Ex Lion Tamer

I'm wondering if we will generate a transfer budget for the new manager in Jan by selling JWP and Targett. With £15m for each we could buy a first teamer for £30m

With the caveat that Leipzig had finished 2nd the season before they finished 6th, so a bit of a regression. But yes, generally promising

We could get Puel back then!

Although I'm sure he'll be excited to work with Stuart Armstrong again, a player he let go for £7m

If we all keep saying Brendan Rodgers enough does that somehow make it possible that he would want to give up winning the league in Scotland for an against all odds relegation battle with us?

Questionable whether any of those would come to us in our current predicament. The threat to their reputation from being relegated is huge

I haven't heard of four of those but why would Darren Moore join us? Given the choice between a good chance of promotion with West Brom or a high chance of relegation with us, it's surely an easy choice for him to stay

We've briefed that we will consider Mitchell, not that we will get him. If we don't brief that we are interested, then when we make an appointment, people will complain that we didn't consider him and didn't think ambitiously enough

Companies hate the reputational damage that boycotts create https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2606274/Starbucks-pay-tax-Britain-relocates-European-headquarters-London-following-customer-boycott.html

I would be amazed if Hughes was letting Reed tell him who to pick in the team. I think he'd rather walk

You've turned out to be right but his keeping us up and his past record of success at several clubs meant you were too early in calling for him to go

Did a fantastic job at Sunderland too, a club which was in a similar state to what we are now

The biggest problem here is either that Ross Wilson is no good or Paul Mitchell was irreplaceable.

Good post

What's worrying is that players at Stoke said the same thing

Imagine if we didn't have Gunn and were faced with bringing Forster back in

If i was Rodgers i would go to Villa over us because they have money to spend and are likely to be a club on the up

Allardyce would get us into mid table. Agree on the others

Not sure how you can say we're sleepwalking in a thread about players and senior staff arguing. They know things aren't good and they're searching for answers

Our academy will continue to be weak if we rely only on our local catchment area. We only need one prodigy to make us a big transfer fee and the investment in 30+ others is worth it

I imagine this is pretty common. Clubs aren't allowed to give contracts to under 16s, so try to exercise as much soft power as possible, giving financial perks, helping out with training options etc etc, in the hope that the player will be grateful and agree to a longer relationship. But ultimately if the player decides to sign a contract elsewhere, then that's entirely up to them

OK but they + Armstrong could make a difference

Fair point about MLT. I think we need to assess Hughes in December - it gives him time to get it together but if necessary we can get a new man in before the January transfer window. The big problem is our policy of only going for managers who are out of work, so we will have to assess who is available.

There is reason to be worried, but here's three reasons for hope: - We have lots of new players who may bed in and get better - How many times in the 90s did we have a terrible start and somehow pull it out of the bag? - We can always sack Hughes if it isn't working and get someone else in

You've got to give Ings some credit for the driving run which won the penalty