Papavasiliou

He'd be hard pushed to find a less possession based team.

Armstrong looked like a fish out of water in our side. He started well last season too but only ended up with 16 goals in 46 appearances at Championship level. He’s a decent Championship player but doesn’t look any better than that. He only scored 5 the season before despite starting regularly (31 starts). Didn’t realise but he never scored a single goal for us. Toney wasn’t ever given a single chance though and has always looked good whenever I’ve seen him. Arma never got a chance either like. Started one league game for us when he was 17/18 and that was basically the last time he got a chance He made 11 appearances in 14/15 (albeit only 1 start) but his minutes on the pitch totalled nearly 3 full matches, he was fairly poor throughout. We’ve also had him in training/preseason and he’s been sent out on loan to Barnsley, Bolton & Blackburn before he was sold - he tends to perform well at the first part of the season and then tail off (he did it for both Barnsley and Blackburn and has started well again this year). Throughout the whole of that period he has been managed/overseen by 4(?) different managers, including Rafa and none of them have obviously rated him enough to play him. Other than playing him upfront for 5-10 games (with no indication he’s actually good enough for the role), what other chance does he need? On that basis we need to give every youth player a run in the side in the PL before deciding to flog them. It’s hardly like he was given 1 start and then flogged, he was here for years and didn’t show anything at any point that he’d have been a useful player. He maybe could have got more chance when we were relegated, but we had a good squad at that level so he was never needed. The whole youth setup is dreadful and as others have said before, the fact that our youth players tend to move to L2 and below in their career goes to show the poor development we have. I sort of see where you’re coming from here but the alternatives that were given starts turned out to be awful. Apart from the season Armstrong played left wing for Blackburn he’s looked really good, albeit a bit weak (from the odd highlights I’ve seen). I wish he’d have been given a few starts in the Championship to see how he’d have fared here. He’d certainly have been more use to us now in his current state than Carroll, Joselu, Muto and Gayle has been. Toney is a more difficult one and it’s more a pier reflection on how we deal with youth players. He absolutely wasn’t ready at for Premier League football but he started to look decent at the time we sold him. I don’t get why he wasn’t given a new contact and loaned a couple more times. That one will definitely be looked back on as poor business. I'd have liked to see them both given at least a bit more of a chance considering the alternatives at the time but it would be hard to see how they'd have fit into our playstyle (or this league)

I love that too. Also when players that have been elsewhere in the UK just seem to settle on us as their club even after they've left or retired. Noticed Raylor on twitter the other day, profile pic and banner still of him in a toon kit and tweeting about the teamsheet before the game.

50% rersale clause? Nice little tenner rebate on that one in a few years time when he gets sold to Spartans.

As is tradition.

Went to look for this one and could only see a video called "Thomas Gravesen-Horror Fouls,Crazy Skills" It was 10mins long and only included his time at Real!

Anyone on OTC is just there to fill in for a few seconds while Brassell takes a breath in between monologues It's not the same without Horncastle but Nicky Bandini fills in well enough on the Italian stuff.

The last few times I've seen him he seems to be constantly trying to get a really strong hand behind the ball as much as possible when making saves. Leads to a lot of palming stuff out for the defenders to try and hoof away or needing to make those double saves.

Is Pete the one who also does the Wrestle Me podcast? If so I quite like him. Aye. I like them all. Shame they’ve split themselves up Cancelled my Patreon for them last week. Not as a reaction to the new format but all the talk did spur me on to do it a bit. I find I'm not listening to stuff as regularly this year with the lack of commuting. Then with a daily schedule it's not exactly something you can save up and binge on a long journey. I don't mind the new cast at all and if I had the time I'd probably listen as much if not more than usual and still enjoy it but I have to agree with pretty much everyone saying they've missed a trick by not having the original 4 on together at least once a week. Also, not a fan of them splitting out OTC onto it's own feed but then filling that feed up with shite. OTC should just be it's own separate thing again.

Has he ever been better than average even on his best day?

His injury record since coming here would make clubs understandably wary of shelling out much on a permanent deal. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/florian-lejeune/verletzungen/spieler/127108 Is it even that bad a record when you consider those two bad ones were caused by bad tackles and not on the same area (therefore not recurring)?

The first 10 or so games Cabaye played for us there was stats showing he was one of the top runners in the league. I don't think he even dropped off that much. He charged round fucking loads (hence all the daft yellows) and created enough pressure that the opposition often misplaced passes that Tiote mopped up.

It's... different

https://twitter.com/FootyAccums/status/1296362415488208896/photo/1

I think it really does boil down to this. It's cynical and corrupt, but it's happening in front of us Upsets the top 6 too. Can't be having that.

I still struggle to believe Coca-Cola and the like are even noticing what's going on. The waves we're making aren't exactly gonna shake their boat. Playing Devils advocate here, if there not noticing whats going on why are they blocking people left right and centre who tag them in a post that relates to the EPL and NUFC Takeover ? To play Devils Advocate as a response, I'd say it's more likely just the underpaid social media guy who's on Twitter duty this week was tired of seeing idiots stamping on coke cans and shouting "Approve the sale!" rather than a directive from the top.

I still struggle to believe Coca-Cola and the like are even noticing what's going on. The waves we're making aren't exactly gonna shake their boat.

Keane gets rattled at fucking everything.

Looking forward to getting a dodgy DHGate version of that 3rd kit so Ashley doesn't get anything.

Bloody hell imagine the state of us with Icardi leading the line. Lad's a good striker but he relies on good service and will barely touch the ball outside the box. I'd put money on him being the first player in the Prem to go a full 90mins on the pitch without touching the ball if he ever came here.

This is almost the exact same problem I have with Dummett. He may not be making obvious mistakes but the constant hesitation and unwillingness to go beyond halfway or overlap absolutely kills any attacking momentum.

We need two new ones given Carroll is staying. Joelinton & Gayle aren’t good enough so those both need replaced. Might have got away with being able to keep one of those if Carroll had been released (one maybe being a budget squad player and the other the main striker) but no way can we go another season with 2 of the 3 forwards being from those 3. Surely Muto is off too

He's got a point like. We never stagnate. We either overperform or shit the bed completely these days.

This, a hundred times over. The players are playing well in spite of him not because of him.