robbo_11

Given the amount of strikes in multiple sectors it is probably just to avoid being slammed for blaming anyone for the re-arrangement. I think another club had to postpone a match due to rail strikes, but it was a similarly bland statement.

I think Portugal was mentioned as most likely destination prior to the World Cup, but it might be that he has caught the eye of other clubs. You would imagine if it is Portugal it might be a club like Sporting Braga, Vitoria Guimaraes or Rio Ave who are in and around the top half of the table, but not quite your Benfica or Porto.

That tweet seems to have watched the podcast about Velez and made their tweet from that. I'm not sure if any Spanish speakers on here, but around 8 minutes in they are discussing if Perrone is a done deal.

Trippier just seems like he is cut from a different cloth, probably that leadership role as well give the situation we found ourselves in. It seems like once Bruce left we had a team that want to be coached, but motivation levels were all over the place. We've only seen Isak briefly, the transfer sort of came out of the blue and hopefully in the second half of the season we can bed him into the team. Oddly despite such a great first half of the season I don't think he will have been involved in a game we've won yet so surely the best is yet to come for him!

After a prolonged transfer, will he come here or Milan initially, his performances over this first half of the season have already shown this could be a fantastic long term signing for us. He seems to have settled in well and just comes across as a composed performer either through tackling, passing or reading the game as the last line of defence. A poster above highlighted this when Chelsea did find some space yesterday he jostled with Broja and eventually managed to get a foot in to allow Trippier, Burn and Schar to get back to support as a defensive unit. Unbelievably I don't think he has tasted defeat yet and with Holland opting not to take him to the World Cup we may benefit from some additional time with him being able to spend some time at home and enjoy the mid season training camp from a team bonding perspective. On the few occasions we have conceeded you can see from his reaction he is absolutely furious when it looked like it should have been another clean sheet. We've got a really great player on our hands who I hope can only get better. His relationship with Schar is brilliant, but longer term I think we will be due an upgrade just due to Schar age and potentially the amount of games coming up should we qualify for Europe or progress in domestic cups. Well done Steve Nickson, Eddie Howe and Sven!

A small touch, but was nice to see a clip of our new CEO at the end of the game congratulating the players and staff. Just need to keep this togetherness.

I wonder if he was 'ill' for the cup game to avoid being cup tied for those fixtures? Realistically hard to shift De Gea so may get 5-10 cup games if he does make the move.

Can only assume that with Howe saying it is out of his hands Dubravka and his agent are angling for the move. It doesn't make a great deal of sense from the club's perspective, but unlikely to keep him happy as No 2 in longer term.

Yellow ticker

He is a doubt for their match tomorrow after missing training. Surely the bid must be Wolves?

They were all sitting together in the directors box - pretty sure Steve Nickson was also there but just caught a glimpse as they were surrounded by security. Interesting the bid for Maddison also leaked after apparently going in yesterday too. At least it is miles away from when it was Lee Charnley, Justin Barnes and Keith Bishop calling the shots!

Good to see Darren Eales is here for these matches before officially starting. Hopefully a double header with over 80,000 in attendance gives him a good first impression.

If we make a signing he won't make the 25. He has no end product, poor composure, yesterday his passing and control were atrocious. He does well at times when moving us up the pitch, but usually fails when it comes to releasing the ball (there was an opportunity with Fraser yesterday where he just got it totally wrong).

He was caught out, but if we look at being down to 10 men the ball might not even arrived to their player as Murphy had tucked in to cover the gap Joelinton had left and Bondswell ended up having to get pulled out to the left to force them to play. It's a friendly, we learn aspects of squad through these experiences and hopefully can tweak the shape as we move on. We seemed to play a 4-2-3-1 when not in possession which was working until the red card.

Poor game management from him. The first yellow he wouldn't leave the referee error and then the second yellow he was late to the tackle. It didn't seem the the ref had stopped them game so almost a reaction based on what Otamendi was telling him.

Oba Martins just under rock and James Milner next to that one

It seems to be that various player moves trigger another deal to happen so if Leeds get the lad from PSG then it might be that Ekitike move progresses with them. I wouldn't mind Konrad Laimer from Leipzig as seems like deal to Bayern hasn't gone through yet - one year left on his contract and cost is between €20-30m.

Probably a solid model for Liverpool, Bobby Clark well thought of as well so seems like they will have some talented youth players in their ranks.

Max Aarons from Norwich as understudy to Trippier?

Just scored to make it 4-3

Isn't Eldridge the one Keith claimed was trying to block our takeover with Spurs?

It sounds like he has been after a club for years, links back to 2015 with Villa and resurfaced again in 2019 for Tottenham and Chelsea.

A very good performance last night from him, thought he was man of the match.

Watford concede a last minute goal to lose, Burnley sacking their manager hoping for a bounce and Norwich trying but failing to hold on. We might as well just enjoy the rest of the season. The chase for 9th?