thenige

I mean you can like as it was him who was responsible for that. He was pissing about starting Jake Livermore and Jack Cork. Yeah at points of the season when Shelvey wasn't particularly worthy of a call-up. A year in the Championship followed by a pretty crap start to the season meant he wasn't even a guaranteed pick for us. Did very little prior to the September/October games to warrant selection and by November Rafa had dropped him. Only real chance he would have had was for the two games in March which were both friendlies by which point nobody was realistically going to break into the setup for the WC who hadn't already been involved.

Hasn't played an international match in a couple of years and has extremely limited experience of playing in European competitions. Can't blame Southgate really for leaving out a player who hasn't been in an England squad at any point during qualification, even if he has had a good season. Personally don't think his game particularly suits Southgate's tactics anyway. Whether or not they're particularly the right tactics to be playing with the players he has available is another argument entirely. At least as a manager he's mainly been sticking by his principles.

Looked our best player during pre-season, was gutted when he picked up that early injury.

As long as he gets his head down and listens to Rafa really think he can be a success here. My biggest worries are if his confidence becomes totally shot and the crowd get on him, or he gets so frustrated with lack of first team starts he goes off the rails with outside distractions. Saying that, doesn’t strike me as the sort of character for the latter so fingers crossed after a solid pre-season he’s pushing hard to be involved.

Yeah came on to say this and add that his performances have definitely gone a bit under the radar. Would look to move Clark on as he really proved to me earlier this season he’ll just never be a Premier League quality player. His positional sense lets him down so often at this level. Would keep the current CB partnership (assuming a bigger side don’t come in for Lascelles) and get someone else in as a backup/prospect given Mbemba seems to have been written off entirely now.

Given Chelsea's past record it's not completely unrealistic we could just loan him again for next season (albeit likely with some kind of fee involved).

With a quality striker I think without injuries we really should make the top 10 with the same team (that's assuming we keep the two loanees we want). With a bit of investment on top of this (full backs, number 10 and a quality CM) then we could solidly make the top 8. The gap between the top 8 (Burnley excluded somewhat) and the rest is so large I can see why from a business perspective Ashley wants to spend fuck all.

Hence why Joselu was £6m. Not even half a functioning one.

Think he's part of the reason why we've struggled the last few games as he's gone off the boil a bit. Seems determined to always cut inside despite in doing so he's moving onto his vastly weaker foot. Made a massive difference, but has really struggled to make it through entire games. Can't remember him being particularly effective in the last 30 minutes or so of games (albeit missed the Huddersfield game this year, where he reportedly did do well). Has the odd flash perhaps, but really think his lack of starts over the last few years have really hurt him. His next move will be crucial for his development and probably needs a team like us as much as we need a creative outlet like him. Can see him moving to a 'bigger' club and just falling away completely under the wrong management. Really think £20m is crazy money even in the current market for a player who's played about 20 games in two seasons. Hope we do end up with him for a reasonable fee and he develops even more as he'll make us a better side, but if it does end up being crazy money or he gets his head turned I still think we could find an equally good player for a more reasonable fee.

Not sure I'd want Lamela. Stokes spending should be a message on that regard. I would argue Stoke were more undone by the shit sandwich of Hughes and Lambert than their (admittedly poor) spending. But the principal of the haves versus the have nots remains.

Always this time of year I’m reminded just how unfair and unbalanced football is. They bring on £30m Lemela, we bring on Joselu who’s worth about the same as a KFC bargain bucket. Ugh. Bring on next season I suppose.

Just think he looks lacking in confidence at the moment. Needs some game time and the crowd need to stay off his back so he doesn't go the way of someone like Thauvin!

So I assume Dawson has also got a three match ban for deliberately treading on Slimani's foot?

Was made captain at PSV this season. Absolutely mental that a player in on loan is your club captain

If this is Rafa’s plan to show how far we are off the pace despite staying up, he’s done a cracking job. Not sure any of our players could say they had a good game from that.

Yeah in fairness to a player I don’t especially rate, that ball by Livermore was bloody magnificent.

Just quite haven’t got to grips with games where we should be taking it to the opposition. Just have a side with more experience at and that arguably works better on the break. Bit lethargic which is worrying. Think Yedlin has definitely become my most sworn at player this season.

I think the video above is a large reason why he was frozen out. Rafa just doesn't trust his temperament and who can blame him?

Just have to feel sorry for Everton after that. Wouldn’t wish Fat Sam on my worst enemy.

If referees were football teams he’d be West Brom after how shit he wasn’t tonight. Considering how poor both us and Everton were, took some doing to put in the worst performance on the pitch.

Yeah I agree with this, especially if talk of a relegation release clause is true.

I think he’s been spot on for us this season but can see why he’s been overlooked given what Southgate’s trying to build. Lejeune and Lascelles really have played safety first defending which has been perfect for us, but hasn’t really showcased his abilities for a possession based stint in the World Cup. From a wholly selfish perspective, seemed in the fairly recent past when we’ve had players with England call-ups (Owen crocked, Jenas and his goldfish bowl) it’s done us no favours, so long may his overlooking continue.

Think Rondon is much better than he's given credit for. Playing for WBA under some of the manager's they've had it's unsurprising he hasn't scored more. Could see him having a goal every other game record at most mid-table sides so we should definitely consider it.

Whisper it, but not a million miles away from going to the World Cup this summer with England. Where every tackle he makes probably gets penalised by non-Premier League referees. Like Shola when he played in Europe. Every time he jumped it seemed to be a foul.