Dr Jinx

A little concerning to see a few nearly dead on their feet after a 90 mins but obviously very warm too.. I wonder if the changing the whole team after 45 mins in the previous games has left a few of them if a little off the pace. But have to trust the manager and his team know what they are doing. Hopefully they get well rested now before the weekend, the hard work is essentially done.

Whether we sign him or not, that sort of situation can’t not unsettle a player. One way or the other we’re potentially putting one over on Leicester who could be in for a struggle this season.

Whenever I hear or read about Steve Bruce sort of rewriting how things actually were, this one always comes to mind.

Re: Paqueta, maybe being Bruno’s best mate is a reason Eddie Howe hasn’t been interested, I mean there’s been lots of talk about him but zero credible reports that we’ve ever actually been in for him. Maybe Howe doesn’t want any cliques in the dressing room. Maddison is a player with similar attributes whos proven that he can do it in this league, pricey no doubt but the club haven’t just randomly bid for this guy, they’ve been tipped off that either the price is lower than expected, Leicester really need the cash, the player really wants to leave, or all of these simultaneously. Really surprised at this as I wound have thought players at that level were slightly out of our reach at this point but that would be a statement signing for sure.

I don’t think we’ve brought in the spark yet which is going to set the whole thing off. Like Bellamy could finish obviously but he was just electric with pace and generally made intelligent runs behind. Very few defenders got the better of him when it came to that he was also a massive arsehole so he had players wound up all the time. Actually loved having him at the club and he shouldn’t have been sold.

I was on a local holiday, had one of those WAP phones which cost an arm and a leg to go online for just a few minutes.. there was some sort of teamtalk type thing with basic text.. same, who? But they did mention he was a winger with a decent goals record. I think we’d already signed Bellamy at that point. Wasn’t particularly wowed by that signing either but Bobby knew what he was doing.

Really liked that interview, lad is really articulate and you can see he’s not going to be fazed if he gets his chance this season. There’s one thing having skill and physical attributes (which he has) but also to have intelligence to go with it. Am impressed.

Yep, thought we were good. Anderson really settled down I thought but was mostly impressed with Longstaff, he won the ball back plenty.

Watched for about 15 mins with no sound, we’ve played reasonably well considering it’s far from a full strength side. Especially the pressing, they can’t cope at all with it.

All sorted now that it’s half time, video and sound.

you think he’d have taken Big Dunc?

I think he would have appreciated that it was a pretty good dig he got. One of the hardest players we’ve ever had, Big Dunc obviously in a league of his own. ?

Just search his name on Twitter and it’s one of the top tweets. Really doesn’t look good for the club either who would have known about this.

Any word on how serious it was?

Oh yeah, that for sure. If you’re in the position to pick and choose a bank to work with you’re hardly going to go with them after how they carried on.

Every club has some form of credit facility, we had one with Barclays under Ashley, now it’s a new company essentially, so this is just a formality that would have been done at any stage. New ownership chose HSBC. It might have a bearing on summer spending or may be irrelevant. Not sure what all the arguing has been about.

Nope, was scratching my head for a minute but then remembered a post about some young kids being brought out for the trip. I suspect Dummett breaking down and the managers complete lack of trust in Lewis means he wanted to have a proper look at this kid. He did well considering, looks pacy and confident on the ball. Few misplaced passes later on but we were under pressure at that point. Providing Targett can stay fit, this lad should be an able understudy. We do also have Dan Burn who can play that position so we should be ok there.

There’s variances but pretty much it’s an accent thing and I’ve heard from a few Brazilian pals that the Portuguese folk can be a little snobby in regards to them.

Hopefully him and Bruno will have gotten something out of their systems tonight. Seems strange that it was the Portuguese speaking lads who seemed riled up. Some words said in the tunnel beforehand?

Joelinton is sort of carving an aura of hard man midfielder.. like he’s a beast for sure but he’s becoming more intimidating, like a few bad tackles.. nobody likes to see that but players will be thinking of that when they play us and he’ll start getting more time on the ball. The likes of Keane and Vieira made careers out of that. Especially Keane, nobody ever really put it up to him because of his reputation. Joelintons footwork and ability to make space just keeps improving all the time too though, we haven’t seen the best of him yet.

Enjoyed that! Was more like a Europa qualifier, their free kick, can’t complain, first goal, Lascelles.. just terrible positioning and mistiming the jump. Hopefully he won’t play much. I think it’s going to be fair to say our strongest midfield will be Bruno, Joelinton and Shelvey but Willock looks sharp as well, ideally be great if someone else came in there to give us something different. Almiron looks confident which bodes well but we need more down that side. We need another striker, I think assuming Wilson will carry the burden could backfire massively. Maxi had a better game for what we saw of him. He’s the strongest option at forward left we have. Anderson should be his backup there, whatever position he played at during the first half didn’t do him any favours but can obviously mix it at this level.

Bit ugly, game didn’t need to go that way.

Miggy!!!!!!

“Benfica gonna have a heart attack when he see what Eddie brung them in the second half”

Jesus Christ Premier Sports, sort it out.. ?