ponsaelius

Ipswich are actually just shite. Will go down by about 7-8 points in the end once Everton and Wolves put some wins together.

Given it's been reported by multiple reliable journalists, and Juve's sporting director previously wanted to sign him for Napoli, I'd say it's definitely not absolute bollocks. Whether the fee is enough for us to sell or the player goes for it is another thing entirely.

I'm not sure he is a better CB than full back tbh. The West Ham game he didn't look comfortable in the position at all, reading of the game particularly aerially looked really poor. Possibly a player that would suit a back three.

Take quite a turnaround for them to even finish top half now.

Think DCL will end up doing better under Moyes and Everton will end up offering him the money to keep him. They've got a lot of aging players out of contract particularly in midfield and a big rebuilding job to do, could probably do without needing to buy a new striker as well.

Very unlikely but I'd absolutely love if Athletic could somehow get themselves in the title race. The other three do keep faltering.

Just clocked Southampton's goal difference

Everton 4 points behind Spurs with a game in hand is astonishing like

I'm sure he's OK, don't get me wrong, but we have 2 left backs and two LCBs in addition to him. Even if the reported wages are well wide of the mark they will be relatively high given the free agency and he is basically a poor allocation of resources and you could absolutely see him being one of those players we end up stuck with in a few years. Don't forget he's had injury problems too. If you can get a solid cash offer that frees up mobility in the market elsewhere I think you've got to seriously think about it.

If we can get 25 million for Almiron and Kelly surely we can do at least one deal FFS?

Juve transfer business under Giuntoli is so bad, I can absolutely believe it.

He's been playing in a back four for weeks, now a back three. Definitely been hung out to dry by their injuries.

Imagine if we don't beat Southampton

He's playing in a back three isn't he?

Feels like a total piece of cheating from Zirkzee to me, no idea what my commentators are waffling

This weekend has been so shit so far

Can probably scratch that one off.

Just got to write it off as a bad day allround I think. If we don't follow it up with a win at Southampton I'd perhaps read more into it. It feels like bad dropped points because it's Bournemouth (H) but that is genuinely a harder fixture this year than some of the away games we've won recently at Spurs and Man Utd.

It is not easy to find value, and it's always easy to look at the successful punts in hindsight with success bias. Mid-table clubs often sign a load of these kind of players and can end up going backwards in the short term but can absorb that because their goals are different. Khusanov sounded like he could be a value option but that fee seemed to balloon as soon as city were involved, so the type of club buying a player does seem to sometimes get charged at a premium too. Would be amazed if Juve didn't double the Huijsen asking price if we were involved (probably still have been a good signing).

We're possibly rightly scared of missing in the market TBF. Going for English players and expensive 'transformative' players has been a safer, if more expensive, bet. We can't afford to end up padding out the squad with lots of players who are relatively cheap but ultimately end up being swing and misses, particularly when we also struggle so much to move squad players out. Do think we need to be better at finding value, but that's surely the point of hiring Mitchell.

I don't blame him for not wanting to rotate though tbf. Our squad players are a bit hopeless for various reasons. We desperately need to refresh things with 1 or 2.

Kluivert was so bad for Roma. I swear every PL game I watch now has a former Serie A player turned into a world beater.

They didn't win at Chelsea but other than that you're right.

Can we never let Isak take a free kick again btw? Felt like putting his goalscoring run above the game outcome. Would have Tonali, Trippier, Schar and Gordon all take it before him.

Bench definitely an issue. It should have been our major advantage today from 60 mins on. The one bloke they had to bring on who is not a child had more impact.