Lush Vlad

Schar injured? Cunha not starting. Sorry, thought I’d just join in.

Let’s see how he develops. Hard to judge because of the opposition. But I loved him as the 6 on Sunday. Think he’d get a bit lost like Tonali as an 8 in our system. We don’t ever play with a 10. So as a gambling man. I’m going £20 on number 6 please, Paulo.

He’s an absolute unit aint he?! They had some right lumps in their team. Especially at the back. They weren’t dirty or snide, though. Imray with the bleached hair looked and played like someone who has a head loss in him. So I’m glad we didn’t rack the score up!

Great to hear. Also shows that we’re all sort of correct. As it seems quite split on here whether Miley is an 6, 8 or a 10

I know it then weakens out midfield 3. But I’d rather move Joelinton or even Willock (stay fit please) wide if push comes to shove and we needed cover for a bit or to use them as a sub. Based on his apps this season. They’d offer far more than Almiron there, anyway. Bit of a risk with Barnes out. But if we have genuine offers on the table. He has to be moved on. It’s worth the risk.

I’m not sure if it is just lazy journalism and tenuous links between certain clubs and former managers, or in Almiron’s case, his former club. But there seems to be a lot of noise around outgoings and possible deals all of a sudden. Dubravka, Kelly, Almiron and now Targett. Albeit a rumour from that useless sausage, Bailey. Maybe we are seriously trying to shift 2 or 3 so that we can move for someone this window?

If we can isolate Doherty on the right hand side. Then we could get some joy down that side. Right wing back that is past his best playing RCB and going up against Gordon, Joelinton and Hall. Good luck if they’re on form. I thought Forest got at him one on one quite a few times and caused him bother.

Is it? We actually enquired about Elanga in the summer and a few places reported we made a couple of bids. We have been genuinely linked a couple times, no? Not just social media influencer wankers on Sky and idiots like Merson and Deeney constantly banging on about Arsenal signing Isak. Is it also that unrealistic as a signing? Plus plenty on here seem to not want him, anyway. I doubt you'll find many Arsenal fans who don't want Isak

I thought loans were rumoured at one point. Before he got injured again? Although I might be wrong?

Agree on the first bit and the Kelly stuff. Targett has barely played for the last season and a half. Riddled with injuries and even had to sit out because of his eczema for I think a couple of games at one point. So I don’t know why teams would be in a rush to sign him. I think they said on Sunday that was his first start since November 2023.

Not having a pop at you. More their definition. I'm not buying that like. Why the fuck would the club leak the wages? Nefarious agents could, of course. But then they could also lie and put dodgy info out there, probably lower than what they're actually on though, I would have thought. Trying to get people talking about how underpaid their client is. Confirmed by 2+ sources. So any journo or ITK type they have contact with, or if they read their articles stating a players wages (sources suggest) could just say a number and if 2 of them have the same number. Then it is 'verified'? I cannot rap my head around, that basically everywhere you look. Kelly would be our joint highest earner after Bruno along with Joelinton and Gordon? No club in their right mind would do that. I've always found the Targett £100K one really odd and all. If that's true, no wonder we ended up in PSR hell and Staveley and Mehrdad copped all that flak. Surely he would have doubled his money giving him say £60-70k a week (said similar about Kelly). So why on earth would we give out such a ridiculous deal?

It's a shame that most of the top RW options are going to be left footed, because of the systems teams play. As having Murphy on the right and having him get to the line has massively helped stretch play and him and Isak have struck up a real understanding. Elanga is far better on his left than Murphy and will cut in and drift around more. But still has that mad pace to get past his man on the outside, as well. I'm not saying he is enough of an upgrade or worth the money. But I wouldn't mind us going with a right footer for that side. Isak certainly seems to enjoy it.

He will. But what trajectory the ball it takes after that is a complete lottery

I saw he has been out of the squad for a while and only came on against Forest. Guessing since he had that meltdown and lost the captaincy. He has given up and has his heart set on this move away. Last big payday for him. I thought he was younger than 31.

I spoke with a couple of ex-pros once. Albeit ones that mainly played before the Sky billions fully came into the game and filtered down across the board. They said a lot of the wages that are reported are exactly as you say above. Like it's the total they will earn if all the relevant criteria is hit. Like win bonuses, clean sheet, scoring, starting games etc. Performance related stuff like that. Of course I'm not saying every contract is like that or that it is still the case. But it would make more sense.

Does it? Who verified it? Talksport, Sky Sources, the club, Kelly's agent, Kelly himself I can entertain the idea we may have overpaid a bit and perhaps not coughed up the usual large signing on fee. But balanced it out with a better salary than he was expecting. But for him to more than likely be our second highest earner? Absolute horse shit.

He needs a run of games to be properly judged or find some form. I'm just not sue he's going to get that unless Botman and Burn get injured for a long time. He's only going to get cup games and minutes at the end of games like he got at Arsenal, if not. I'd even say if Targett stays fit. He might even be ahead of him as the backup LB. As his skillset is closer to what Hall offers. But for certain games, he could do a job there, of course. I thought he was going to push Burn for more minutes. But BDB has been brilliant and is probably playing the best football of his career. Certainly here, anyway. Plus we know Eddie likes at least one of his CB's to be dominant aerially and Kelly looks dreadful in the air. I was very happy when we were linked to both Tosin and Kelly and thought they would be decent free signings. Not that arsed about missing out on Tosin now and Kelly has got less minutes and not been as good as I'd hoped. But I'd be surprised if he'd played 5 games worth of minutes for us. I think some of the stick coming his way seems to be based on people quoting that he is on anywhere from £100k-150k a week like it is gospel. I know he was on a free, but I just don't buy that. Guessing he could have more than doubled his wages leaving Bournemouth if we gave him say, £60k-70k? It's all guesswork, of course. So I find the constant mention of his wages a bit odd. If he was on 100-150 bags a week. He would be in our top 3-4 earners, no?

Not saying a whole lot we don't know. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. The bit at the end 'I sat with Sam Allardyce, to see how he would set up with England. Click here to watch.' No tah. I'll click the cross top right and close the window in record time instead

Young and highly rated, isn't he? I'm sure we were linked before as I remember seeing he was on loan at Nurnberg. I always think you need to be wary of strikers that bag goals in the Bundesliga. Where they seem allergic to defending properly. Never mind the second division.

Yep. Had this to say on this shite in the Random Thoughts thread:

Hope he scores and does a new dance.

Same No room for sentiment in sport. Whatever helps us do well is what I want. Fuck everyone else Of course, I'd much rather we manage to get top 4-5 and they do, as well. Especially if it were at the expense of say, Arsenal or Chelsea.

I know what you mean. But that was before we'd really found any consistent form. Was it Arsenal and Forest we'd beat leading into it and then an international break coming at a bad time for us? Before that, we'd been up and down from the start of the season. Of course there is variance in football. They get an early, flukey goal and it becomes difficult and the way they play could cause us problems like it did for Spurs. But we do seem much more clinical, solid in the middle and in control of games compared to the first 10-12 league matches or whatever it was.

Yeah, I feel like there has been some re-writing of his history from some with Wood. Like he was actually fine for us and he just got loads of unfair stick from the boo boys. As always, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I suppose he did his job in the sense that he was a body, he played centre forward and he ran around and did score the odd meaningful goal, was it 3 or 4? But he was often like a walrus trying to control a beach ball with his touch. His link up play was far worse than what I've seen from him at Forest and back to goal, for a big lad, he was shite. Regularly just won flick ons to nobody. I think towards the end. He looked totally devoid of all confidence and for £25m, he just seemed like a busted flush. Even factoring in us staying up and Burnley going down. He was crap to start with at Forest and I think their fans were saying similar? I did say in this topic last night that he seemed a decent guy, I never felt like he was hiding and not putting it in. I think he even had good words to say about us when he left and we recouped a lot of the money spent. So their can't be any hard feelings. He would have had every right to celebrate that hat trick and all, but he chose not to. That says a lot about him and his views on our club, IMO. Really pleased to see him doing well and that his form is contributing to another unfashionable club competing in the top 4.

Cunha is class. But Semedo, whilst rapid, can’t defend. They’ve been playing alright without Lemina from what I’ve seen, although I do rate him. If we’re concerned about Craig Dawson in 2025. Well….. They look a lot better since O’Neil left. New manager bounce, slight change in style, fresh ideas. But they seem wide open a lot of the time. If we’ve got designs on top 4. We need to be beating the 17th placed team at home.