robbo_11

Their team bus was parked down the side yesterday so they'll have a short drive to the stadium, hardly seems worth it!

Steve Bruce. At the time the club just gaslit the fans into thinking this was a brilliant piece of business or bargain. We're always desperate for signings so you can make it seem attractive. It was a really underwhelming window and we're paying for that now. Ironically same window Lewis came in and he's just went out on loan.

Whilst the players mentioned aren't good enough, this is a symptom of the way the club was previously managed. I liked Saint-Maximin, but I just have to trust that the club will be smart and invest in players that longer term fit the way we want to play and when we do have to sell again we're not giving players away for free to get them off the books. For Fraser we actively targeted him due to his contract situation, at the time it would seem like a good deal due to the lack of a transfer fee so gave him a 5 year contract, but obviously it hasn't worked out. It was the same for Hendrick, a four year deal and free transfer, being hailed as great business with him being an experienced international by the manager. In all honesty, the window of 2020/21, Wilson aside, was shocking. We had enough funds to make a 'blow out' signing and the rest were attempted bargains under that management which at this stage has left us vulnerable because we've got dead wood.

With the following players out of contract at the end of the season including Dummett, Lascelles, Schar, Krafth, Manquillo, Wilson, Ritchie, Karius and Gillespie. The club priorities must be a CB, RB, LB, GK and ST?

He signed his professional contract with us back in May and only been described as a long term deal. It was the same for Anderson in September last year so you would think we're trying to tie them down for at least 4-5 years.

They've brought in a right back from Exeter this summer and have Kyle Naughton who is ageing. I guess on the face of it might be competition for him, but realistically you'd expect him to make the position his own with the potential. Fairly sure there was a Swansea fan on here who might know more.

I'm fairly sure it was Howe or Ashworth who said they're targeting players to come in that improve the first 11. With youth also incoming that they hope will challenge the squad in a season or two such as Minteh or Kuol. These two movements going forward are likely to dictate our current purchases as you would think Minteh is going to displace Murphy next season if he has a good experience at Feyenoord. If I was to look at the current squad, on the assumption we sign Barnes and Livramento, then the obvious place to strengthen this season would be a left back that is an upgrade on Burn and a centre back that is an upgrade on Schar. Given our current spend it might be that Tosin Adarabioyo or Harwood Bellis are in consideration based on profile we've gone for so far. Either way I like what we're doing. even losing ASM while disappointing I think we're going to have to get used to some decisions being difficult. Next season we could see Wilson go and I'm sure Ashworth has said they try to look three windows ahead...

Fair enough a lot of players not in the squad today with just coming back from their break such as Wilson, Isak, Botman, Almiron Joelinton, Bruno, Gordon, Tonali and then a few injured players like Willock and Pope. What has happened to Dummett, Lascelles, Murphy and Dubravka?

I agree. It's a bit nostalgic as you're either waiting for the local newspaper to come out the next day to follow the latest transfer story - I seem to remember Laurent Robert's arrival being on that took ages to get done. On the plus side the NUFC ITK accounts must be devastated!

I have a feeling we might make a move for Franca from Flamengo.

The High Performance podcast with Paul Barber was interesting as he discussed what made David Weir suitable as a loan manager before he then replaced Ashworth in his role. When looking at a loan move for the player they consider the style of the team, environment and the opportunity it would afford that player. They ideally what similar to what they do at Brighton so that when they return they can seamlessly reintegrate. We've sent players to Hearts, Hamilton, Exeter, Peterborough and then some of the players we couldn't sell to Norwich, Reading and Sheff United. It might be one for those Twitter analysts to look at the team metrics in Portugal, Belgium, Championship, League 1 and other leagues deemed suitable to see which clubs match our style of play on progressive passing and high intensity press. We'd at least be putting some thought into their development rather than just sending them to a former player of the club. For Kuol it might be worth spending a season with a club like Coventry or Middlesbrough who generally should be playing at the top end of the league.

According to Turkish press it is done and set to be announced at the end of our season. However £21m seems higher than the fee that was reported earlier, I thought he had a clause for £5m if he didn't make a set number of appearances this season.

I think for his first season as a regular in the Premier League at 19 he has shown enough. I'd like to think in a better team the basics that he does well would elevate him as we've seen with the likes of Schar who benefit from playing alongside a higher quality player. With us playing in four competitions next season we'll need a greater squad depth and he fit's the profile the club seem to be looking at.

That's Southampton effectively down now, Lavia in the summer please.

If we can get the ball out wide against Leeds could be another 3 or 4 goals for us when we play them.

Interesting that they've got a TGG conference this year where Dan Ashworth will be one of the speakers. In his podcast from 2020 (https://trainingground.guru/articles/dan-ashworth-inside-the-mind-of-a-technical-director) he spoke about being the middle of the wheel with heads of department. If we use their Brighton model with those job roles the key roles here would be: Eddie Howe - Men's First Team Becky Langley - Women's Steve Nickson - Head of Recruitment Steve Harper - Head of Academy Paul Catterson - Head of Medical Services Shola Ameobi - Loan's Manager ? - Psychology and Mental Wellbeing If he is building for medium to long term what kind of changes could we expect for these key roles?

Potentially similar to the 2001-03 ntl kit?

It will be interesting to see which club puts some content out showing some amazing fan engagement after this.

The idea about VAR with Howard Webb was to only get involved with clear and obvious judgements or 'light touch' as has been mentioned. The disallowed goal has been deemed as subjective based on the official, but VAR has intervened. Should it be the case that in this moment the VAR official should not have got involved and left it to the onfield referee? I know the Salah goal has been highlighted in this thread, but I'm sure there was a Fernandes goal where Rashford could have been deemed to be involved but VAR did not get involved.

A game where we were lacking at both ends and consistent with our recent run of form. I think we need a slight change, but hopefully not to the detriment that our overall play would be reduced. While I don't think Wilson had a great game this was in part due to Akanje who marshalled him well. Man City were decent today, but at the start of the second half that was symoblic of the entire match where it was just sloppy with poor possession and passing. The first goal of the game was poor defensively, the studio guests kept referencing 'pockets' and it became apparent that us allowing them space enabled Foden to drift inside and then cut into the box. I thought it was slightly harsh to blame just Botman for failing to get across, but the gap between our defenders was too big with no cover from a defensive midfielder. The chances that we had should have brought at least one goal and while we did well to create them it is that final clinical moment which we've lacked recently. The Wilson chance was poor as he snatched at it, Longstaff took too long with his opportunity and Joelinton arriving late failing to make any contact with the ball summed up the day. If we can make some changes to freshen up the first XI against Wolves I'd like to hope we should be able to win that game with a week break. I don't think Howe will make wholesale changes, but could see Willock coming in for Joelinton due to suspension and potentially Isak who impressed in his brief cameo turning Akanje instantly so would fancy him against Kilman or Dawson.

I think this summer will see quite a few changes with Ritchie, Gillespie and Dummett all going due to contracts expiring. You then will see offers being listened to for Fraser, Lascelles and Lewis too. With the staff we have at the club now always planning for the future, fairly sure they've already said they have planned this window, we will see some potential contract extensions and maybe a few surprises. The following are out of contract in 2024: - Schar - Wilson - Krafth - Manquillo - Almiron - Burn Eddie will have some decisions to make as he seems to like his leadership group, but the majority of these players will be moving on most likely in the next 18 months.

Is it a one game ban or three?

I think after that first 25 minutes the optimism is we didn't get hammered by 4/5 goals. We still managed to create some chances and arguably could have had 3 goals had Miggy, Wilson and Burn converted their chances. It was two quality assists from Liverpool, although the fact this was right through the centre of our defence is a concern. I think post match it was picked up, but the space in behind, given their pace, was poor from us. I think our high standards have slipped a little bit, but we've lost two Premier League matches all season and I'd expect teams will have a dip.

It should be an interesting month with European matches coming back in for a number of clubs. You would hope the extra games come into play with squad rotation, but might be opportunities for a new manager bounce if clubs appoint in next week or so. You would think Brentford fancy their chances and a few clashes between clubs in and around each other! Man United (46) - Barcelona (a), Leicester (h), Barcelona (h), Newcastle (n), West Ham (h), Liverpool (a), Southampton (h) Newcastle (41) - Liverpool (h), Man United (n), Man City (a), Wolves (h) Tottenham (39) - AC Milan (a), West Ham (h), Chelsea (h), Sheff United (a), Wolves (a), AC Milan (h), Nottingham Forest (h) Brighton (35) - Fulham (h), Stoke (a), West Ham (h), Leeds (a) Fulham (35) - Brighton (a), Wolves (h), Leeds (h), Brentford (a), Arsenal (h) Brentford (34) - Crystal Palace (h), Fulham (h), Everton (a)

Pretty sure the Fulham player tripped over a crisp packet before that last goal