Ex Lion Tamer

If we get relegated then Howe can manage us

The first thing is when you're trying to force keepers to play with their feet who simply aren't good at it, it can be a recipe for disaster. The second point is it's a high risk strategy, so even goalkeepers who are good at it will make occasional mistakes and look very stupid. But those rare instances are still outweighed by the benefits to a team's attacking play of drawing the opposition forward

He's also not that good with his feet apparently, which I thought was one of our things we think it important: https://www.violanation.com/fiorentina-transfer-rumors-news-reports/2021/5/28/22457590/fiorentina-bartlomiej-dragowski-transfer-rumor-sell-gennaro-gattuso-goalkeeper He does look like a great shotstopper though.

I often enjoy MLG bringing a dose of reality to the debate but he also words his questions in quite an aggressive way (through lack of social nous rather than malice I think), sometimes takes on people who aren't regular posters and don't deserve to be held to account in that way, and argues relentlessly when challenged rather than letting things go

Good post. Obviously it would be great if someone came and pumped in money, but the reality is that most British football clubs have to be self- sustaining, and if we're one of them then so be it, we'll have to make the best of it and see if we can stay in this division with the resources we have

It's left out of that article but it seems like the original Sport article links West Ham as well, which could be a problem for us

It's very unlikely that a sentence would ever have two "haves" next to each other. Your first one should have been "how".

Everything I can see on my admittedly quick Google search is that he was on £100k-110k and that we were paying 50% of that https://www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-southampton-agree-to-sign-theo-walcott-but-wont-pay-all-his-wages/ https://salarysport.com/football/player/theo-walcott/ https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/every-everton-players-2019-20-21242022

Walcott would be very cheap at £75k per month. Assuming you mean £75k per week, where did you see this? I'd agree that that feels a little high for him

At that point he had started 12 of the last 15 games and had been credited with bringing the best out of Ings

Mane was one of the top scorers in Europe (albeit in a weaker league). It didn't take a genius to see that he had big potential, whether that was Koeman or the black box

Sometimes players who lack pace can have great numbers in weaker leagues but simply not cut it at a higher level. Rasiak is a good example

It's best that we only go for average players so that we can get them in early for no reason

This is an important article from Jermaine Jenas about his experience of being targeted by stop and search https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/may/28/jermaine-jenas-on-the-truth-about-police-stop-and-search

Is Football Insider a reliable source? Everyone else is just saying there have been talks

He may just need a new challenge too. I'm preparing for him to look great at his new club but it doesn't mean we should have kept him

Are our facilities still the best among clubs of our size? If so this is a genuine pull. I can't imagine Burnley are any better. Didn't Palace have to close their canteen because of inadequate hygiene?

Bertrand will go to another Premier League club and do a good job but he can't get up and down enough for our system. The same would be true of Rose

I think Tuchel would definitely do a better job. Ancelotti I'm not so sure

Eze has torn his Achilles and is out until next year. They're in big trouble.

I obviously could be wrong but I think Palace will be relegated next season. It's just too much rebuilding to do in one summer

Dusic's earlier post highlighted for me that Ralph's signings have actually been pretty good, given budget constraints. So even if we change manager early next season, I'm comfortable for Ralph to continue building the squad this summer

This is basically it. The divide here is between people who are certain about what will happen in the future and are convinced that Ralph must go, and people who think football is unpredictable and that we should give Ralph 10 games to see if he can turn it around. Of course, if Ralph doesn't turn it around then the former camp will all say "we were right and you were wrong", when actually the rest of us never said he would definitely turn it around, just that it is worth seeing if he can

I'm worried about them saying we'll only buy players in the £10m bracket but there will be bargains this summer and I don't think it's their intention to downgrade on Bertrand

It's such a nonsense though. The manager is the most important person at the club. Invest in a quality manager and they'll get better value out of cheaper players