Chez

...eventually leading to £170m+ of debt and a winding up order.

A question about our business model/transfers: Do you think there is ever going to be situation (under the current owners/management) where we sign a player, perhaps on a free, that demands a wage similar to our top earners, say £100k a week or more? I'm wondering if Ings was signed along those lines, but I don't know what his wage was when he joined, but it was possibly on a par with our top earners like Long and Forster et al. Or does the current business/transfer model of buying low, develop and sell high also mean signing players on a lower (than our top earners) wages too - perhaps with room for wage increases as players progress? Does our business allow for a Tarkowski free transfer on £100k a week type signing? I can Johnstone signing for us on free, but not sure we'd be offering £100k a week though.

With West Ham courting him for ages and attempting to buy him, it feels like he is going to go there.

Good call. Not sure United will allow him to leave this summer though and Palace probably don't have the funds for a £25m??? fullback on £150k??? a week.

He was great at Palace defensively, but never offered a great deal going forward. United then maybe expected him to be some sort of attacking full back. Not sure why they signed him of thats what they wanted. With fullbacks being our best/most important attacking players these days, I'm not sure he is what we are looking for (despite his qualities). If we did sign him, we'd need a much better attacking player in front of him.

absolutely. If you don't create plenty of chances you need a striker that is absolutely on fire, as Ings was, to take every single half chance, or someone that can create something out of nothing for himself (and that's extremely tough even of you are Mbappe). We don't create many chances, don't have an on fire striker and despite his best efforts even Broja couldn't tuck away the chances he created for himself. We need better quality attacking midfielders, but they are hard ti find and don't come cheap.

we got badly burned when we left ourselves short of fullbacks before. We have got away with three this season nicely, but to go into the season with two, plus Small/Valery seems a risk.

He was injured at the start of the season and didn't play until January. Looking at transfermarkt, he seemed to be first choice, but then was dropped. Back in the first eleven now for last two games. I thought he looked out of his depth when he played for us, and the Small signing might suggest he has no future here.

In the cup game, Small looked slow, Kayne Ramsey-esque to me. He has time on his side of course, but currently a long way short of Premiership quality. Unless he improves, we have a slight problem. Valery has another year, but he has not impressed. Its a body with some experience at least.

We still need cover/competition and signing average shouldn't be an option. Another youngster perhaps? KWP is also cover for left back, so unless Small makes strides, fullback will need attention. Fingers crossed Tino's injury ain't too bad, but it looked like it might be a long term one.

Forrest turned down £10m bid from Brentford for Johnson. Their owner seems very happy to spend money rather, so they have been able to fend off sizeable offers. £20m from the right side and he may go, assuming they dont get promoted of course. Lewis Potter (21) has scored 10 goals this season and is rated at £18m. Broja (20) has 9 goals. Puts into perspective the kind of monies being spent and might need to be spent to bring someone in during the summer. Shane Long for another season it is then...

In that scenario (Tino being out for a long time), a loan might be a good solution. The problem with loaning Manure players is their wages are huge and perhaps prohibitive for a player that would merely `compete' for a place with KWP.

did he mean `have done a job'? If so, that would make even less sense, as they did fuck all in the first half.

I'm not really a `pro Ralph' poster, but he has continually been slated for his apparent negative impact after a half time team talk. All bollocks of course, but if you believe in it then he must be credited this time...unless of course you have `Ralph out specs' blurring the vision You are right, he often picks some weird sides. The one at Anfield was ridiculous. He has reacted much more this season and changed the formation in games. JWP free kicks certainly have got us out of jail a few times now. We lack quality in the final third. Not addressing that is down to Ralph and his team..and the budget available too.

so basically one shot, a half chance to shoot and a ball that went near a striker on the floor. Not exactly putting it on a plate for them are we?

Not sure what changed. We just got hold of the game. I dint see any real change in tactic just all players upping things. Yep, we faded in the last ten minutes, but strangely it was when we created our best chance for Romeu. Our inability to create chances is a worry. Mid table team draws with mid table team. Over the course of the two games against Brighton I'd say we were the better team. We murdered them at SMS and it was 50:50 today.

he aint going anywhere this summer and will harden our resolve to keep KWP. Thought Redmond kept the ball quite well. Tella showed flashes, but he gave the ball away in tight areas a lot. Salisu was sloppy just after half time, with a complete brain fade, but he was far less exposed in the second half.

did we create any chances for the forwards? Long perhaps had a chance to shoot, but other than that I can't recall any of the front three having an opportunity.

well, we dominated the second half, so if we are ti lambast Ralph for team talks that see leads disappear then should he not be credited when the reverse happens?

...or you could say that whatever he said at half time worked a treat.

my stream behind the rest then. Ah.

Parraud just does not do enough to prevent crosses come in.

he's certainly a better player than a few of their current CMs

it's a back pass.

Brighton have been terrible since the break. Or have we put the pressure on causing them to give the ball away almost every time they get it?