Tiresias

I have a theory that a lot of dysfunctional transfer units at clubs are because the DoF or whatever executive is in charge of transfers ultimately fancies himself to have the best eye for players as anyone, and they may well have a very good eye and rose up doing that, but their scouts will have watched players for hundreds of hours and then delivered highlight reels to the DoF who will get a substantially poorer idea and will overrule those below based on less viewing time. Ashworth, with a demonstrable good track record of this is probably delegating properly and trusting the scouts more. Some DoFs I am sure will take credit for scouting loads of players that were just served up to them. Ashworth has to get the right scouts, set out what players we need to the scouts and negotiate with other clubs for signings. I am pretty sure I've heard this has been the problem at Man U, where they boast about how extensive their scout network is, they get loads of players and they all used to get passed up to Woodward at the top who would then go lol I'm going to just sign Pogba instead.

For all the doom and gloom on here, thought he looked on it last night, more minutes may have produced a goal.

I imagine Howe expected us to lose momentum at some point so he would shuffle the squad around and Target would be natural one to rotate in, then the squad never lost momentum. Feel sorry for Target he's not really put a foot wrong

Should probably have won by more but good result, good performance considering ring rust. Need to score more chances but happy with that generally.

Anyone else waiting for Adam Smith to score with his hand, it not be spotted by ref so there can be an 'invisible hand of the market' style pun of somekind

From replay think Willock was off and interfering, but madly late flag raising, especially considering Wilson clearly had spotted it

Was offside like

In fairness it's not a proper Schar performance without an early concussion scare

Just a warning I've had the kind of day when us losing 5-0 with multiple season ending injuries to key players at the end of it would be entirely in fitting

Missed this so far helping mum put up christmas tree we any good?

No I get that, it's just like there's clubs like Man U and Chelsea who shell out big money for players apparently ready to be world beaters but the impression we get from hiring Dan Ashworth etc is more we want to sign the players before they get that attention. I don't buy that this is bad, look at Chelsea and Man U of late, so many pratfalls spending that much on players like Werner and Sancho and Lukaku who flop despite expectation. I think we can be smart and compete with them. If I have heard of this Napoli chat probably means all the teams have heard of him, so our best chance is an inside track on persuading him to join somehow. The cost is one thing but we are not going to offer disproportionate wages compared to other super rich clubs for him based on our current roster. It seems a hmmm that guy probably got too much attention as is for us tbh.

We need to make money to appease the ffp gods so that means buying players with sell on value, if, as i suspect, he really costs fair bit over £50m it makes it dubious we will make a profit on him to some degree. I think it is players like Bruno who are a step below in cost for the foreseeable, could be wrong and Isak signing surprised me so who knows... How fucking weird is it to be linked to someone like that and think it even a possibility lol

Would be incredible but also considering the talk assumed he would be more a £100m one

Rice is good like but the fee he will go for will forever look ludicrous. I am sure even the club that sign him know they could go to europe find an equivalent defensive mid for £30m or maybe even a lot less, but with Rice they will get homegrown and a lot of shirt sales because of his high profile. They will also get a lot of engagement because they spent this much money on Rice and really the Man Us and Chelseas of the world do seem to enjoy signing players just cos it will get a lot of people talking about them

It's really sad that there can be no cuts to Maradonna making obscene gestures from the stands, would suit this game RIP

Brazil maybe in the Semi finals if they'd listened, just sayin

hahaha get fucked neymar

I've said it before and I've said it again, I absolutely do not want us to move St James Park. It is the most perfectly placed stadium in the country. If I had my way I would knock down all the crap new buildings going up around it as well. It is to me brilliant that it is visible from the rest of the town up on the hill. I am all for rebuilding it, and if a small move I would consider it.

No sense going into a window saying WE'RE GONNA SPEND LOADS, £30m will be added to every price tag. It's an expensive window though for sure wouldn't shock me if there wasn't anything major

He had that sometimes, but also often if he was out for a while it seemed to take him a while to get up to speed and cut out the reckless tackles. I completely agree Howe has made him better but man I used to rave about the lejeune lascelles schar backline (and Schar scored a few worldies as well then) as much better than the rest of our team. I was skeptical he could play in a 4 particularly one pressing high but he has proved me wrong on that, but he was always one of our most technically gifted players and an absolute steal for the price we got him

I would agree he liked best in a 3 but in that system schar was mint not having this rewriting history that schar was rubbish until Howe spotted him cabbagehead didn't know what to do with him. Howe may have improved him still but that's nonsense him, lejeune and lascelles was best backline for a long time up till then

Grealish is good, I think it's a shame he went to Man City to be a peripheral part of a machine, nothing wrong with that, great teams need cogs, but when he was the main man as aston villa looked more fun for him and more fun for fans. He is quality but I also think Foden is substantially better than him, as you can see him as being an essential part of City at their best and getting the goals and assists, whereas Grealish is struggling in similar role. I get the feeling Foden is more direct, and better footballing brain knowing where to be, whereas Grealish wants to do everything which can be detrimental in a team like City with a really clear system. In England will work better tbh.

Schar is great, and I've said it before and will say it again, that cabbagehead wasted 2 years of his prime career is criminal. It was absolutely clear under Rafa what a class act he is. As great as Botman is (and he is great) it's not like he's overshadowing Schar at all.

That's just so fucking sad. As much as I laugh at their misfortune I do actually respect they've always had a strong working class socialist tradition among supporters, those left from that must be so fucking depressed that now it's just traded on that that used to be the case and this shit goes on. They will sing racist songs they want and also take moral high ground against the mags lololol

thoughts with his family of course