Odear

Too easy again today. We have no threat up front so unless teams make mistakes we’re really not going to score. And playing against the likes of Hazard etc we were always going to concede. The goals we shipped, I’m not sure would have happened with Lascelles in there though but we'll not know that until he’s back in. Can’t be overly disappointed with the result. We need to limp through the month and hope a miracle happens over xmas.

I’m on the side of the fence again where I think all of this is bullshit. All this haggling over a price through press reports just sounds like clickbait knowing full well Ashley or Stavely don’t talk to the press. So they can write what they want knowing full well nobody is going to deny it. It probably suited Ashley to have this at the start but then no other bidders emerged. PCP don’t have massive money for this by the looks of it. So price is important, Ashley won’t want to sell his little advertising vehicle for less than what he set out for or he will look bad. So if this is happening at all, it will be a long drawn out process (probably from Ashleys side) He won’t blink an eyelid about letting a transfer window pass without spending and is totally fine with gambling on relegation. (John Carver)

How do these people continually keep finding employment. Honestly, i would have lethargically applied myself to getting my "badges" at a young age if i had known what a gravy train football really is.

I see it as two points lost.. but.. the goals seemed to lift a team that was basically down and out. When Lascelles returns we'll look better at the back for sure. Only positives to take tonight really.

Mitro says “tonight Matthew I’m going to be Travis Bickle”

Great Rafa, why not hold off until we’re 3 down until we make some changes

Teams have obviously identified Yedlin as a weakness. That’s 4 goals in a row that have come from that side of the pitch. Watford getting trounced this evening too. This is relegation form. Can he turn it around? It’s looking doubtful there will be investors before January.. so another window with no activity. What can he do with this lot?

Is this Rafas worst run as a manager?

West Brom are garbage. If we had anything at all going on up front we’d easily win this.

Good call with Shelvey imho. Merino and Hayden worked well before.

He’s no leader.. think Lascelles coming back will stabilise things once he’s told what to do or where to be. But to be honest our central midfield gave them absolutely no protection yesterday and Watford had a game plan to expose Yedlin and Ritchie down the right side. Which was a tactic that Benitez failed to address after how many chances they had before they actually scored. So it’s not all LeJeunes fault.

Poor little snowflakes these players with the takeover news affecting them.

What I’m frustrated with is that Jack Colback is not dropped because he’s shit.. it’s over an argument they had. Mitrovic isn’t playing because he’s not taking instruction as well as Joselu is? So what instructions is Joselu getting from Rafa that he’s following so well? Mbemba came in at left back and played really well.. was strong. Might not be as nimble as Manquillo but certainly won’t get muscled off the ball as much. It’s been said multiple times now but Benítez is stubborn and it’s cost us a lot this season. He’s also the best manager we’ve had in years and years. He’s still human though.. and he’s fucked up today. He has serious decisions to make with a few players. Most notably Shelvey, majority of our wins this season came with him out of the team. For all his lovely passing, he doesn’t add balance to the team like we had when Hayden and Merino were paired. Ritchie doesn’t deserve a starting spot now after last few games.. but who to come in? Murphy is there because Atsu isn’t. Maybe they can play together in the future. Or can he play up front? And the defence.. LeJeune for all his classy touches lacks positional common sense. Clarke is well off the boil and our captain is crocked. We were torn apart by a really average but well drilled team today. It was as poor as anything we had under Pardew, Carver or McClaren..

I suspect a change of tactics in the next game more so than personnel. Nailed on to keep his place. This playing long balls in hope of it sticking to a soft lump of Joselu shaped shite is really not one of Rafas finer moments.

Make your fucking minds up. We were all begging for him to be dropped 3 weeks ago

This whole he’s doing the best with the squad available bullshit is wearing thin. Will Hughes bossed the midfield today and cost 7.5 million. Watford are nothing special in terms of superstars, they have none. Yet they are an infinitely better team than ours.. first time this season where we haven’t been at the races at any point during the match. We’re putting effort in but there’s no style, no intelligence, no creativity.. I’m not going to single out selections because it’s stating the obvious. This is about Rafa.. do we have to be so sentimental about someone likeable that we ignore that they’re not performing well at their job at this minute in time. He needs to change things quickly. This is a slump that will have us in bottom 3 by xmas

Limp. Worst all season by some distance

Yup. Just keep trying the same thing that isn’t working.. makes total sense. Rafa has to take some blame here. There are other options

Shocking.. we’ve been raped to death down our right side all game. Diame is as frustrating a player as I’ve seen. Needlessly turning into situations where he has no control over the ball. He does not work well with Shelvey. We’re proper in the shit.. relegation is a serious possibility now. How has our defending gone to total shit? We need Lascelles back ASAP.

So Rafa is losing us points on purpose so that Ashley is under more pressure to sell? ?

Well for 30m it may not be a top one any more.. but yes would tend to agree. We need someone who will put chances away.

How to spend 30 million? A bunch of bargain basement options like Joselu or should we bet big on one top class player? Staying up this season is all that matters when it comes down to it.

It's now or never i think.. Ashley won't get the chance to make a profit on this club again. With no investment there's a very real chance we'll go back down either this season or next.. then what? Pumping more money in to keep the club afloat than we would have had to spend on players to achieve a respectable position in the table? He fails to grasp this equation so he'll never change. Also impossible to predict or rule out some sort of financial crisis that could put off potential investors in the future. He likes a gamble but over a long enough period of time the house always wins. He should take whatever offer meets the criteria of "making a profit" and count himself lucky he was able to walk away after his disastrous decision making over the last decade.

I liked Chris Mort. He sort of just jumped into the scene with the fans. Bought several people pints iirc.. and sang the Blaydon Races pissed And then the whole thing of him walking into the boardroom in Sunderland doing the conga after we’d beaten them

Interested to see what Odin thinks of this I think another month will go by before we have any real update on the situation. Also even if it does go through in late December / early January, it shouldn’t effect the transfer window. Remember when City were taken over.. they wrote some sort of promissory note so that they could sign Robinho. Even if the takeover isn’t completed, if a buyer is serious they should be able to do this so that we can invest to stay up. You've changed your tune. Not about the media. I still don’t trust the quality of the information which is why I’m waiting for something more credible before getting excited. But I’ve seen enough now to suggest that it’s actually in the process.