Ketsbaia

Not been overly impressed with Ashworth's five minutes here, so let's take the money, make him wait + ultimately replace him with someone better. Easy peasy.

Spurs, Villa, Wham, Fulham, Brentford and Burnley are guaranteed for GW29, with either Luton v Forest or Man Utd v Sheff Utd likely joining them.

Tosin, absolutely Considering our financial position, we should be all over the better free transfers in order to bolster squad depth.

Depends if Burn starts.

Hopefully Howe's eyes have been opened, here.

There's been times when Howe would rather make no sub and let his XI run themselves into the ground than bring on Hall. When Bruno gets his inevitable two-match suspension and we're low on midfielders, Howe will still find a way to not use Hall.

It's a modern phenomenon where - no matter how often they lose or have a bad period - these eventual 3 points always puts them back to 6th or 7th. They just won't flush.

Best to assume Brighton signings will go well. They're modern masters.

Chuffed to see the back of that twat. Massive news.

£20m-ish is fine for Wilson but I don't get the reasoning for purposely having even fewer strikers. And to a PL rival as well.

Surely JWP-Soucek-Alvarez remains Wham's first-choice midfield? So Phillips is just adding depth.

I'm not a Miggy fan but, considering all the shite that goes for big money these days, £30m is a very fair asking price imo. Would love someone like Pedro Neto, Raphinha, Roony, Soule, Marcus Edwards or Nico Williams but not sure how realistic they'll be.

Merry Christmas, everyone

Been away all weekend so only just realised the rumoured fee is so low. Anything below £20m can get lost tbh. Hopefully this pushes their Mukiele deal through.

Stick a fork in us, we're done Unless we bring in 2 or 3 centre mids, it's a mid-table finish. God knows what that means for our departure lounge. Sorry to be negative but how can it be anything else right now. We thought this was the start of something special but this season could be a big setback.

Good up to a point, yes. But generally sick of this repetitive late heartbreak. Tactically, is this all we've got?

This not the Wearside! thread?

Aye homegrown players is a tough one: best sales for FFP but needed for European squads. We need midfielders + it can't be Bruno, Joelinton, Tonali or Miley to depart. May have to sell either Longstaff or Anderson.

He's class, like. Chuffed that he's set for decades of chants.

Won't be watching this from Italy. Could probably VPN it but feel it's better emotionally to try and distract myself, it's the first time I've ever been with my fiancé on her birthday. Determined not to ruin it for her.

Not really feeling it for this one, mind. I used to get quite tribal for those 2010-2016 derbies but, after a year of many big matches, this is just another game, one without many consequences. They've beaten us before, we've beaten them. Probably won't win the cup anyway. Although today's stuff was pretty damn funny

Gutted that this is all getting to Howe. Questionable tactics, increasingly bizarre decision-making, blind loyalty..... there's obviously a big asterisk next to all this due to injuries but I thought he was more adaptable and competent than this.

With a heavily optimistic mindset, it could maybe be 6th. But we're probably talking 7th at best, which is a massive shame. All it took was one bad month.

It's scary how quickly things have turned. 3 weeks ago, we were fans of a Champions League team and checking UEFA co-ordinates to see if 5th would be good enough to qualify next season. Now we're 9th, about to face Liverpool, Man City and Aston Villa. There's a pretty decent chance that we'll enter February in 11th/12th place, as teams like Chelsea, Wolves and Bournemouth are close by. Our mostly-fit squad playing once a week should put together a strong run in the later months - I'm confident of that - but it feels like it's a fight for 7th, possibly 6th at a stretch.

Old Yeller is fresh in the mind, for some reason....