Geordie_once_removed

Bereton-Diaz would make such sense. I think he'd represent a very low risk transfer (assuming you didn't pay silly money for him in the first place) as even if he didn't work out you'd still get decent money for him from another Championship club, or a lower league Premiership club. He might also sort out what to do with Gayle who it is clear has no future with the club as he could be quite an attractive make weight in any deal.  Finally I think it would send a nice message to everyone about what we are after, young keen to improve players as opposed to the type of player that QPR and Everton signed who have dragged them down.

I only watched the extended highlights of yesterday's game. There were a couple of points where our defenders were miles out of position, especially the centre-backs. I can't see Leicester not capitalising on that and scoring. I feel the best we can hope for is a score draw.

I put a 6. 

Yesterday's draw, while disappointing due to the foul on Wilson at the end, is a huge result for us.  It allows the new manager to make a few really needed changes (Clarke, Darlow and Ritchie out Dubravka, Schar/Fernades and Lewis in) but doesn't damage our mindset too much.  I can see a win against Brentford and a few unexpected points in that nasty looking December.  Add a centre back, a midfielder and a striker in January and we'll hopefully be ok.

47 minutes ago, KaKa said:

Saw we were linked with Dolberg the other day. One of my favourite young strikers that is seemingly under the radar as he doesn't get mentioned a lot. Hope we get him before someone else does. He is class.

Agreed. He is exactly the type of player I'd like to see us go for.

Coutinho is exactly the type of player I'd like to see us avoid. He's just too specialist for our needs at the moment and I could see his arrival really compounding the chronic lack of balance we have, as we'd cycle through endless systems trying to get the best out of our marquee signing. Then he'd get injured.

12 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

I think we're giving Ashley way too much credit when it comes to appointing Howe. Think Howe would have flat out rejected him

 

Howe under Ashley would have had nothing to spend, no improvements to any areas of the club whatsoever, fans all still pissed off and fed up with everything. Don't think it would have been feasible at all.

 

Howe seems like he is being quite selective over his next move.

I take your point and I did say 'just about', clearly the fat man would have had to either lie through his teeth (not difficult for him) or shifted his approach to running the club to get him.

I was as much talking about no directly footballing things. We can all agree there was a distinct lack of imagination under Ashley and so is as much the Howe would have occurred to the dulled imaginations of Ashley and co. as he is British and available.

Just now, KDT said:

3 minutes into a YouTube video of Howe and he mentions ‘how can we impose ourselves on them’ after Bruceball I’m sold on Howe. 

Is the answer "Treat the ball like a Covid ridden snotty tissue?"

The issue with Howe for me, and apologies if it has been said by someone before, is two fold.

1. I feel he would have just about been attainable under Ashley.  So to end up with him after we've made something of a Fautian pack with this takeover is disappointing.  Robert Johnson didn't sell his soul to be really good at the recorder did he.

2. We could easily end up with a Nuno at Spurs situation, with it being pretty clear he was quite far down the list and his authority and therefore ability to change things severely diminished as a result.

13 minutes ago, Ben said:

It's just a bit of bluster from the board of the Spanish club, there all ran like little dictatorships, remember when the chairman of Deportivo used to fuck us over all the time and delay talks because he was having his tea or going for a nap.

Unlike us where our board is an actual dictatorship ?

Howe would be very disappointing. Not that he'd be bad, but he would have been achievable under Ashley (at a stretch). So to sell your soul only to get Howe... well it's not exactly the most appealing of Faustian pacts.

So to get rid of Bruce et all and appoint Rodgers et all. Would most likey cost around £30 million. These figures are grotesque.

1 hour ago, Armchair Pundit said:

Would love Coutinho from Barca, though I'm guessing if one player is brought in for £330+k a week then a lot of other current players will want a pay rise to some degree. Did anyone post a list of potential freebie big name players that are coming to the end of their contracts next summer yet?

For me he is exactly the kind of player we should avoid.  He's barely played over the last two years and to do well needs a team built around him, which given he is 29 doesn't seem like a good long term plan.  I'd like us to adopt a Leipzig type model.  So spending big on younger semi proven players.

Am I the only person who thinks the majority of football writing is complete gash? I genuinely wouldn’t dream of paying for it. You get zero tactical analysis from these people they barely understand the game imo

I agree and this is why I've signed up to the trial.  Jury is still out as there have been some fairly mediocre articles about players that feel little more than promo pieces written by agents and one God awful article by supposed secret owner.  On the other hand there are some good articles, a good example being an analysis of what the promoted teams will bring in terms of tactics.  Will be interesting to see what their match reporting is like and the analysis of clubs transfer business is.

When neither he nor Lascelles were selected I thought Southgate had made a mistake. I've changed my mind a bit on not selecting Lascelles, mainly as Maguire has done so well and I get Southgate's system much more now (though I'd still have taken him over Jones).  Not taking Shelvey remains in my opinion a big error.  He'd not start for me, but take the Colombia game for example, bring on Shelvey instead of Dier in that situation and I feel we could have seen out that game a lot more comfortably.  His defensive work is underrated and his passing ability would have pinned Colombia back a bit, especially with Vardy's pace and runs up front.

Perhaps said already. But this decision really does highlight even more, if that was possible, the ridiculousness of Qatar hosting the World Cup on its own.

Too much focus on selecting players deemed versatile has ironically enough left the squad looking very unbalanced. 

Sturridge on a loan until the summer with an option to buy would suit all parties nicely. Even if a takeover happens I can see Rafa preferring this sort of thing to paying over the odds for players who might not be top of his list as those players aren't available mid season.

I think it's as good an appointment as they could have hoped fo. My impression was that he was unfairly sacked at Fulham (weren't they lower mid table?), who they appointed Sanchez who 'saved' them from relegation and then spent shit loads buying the NI team. Sanchez was promptly sacked about 10 games into the next season. At Wales Coleman seems to have done well enough.

Is it just me or was elliot playing in slow motion  for coutinho's shot? Thought he could have do e better. He rescued his neck through a few good saves later on.

I'm a bit confused by the continued Elliot criticisms. He has obvious weaknesses, kicked distribution, but he's in good form and making key saves each game that go largely unremarked on by the majority in this board.

 

His defence of Pardew.

I find Pardew completely odious and hold him in similar contempt to his compatriots in cuntdom Souness and Kinnear. But to play devil's advocate, could Elliot have just been doing something we say modern footballers don't do enough and have been being professional by supporting a current manager when asked his views by an 'outsider'.

Is it just me or was elliot playing in slow motion  for coutinho's shot? Thought he could have do e better. He rescued his neck through a few good saves later on.

I'm a bit confused by the continued Elliot criticisms. He has obvious weaknesses, kicked distribution, but he's in good form and making key saves each game that go largely unremarked on by the majority in this board.

For me the most exciting aspect of the game was seeing Shelvey and Merino playing together. There is so much potential in that partnership. Merino is good at quietly breaking up play but can also pick a pass. This means teams can't just sit on Shelvey and stifle our midfield creativity, they have to close Merino down too. This allows Shelvey more time to do what he does best and pick out the killer ball, his assist for the goal was a great example of this.

simple square pass by Diame , over hit ffs.

Of all our dead wood he's the worst. If he's even on the bench next season, short of a serious injury crisis, that be a major concern.

Where is Diame?

Bumbling around like a drunk Shola.

For Everton he would have been a poor signing, due to his attitude and the fact that it would be expected that he starts every week. But for Spurs I think it is decent business, even if they have paid 10 million or so over the odds. He's at a Champion's League club so his ego is satisfied and you might see him try more. Also as his status within the squad at Spurs will be lower he's not expected to start every game, this will suit him again in terms of motivation.

Our best performance this season.  The positive close passing we showed was a big part of this and Hayden in particular impressed. Still look very vulnerable at set pieces and when balls are played into the box.

He looked decent. He offered something in attack and helped prevent Dummet being exposed too much, for a good example of this watch what he does when they were pressing our back four around 25 minutes in. He showed positional intelligence when he dropped back to pick up a shoddy Dummet pass out of defense (he was moving to do this before Dummet passed) and did well to pass it quickly on to Hayden who played it forward nicely.