Dandy Man

Sevilla fans saying Alexander Djiku from Strasbourg the likely replacement if DC gets sold, maybe we could just sign him instead at a much reduced cost?

Mina is very good imo, just struggles to stay fit for more than a few games in a row and the link is almost certainly bullshit

Hard to see Lascelles being stripped of captaincy, given situation we are in with players worrying about their futures and the impending influx of new/better players it would almost certainly cause some sort of blow back from rest of squad - especially if given to a relative newcomer in Trippier (even if Trippier is better suited to it). Lascelles is still doing his best but he's just shit these days, not like the situation with PEA at Arsenal where he was also playing like shit but his general attitude also merited getting stripped of captaincy and dropped.

Last I heard Ibe had been going through some mental health struggles, seems a bit of a mad transfer but hopefully can get his career back on track

Actually the last post on Diego Carlos thread on their forum had this opinion - all very anecdotal but promising nevertheless:

Sevilla fans are fairly unanimous that he's top class and would be a massive loss from what I know (couple of friends in Seville and some anecdotal research on Sevilla fan forum)

Some of those sliding tackles We could definitely could do with some more shithouses in the team anyway, we can't even do gamesmanship remotely well as things stand, bet this lad can make a better job of diving than Lascelles' pony effort against Watford too

Current version of Rondon at Everton does make Jonjo Shelvey look like a whippet tbf

Think it's pretty clear Rafa did a horrible job at Everton on any measures, regardless of any mitigating circumstances. I'd tend to defer to opinions of fans who were at the coalface, Brands was obviously shite but no guarantees Rafa would have got on with any other DoF, playing a clapped out Seamus Coleman at left back is probably worse than Matt Ritchie imo. Like a lot of stuff it tends to become a binary for/against decision without any acknowledgement of grey areas, he could still do wonders if he came back here but impossible to ignore what has happened at Everton.

For what little it is worth the bookmakers had us at odds on to go down at 1/2 after losing to City, we are now even money to go down, make of that what you will..

Surely the sample size of 10 matches for Howe (including away to Arsenal, away to Liverpool and home to Man City) is far too small to be drawing any meaningful conclusions

Agree 100% that Howe needs to be given more time and resources before we can even start thinking about Rafa as anything close to a serious option. Loved Rafa when he was here and felt we were always in with a shout of getting something off any team, but the football was not exhilarating and the players that played so well under him have all regressed horribly since and doubtful even he could change that. Can't judge him too harshly on what's happened at Everton but it's got to be a concern given we are just as much of a basket case of a club as they are and for all he was Staveley's choice it is not a given that he would fit into long term structure that new owners are supposedly trying to put together.

Lascelles, Clark, Dummett, Ritchie, Hayden, Shelvey, Gayle What makes it worse is nearly all of them have actually regressed since then as well..

Think it is hard to understate difficulty of situation Howe has parachuted himself into, lot of the team clearly know they have an uncertain future but we also aren't going to be signing a whole new starting eleven in January, obviously a glaring need for better standard of player in nearly every position but that needs to be addressed while also keeping the ones who are here onside and that is difficult balance to achieve - just hope what is being said behind closed doors is a bit sterner than what is being said in press conferences. Football has unquestionably been improved for me and there does/did look to be something resembling "a plan" but he's been unable to translate that into improved results, don't want to be too critical given there have been several basically unwinnable matches against top teams and the fuck ups of Clark v Norwich or Darlow v Brentford are impossible to account for, the acid test is what happens in next 2-3 games (presumably with new signings on board). Share others concerns about lack of pragmatism as while he does look to have a plan, we simply do not have the players available to play style of football he wants to implement. ASM is undoubtedly a more effective threat when he can get ball on the break with the game stretched and run at defenders, so Howe's style has tended to nullify our most potent attacking threat and in a side with fuck all other attacking threats that's a pretty big issue. The continued selection of Shelvey in what is basically a redundant role is extremely worrying (it's be worrying in any role tbh) and if that does not get addressed ASAP then I'd start to lose a lot of faith very quickly, but as with most of the team it is hard to find many better options. Just about his biggest fuck up for me was playing a full strength team against Cambridge and giving it the "we are 100% going out to win this because the team needs the confidence" - it backfired miserably, the shite that was served up against Watford yesterday has been done to death but the ghosts of that performance were still haunting them - Wood looked horribly isolated up front to the point that it was reminiscent of Joelinton leading line under Bruce. Maybe he can turn it around (I certainly hope he can) but maybe he is the wrong guy for the job, not sure what to think quite yet tbh - unfortunately we don't have a lot of time to figure these things out if we are serious about avoiding the drop.

Agree with all of above, given way Howe is setting the team up, Shelvey playing in front of defence is an insurmountable handicap. He gets ball played to feet off CBs and nearly always plays it backwards before moving himself into a position where he's not going to get ball again. Contribution without the ball is abysmal, terrible decisions, rash tackles and just generally does a shit impression of someone who is making an effort but is always looking for the easy way out. No amount of loopy lofted passes can change that. In summary, I fucking hate him and we'd improve massively for nearly any other half decent holding midfielder in his place.

More that he just doesn't fancy it imo

Would be much better with someone on left wing who gives it 100%, does basics well and keeps things simple, as Fraser has been doing on the right. ASM our best player but a total momentum killer when he's not hitting teams on the break.

Whatever happens today, I cannot wait for the day that Shelvey fucks off for good

Yeah, prefer Shelvey in a more advanced role than been case recently and there's nobody else who can realistically start ahead of him anyway

In the context of having no competent CMs it's as good as can be expected

Happy enough with that line up, Longstaff offers nothing and Shelvey a liability but we are where we are

Palace been like a team managed by Steve Bruce here

If fans were critical about the signing they'd be portrayed as unrealistic and deluded, whereas fans are being positive about the signing and being portrayed as putting on rose tinted spectacles for the new regime and hailing a bog standard target man as the new messiah. All bullshit and as others have said it is not worth the time of day, if you know the reality of the situation then that's all that matters, never going to get likes of Glendenning on our side, let him go off

Saw Glendenning was unsurprisingly wheeling out the "if Bruce/Ashley had signed him" shite in piece in Guardian today, to be expected from that gobshite but did at least concede it was a "disappointingly shrewd" piece of business

And/or outbid them on any of the strikers they try to get in before the end of the month