Chez

Evidently.

When the side doesn't play well is it simply the coach's fault? I thought he managed the game pretty well. He changed the formation before the game, which most wanted, he seemed to reinvigorate the side at half time after a poor first half and his subs in the second made sense. i thought it was always going to be hard changing formation during an international break and for this game, but I feel more confident than when we plated five at the back.

thats a foul. ref fucking killed us there.

nah, we'll get a winner.

their sub keeper looks a bit of a liability.

Still thinks the same by the looks of it.

they have tired ad the extra space has helped us. Can we take advantage?

Still going for it. like the subs.

not sure. Roerslev has been pretty good.

he's been really poor. Not sure Azaz has done much either.

we are on top and have been most of the second half. not done enough with it.

fair point, but n his pace allowed him to nip past the keeper only to fuck his shot up from a tight angle. Our best chance. he has looked a threat in the second half.

bad yellow to get for roerslev. murphy had enough to keep quiet.

archer providing good threat with his pace though. can't have both, sadly

Manning's marking of Poole there is criminal, pathetic.

We are simply unable to pass the ball through the lines - leading to us passing across the back line. Azaz needs to work much much harder to be available, as do the two wingers. Might open up second half a little as they tire. Hopefully. Got to stop the ball to Murphy. He's the stand out player.

Took a while before Martin found a role for him, but from December onwards he played a pretty major (central midfield) role in our promotion side. He has his limitations, but he is what Strachan would call brave - getting on the ball and keeping up despite pressure from an opponent, allowing player time to move into space. I guess there is time for him to move to Turkey, but he and Edozie training seems a good indication that no one is getting close to a deal.

I am wondering if the club's valuation was not met by those clubs? The bags packed/empty house instagram images was only a week ago, which suggested he was about to depart for somewhere.

Depends what you call concrete. In April he was linked by African press with a move to Goztepe. Back in June Turkish media reported that he'd been made an offer by Trabzonspor. In August it was reported in a Nigerian football website he was closing in on a deal with Samsunspor and then later in the month that Besiktas were interested, but Aribo wasn't.

I wouldn't be dropping Downes either. Charles looks improved and very capable, but he could be better defensively...so we don't have a lot of choices. When the club mentioned at the fans forum that they were negotiating several other contracts I think it was widely assumed it was for Baz and Charles - as there weren't many others it could be (Dibling apart). There has been talk on here of SFC possibly extending ABK's contract to protect their investment. The same might apply to Smallbone, abut less likely for Manning, Armstrong and Edozie.

I guess the thinking might be that the longer the buying clubs wait the more desperate we become.

The needless fouls thing can be taken in a positive way in that at least he isn't being a "choirboy", but as much as you want your centre mid to be spiky and physical, he has been pretty reckless and blatant at times. Hacking someone down on purpose isn't professional and prevents you 'taking a yellow for the team' at a later point. I can't imagine the manager would play him if his 'head was elsewhere', but I can't explain these acts. Maybe he always did it and I didn't notice? The problem with dropping him is Charles is often the wrong side of the ball, which is not what you want from a DM, and we don't really know what Jander is like without the ball.

What's the latest on Edozie and Aribo? Does them training suggest the moves to Belgium and Turkey have fallen through, or with the windows getting close to closing we felt the time was right to start reintegrating in case they didn't happen?

Going to take a few weeks to integrate all of the latest batch of signings, but I think the likes of Fellows and Jelert could start immediately. If we can get a couple of wins quickly, that will make it much easier to bring the others into the side and then things could start snowballing.

I have really enjoyed this window. With every player departing it moved us away from the debacle of last season. Having both early sales and buys seemed slightly different (probably isn't in reality) and perhaps reduced the pressure on Spors a little. The speed thereafter felt very normal and everything seemed to be timed perfectly at the end. Unfortunately, although Quarshie and Downs clearly have the physical attributes, they have started a little slowly, which undermines my confidence in some of the other signings, but only a little. I had little doubt Ramsdale, Dibling and Fernandes would depart, but wasn't happy loaning Ramsdale and thought Everton got Dibling for a bargain. I may be wrong about both of those things. I am pretty excited by the Jander signing. I really like players that are comfortable on the ball like him. He is the one player that could make all the difference over the next few years. I look forward to seeing Fellows, but his and Aziz' ceiling is a concern. Scienza not getting games is a slight concern, but need to see him to know what we have got. I'm really pleased we have strengthened at full back. It's such an important position and has bene badly overlooked by us. We seem to be a lot bigger/taller. Hopefully we have added athleticism too helping us do better at set pieces and cutting the space down quicker when we lose the ball. I felt Baz was always going to be the keeper, so moving swiftly on, the biggest negative was not really filling the defensive midfield role. Downes now needs to refind his form as I don't see Seesay as being ready just yet on his preseason games. I worry also about whether we have that focal point of attack with a guy that can play with his back to goal. We certainly have plenty of options now though. Over to you Mr Still.