Shadow Puppets

Aye, fair! ?

I don't know man... you (and others) just seem to thrive on complaining about something, even when that thing is relatively minor and may or may not be even true. It's incredibly tiresome to read.

We've signed an England international for a bargain price and bought another squad player. Literally everything else is paper talk. May or may not be true. For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure a lot of the positive reporting is made up too.

Why? If it's based on his entire stay here, why is it stupid? For all you or we know (if it's even true at all), it might have been "+£500k if we win the Champions League during his stay here". If we progress like the club want to progress, it's not unfeasibly to say we might be in the Champions League in 6 or 7 years time, and if they are building for the future, who's to say this kid isn't someone they see being at the club long term? I don't get the hysteria. Just strikes me as people having far too much spare time on their hands, and far too much anxiety.

Again, it’s irrelevant what the sources are. Doesn’t make it true, and if it is true, it also doesn’t include much detail. So what if there’s a Champions League bonus in there. There might be a tonne of other bonuses in there that they’re just conveniently not mentioning. It’s literally completely irrelevant anyway. We will sign who we will sign. It’s pointless getting worried about the deal specifics.

If you believe everything you’re reading, then yes. But the majority of these stories are entirely fabricated either by journalists to get clicks, or by agents / clubs to drive interest in their players. The best tactic is just to wait and see. See what we end up with by the end of the window. I think it’s clear that this is a really difficult window to get good players in, so it’s understandable that it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and see where we are in 10 days time.

Or… again… is ANY of this actually true? Can’t help but feel that a tonne of these links are being drummed up by agents or clubs to increase interest in their players.

OR... this is all just playing out in public, and we're also working on lots of other opportunities. Remarkable how many people think everything written in the press is gospel.

Hang on, why is everyone leaving out our best player (minus Trippier) from these line ups?

Completely disagree. He and Trippier are the only two worth keeping I reckon.

I did say this at the time but Gerrard would definitely have been a bigger figurehead for the club like, plus he’s quite clearly a decent manager. Hilarious how many people were adamant we were too good for him back in November.

Dummett played well today, for the most part.

Bingo

I know. Shame, right?

Again…if you look at the stats for 60 mins we were dominant (which is what I said). Then the mistakes kicked in…

Because of a mistake by, you know who. That’s the problem. The overall play was good for large parts of the game. Stupid edgy mistakes gave Watford hope.

Yeah…your point being? One shot on target, one off the bar, another couple of good chances first half. Generally dominated possession for the first 60 minutes. Sloppy mistakes at the back (Lascelles primarily) led to it becoming edgier and allowed them back into the game.

I thought he was alright. That was the consensus around me too. Won quite a lot of aerial challenges and held up play pretty well. But didn’t really find himself in any threatening positions.

What a difference 6 mins can make. If we’d have dealt with that cross everyone would have been saying it was a hard earned victory. Fine margins. Genuinely think we were the better team but the edginess in defence cost us and made us sit back. Lascelles’ error started the process of the game getting nervier. I don’t think it was a conscious game plan to sit back at all.

He’s been here for 2 days, you moron.

General feeling around me at the ground were that we were dominant for the most part, apart from about 15 mins, and I would agree. We looked shot after about 70 mins. First half we were completely in control, but chance creation was as it has been for a while… half chances and scuffs, but good all round play, good ball retention. Great goal by ASM, but overall he was shite. Correct decision to take him off, even if Almiron was slightly at fault for ball watching. Genuinely unlucky I think. Watford were crap apart from about 3 good breaks on us.

Not that bothered if we don't have a CB in for Watford... it would be very risky to throw a brand new player into the back four for a game of this magnitude anyway (especially if they don't have PL experience). If they'd signed someone at the start of the week, fine, but can't see us buying someone today / tomorrow and disrupting any back four/five we may have been training with all week.

Not a chance in hell anyone else is in before Watford. They'd need to be registered by noon today wouldn't they?

You can say what you like about Luke's tweeting style (and his preciousness), but he is actually on the money far more often than not.

Weird take. How are we condemning ourselves to relegation? Today (providing he signs) we will have a stronger squad than yesterday, with no evidence to suggest we have finished our business by a long shot.