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Gordon has come on and managed to injure himself ....

He's certainly been better than Rice in that regard, but still too slow and cautious IMO. Not looked to break the lines enough with any urgency.

It is painful. Don't think Rice and Jones are good enough to consistently transition things from the defence to the forward players.

Is it a tactical thing? Or are they just playing passively? I can't get my head round how slow and tedious it is. Will be interesting to see how Gordon and Bowen look coming on instead now.

Man ... this is poor.

Don't think Sheringham was impressed

This is still pretty slow and overly cautious build up I think. Too hesitant to play passes between the lines with any urgency.

Every game same thing. With some sideways and backwards passes mixed in.

I was saying to someone the other day he's a left footed Mason Mount. Finishes well, if someone can get the ball to him in the final third, but doesn't offer much else.

Pickford is so dumb.

The guy used to skip off to Portugal every international break man. Complete and utter piss taker.

This actually makes me angry even now How many years has he managed now getting paid God knows what. Stealing a living. Remember Jones getting a lot of credit and then they stuck him in the back or something. Absolutely pathetic.

Yeah, it does seem our scouts tend to be on the right track a lot of the time, and it's something we need to take advantage of.

Yeah, but it's those big fee signings that have screwed them over. They hardly ever buy at any kind of decent value. They even managed to overpay massively for unproven players. Due to PSR we'd be even more screwed if we go down that route. I think we need to be more balanced, especially as the squad on the whole needs improving, with European competition now also in play.

Yeah, it's about finding value, which doesn't have to be some teenage kid necessarily. The likes of CHO, Milenkovic, Kluivert, Gomes etc were really good signings of a decent age and experience from different leagues that were good enough and we're signed at really good value.

Think Liverpool's success had more to with the players they managed to get in at much better value tbh. Man United have been going big in proven the most probably, and have ended up in the dirt.

I'm the lead up to January we were most linked with Khusanov, Bah and Ordonez at Brugge that all fit a similar profile. Man City muscled in on both Khusanov and Bah. I imagine Ordonez will still be on the list and others will have been added on by the summer. Ordonez at Brugge was the replacement for that Diomande at Sporting I believe, who they had previously, and who we also liked but is now very expensive. So makes sense we've been looking at this guy before he makes a bigger move.

I don't understand this sort of thinking. We might as well just get rid of all of the scouting and recruitment staff then, if this is what we're going to do. At some point you have to believe in and back the work they put in. Spending almost 3 times the amount he cost just last year, will not be a sustainable strategy going forward with signings, and would likely mean we continue to end up with some quality in the first team and a poor squad because we won't have enough money to improve other areas enough. Not to mention that if we do buy a talented player that we like for a cheaper fee and wages, like we should have done with Huijsen last year, if they don't work out, it's far easier to fix that as the outlay isn't as damaging.

Funnily enough that Sindre Walle Egeli has been linked with us going back to the end of last year and it popped up again recently.

Yeah, this is what I'm anticipating too.

He's a classy guy. Even when we were in for him at Sociedad I remember reading that he was quite calm about things and would be happy to stay if a deal couldn't be agreed/finalised.

What the heck?! One of their heroes leaving for a second division Saudi side. My word. Well that thread on their forums will be an interesting read, as they love the Saudi's so much I remember reading that he turned us down due to the financial package on offer, so this kind of makes sense, as I'm sure they will be paying him loads.

As for Newcastle. Has to be the Champions League ideally. The money from all those games would be huge. The new format also increases the chances of progressing through.