Dr Jinx

While I fully agree with you, I think the way they are going is identifying positions methodically.. the midfield currently is a known quantity and they can do better. You stick someone like Diaby up in the wide right forward position and suddenly all sorts of space starts opening up in midfield. We didn’t even have Wilson for basically most of that good run but when he did come back we looked sharp up front. Wide right is the main problem position, everywhere else we’re not too bad for the moment.

Although midfield is an area we still need to strengthen, I suspect our manager will assess them during the first half of the season and then maybe dip into the market in January. After all, much of our squad never really got into any sort of form last season until January, such was the poor level of pre season and general fitness they had.

While the idea of the loan structure is great for small clubs or in our case in previous years, an owner with zero ambition, why should we develop players belonging to another club, a rival club.. a loan is fine if there’s an obligation or option to buy at the end of it, but not if we’re just doing their work for them.

Ciaran Clark would be ideal for a mid level championship side, he’s made some absolute howlers but there was a point when he was our most consistent defender. (Under Rafa)

Lascelles was never the worlds best defender but he is a leader, or was.. still could be. It’s no coincidence that his best form came under Benitez who probably identified his weaknesses and coached him in such a way that he didn’t have to do all that much thinking about what to do. He lost all of that under Bruce, but also that leadership quality. Too comfortable, no competition for a place and looked shell shocked as others came in to take his role. Not sure if Howe is the type to give him that one to one attention that he needs?

Lingard and Dele Alli.. just the type of characters you want in the dressing room when things aren’t going well ?

Apparently in for Lingard ?

“Happy in your line of work?”

Serena does a great job, not sure who’s doing video but it’s still relatively new as a department. A fella called Dan is looking after the website and marketing overall so it’s his gig pretty much.

Why not both? Paqueta wouldn’t add anything defensively but going forward he’d be great, why couldn’t he take that wide right forward slot? (Which is as much in midfield as it is in the final third)

A finisher is useless if nobody is providing the chances. A right sided forward is priority now and hopefully Elliott will be pushing Maxi all the way, he needs to raise his game.. he needs to realise that playing the simple pass is better than beating those extra 2 defenders and then losing the ball. It would be nice to get another midfielder in but I can’t see anything other than Joelinton, Shelvey and Bruno starting, if we’re less wasteful up top we could be a very strong side. Bit yes we need a mobile forward to cover for Wilson

All the good ones have been mentioned already but I have to say I immensely enjoyed the win against Leicester last season, that Bruno header in the 94th minute.. I jumped up off the couch and roared, honestly hadn’t done that in so long (when not actually at the game)

I can kind of understand the agent wanting to milk this one for all it’s worth, in 2/3 seasons we’re up there with the top teams so there may not be a move up for him, he may not want to go anywhere. So those agents fees for big moves might not be what he thought he was getting for this kid. Madrid will always be a draw but it really depends on what we’re playing for.

Sarr would be like when we signed Targett, slightly underwhelmed but then actually when you see him play, it all makes sense and he was vastly underrated.

We’ve had some great frenchies over the years but they do like a sulk. Throw entitlement into the mix and it spells trouble. At least the South Americans know what hard graft is all about.

At this point it’s very difficult to separate his agents behaviour with his own endorsement of it. I have absolutely zero interest in having any player at the club who thinks he’s above it. That sort of rotten attitude seeps into the whole setup, you make allowances for him etc and suddenly you have an unmotivated group. No ta, even if his agent buckled this evening and caved in to whatever our offer was. I really hope Ashworth and Howe are thinking along the same lines too.

For once I am in full agreement with Simon Jordan’s assessment of what we’ll do. Sensible, sustained investment. We won’t go overboard but what we’ll do is upgrade the squad in each window, it might take a few seasons but over the course of it, suddenly there will be no surprise when we’re there or thereabouts in the league table. It’s not crazy to think that if we continue in the same form as second half of the season, or better, that we’ll be in the top 6 and within a sniff of the top 4 like several teams who performed very poorly last season were.

31? Won’t happen even if they were going to spend those wages.

Early part of last season he looked great, but then towards end of season when they played us, Bruno had him in his pocket all game.. he was levels below him. We want to keep that standard in who we bring in, so jury is out about Gallagher as far as I’m concerned.

I think since Ashworth has come in, we’ve gotten way more coy when it comes to the psychology of the transfer side of the business. We openly showed an interest, we’re told not for sale or quoted a ridiculous price. The most recent brief is that we’re done for the moment and will assess the squad etc.. Que the story about Diaby coming out.. those clubs are getting worried we’d walk away because we actually would and they are realising now that the whole Newcastle tax thing is a myth.

Conte is sort of like Mourinho in that he can just put a title winning side together very quickly. I’m fully expecting them to overtake Liverpool this season, perhaps not City but they’ll be close.. and if they do have a slightly off season, they could do it, pains me to say.. They've bought very well.

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Joelinton and Bruno aside, it’s square pegs and round holes

Rapid. And his agent is a great guy too!

Back on ?