qwertyell

He has one goal in professional football. I think even Dan N'Lundulu can beat that. Hopefully our recruitment team casts a wider net than simply the last person they remember seeing.

He had some stinkers last season too. If he bags a goal, his overall performance tends to get overlooked, but as a midfielder he can be a bit iffy: loose on the ball, reckless in the tackle, and generally indisciplined. But he was signed as a rough diamond, so it's up to us to polish him up over time (if he stays here). It won't be plain sailing. Same with Mara, to an extent. He was signed as 19 year old striker with not much experience but plenty of promise, yet people are ready to bin him off on the basis of one season in which the whole club was absolutely useless - and he was far from the biggest culprit. I thought he showed today, as he has here and there, that there's the makings of a player lurking beneath those dreadlocks. Needs some nurturing (maybe a lot), not knee-jerkingly sent to Coventry for being shite in a few cameos on the wing (which isn't even his position). Won't be - and shouldn't be - our starting striker any time soon, but I hope he sticks around and builds on this game (and, according the manager, the Brentford game midweek in which he was "brilliant").

He's a right back like Lyanco's a right back: a centre back doing a limited job out of position that mostly involves kicking people. No chance he's been signed to replace Walker-Peters, unless everyone has lost their minds. We didn't try and sign an actual RB, Max Aarons, only to then settle for any old shitter who can fill in on occasion.

Guaranteed he'll choose the wrong one.

Our starting XI would be Will Smallbone and ten academy kids (not the best of them, like Amo-Ameyaw, who disloyally left Spurs for us).

He's in a bit of a weird position at the minute. Outside of the Premier League, very few teams have a cool £20-25m they can drop on an injury prone youngster. His stock is still high in Germany, but again there aren't many teams with the finances to make the deal make sense. Bayern and Dortmund being interested in him is all well and good - and they can probably foot the bill - but he's going to be fourth or fifth choice CB at those clubs, so it's not a great deal from his perspective, if he's looking to push on and put himself in contention for the German Euros squad. He needs to play games. The smart money would be on him staying, getting fit and playing regularly with us, and reassessing in January. I don't see how a loan works for him or us at this juncture.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/mason-greenwood-bail-police-ignored-29122334 Not a possibility. It's literally what happened. The charges were dropped in February 2023. The key witness against him had his baby in July 2023. You don't need a degree in maths or biology to figure out that he knocked her up while violating the conditions of his bail. The case collapsed because the key witness - who was busy sleeping with the accused - withdrew their cooperation.

He broke the terms of his bail to have no contact with the key witness and knocked her up in the process. She then refused to be a witness against him and the case collapsed. And our justice system did little more than furrow its brow and tut. Grim.

He's had two absolutely devastating injuries in two years: ruptured ACL, followed by a ruptured Achilles tendon. He'll be lucky if he's still a fraction of the player he was before, when he gets back playing regularly.

I thought Ryan Finnigan might've gotten a look in during pre season, but doesn't seem to be fancied by the manager thus far. Crewe fans really rated him last season. Shame - it'd be nice to be filling up the squad places with academy grads rather than signing more and more players to block the pathway.

Charles was good in a compromised set up. He was basically a one man midfield. He'll need to improve positionally because his recovery pace isn't too special, so he probably can't go bombing all over the field, but there's a very promising holding player in there.

Seems pig headed to try and stick to tippy tappy football when you don't have a midfield available. Neither Armstrong belongs there. Charles has done a decent job in the circumstances, having to cover the entirety of the middle third of the park on his own. Plymouth the more likely to score, but to be honest the quality in this game is garbage.

He wants to play further forward. He's never been a number six but has ended up doing a job there for the national team and Chelsea in the last six months due to a lack of options.

Man City put buy back clauses in loads of their transfers, but how many of those players do they ever end up buying back? Off the top of my head, I can only think of Angelino, who they bought back from PSV only to send out on loan six months later and sell again the following summer. They won't be buying back Lavia (or Bazunu or Charles or Edozie or Larios; and the Gunn option ended when he left us). They let players leave that they don't want anymore. If they rated Lavia that highly, they wouldn't have blocked his pathway into the team by signing Kalvin Phillips to sit on the bench. The buy back clause is just a bit of a safety net for City on the off chance that they let a player go and he suddenly turns into a world beater.

You're right - Mara scored 4 against Middlesbrough u21s in, I think, about the only time he's appeared for them. Those goals were largely dismissed on here as irrelevant, because it's already been decided that he's hopeless and will never improve. Ballard's obviously doing well and seems to be progressing in the right direction - but you're always a better player when you're out of the side.

U21s lost 5-3 to Newcastle. Ballard scored a hat trick. Defending optional in the Martin "playbook"?

Just like Swansea were defensively miserly with him? Load of bollocks. Downes is a much needed extra warm body, but not the aerially and physically dominant midfielder we're crying out for.

Well it was certainly interesting. Can't get promoted being so fundamentally easy to play through and incapable of defending in the air. I'll go on record early doors as stating Russell Martin will turn out to be a Poundland Brendan Rodgers. But it was a good old laugh. Which is something - replacing the weekly doom and gloom with slapstick.

Beginning to see why Martin teams concede for fun. They're an absolute shambles out of possession. But, hey, as long as everyone buys into the "philosophy", everything will be great, right? This time will be different to the other midtable mediocrities he's overseen, right? 3 games, 4 goals conceded from set pieces. It's basic stuff: we only have at best one player in the XI who can win a header. Lots of little tippy tappy fuckers, though - which is no help at all when the ball is in the air. The side is fundamentally imbalanced. Not a water carrier in sight. In a very physical league. It's rank negligence. Man City are the tippy tappy benchmark in English football, but even Pep has conceded an XI of lightweights gets you nowhere - they're now one of the biggest teams around: five or six players 6ft+ in most line ups.

Presser: mostly Ward-Prowse platitudes; a player is expected to come on loan as part of the deal. Stephens new captain. For the game, sounds like no new injuries. Bella-Kotchap is still a few weeks away from match fitness - albeit ill at the moment. Hope to organise a game for him or an u21 match soon. No formal bids for him as yet, but obviously some interest. Sulemana still rehabbing a muscle injury. Has been away from the club for a few days getting specialist treatment. Tactically, for Norwich, in terms of Prowse replacements, Martin said Smallbone can go further forward if Charles plays - and somewhat surprisingly named Adam Armstrong as a potential option in a deeper role. Not sure about that, but he reckoned it was successful in some of the preseason friendlies and I didn't see many of them. Isn't sure about loaning out the best of the u21 crop at the moment. Thinks they'll be better off staying at the club and learning the system. Maybe have a rethink in January. Might change their minds if the "right" club comes along, that plays the same way and is promising lots of game time. Anyway, that's about that. Edit: oh yeah, he said Lavia's training really well - some days better than others - and generally keeping his head, considering all the noise around such a young man. But he doesn't think he'll be calling on him to start games. May or may not be in the match squad - late decision on that.

Can he play in goal, or are his hands still fucked?

He had to go now or risk being stuck in the Championship for the rest of his career. If he were to stay and we fail to get promoted at the first attempt (which is probably more likely than not), no-one's coming along next summer with a big cheque to sign a 30 year old from a mid table Championship club. Good luck to him. I wasn't his biggest fan and think he's wildly overrated around these parts simply because he's a home grown player that has stuck around while his peers all left (because no-one wanted him), but in our current state we'll obviously miss him.

He'd be an improvement on what we'll have after Lavia and Prowse have gone, but I don't think he's the player we need. At least not on his own. The midfield (and first XI) is extremely lightweight and, aside from the centre backs, weak in the air (and Stephens is pretty ordinary at that). For me, we need more height and power in the team. It's all very well having a philosophy manager who wants to only play tippy tappy football, but we're not in the Testimonial League. The Championship is physical and direct more often than not. And if we can't cope with that (which I don't believe we can at present) we won't earn the right to get on the ball and play a more refined style.

It was an accident waiting to happen against Wednesday, but for some reason they didn't recognise that if they went long, direct and physical we only had - at best - one player on the pitch who can win a header (Bednarek).

Have to assume Charles is in midfield, as there's no other natural CMs really. I'm guessing at a back five - Djenepo, Bree, Lyanco, Meghoma, Perraud. Charles, Armstrong in the midfield with, perhaps, A-A in the 10. Adams and Mara up front. 5-3-2. Doesn't look ideally balanced, but there we go. Edit: I forgot Martin is supposed to favour 3-4-2-1. So: Bree, Lyanco, Meghoma (he's taller than Perraud) as the back three? Midfield four of Djenepo, Charles, Armstrong, Perraud. Amo-Amayew and Mara in a two. Then Adams. Something like that. Maybe.