Ex Lion Tamer

Regardless of how Brighton played in the first half, I thought we played faster and with more urgency than we did under the last two managers. Finding a cutting edge in attack remains a problem and the pressure got to the players in the second half, they still seem low on confidence which is worrying. I'm not at all convinced that two up front is the way to go

£12m for Ken Monkou probably a good deal?

Everything from his agent this summer suggested he wanted to stay. Presumably his wages would be hard for teams abroad to match so may have been difficult to find a buyer willing to spend on wages and a transfer fee that we would want

Not that I think it would be good to get relegated, but presumably if all the players have their wages halved by relegation clauses then it will be easier to move them on

I think it's self evident that our recruitment has gone badly downhill since Paul Mitchell left. On coaching, Poch is one of the best managers in the world and was a brilliant pick. How many managers like him are out there waiting to be plucked from obscurity? I'm not sure there's many. Especially now we don't have Cortese spinning the line that we're going to spend loads of money and get into the champions league

Will you got me there! Just 7 teams then. West ham came up the same season as us

Only the following clubs have been in this league longer than us: Arsenal Everton Liverpool Man utd Liverpool Spurs Chelsea Man city We are doing well and the reality is that's really hard to stay in this league for a long period of time. People are jealous of Bournemouth but when Howe leaves they will begin the downward spiral. Swansea were the same when Rodgers left

Redmond goal against Everton was pretty good

Why would Howe, Wagner or Rodgers join us? They'll all be looking for bigger clubs higher up the table. We're not an attractive proposition at the moment. The only realistic name on this thread so far is Allardyce

I've always believed that his record of mid-table performances means he will be decent for us, and there's still time for that to happen. However, I wasn't impressed with his "tactic" of throwing on a million strikers (OK three) at the end of the Everton game, leaving no one to give them the ball

2 up front doesn't give us enough control in midfield

Someone will probably correct me on this but I feel very few Premier League clubs manage to bring through young goalkeepers because they mature so late and end up leaving to get experience in lower leagues.

Can someone explain to me why three at the back isn't working anymore when it basically turned around our session last year, and England used it so successfully in the world cup? I'm not trying to be provocative as I saw how much of a difference the change made today

The market has inflated a lot since then, and it was a tribunal fee because Ings was out of contract - these are always low

It's best not to go for top players, we might not get them and then fans are disappointed.

Back when we tried giving the youngsters chance

Yeah GK is a bit of an odd one. Either the club have insisted on bringing Gunn in due to his potential or Hughes simply doesn't think Forster is good enough to be back up. If the latter then I back that. My worry is that the club think they've got a bargain in Armstrong who will bring the best out of the strikers, but maybe he's just not that good

Turns out that if you decide to do transfer business early in the window, then you might be quoted a high transfer free for a player you are after and either have to wait or go elsewhere

This isn't to say that we are necessarily in a good position and done the right thing, but I think what has happened is that Pellegrino identified the need for a striker and the club backed him. Hughes believes that he can get more out of our existing strikers and wants our resources spent elsewhere, and the club have backed him on that.

You have to factor in wages though. It seems like most clubs who get promoted and do well go on a downward curve eventually. Swansea have gone now. We're struggling. If Bournemouth and Burnley lose Howe and Dyche they'll go the same way. It's very hard to maintain things when you lose the core team that got promoted

I'd be wanting to play first team football and get back into to the England squad

Working for me

Oh.

Any streams then?

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