Thiago

Johnson unwittingly delivering a bitter pill - they're a lower league club. You can only claim you're below your level for so long before it becomes your level.

He's in contract negotiations with his MLS club.

This is why I didn't commit to it.

I mean, it was created because two bros thought they could convince sports fans to pay for the New Yorker of Sports. They then quickly realised that was not profitable so have descended into a boat load of access journalism and the same kind of overtold story about struggle and redemption. They do some good stuff on the analytics side but no more than the Ringer. Their video side is solid, as are some of their podcasts. Sadly, the Newcastle one is too often a tough listen. Caulkin is nice with prose, but his 'Cans' piece and general dad banter is a big turn off - he's basically over exposed himself with the Athletic gig. Waugh is solid and Taylor Payne is well...no that's mean. I want the Athletic and journalism like it to succeed but the way they spoke about killing local papers was awful. I think copy and pasting whole articles is too far, but they're not transcribing the Rosetta stone either.

Why? We need someone temporary.

My heart bleeds.

English refs aren't very good. We've known this for a while. No amount of robot assistance will aid this cause.

I think we have to accept we're seeing all the worst parts of Saint-Maximin right now. He's over-dribbling, he's not passing, he's flouncing a bit when he doesn't get calls. We see flashes of what made us fall in love with him but right now it's harder to channel because the team has more structure. I'm not going to rewatch the Bruce games cos fuck that guy, but I think so much of the success was because he had a total free role and the team reacted to what he did (and we rode our lock). Now we all have jobs to do and Saint-Maximin's has changed slightly from 'beat your man' to 'beat your man and...' I think if we give him more quality we can start to isolate him against opponents more. Right now our best bet is via quick switches of play, but that's very hard to do when you play better teams that don't give it to you.

We basically saved ourselves the year we bought half of Ligue 1 and even then we were largely bargain basement shopping and exploiting contracts to get deals done. The fact we can now go and get an Oxlaide-Chamberlain or someone of his ilk will drastically improve this squad.

Ah not to worry man. We're not in League One, we've got rid of Ashley. In time we will eradicate the stench. It's a sad truth but all tonight has convinced me of is that less of these lot are saveable than I first thought. I believe it was the daft old racist Graeme Souness who once said 'Is Pogba a tractah or a trailah?' Right now we've got a bunch full of trailers. They need quality, they need momentum to do something. We need tractors. Your David Batty's, Rob Lees, Alan Shearers of this world. A few of them can pass for tractors when its going well, but not enough to win big games. We're fast approaching January and then we can add some new faces and start to move on the deadwood. Hopefully that injection sparks life into things because unfortunately when you keep a squad together for 5-6 years things fester.

What people need to ask is - do you think the teams doing well (outside the top six) will drop off and the teams in the bottom six will pick up? If the answer is yes we're going down. If no, we should be grand.

Be coming out in t-shirts at half time man

The good thing, as is always the case with us right now, is that the potential to improve in January is huge.

Mike Dean making it about him? Colour me surprised. Tranmere legend what he is. Meh, we've been our usual selves and they haven't been what they usually are otherwise it would be closer to a cricket score. They've come along way from sacrificing their morals to laud Luis Suarez.

Like I some of our fans don't realise how this stuff works. I've never served at the top of big business, but a cup of common sense will tell you it's not simple. They've acknowledged they underestimated the disdain for Bruce, but finding a replacement in this market is tough. Hiring a CEO with this kind of specialised experience is both a narrow scope of people and also one that will attract a global base of candidates. How much do they want? Do they qualify for a work permit? What is the structure around them? What's the 2-5-10 year plan? You can rush and throw bricks down or you can take your time and do it properly.

Americans call this the Monday morning quarterback.

Luque I didn't mind because there was clear ability there but he'd lost the speed that made him some dynamic. I'm also not convinced he was a forward , more a goal scoring winger. I think if he'd still had the pace and a consistent time with Shearer he'd have been grand, like a more refined Bellamy. Instead he was shunted between left wing and forward and didn't have the mobility to be decisive.

You could basically make that case for most of the current Starting XI. I think Schar will leave on a free - personally - but the ceiling to improve this team is huge.

Starter for 10: Emmanuel Riviere. Seydou Doumbia was pretty ropey and Luuk De Jong offered nothing. I also reckon Adam Campbell was levels below if we're just opening it to anyone. Joselu was a solid target man that wasn't clinical. I think the only drastic difference between him and Gayle in terms of quality is that old Dwight got to tour the territories of the Championship to pad his numbers.

I remember when this club defended people who kicked opponents in the face. How far we've fallen.

We can dance around it all we want, but PIF and Ashley both see the club as something they can use to their benefit. That's owners of football clubs at the top level. No one is genuinely doing it for philanthropic reasons. The only difference in that motivation is that PIF will make us a much better football team. It won't get me championing their cause at all.

Lascelles had the perfect set-up for a good while - and I'm not digging him out here. At its best, he had two technical players either side of him in Schar/Lejeuene. They would do the forays up field, the fancy stuff, and clean up anything that came short. All Lascelles had to do was sit next to them and let them know what was happening. If it came in high it was his ball to win. If he needed to chase he could do that. I don't know when Rafa had the genesis of the idea to play us in a back three, I'd love to know, but he basically built a back three that was impeccable balanced. If Schar/Lejeune made a balls up you could trust Jamal to step in and clean up. We also didn't leave much space in behind which is what all defenders prefer. It's why I can look like Beckenbaeur at five a side and Bobby Davro on a 11aside pitch.

Joselu is a good example of why it's worth digging a bit when looking at numbers. He has done very well for Alaves. It's the first time in his career he's hit double figures in a top league. It's also the first time he's played well above 30+ games in his career. Sure maybe he's more comfortable in Spain so is thriving, but I wouldn't rule out the simple fact that he's playing regularly and more often. He was an ok striker that did well for us, but also missed some easy chances. I'd give him some grace because that Benitez said did not create much for strikers. It was very much get ready for your one good chance.

Oh yeah, I love MLS but I would say its League One/Championship standard at best.

Because he had a legitimate role in the team. Even now, as much as I like Howe, he's just playing as a very traditional winger. That's not his game, it has never been his game. Miguel Almiron - and I'm sure fellow MLS watchers will agree - is a no 10. He needs to be in the middle of the pitch where he can make the most of the space in front of him. Shunting him out to the wrong wing where he's forced to constantly cut inside does nothing for him. He might be able to get away on the left, but the more we just ignore him as a 10 the more he's going to look shite. Rafa played him in the central channel of the pitch and used him to connect the play. That's his greatest strength.