qwertyell

Love seeing the squad written out like this to remind everyone what a shower of shit we're stuck with. And that's even before the semi decent players leave.

He gets knocked down, but he gets up again.

Would be the death knell for his career. In his position on the RW they have Saka, Nwaneri, and they're about to sign Madueke. In the 10, they have Odegaard, Havertz, Nwaneri might end up there eventually, and have already committed to wunderkind Max Dowman (15) being in the first team squad next season. Doesn't ring true to me.

They're hints. We're getting Mane back. Fetlock the thread.

I imagine being an integral part of the by far worst PL team and worst defence in two of the last three seasons didn't exactly raise his stock.

Pretty sure Rusty said something similar once upon a time. And if he did believe that, then he sure as shit didn't know how to coach the concept into our squad.

Brugge are getting raided this summer. Talbi to Sunderland for £23m. De Cuyper to Brighton for £17.5m. And they're about to lose their best player Jashiri to AC Milan with the clubs just haggling over the price (Brugge want €35m as a base, plus add ons). The player's training on his own, having already made his mind up that's he's going to Milan. Onyedika has been linked to West Ham for around £17m too. They're going to have plenty of cash to play with. Personally, I'm not hugely bothered about Edozie staying or going. He does some nice things on the ball, but lacks the physicality and pace to be a top class wide player - even accounting for how poor his delivery/decision making is. Some of those aspects may improve in due course, but I don't see him finding a yard of pace any time soon.

Which one's Emma Peel?

He's in a tricky space, Elliott. He's not quick enough to be a winger. Not physical enough to play deeper. And not dynamic enough to play as a 10. And yet he's a really talented footballer. Albeit with noodles for hair. I suspect he's destined for a career of mid-table mediocrity in a West Ham or a Fulham.

"For fuck's sake, Rasmus - I said Ewijk."

I remember a game at the Dell against Sheffield United where, after a clumsy but not malicious tackle, the crowd were screaming in unison for Iain Dowie to get sent off. The Saints crowd. He was playing for us. Mostly. Probably a nice enough fella, but a slow, lumbering donkey epitomised the team's style under Branfoot, and Dowie became a bit of lightning rod for his manager's failures.

Gone for around €20m three times now, while doing barely anything of value in between transfers. Funny old game, Saint(s).

Fulham bidding for Romulo from Gotzepe. Asking price is €20m. Just in case anyone was wondering why we aren't "all over this". He's got better options than some Championship basket case.

Lyon have just been relegated to Ligue 2 for financial reasons. Go and get Ale Rodriguez back?

Germany u20s.

Don't know how serious our link was, but it looks like Juma Bah is on the brink of going to Lyon on a season long loan.

Pretty sure we all lost.

A wedding at Lainston House. Sitting quietly on his own at a distant table (maybe reading the Guardian), Graeme Le Saux. I assume he was staying at the hotel - or that it's a hobby of his to show up at random weddings and awkwardly hang around on the periphery. Ray Clemence and Ossie Ardiles at a different wedding - although they were definitely invited as the groom had Tottenham links. Still a bit surreal, though: Escape to Victory's Ossie Ardiles. He probably did some other stuff as well. And Simon Charlton at a Romsey pub getting well stuck into a new year's eve, looking the antithesis of an elite athlete in spite of still being on Saints' books. It was a different time. A fatter time.

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.