Armchair Pundit

Gods, let's hope it's nothing that drastic happening at the club behind the scenes... there does seem to an air of uncertainty floating around though, that momentum from the club being bought from Ashley and the whole 'We are United' thing seems to have fizzled out at last recently, along with the departure of Mehrdad and Amanda. Edit: We ARE only two games in to the new season though and the transfer bollocks can't be helping.

Precisely, the ball falls mid upper arm, not on the shoulder or the even in line with the armpit. Unfortunately for them, upper arm is still handball, regardless of the stupidity of the rule.

Good point, it's not like we don't have the height in players to be dominating from corners being floated into the box and we'd had bugger all luck from trying to play to feet for the majority of the game.

To be honest, looking at the game stats from yesterday you'd think it was a fair result where both teams played reasonably well... part of me wonders if we're being overly critical... but then I remember that I watched the match and we looked out of sorts, the starting eleven had no energy, no real drive and made some really poor mistakes: What does Eddie do to get us back on track? Do we need the uncertainty of a marquee signing to be resolved, is the issue that we've got stale and need some fresh blood to pep us up again?

No, he's taken up wrestling, going to feature in the next Survivor Series alongside the Undertaker

That would have been funny as if we'd managed to get a last gasp winner, there'd have been mass suicide on the south coast!

Surely Joe will get a retrospective red for that? Glad the Bournemouth staff are getting carded though, hilarious

I honestly thought we'd left all this shit behind when Ashley went and Bruce fucked off...

I've been irrationally annoyed by his new haircut, makes him look like a right ratty charver

Big Joe believing his own hype from last week, snap out of it big fella!

Need to keep up on this, Barnes looking mint

Hmmm

Imagine having no motivation or energy two games into a new season, what on earth is going on with our players? Really feels like we're lost and have no direction currently.

I thought we looked pretty good in pre-season, the team looked 'together' as well, not sure what's been going on in the league since it restarted

Not a bad shout at all that, would benefit all parties involved and would stick two fingers up at Palace in the process.

On current standards he's barely worth £50m, fed up with the furore over it all to be honest - I'd still rather we went for one of the foreign league centre backs we've been linked with as a cheaper alternative. No way we should be dancing to Palace's tune on this.

Christ on a bike, I've just seen a report quote Guehi as an £80m centre back now! This is ridiculous.

I'd rather we moved for one of the foreign alternatives mentioned, it's leaving us too late in the transfer window and I honestly think Palace are trying to stitch us up - it wouldn't surprise me if there was backing from other wanker clubs encouraging Parish to do it as well! Guehi's not giving off the vibe he wants to join us, their price is ridiculously over-inflated and it's probably taking resources away from the other signing we need to make on the right side of midfield! ... my conspiracy theory siege mentality paranoia is in overdrive at this point

I wonder how much of the fanbase are of the opinion that the higher the fee, the more they'll feel that the club have been had over by Palace. I personally don't think Guehi is worth anywhere near the mooted £70m and can't help thinking that it also puts massive expectations on the player, possibly even setting him up for some resentment through no fault of his own.

Reports jumping towards Trevoh Chalobah again now as an alternative... but is he 'Magical' Trevor?

Don't know about all the Guehi talk, it looks like Sterling might be having issues at Chelsea, wonder if we could get him in on the cheap, still on 29 (seems to have been around for ages and can score a goal). https://www.skysports.com/football/live-blog/12691/13025497/chelsea-transfer-news-rumours-and-gossip-live-updates-and-latest-on-deals-signings-loans-and-contracts

I wonder if part of why we have Guehi as our number one target is the hope that having a newly established first choice England international will propel our status amongst the top teams in the league. I know we've been finishing at the right end for the last couple of years, but having those bigger, marquee players must help in getting some recognition perhaps. Still, I trust Eddie knows what he's doing and would be able to coach whoever he chose to bring in. Just feel a bit like £65m-£70m is a bit of a stretch right now and can't help thinking RW is equally in need of a big player.

Just watched the red, no idea what Anderson was on about on the commentary saying it was a fair red and moaning about it being Schar's fault. If the ref really thinks that Diaz's rolling around on the floor clutching his face is a normal reaction, even to an actual headbutt, then I've got to question his ability to be a ref. Add in the fact there's ample opportunity to ask any other member of the refereeing team, etc, it's just pretty poor, especially with the initial incident coming from Diaz literally hurling himself into Schar in the first place. Sounded like we were easily the better team on the day and ground out the necessary result after being reduced to ten men, like you'd expect of any top end team. Of course, the only problem now is that it makes out search for a central defender all the more desperate and put us further on the back foot of any negotiations.

He should be alright getting onboard with our training team and medical experts, just needs the 'appliance of science'...