Fabrice29

Except that’s not true.

This isn't an attitude thing fwiw. I know a few people seem to think the transfer window closing meant he didn't try anymore. He's simply just that type of player and always will be, whatever league he's in, he's inconsistent.

Fanbase just over hyping the only youngsters they regularly hear of I think tbh. Before this current crop I'm not sure we've had many internationals and actually highly rated kids for a while. Weirdly have a memory of Henrik Kraft even stating that last years U21 group wasn't that good.

Isn't Doyle's contract up soon? I know there was talk about him being tempted to leave last summer as he was worried about no pathway. Be interesting to see how that plays out over January if he's fit.

I admire the delusion if nothing else.

Alright, good luck with all of that.

Opinion based on literally everything we know about us and Ings.

This is not my stance. My stance is we weren't ambitious enough for him when we were at our best and he was leading that, so why anyone thinks he'll come back as some sort of "rather be here than anywhere else" thought is beyond me. He'll go where he's paid somewhere close to what he's on and he can offset that with an interesting challenge. Or somewhere boring but pays him enough to get over it. We're not going to do either of that. Leeds or Leicester might, no idea, don't know much about their ethos or business plan, but I've seen nothing to suggest we're in the business of offering anywhere near 100k a week to anyone who is over 30 now we're in the Championship.

He literally left last time, citing ambition. He also didn’t come back last time he moved. We’re now in the Championship and in no position to satisfy any ambition or make up for it in terms of cash. It’s not happening and I find it actually baffling anyone even entertains these really easy rumours to start.

Because if a good enough offer comes along I think he’ll press the issue. He’s not seemingly interested in signing a new contract so at some stage we have to accept he’s going and this January will be the best price we get. Even if we rationalised that keeping him makes us more money in the long run, he’ll press the issue when he wants to and if the offer is good enough from say, West Ham, in January then good luck to him. Maybe he won’t get that offer.

We’ll get a wide attacker for sure. We were after one at the end of the last window. Martin has actively said we need more goals so will be interesting if the wide player is the answer to that or if they back Stewart. Certainly won’t be Ings Prepare yourself for plenty of agent work on behalf Sulemana wise especially if he doesn’t make the Ghana squad. Be surprised if KWP is here at the end of January as well. Johnson in.

Orrrr.... his agent gets to work early in December and starts convincing desperate fanbases and subsequently recruitment teams, managers and chairman that not only is his man available but he's also the goal scorer he once was still and therefore the answer to all their prayers and as such wages should be of no object. Like I said, if he finds a club willing to pay him, good luck to him. If he doesn't, I suspect he'll just stick it out a bit longer on the wages he's on. The idea of him taking a significant pay cut to play for a Championship club he was quite happy to leave a few years ago when he could just earn the 100k plus he's earning now for another few months, seems very low down on the realistic ladder to me. Slightly higher than the idea of West Ham subsidising his wages to play for someone else for no sell on profit though, so there is hope. That's also even before we discuss the merits of the club, who is desperate to be seen at the forefront of giving young players a chance when they aren't getting it elsewhere, suddenly deciding to chuck a whole load of weekly cash at someone 30 plus. But anyway, lets have a few more pages of chat about it, then when he signs for Everton, Burnley, someone in Saudi, Turkey, another desperate moneybags team or just hangs around at West Ham, we can all blame the club because it was a no brainer!!

Not sure why anyone seems to think our club would sign somebody they didn't deem affordable last time this all came up now we are in Championship. Unless he's suddenly happy to waive half his wages it's not happening and good luck to him and whichever club decides to stump up the wages. Easy work for the agent to feed this into circulation though.

ffs

This attitude and belief will never not confuse me because I'm just looking at our squads recent results in the PL and guess what...we really weren't up to standard for quite a while. KWP aside, there really isn't much proven premier league players in our team. We've also got 1 fit player in our squad who has scored goals on a regular basis over more than just 1 season, at any level and guess what...he's the only one scoring regular for us now (and regularly blasting the ball over from 6 yards). It's hardly a shock we don't score goals. But yeah, lets get back to arguing about Manning and Martin

Wasn't Charlie Cresswell linked the other day?

Joachim Kayi Sanda a name worth keeping an eye on. French Under 17 captain and appeared for Valenciennes already this season. Could be the first to be funnelled up to us at some stage.

What? What's the narrative here? Haven't had a striker since 2021 and owners are bellends because they can't sign strikers, apart from the one they signed in January? There's some legit criticism to be shared around our striker situation but make it make sense at least.

Set pieces could be fun today. They love a set piece goal, we don't win many headers.

Martin said exactly this about Sulemana on Tuesday. He also implied he was partly subbed off Saturday because he was not actively looking to do that and he’s spoken to him many times about making those runs more. But hey, yeah, it’s Martins fault not the player himself.

He says so brazenly like it’s a choice that Martin is actively holding us back from.

Blackmore always does this. Surprised it’s taken this long for Martin to be slightly chippy back. It’s an annoying style but some people like it I guess. Why are our fans so precious about Blackmore and manager interviews in general? Literally every manager is spikey in interviews but here it’s seen as a cardinal sin. Best form in the past couple of years is it? Better not be defensive about your record in an interview fella.

Meanwhile….Piroe has 3 goals less in the league than Adam Armstrong who Martin specifically said in the summer was his version of Piroe. He’s not an out and out striker so was not a viable signing whilst we kept hold of Armstrong. Finished your sentence for you.

I’ll give you this last night, but how many other times has this happened? Who of our relegated squad that is still clearly prem standard has won us games from individual skill?

Yeah, we weren't very good. Everyone agrees. Manager, players, fans, pundits. It's hardly ground-breaking insight.