Chez

picked on the basis of his social media profile.

as was then, is now - some facets of the game just can't be seen in a stats sheet.

At the age of 20, Adams was scoring 7 goals in 40 league games for the bluenoses in the championship.

the deal was cheap because the business carried that sizeable £90m debt. If the debt was zero, the asking price could have been, say, £90m more. The new owners wont have paid it off. The business will pay it off over time. I guess the owners could loan the business the £90m needed to pay it off in full, but they have indicated the business will operate self-sufficiently, so that (a cash injection in the form or an owner loan) would seem unlikely. Going back to your original post - I don't think we will have a huge amount to play with this summer. We will all hope that funds will be made available from the sales of `unwanted' players like Djenepo and Redmond, but far more likely people enquire about KWP, JWP or Salisu. That's how it usually goes, sadly.

We currently pay £10m in interest and that's before we even start paying the debt down. Doesn't mean we wont have funds (players sales will dictate that), it just means we are minus £10m before we start each year and when we do start paying it off, available funds will be reduced further. It WILL effect transfers in that we have less to spend, but that will already be factored into their thoughts, allowing them to say stuff to the media like "it wont effect transfers".

they have been doing it for years. We were lucky Shaw didn't go there too - it was an option for him. Their scouting system is top notch, they get all the best talent and they attract them and keep them with massive contracts for nippers. They have blown us out the water.

We'll take him on loan for the next two years (zero loan fee) so long as they pay his inflated wage every time he's injured.

McNeil gets my vote. Not seen a lot of him though. Just looks a good footballer whenever I have seen him play. That long contract makes him too expensive for us.

we've given McCarthy a new contract. Is that not like previous seasons? The only other out of contract player is Long. What odds he gets another contract? Are the three dropped players being completely frozen out? Redmond and Walcott were both on the bench on Saturday. Even of they are, we would still need to find suitors. Realistically, who is going to sign Walcott? I can't see Djenepo having a big market. Redmond is a bigger brand. Have we said we will be more active? I thought the only difference now was that there will be cash flow available that allows us to spend first, then recoup that spend after. I don't recall there being any indication that the spend will be higher. Pretty sure the opposite has been suggested - no real change. £90m debt and a £10m a year cost of debt, rising each year, means we will have less to spend, although we are one position better off currently, so that ought to balance that out, plus the increase in match day income should help balance the books. Three year losses totalling £140m obviously can't continue and won't. Importantly, we sold Ings and Jan in the last summer window, helping to fund transfers. Is there money left over or if not, who is being sold this year to fund transfers?

does it factor in the state of game (lot easier tucking away a chance at 6-0 up than 1-0), `size' of game, form and confidence of player, timing of chance (tiredness must effect things), whether it was on a players good foot, the specific skillset of the player?

genuine question. What are those two CBs like on the ball? If we are going to ask them to play out from the back, which they don't do as much at Burnley, can they do that? Every time I see McNeil with the ball he looks classy. I wonder what formation would get the best of him.

I have to say that a lot of the chances/goals came as a result of our midfield being totally ineffective. No pressure on the ball, being the wrong side, allowing players space in between the lines and of course not keep the ball when we got it. That has been the case a fair bit recently. Even the best centre backs look frail when exposed to breaking opponents and the number of times our CBs have been faced by an extra attacker in recent games explains why we have conceded so many relatively `easy' goals. I thought Stuart Armstrong was particularly bad on Saturday. Romeu was very poor and JWP ineffective. Diallo often gets the wrong side. If you attack, you will inevitably leave space, but on Saturday we were hardly being caught in transition, we were just caught flat footed and wrong side, time after time. That needs addressing.

he can play, no doubt it, but he ball watches and is positionally suspect. KWP is a better defender. We are shipping goals. We need to get pressure o the ball in midfield and defenders that can defend to give us something to build on.

Forget balance, KWP should play right back because Livramento simply isn't a great defender. We need to tighten up.

a fair bit of `noise' (today agent created no doubt) about Chelsea's Levi Colwill, on loan at Huddersfield. We sign a 19 year old (20 now) Chelsea CB and he goes on loan to a terrible league 2 side, while here is a 19 year CB from Chelsea who's playing well at a Championship side. Did we sign the wrong player or are both gonna be good?

£90m debt, Broja returning to Chelsea and only a coupe of players out of contract in the summer (Long and Forster...plus the reserve keepers and some nippers) means it will be very tough for us to improve next season. Unless someone spends ludicrous money on Livramento, which they won't, especially if they have watched him in the second half of the season, then where is the money to buy players?

me too. Just how Werner missed that header in the first half I will never know. Extremely lucky Alonso didn't score in the second too (just wide of the far post) - no pressure on him, on his left, no pressure game wise. They destroyed us. The goals they did score weren't `amazing finishes' either. There was a tad of fortune that Forster's saves fell to the feet of opponents for tap ins, but we were lucky the initial shots didn't go in in the first place.

You've waited 15 years to make your first post and that's it? Blimey.

The 1-4 defeat to Palace at home on the first day of the season in 2007 was as shockingly bad as any. My word, did we know it was going to be a long season after that. There were three horrible away defeats that season too. Smashed 5-0 at Sheff wed, Hull and 5-1 at Preston. Hull got promoted, but the other two finished 15th and 16th for god's sake. I know we survived, just, but I think that is the worst season in living memory (the relegation season the one after was actually better for some reason, as at least we were watching kids do their best, not seasoned pros failing). I went to pretty much ever game too, Horrible. It's scarred me.

as pitiful a Saints display as you will ever see, but not helped by the line up. Surrendered before we kicked off.

it was 6-1. I was at that game. It was remarkably similar to yesterdays debacle, with players never getting close, the likes of Telfer getting run ragged, lots of saves from Jones that fell straight to Pires and a wanker like Mount (Pennant) helping himself to goals. I seem to recall there was no lack of effort on our part, but we just couldn't get near them. On reflection, maybe we just didn't want to get hurt or suspended. It was the ideal storm. Our `reserved' performance in the cup final can be put down to this game. We were scared of getting burned again, so never left ourselves exposed. It was a bad night, but Chelsea display was much worse (plus that was an away game, no cup final to look forward to, a great season etc)

If we play like that again, wide open, no ball retention, anyone could beat us. After this defeat and five or six game run, confidence is going to be low. It's now going to be tough to turn it around. We are in a slump, again. That probably means five at the back next week - which we don't have a clue what we are doing and Shane Long to run around a lot. How have we gone from turning Spurs over and running United ragged to this.

I agree. Now back to this game. Jesus, what was wrong with our midfield?

yes we agree, Broja was outstanding in February.

the injury knocked him out of his stride. Perhaps he aint got back to full sharpness? Others on here have pointed to him having his head turned. Not sure that is true, but he hasn't been at his best. I put the mockers on him by saying I felt confident when he has the ball at his feet. I knew that would come back to bite me.