Holmesy

They talked about it a bit on Talkshite this morning. Gabby Agbonlahor and Ally McCoist asked if EH should be a contender for manager of the year. Agbonlahor dismissed it out of hand funnily enough. Can't remember what McCoist said. Wankers! Lineker said on MOTD that we have accumulated more points since the start of the year than every team barre Man City and hailed the 'astonishing' job EH has done. A bit of coverage but not nearly enough

He did ok in an average and hardly prolific Palace team, he has 1 in 2 for Besiktas, Belgium and the Belgian U21 team and more than 1 in 2 when he played for Dortmund. Nothing in his career has suggested he's the type of character we should be avoiding. However, i'm not suggesting we sign him. I'm just saying there is better value out there than paying £60m for Tammy Abraham and pointed to him as an example. I'm sure there are plenty of others but my knowledge of world football is not what it used to be

If Tammy Abraham is going for £60m we need to be avoiding daft price tags like that and rely on decent scouting to uncover better value players. Batshuayi is on loan is Turkey and is still 28. He'd probably be worth a punt.

Ekitike was going to cost around £20m if rumours are to be believed and a decent PL striker would probably set us back £30m. If we're after a Nunez-level striker you're probably looking at a total outlay of £100m but I doubt we will be. £50m doesn't seem unrealistic considering we paid £30m for Bruno

Hopefully we're looking at one marquee striker signing and another young, up-and-coming striker for a bit of last 20 minute unpredictability. Someone along the lines of Toney/Nunez/Gabigol and then that Ekitike lad (who i've never seen play in my life) would be a good outcome.

Agreed, can't stand the little diving prick. Hope he gets snapped in two

You don't sign world class CBs for around £10m. He's better than what we had and he has significantly improved us but he's more of a 'needed at the time' than a long term solution.

That's not accurate at all. If he had any aerial threat about him at all, he'd have bagged 4-5 goals by now. He offers nothing from set pieces and every time he gets a headed chance he cushions it back to the opposition keeper. There is literally nothing about his game that is Premier League

We got the gameplan right in the first half and he was fine. The second half gameplan was suicide and he was made to look shit. That's on the manager, not the player.

There wasn't one player on the pitch that can hold their head high after that performance/result. The fact that we now have such high expectations for Joe shows how far he's come.

Bench him permanently. Doesn’t score, assist, hold it up, run about, physically impose himself. He looks like he’d struggle in league 1. Absolutely pathetic!

If you’re going to moan about people voicing their feelings about certain players and our defeats, you’re probably in the wrong place. Or shall we only come on here to say positive things? Woke as fuck that mate, let’s see if it catches on

Nice and tight up until half time, sitting deep to stop them getting in behind and it was working. Move the line up 40 yards in the second half and we’re 4-1 down within 20 minutes. It that was part of the game plan someone has been on the aerosols. If not, the players want slapping! Bag of shite!

I’d rather see Gayle playing than Wood. Or even Joelinton, with Bruno and Shelvey starting in Midfield. At this stage, blooding someone from the academy would be preferable

One of those training dummies would be a good shout.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Chris Wood is shit and gives us nothing.

Hopefully the era of the last big pay day-type moves is over now. Teams seem more prepared to let players in the latter years of their careers leave rather than offer them another big contract and it could set a new precedent. It used to be thought that players peaked at 28 but the athletic demands of the PL, for example, means players are at their most valuable between 20-26/7 and probably their most motivated as well, so that's rightly when they should be earning the biggest salaries of their careers. It's not really worth risking a 4 year contract for most 29 year olds, on multiple hundreds of thousands per week these days (unless you're PSG who play in a farmer's league week i week out). The likes of Salah might be an exception but even then, Liverpool don't look like they're going to bow to his demands. Interesting times!

I'd consider both Trippier and Bruno big names. They're perhaps not the biggest names but if we sign 4-5 more players of that calibre i'd be absolutely delighted. 4-5 quality players who really want to be here, at between £20-30m each would be spot on. If people expect us to shatter our wage budget and splash out ridiculous money on the likes of Sterling, they're sniffing glue.

Intelligent scouting is the key. Bruno cost around £30m - a Brazilian international CM for relative peanuts. Trippier cost us around £12m If players of that calibre are available for that sort of money, you don't need to spend £100m+ per player to compete. When we get to the point where we need to boost commercial revenue by signing big names, we might need to cough up big for a Haaland-type but I think we can break into the top 6 with a relatively modest spend (and by relatively modest i'm talking £100-150m). Breaking into the top 4 might take a bit more but then look at Arsenal - their squad isn't amazing and they sit in 4th spot. Most of their star players have come through their youth ranks. Wolves have also built a quality squad through good scouting and great links in Portugal, and not buying other club's ready-made stars.

Likewise. When he joined City he was being touted as the next big thing and he’s looked nothing like it whenever I’ve watched him. Mahrez is twice the played! I imagine his wages of (I’m guessing) £200k per week would also be a huge stumbling block

If his decision making improved 25% he'd be a very productive PL player. He has pace, technique and a decent shot on him but i've seen kids with better decision making at the crucial moments. It looks shittest when he's on the wing, so maybe being played out of position has something to do with it. Shame really, seems like a top lad

Constantly trying to reignite the glory years using short terms fixes, shit decisions, heart over head appointments and poor recruitment. With Rangnick and Ten Haag they'll have a team capable of developing and delivering a 5-10 year plan designed to take them back to the top - scouting and developing quality youth players and coaching a cohesive style from youth teams up, Ajax/Barcelon/Man City-style. If the plan was clearly communicated to the fans you'd hope they'd buy in and temper their immediate expectations. If they bring in Ten Haag expecting immediate success and challenging for the top 4 i think they'll be disappointed. There's a lot of rot to remove before that can happen

Absolute bottler! Shitting himself about getting called Dinosaur Arms again

Have to be honest, when people were saying 'no team has ever been in such a bad position and got out of it in PL history, i genuinely thought we were fucked. The turnaround needed seemed impossible. What EH, his backroom staff and the players have done is mind blowing really

Southampton are basically safe and in mid-table no mans land so what does it fucking matter?! If they were going for Europe or battling relegation his point would hold more weight but he just sounds like he's whining now