SonicBoom

I saw an interview he did this season where he seems to have addressed his issues. He said he realised he needs to totally focus. He hired his own dietician and cut loose a lot of his entourage. He came across as someone that really wanted to up his level of professionalism. I was impressed. I think we could really do with a guy in the centre of the park that actually wants to get forward and shoot. Cant remember the last time we had that threat instead of going wide all the time.

I think that our first eleven is a match for anyone. If we slide down the table a little we automatically start panicking and thinking the way back is to spend. At the moment our team is probably good enough to be in and around the top 6. Arguably higher if you look at Leicester's example. So what we should be concentrating on is why the team are underperforming at the moment.

I thought one of the reasons that Ron was chosen was because he bought into the philosophy of the club - that means bringing through youth. Apparently he had a good record elsewhere. So if he is not using our youth then we need to face the slightly uncomfortable truth that they are simply not good enough and Ron doesn't want to entrust his reputation to them. Secondly U21 football is useless. Unless a player stands out he is in big trouble when he gets to 21/22/23. Getting too old for the U21's but not pushed into the first team. Footballing no man's land. We can't wait for them to come good at 24/25 because they clog up the squad playing very little football. Finally as we have more and more money, we have a better first team squad. That means that fewer and fewer local lads will get into the first team. I think that is inevitable. Teams in the championship and lower will be developing British players. Look at City, United, Chelsea, Arsenal etc etc , their youth doesn't make it. That's because they have the money to buy finished products and not gamble on developing players.

It's always good to have a creative player in the middle of the park. We lack that number ten when the opposition drop deep. Lallana was capable of doing it, Tadic is creative but there's only so much you can do from out wide and Mane is also able to create but he does it by running in behind. Maybe Clasie will be the man once he really settles in.

Mark Hannibal *shudders*