qwertyell

https://streamin.me/v/39de8405 Just saying (and not mentioning that he missed a penalty in the first match).

The second coming of Glenn Roeder was Jack Stephens-esque here as well. No awareness or urgency to the only danger in the box and fails to get across his man for the first goal, and a feeble attempt at a block that even Will Smallbone might think a bit limp on the second. Again, my concern with people raving about the guy who wasn't good enough to get in the worst defence in the PL (and second worst in history) last season and insisting we build our future defence around him, is that his stock has been artificially inflated by A) not being tainted by this season's disaster, and B) the disproportionate weight given to how comfortable a defender looks on the ball verses whether he can actually defend the goal. Give him a chance, sure. But I don't see how he has suddenly become a better option than the garbage we already have on the books, on account of how misty-eyed QPR fans got watching him contribute to making their defensive record worse as they limped into 15th in the championship.

The scouting department were tasked with finding a direct Che Adams replacement, and simply typed "big lump who can only shoot with his right foot" into Google. I mean, that still makes him better than any striker on our books. But it's a low bar.

I'm not sure how much stock we should place in being young player of the year for the team that finished 15th in the championship. Young player of the year for Watford, who finished higher in 14th, was a striker who scored 2 goals. Should we sign him to fix our goalscoring problems?

Would we be similarly happy signing Wood, though, who is also an U21 international who has only had Championship experience (before this season)? I'm not convinced Wood is particularly good, but unlike Edwards, he can win the ball in the air and is quite quick across the deck. My concern with Edwards is that there is a modern trend to be dazzled by how comfortable a defender looks on the ball and completely disregard the question of whether they can actually defend or not. I still remember how poor he looked against Cardiff reserves in the League Cup last season - and QPR's defensive record actually got worse after he joined them in January, in spite of him allegedly "impressing". I wouldn't write him off until we've had a proper look at him, but short stature centre backs of limited pace who don't defend particularly well are not exactly in high demand for a reason.

Tuchel: "It surprised me because we started well. We created an xG of three and underperformed with one. It just shows we were not precise enough and had a lack of quality in finishing." Oh dear, he's one of those.

Nobody said it was a standard benchmark. But it was literally referenced in Spurs' official statement about the sacking, so somebody was taking notes. You don't think a side in the bottom five for form across the best part of two seasons is perhaps trending in the wrong direction? That £400m spent on players only to finish 17th with their most losses ever in a PL season might be considered a tad underachieve-y? He had a good start but quickly got found out - like many a manager before him. And unless Spurs are going to somehow win next season's champions league, the only path back into the competition for them is by finishing top four/five, which they obviously can't do with bottom five results. Those good 10 games were a long time ago. Something had to change.

78 points from his last 66 games. Only Wolves of the non-relegated clubs accrued less. He only managed Spurs for 76 games. So after his first 10 matches, they were basically a bottom five team under him. He wasn't choosing to "focus on Europe" across all those 66 games. He was just crap.

He joined them on loan. Spent most of the season on the bench. De Zerbi didn't fancy him, but Marseille were obligated to make the transfer permanent at the end of the season regardless. So it's not inconceivable that he could be available - perhaps a loan.

Reims lost their relegation play off and dropped down to ligue 2. Perhaps Billy Stiils might have an eye on a couple of his former players who may now be available for our level. He'll certainly remember their keeper Yehvann Diouf (25), who set the record for the most saves in a ligue 1 game (14) when Reims won 2-0 at Lens recently.

Ungainly was certainly a word that sprang to mind. To be fair, Konate at Liverpool looks a bit like Bambi on ice at times, but seems to make it work for him. I've watched a bit more of Quarshie, and there's no way we'd be signing someone that raw for the first team squad if we were still a Premier League team fighting for our lives (or whatever you'd call the "fight" we put up this season). As a Championship side expected to dominate a lot of games, there's probably something there to try and polish up at an easier level - and for a minor outlay that we can probably make back selling him for parts if it comes down to it.

Greuther Furth vs Hamburg (who finished 2nd) league game from 10 days ago is up in full on the YouTubes if anyone wants a long look at Quarshie, who started for Greuther Furth, against reasonable opposition. I've done 10 minutes. He's made one block, a really clumsy foul that should've been a yellow card, and launched a pretty impressive throw in into the box. And he's just tried and failed to play an attacker offside but recovered to block another shot. I'm not watching any more. But I can confirm he A) exists and B) is tall.

Jordan Torunarigha? 27, formerly of Hertha Berlin, has just left Gent at the end of his contract. Left sided, quick, athletic, German (although he's switched to Nigeria). And free.

Don't be said because it's over, be sad because it happened.

Their longest run without defeat was 6 games. He's only won 17 games in total.