Dandy Man

If we did go down think I'd prefer him to stay (depending on how badly rest of season goes obvs) but I think he will almost certainly be gone - first press conference he was very clear his remit was to keep team in PL and if he fails at that then doubt he will be afforded any patience - could even go before end of season if situation is looking perilous and owners fancy trying a new manager to bounce us out of it

Somewhere between 5 and 6 seems about right for me currently, could increase a good bit depending on what happens on and off pitch in next few weeks though

Pretty hard to spin that small snippet any other way than he is not leaving, he is literally saying "I will stay here a long time"

Caught the last 15 minutes or so and thought he looked very impressive all round from what little I saw, I'm sold, get him in

We won't get anyone in before Leeds and we will most likely lose that match, seems highly likely we will (eventually) get several new players in before end of month and at worst we are probably 50/50 to go down. Whatever happens we will be in a better position than if Ashley and Bruce were still here and the world will keep turning.

That betting activity on Xhaka to get booked is a humongous red flag, that sort of volume at that stage of game in that sort of market at a price below prematch odds (and way below expected price) is very unusual to say least. Sure the way he was behaving might have artificially lowered price but nowhere near that extent. If investigators can link any of the accounts that placed those bets back to anyone connected to Xhaka then he'd be in massive bother.

Seems like this is almost certainly Xhaka for this: https://twitter.com/FoG_BLoG/status/1472287642863783940

This transfer window been like a microcosm of my life, first quarter everything was very new and exciting then it slowed down to being a bit boring and repetitive, now suddenly left wishing could recapture a bit of that early zest because its suddenly getting closer to the end than the beginning

If we could get someone in till end of season who can do what Willock did at end of last season then that would be great, don't particularly care what happens after that tbh

Get him in for Leeds so he can clatter that tory bastard Bamford anyway

I would also be writing an email if someone offered to treble my wages

I am not too surprised that we are having these problems but clock is really ticking now and every day that passes without any new signings the situation begins to look progressively worse, but we have zero bargaining power and are stuck between a rock and a hard place for time being unfortunately. Slightly worried that those in charge will get desperate and end up throwing crazy money at any old mercenary towards end of month, as much as some of the players being mentioned are clearly better than what we've got it feels slightly reminiscent of QPR in 2012 and that did not end too well.

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..