robbo_11

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?

If they go down they'll lose some of the better players for no fee and financially seem like a huge hit is coming with relegation.

I think we should get a win and a draw out of these, but if we somehow lose them all then the next games would leave it rather uncomfortable.

Dan Burn and Chris Wood also getting pelters.

Tottenham improved in that second half, but there wasn't a reaction from us at all. Too many players were off their game and we were carved open in behind our full backs - I'd say Manquillo and Targett were both at fault for some of the goals (Doherty and Emerson) as they'd checked where the player was, but failed to do anything. The fifth goal was a combination of errors including Burn who rushed out unneccesarily and similar to the Iwobi goal three weeks ago. They need to review the game and focus on Wolves as the season still has some twists left. If Watford beat some of those clubs around us (Brentford, Leeds and Burnley) before the end of the month and we fail to get anything from our run of games it leaves us with a horrible run of games to go.

There seemed to be a gap between our centrebacks and full backs which Spurs carved open. You'd see Burn out of position trying to get across and just not being able to keep up. We need to keep it simple and keep compact - he was poor today as were a number of players.

No appearance and 11 consecutive games on the bench. We have to improve our young player development, too many loan spells are resulting in a lack of game. Currently 0-1 against WBA U23s too.

The bids are in for Chelsea https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60800380 Who are the potential bidders for Chelsea? A consortium led by ex-Liverpool chairman Sir Martin Broughton, and joined by London 2012 chief Lord Coe. The Ricketts family, who own Major League Baseball team the Chicago Cubs, are leading a bid from a group of investors. Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and US businessman Todd Boehly have formed part of a consortium to try to take over Chelsea. Now joined by American PR executive Barbara Charone, British businessman Jonathan Goldstein and British journalist Daniel Finkelstein. London-based investment firm Aethel Partners, headed by Portuguese entrepreneur Ricardo Silva. British multi-millionaire businessman Nick Candy, supported by former Chelsea striker Gianluca Vialli, who co-owns Tifosy, a mergers and acquisitions company for the football sector, and joined by Hana Financial Group and C&P Sports Group. Other parties reported to be interested include US billionaire and Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris, who has a stake in Crystal Palace, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and a Saudi Arabia-based consortium.

I thought at the start of the week the bottom three would be as it currently is and I think those clubs will go down. Everton and then Leeds tonight will have given themselves some confidence over this international break. As always, anything could happen but it would be some run from one of the current bottom three to drag us into it and that also means us failing to pick up anymore points. Watford - Liverpool (a), Leeds (h), Brentford (h), Man City (a) - 2 points Norwich - Brighton (a), Burnley (h), Man United (h), Newcastle (h) - 1 point Burnley - Man City (a), Everton (h), Norwich (a), West Ham (a), Southampton (h), Wolves (h) - 6 points Leeds - Southampton (h), Watford (a), Chelsea (h), Crystal Palace (h) - 5 points Everton - West Ham (a), Burnley (a), Man United (h), Leicester (h) - 2 points Brentford - Leicester (a), Chelsea (a), West Ham (h), Watford (a), Tottenham (h) - 1 point Newcastle - 39* Leeds - 34 Brentford - 31 Everton - 27 Burnley - 27 Watford - 24 Norwich - 18 I think by the end of April we should have secured safety given the fixture run in.

Is the CEO rumour about Susan Whelan coming in rubbish?

I'm sticking with the 14th March being key to how the table will look, but we've won both our games so far and you only have to look at Leeds and Everton form to have concerns for them both. Everton lose and Leeds pick up two wins as above will make it very interesting!

On current form a game we should be looking at for three points, horrendous few years when playing Brighton in the Premier League so could see a 1-1 outcome. Hopefully an opportunity to bring Bruno, Manquillo and ASM in ahead of a busy fixture list.

Probabaly always crucial, but by 14tth/15th March the table will give us a good idea of how teams are fairing. We could see a bottom three that includes Norwich, Watford and Leeds on current form and fixtures. A draw on Saturday and we beat Brighton would still give us a decent position if others fail to pick up points.