Thiago

It's worth remembering that for as much the owners have lofty ambitions we do have some distance to go to reach that point. There'll be a period in between in which we will need reliable home grown players to meet squad quotas. I'm assuming this two-year deal is with a view to him going up to the Championship next year. If he succeeds there we can reassess, extend further, and integrate him. If that isn't the case and he looks close to his ceiling then we can look to move him on and make some money from it.

I mean, to a degree they're right. Either he's a horrendous con man like the other two, or he's possibly the thickest rich man in the world.

I've got a Saturday league game at 9:30 and kick off is 7:30. Tempted to blow both off as we've got a double header and I'm old as shit.

A fitting last act from Ashley to give us this kit sponsor. The quality to price disparity is so poor.

I like him. Right now he falls into the same basket as Hughton and Rafa for me. He seems like a nice guy that puts a lot of hard work in to give the team the best chance of a win on a weekend. He seems to have ridden the choppy early start and now we appear well drilled and organised which is also nice. Off the pitch he seems a respectable and respectful guy that appreciates the fans and the area.

I can't blame him. A great finisher, but it means nothing if you can't get him the ball and they've struggled to provide for the more mobile and imposing Stewart of late.

Would love to be able to see more of his games for Bristol.

I'd be curious to know if that was a Bruce request or just a consequence of not getting the ball any other way and frustration setting in.

Probably, and this will sound mental, but I'm just not sure who we sub him for at this precise moment. I think the midfield is in good form and it seems fairly well balanced.

I can't see Howe making any changes that aren't forced upon him. Targett in at LB, Manquillo/Krafth in at RB. We don't want to shaft ourselves by being too defensive. West Ham are going to be trying to dictate things and the pressure is on them as the home team to take the game to us. Stay fairly compact and isolate Maxi against Soufal and we should be good to at least cause problems.

I know he's built a reputation now as a destroyer of sorts, but he was an inch away from giving Fraser a clean run on goal. I think there's creativity in him he just hasn't had chance to show it.

It could be about to get worse. Fair play this lad has been on their case from minute one.

What are we anticipating for their atmosphere on Saturday? Fellow promotion rival in MK Dons heading up to the SOL. I feel like a few may stay away and if it starts going bad it'll turn toxic quite quick.

I'd be very hesitant with the likes of Rashford. I'd far rather we go for players trending up like Guimareas.

I do wonder what he'd do with them. They seem to give him a lot of credit for 'getting us back up' but he inherited a top half club that he took down twice. When we went down the first time we had sellable assets and spent less than £10m on new faces - Oba Martins going to Wolfsburg covered all of the incoming players. The second time he deserved some credit for the players signed like Sissoko and Wijnaldum being able to spin us a profit and cover a squad overhaul. That said, he was fortunate that Rafa approached him and was able to make shrewd signings like Gayle and Ritchie. Our only flops that year were Sels and Lazaar. His record of hiring managers is frankly awful, and he'd need to invest almost instantly to get them up. Given his habit of blurring the lines between personal investment and 'interest free loans' I don't know how he'd recover a lot of that money if the club itself cost between £20-40m because I can't see a world where someone pays £200m for Sunderland. We were fortunate to be a relatively stable PL club with consistent crowds and a decent image due to Keegan's Entertainers and Goal, and even then I can't believe we went for £300m.

Tbh, I'm looking at it through the lens of my mates I speak to, not the rabid idiots of RTG.

The crooks turned out to be crooks, whodathunk it? I do feel for them a bit. They've been lied to clearly. This wasn't a takeover it was an investment from an individual.

Nice to have a group and manager focused on the game and reading the moment like that. Bruce wouldn't. Sorry Kasper It's funny because he doubles down a few posts later.

Why are Norwich so high? Most games played?

Villa fans said similar about Targett with Grealish.

The top answer here has to be Adidas. They had the most iconic kits in our recent history and simplicity for the home kit is king. It needs narrow stripes and small details to accent/make it unique. From there we've had a fair few nice away kits that you could play about with reinvent.

Down to a 3 from a 10 and not even watching games. The threat of relegation still has me nervous, but I think it'll take time for the apathy of Ashley to truly dissolve.

It feels quite rare, but are either Everton or Villa happy with the outcome of this deal? Feels like he'd be much better suited to Frank's 3-4-3 than Gerrard's back four.

So how long is he out for then?

I'd take a point given their form. That said, we may find some success in a game where we can be the counter-attacking side instead of having to dictate things.