looking to spend more. West Ham and Palace both spent some money in the summer, but probably do have some kitty to work with and probably would be prepared to spend it to save their PL status. Swansea brought a lot in through the sale of Sigurdson, which they may want to reinvest but may not want to take the risk. Stoke need investment too and probably have the capacity to spend. West Brom are probably in the same situation as Stoke. At the end of the day our rivals won't be sitting on their fingers either they will invest, we have to spend just to keep up let alone improve and we have to spend wisely, prioritise positions of need, focus on getting them in as early in the window as possible. But at the same time work a lot harder in training on our approach to games and team set up, which frankly hasn't been good enough over the last 8 games or so where we've amassed one point. Three teams need to be worse than us, I can see Brighton and Huddersfield being two teams we can overhaul and are not likely to be big players in the window, Swansea have been in horrible form until Pardew rolled into town, hopefully that doesn't give them the lift. Palace and West Ham have found some form and are likely to get out of it I feel. West Brom haven't yet gotten Pardew usual start boost, hope is that that never arrives. Stoke have the quality to get out of the mess they are in, they are capable of putting together a little run that will push them up the table and I think they will do it. Still a lot of other teams in as much of a mess as we are, we've simply got to pick up though and win those games against the teams around us, we've still got Brom, Swansea, Brighton and Huddersfield to play at home this season, got to make the most out of those games and also pick up points some place else, we are still a long way from 40 points and almost at the halfway mark.

Seems like we are playing teams at the wrong time right now, Leicester and Everton have both picked up considerably from the start of the season, we've got West Hm in a couple of games just as they've picked up too. Any news on Lascelles ? Vital he starts this one, if not I would still drop Lejuene and bring in Mbemba. Gladly settle for a boring 0-0 here if it were offered.

So there was no press conference at 3pm then and we can therefore officially class HTT as a WUM ?

Huge Jinx man.

You wish The takeover or Dutchman ? Unbelievable is a Dutchman. i know dude....

You wish The takeover or Dutchman ?

If the takeover goes ahead and the money comes through, then he'll be an excellent signing, but he's raw right now and needs a lot of time and patience to develop.

HTT is alot of things but he's not a WUM, I trust him here, this is great news and desperately needed if true, who's your source ?

What a load of shit. He's not doing well enough right now with the sub standard tools he's been given. He's got to take his slice of the blame for where we are now, doesn't mean I want him out, far from it. But he has to improve, like everyone else associated with this rotten football club right now.

Yeah exactly the same.. smh.

Yeah, it always works out well when you write off a player after what, 6-7 games. Give him a chance FFS! There are plenty of players who cost 5-6 times what Lejuene cost who have also struggled to adapt to the pace of the PL. We don't have the luxury of waiting to see if he adapts, he's costing us points at the moment and he needs to be dropped, as a mater of urgency.

Best game he's played for us ironically, not a very high bar though.

They are totally relevant, no one is paying 300 million for a champo club, no one.

What a load of shit man.