Chez

West Ham and Bournemouth interested. Both might be considered competitors in terms of league position though, which might impact the decision. Not sure Ferguson himself would want to join us. Brighton also might be concerned about lack of supply impacting his performance and value.

Legally, you can't terminate a contract of a player because he got injured.

The speed of departures is dependent on buying clubs. You know that, so why are you claiming such surprise? You are right, the board think are down. They are not alone. They have learned from their errors two years ago and are not wasting/spending money the ties their hands in the summer. Are you surprised at this? The idea that Juric did not discuss recruitment with the board when he was interviewed is unrealistic. His scheduled meeting mentioned to press will have been the `next' meeting, not the first. Player recruitment is a 52 week job with continous meetings and discussions, not just in and around the windows. Again, you know this. The fact is, we have signed two players, recalled some loans, Cornet is gone and the BBD deal all but done. Are any fans excited by this, no, but that's what happens when you get 6 points from half a season.

great minds.

Is Bagpuss getting back into football management like Jordan Belfort deciding not to give up the helm at Stratton Oakmont and thus is "back in the water"?

that's the spirit. We have waited long enough, the time has come for another Saints PL win.

you are missing the `best' one, or at least the one that annoys my brother in law Forest fan, David McGoldrich, whose £1.2m fee helped us afford Sir Rickie.

We obviously have a scout in Brazil and Portugal, so should we be buying for both this season and next, which is hard to imagine, this lad Igor Jesus they are talking about looks like he has something about him. Sadly, that fact alone means he ain't signing for an all but relegated side.

Ferguson at Brighton needs regular games.

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24867208.brereton-diaz-sheffield-united-ahead-southampton-exit/ The move seems to have taken awhile to complete, so I wonder of that is an indication that it is more than just a loan and also involves a transfer/fee, perhaps if they go up?

Point accepted. £22m might not be big by today's standards, but it was a lot for us and I think every fan will have hoped for more of both.

In the championship under RM it was often us pressing hard at the death. In the Prem it's hard to say, as towards the end of the 90 minutes the game was usually long over!

The workrate (and amount of pacey running) in the first half must have been pretty high as we went man for man and were at the heals of every single United player when they had the ball. We forced them to lose possession so many times because of this. The press was first class and they couldn't deal with it. I'd say we suffered because of that. At about half way through the second half we weren't getting close enough at all to impact their passing and the subs didn't help revive the press. Not sure why, perhaps they dropped too deep and got caught between two stalls or maybe the players that weren't subbed undermined the team press? It certainly did remind me of a lot of Ralph games where we got murdered in the latter stages as the space opened and double team defenses etc. weren't possible. United did to us what we had been doing to them. The lack of intensity later on invited United to keep the ball and attack and they did it well.

Leylands will always breaking down, so maybe is this Stewart related?

Rich house poor house. That's a new one on me. Is it a Channel 5 show?

It's nitpicking, I know, and I don't want to create the next Gaston, but he's had more than two decent games hasn't he? He did pretty well in the 45 minutes in his very first game against Brentford for example. Certainly not MOTM material mind you. He was good against Chelsea that season and Spurs I think. The Liverpool game of course. To be honest I am not sure about the other games in 2023 - I try to blank that season out of my memory. There were a lot of defeats, so I am sure he wasn't all that in most, but he played 80 minutes in the 1-0 win against Leicester, so maybe did OK then? Last season he was good against Leeds and Birmingham. Think he was pretty dangerous in the Millwall away game too, but I might be mistaken. After the initial injury he started the season quite well, but then was injured and did absolutely jack in the run in. Swansea and United this season...yeah, not terribly impressive.

Got it now. To keep up with the times, you have expanded the CoT to cover the women's game too and we are signing Liv Cooke, the freestyle (keepyupper in old man's language) footballer from Leyland, in Lancashire. I'm right, right?

My brother in law supports them. I always refer to them as Notts Forest. He loves it, although right now, nothing can take the bloody smile off his face. Despite the success of our press and incisive attacks, I suggest we park the bus, give Elanga and Odoi no space behind and try to bore them to death, like we did Fulham.

Despite the reports in the summer, Trabzonspor must have offered absolutely peanuts for him - probably spread over four years and with us paying him a massive lump sum to make up the difference in wages they could afford. It must have been such a poor deal that we were almost better off, from a FFP perspective or whatever, by keeping him. That's the only way I can explain him not going in the summer.

It was around about the time I watched this clip for the 23rd time that I was "out". Fair play to him for attempting the stepovers though.

He met the Jones specification, which was probably as simple as `a front footed, tall target man that has scores goals'. `Technique and ability to score at prem level' must have been written on other side of the fag packet. Disliked the signing it at the time and bloody hate it now.

Yeah, I'd be very pleasantly surprised if he managed to be effective against Forest. They look far better organised than United. Gakpo got very little change out of Aina the other night.

Onuachu to Besiktas talk in the press started up again. No doubt another`massive' offer on it's way.

A hunk of junk. if what's gone before is anything to go by, it's going to be pretty easy to apply that clue to the next signing.

We were strong in the wide positions last year. In relative terms, we have been very weak and last night showed it. When we turned to the bench, there wasn't anyone to replace Dibling or Sulemena (who was knackered at about 75 minutes). I'd of gone with Armstrong as he works hard and is quick enough to press opponents, but obviously in terms of attacking/dribbling he isn't the same kind of threat. Not sure what other choice there was really. I have to say that it wasn't just Smallbone that was to blame. The whole side was no longer getting as tight as they had been and applying as much pressure. Players got tired and the ones replacing them did not apply the press well either. With the press gone, united dominated possession and the pressure told. What needs to happen going forward is the same starting players need to be a little fitter so they can keep pressing longer and then the players coming on need to carry the baton and do the same.