brummie

The manager only seems to understand 3-4-3, which almost never works in the PL and in any case effectively becomes 5-4-1, only when they've got some shit like Zirkzee up front, it's 5-4-0. And a squad which is horrendously lopsided. Imagine paying 65m for Antony. Jesus mary. And then they had Martial sucking up pure cash for almost 10 years. Fuck them, I hope they never recover.

TBH we'd be more likely to splash it on Antonio, better injury record.

He might have, but not when we're in with a very good chance to qualify for the CL last 16 directly, and it's the January market for anyone else we want to bring in. And again, the only reason we'd cash in is because of the limits of FFP - as for anyone - but really, it only becomes an unanswerable argument if you're going to bank 80 or 90m. You've got Isak, if Duran was your second option, and you were in the CL still, would you sell him, in January? It would make zero sense.

No. We've got Watkins and then nobody up front. This is the thing for clubs like us and you, we need to stop thinking we can't have more than one really good player in a given position.

As I said here in the summer, he's a twat who doesn't get the idea of not immediately becoming number 1 striker, and was involved in some 'throw a party, wreck your rented house' nastiness over the summer too. He seems to have calmed down now. He just signed till 2030 too, so clearly, we're looking at big style cashing in - just not yet, and for more than West Ham have, as he's very good. He's such a fuckwit, though, any team thinking of building anything around him long term would be absolutely nuts, so you're kind of right there. Someone much bigger than West Ham will come along, with much more money, and he'll be turned and then he'll be off. Just not now, though.

Nah, absolutely not a prayer, this is peak Sullivan behaviour.

Pickford.

The defending for Brighton's second was absolutely world class fucking rubbish. Brilliant stuff.

Just watched the highlights, Bournemouth were outstanding. They would have beaten just about everyone today. They were like that against us, got a 96th minute equaliser but tbh they were unfortunate to have been losing in the first place. They're tenacious as fuck too, what a great job that guy is doing.

He won't be going for anything unless it's insane, mind blowing money - as in, stupid money. Signed a new contract a few months ago.

Maatsen has had Digne in front of him playing better than he ever has - that's the idea, two quality players in each position. We've played 30 matches already this season, and he's (Maatsen) featured in at least 20 of them.

Not really. Look at Cameron Archer and Philogene, both home grown players since they were children, both of whom we have now sold twice. Archer - sold him to Sheffield United for 19m, they paid 9m up front with the agreement that if they went down, they could send him back and not pay the other 10m. They sent him back, so we sold him again, to Southampton for £15m. £25m for selling the same player twice. Philogene - sold him to Hull for £5m with an agreement we get a 30% discount on what anyone else will pay if they want to sell him in future. Ipswich offered them £18m for him, we took the option and brought him back for 13m and are now selling him again for £20m - to Ipswich, which is kind of funny. Diego Carlos is a Gerrard signing, so no big surprise there, it's not like the same manager bought him and moved him on, he's clearly just not up to it. Onana has done very well but been injured, Maatsen has done very well coming in for Digne. The only place you could really point and say we should have replaced him is probably Diaby. The reason he's looking at Malen, I think, is Bailey's form has fallen off a cliff this season, and Malen is a bit of a Bailey / Diaby hybrid so it makes sense. The big hole, really, in the transfers is at right back. Cash just isn't good enough, Nejdelkovic looks really promising but isn't really ready yet, and if he plays Konsa there, it's not his natural position (though he does OK there) but that also forces him to play Carlos as the right sided CB. The thing to remember is, all of the above is done whilst pushing PSR to the absolute limit. It's absolute fucking horseshit that it means we're forced to wheel and deal like this in the first place.

I want to buy one of those black shirts.

I hate this fixture. I used to hate it when i lived in Newcastle, too. It never went well. It's just one of those places where I always think "it's going badly" with no reference whatsoever to league form. Having said that, it's going to be a draw. 2-2. Get on that straight away, that's some serious free money for you. We are slowly emerging from the first rough period under Emery. We've started to recover from some injury problems and had Onana and Kamara together for the first time in ages yesterday. It's not a continual upwards progression, there will be ups and there will be downs (I said that on here re you a while back, and got shot down with 'that's easy to say when you're doing well', but I still believe it, and do so now it is us coming out of a rough patch). That goes for both sides, so who knows how it will pan out.

he has been out injured for a while. He’s done very well. He does get caught up in the “we really needed a right back so why have we spent so much money on him?” argument which is about PSR limitations. Notably as Kamara was out so long, we didn’t get the chance to play Onana and Kamara as the defensive duo until now. Kamara is a fantastic player and him alongside Luiz was a big reason we did well last year. We sold Luiz (right decision) and Onana was to fill that role.