KaKa

Longstaff is killing us.

Longstaff man ...

Lloyd Kelly assist

That ref break predictably messed up our momentum.

Just one change has made all the difference in just one position. Pretty crazy when you think about it, but been pretty obvious for a while. Glad Howe saw the problem and went with a solution loads were dead against!

With pace!

Gordon on set pieces makes me so happy.

Great defensive line.

Funny how much more capable we've started with two dangerous wide men on the pitch.

Barnes finished really strongly on the right against Forest, and was linking up really nicely with Livramento. He actually did better on that right side than Gordon did last game. I'd probably start with him there instead, but either should be fine really, and much better than the alternative options.

You are not paying attention or reading the posts properly, and so you are completely missing the point. It is a complete waste of time even engaging with you.

Good to see Gordon and Barnes start. We really need wide men that can carry the ball forward on the right, with Longstaff playing and Trippier not starting. Be really interesting to see how this goes. I think we'll be good. Having Tonali and Trippier on the bench as options is great.

I can see you didn't actually read my post. The first thing I said was that this wasn't an argument that we should buy him! I am talking about valuations of players in the Premier League that have produced. We have known for years that these players valuations are the highest. And so people being surprised that a 21 year old already producing is in the £50 million range makes no sense. Olmo has never played in the Premier League and Olise actually cost £60 million plus further add ons. There's a reason Man City had to fork out £100 million for Grealish and were paying £50 million for full backs from the Premier League years ago.

It is crazy to both of you because you're speaking from your own personal feelings. You are fast asleep, and not paying attention to what is happening in the transfer market.

Hope Eddie picks the right team to start with from the outset. That right side of the team has caused us problems this season. If we start as poorly as we did against Southampton and Bournemouth because of it, think the atmosphere will be really bad, coming off the back of a poor window.

This is a great point. Showing up on the last day doesn't help. It's all so infuriating really.

Yeah, I was responding to the comments about the fee. I agree about the strategy. We miss out on these guys a lot lately, when they are much more affordable. It's how we started off, but now we've gone away from it, and I hate that. However, it seems we're now committed to Prem proven, which quite frankly is pretty ridiculous. I love production especially at that young an age. There's still a ton of room for growth and improvement. We saw it last season with our guy, whose production and underlying numbers were even worse at his previous club.

I'm not arguing that we should have signed him though. My point was that whether you like us going for him now or not, the £50 million is not a crazy value, when you look around at what is going on in the market. Also, if you want a player producing the goods in the league, you're going to have to pay up. If he shows up at your club and does even better your team does better, and his value increases further. Getting hung up on what the previous team paid for him doesn't make sense. That ship has sailed. Oddly enough I remember wondering if we should have taken a punt at the time, but we were asleep. We only paid £10 million less for Gordon, who had shown no production, or underlying numbers at Everton. To much complaining and hand wringing. But now if anyone shows up for Gordon, they have to pony up, what, £80 million?, because he performed. I doubt we'd care if Everton had bought him for £5 million from Scunthorpe the year before.

This has nothing to do with anything. Elanga at 21 produced in the Premier League last season to the tune of 5 goals and 9 assists. I'm not sure why there is such a surprise at a £50 million value. What Forest paid for him doesn't have anything to do with it. Rutter, Gordon and Minteh went for high figures not a million miles away from that and have not done, or in Gordon's case at the time, had not done anything close to what Elanga did last season. You say they were distressed sellers and yet they all cost that much still, despite not performing comparably.

We sold Minteh for £30 million. Georginio Rutter went for £40 million. We ourselves paid £40 million for Gordon, who similar to what is being said about Elanga now, was being described as just being fast and not good enough technically. Elanga at the age of 21, in his first ever season as a first team player in the Premier League finished with 5 goals and 9 assists. In our team, playing for our manager alongside the likes of Isak, Bruno, Tonali etc. what does he look like? What does he become going forward? 3 years from now he will still just be 25 years old. I keep seeing players like Elanga, Mbeumo, Semenyo, Wissa, Madueke etc get downplayed all the time. They're not technical enough I keep hearing. Yeah, but they are very explosive and also, pretty productive too, especially for teams not as good as ours, where you'd expect them to be even better for us. I see opinions on Mbeumo starting to change, as he's off to a flyer, and looking like he's going to have a great season, and this without Toney even in the team. I want to revisit the Elanga thing at the end of the season. And let's then see what the consensus is. In the meantime we'll continue with Almiron and Murphy being scared to dribble the ball, and passing it backwards instead of taking on the full back.

LOL!!!

Dyche going to get sacked surely?

Semenyo scores his second of the season. Right wingers having a ball everywhere.

Yoane Wissa scores. Another derided by some.

I have no idea man. We were strongly linked a few years ago, and I imagine he's on Nickson's database, even just from watching Botman at Lille. I wish we would, but I doubt we will.