Thiago

The unfortunate thing (and apologies if this stresses you further SEMTEX) is that from my experience the signatures tended to depend on when you caught the players. I did one for my mate's 18th and Dyer genuinely wrote KCD.

Line 2 second from the left I think is Dabizas. Line 4 first one on the left I believe is David Batty. Line 3 is Ketsbaia.

It's quite sad to see what's become of Beardsley. A truly remarkable footballer and now scrabbling for a job in non-league after rightfully being ejected from the club.

Leicester games (of late) have been a very apt reflection of how poorly we've been run and how well they've been run.

I don't have the data to hand, but I'd be curious to know how often a team from 17th down actually puts together a run of form in the back eight or nine games. I feel it's a tad overblown. Burnley were 17th last season. They won 3 and lost 7 of their last 10. Fulham lost all but two of their games from mid-March onwards. What I mean in a roundabout way is, I could see perhaps one of those teams doing it, but the notion that several of those below us could do it and drag us in (while we also lose every game left) feels unlikely.

Where do you stand on Webber? I found it intriguing they almost instantly switched him to fullback.

Imagine who we'd have signed under a Bruce/Ashley ownership in January man

For all the clamour of us spending £93m I think him and Burn have had the most sustained impact. There's a lot to be said for having a good solid pro that gives you consistency and doesn't take needless risks. I'm also consistently impressed when he gets a chance to cross from open play. He's not perfect (who is) but it would take a very good defender to take his place.

Because it often surmounts to 'Who does Uncle Jorge have available?'

Yeah he looked tidy did Jack. I think midfielders like him will always carve out a good career. That's interesting about Diamond too. I remember going to a Youth Cup game between us and Spurs (they were comfortably the better team) but Longstaff looked like the only one with close to potential.

I do like O’Hare he seems a bundle of energy. Could see someone like Southampton finding value in him.

Yeah, I think if you talk to most scouts/DOF they'll have a page of wins and losses when it comes to players. I think sometimes the PR around these guys plays into the game especially when it comes to constructing the narrative of someone's career. We can spin it as 'Super Scout Steve Walsh signs three Premier League winners for £7m." What that ignores is, that's three players out of how many he's probably signed? It's also a lot different doing business as Leicester City in the Championship (I know Kante came later) compared to Everton in the Premier League aspiring to the top four. The demands and expectations in those moments are very different. The club's your speaking to will approach things differently. I also think it's worth remembering that when those three came to fruition it was in a side that counter-attacked ruthlessly. They happened to thrive in that system and under a manager that wanted to play that way. It was an aligning of stars. Sometimes a DOF thrives or dies based on how he works with his manager and Ronald Koeman hasn't done much since. He may argue that losing Lukaku was a massive blow, and I don't want to dismiss his achievements, he's found three more Premier League winners than I have

Everton. Signed like three number 10s/players that wanted to play the 10 including Sigurdsson for £45m.

To be fair mate, I said at Man City. No argument, he was great for Leicester, but playing for that team and this Man City side is wildly different.

Allow me to clarify somewhat. When I watch him, I feel like he takes too many touches and isn't as decisive as I'd want a player in his role to be. Sure, his goal numbers look great, but when you actually dig a bit deeper a lot of times he's scoring in games they're already miles ahead. I'll admit, I'm holding him to a high standard because I'm watching him in the context of LIverpool's front three and the top level. Is he someone that has defined games at Man City? I don't think so. I feel like that chance at the end was a good example of what he's like in those big killer moments when City need him. It's a piece of piss running over Norwich or Sporting, but can you do it on the big occasion?

I've never been that enamoured with Mahrez at Man City. He feels like someone that often flatters to deceive.

Why are you being so patronising? That's the crux of my argument, human input = human error so it's intent to improve things won't really do that. We could go down huge rabbit holes about how do you accurately confirm point of contact from the player passing the ball etc. We keep trying to modernise processes that in many instances can't be. I wasn't referencing Wood's penalty, we'd have got that because the referee gave it of his own accord, I'm talking about the Murphy one that the on field refs didn't give. I think it's best if we just agree to disagree.

Find it quite interesting that Matip came up as a CDM and has transformed into a pretty impressive CB.

I can critique the system as used because if it's not going to catch everything then don't prescribe it as doing so. It was oversold as something it couldn't be and all it leads to is an imbalance of outcomes. Before VAR we'd have not got that penalty but got the goal. Now it's overcorrected and made things worse IMO.

Agreed. I think the wins for both us and Leeds were huge, and honestly, I think Everton ride out quite comfortably from here on in. They've got Yerry Mina to come back and a few games at home where I think it'll be bouncing.

I think expecting Burnley to win 4 of 8 games when they couldn't beat Norwich City is hugely optimistic. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes.

Such an odd reply from you. I don't know how you've misunderstood this so catastrophically. I have no issue with them flagging the offside goal. Where I take issue is with how inconsistently they apply 'clear and obvious'. It's debatable whether Bruno's studs being offside is 'clear and obvious' as evidenced by the linesman not flagging and no one in the ground even suggesting it. But if we accept it as meeting the threshold, to then sit on your hands when Trevor Chalobah is trying to undress Murphy in the penalty box makes the whole system a farce. That was my point - that we've added all this technology just to hope that 'it evens itself out across the season'.

There were strong rumours it was a massive favour to Porto and in turn Mendes. That said, he's still very young and I'm not convinced he's a lead the line striker. Wolves ask a lot of Jimenez so no shame in not matching up to him (he was fairly mediocre until he came to Wolves). I also think that team is so risk averse I can't imagine it's fun being a forward.

Maybe it's because I've had a good day, but I think we've got our approach with this lad all wrong. I'm reminded of something young Hatem said after a game at Villa Park (paraphrasing) "When they shout go on, take him on, you can fly." During the last few years there were times Alan Saint-Maximin felt like the only chance we had of winning games. When legs were tired and heads had dropped he'd be the one willing to take the ball and try to find a way through. There were games he turned around for us single-handedly. He was exciting and exhilarating, and he kept me watching amid some truly awful football. If this club was able to lean on him during a bad spell, can he not lean on us for support? I'm not here to argue he's the Saint-Maximin we all know and love right now. He's not. But there's flickers. little feints, and drives inside. Enough to tell me he's in there even if it's not quite igniting the same way. Away from home we can't do that much, but when I think about how we've adored entertainers down the years, why can't we make him feel like we've got his back at St James' Park? Can we not give him the kind of backing so he feels like he can fly with the ball? It's easy to back the lads when we're all winning and all playing well, but sometimes we need to give a bit of extra attention to those flagging.

As I said elsewhere, still crazy to me that VAR won't think to involve itself at Stamford Bridge but will chirp up when Wood scores the most Wood goal possible.