Chez

Livramento has been poor and Smalls reminds me a bit of Valery. Calm, but maybe a bit too laid back.

In addition, he doesn't get close to his man, then he follows the ball leaving that man completely unmarked with a simple chance to score.

To a degree the move to 4-4-2 and bringing Redmond on, who offers some dribbling ability, has done that, but the attack just doesn't look very threatening at all.

Good play by Small there. Half decent cross too.

the f**king state of the weight on that pass Stephens. FFS. Wake up you c**t.

should be two down. Murdering us

better from Armstrong there.

why are subs not ready to come on immediately. Pisses me off how long they take to get ready. They might have scored there while we were down to 10.

Certainly looks short of confidence.

Lyanco done his hammy.

Lyanco ball watches badly.

sure, but we'll be giving new contracts to 3 or 4 though.

It tends to be a one in, one out type deal these days. So, four keepers, a centre back and two strikers to replace: Willy Caballero, Alex McCarthy, Fraser Forster, Harry Lewis Jack Stephens Shane Long, Armando Broja ...unless we somehow sell a player we don't want or lose someone we do.

I find these two unannounced new contracts bizarre. I too struggle to see what he Athletic has to gain by putting out a speculative/false story about something that isn't really massive news. I also struggle to understand why the club would not announce/reveal the contracts like all the others. If the idea was to prevent demotivation of FF, then was the story leaked by McCarthy? When it coms to demotivation, not getting a contract would achieve that, never mind knowing McCarty got one. That idea doesn't make sense. As for Stephens' contract. Who would that have demotivated if it had been announced, other than half this board?

Good to have players that are good enough to warrant interest from `bigger' fish. A bit disconcerting that the agent is already in talks with a suitor, all be it he is only doing his job. Salisu is out of contract in 2024, so to maximise our return, I guess you would sell in the summer, or look to extend his contract, so as to avoid situation where he only has a year left and the price starts to fall. Having said that, the Ings fee was sizeable, despite him only having a year left on his contract. So, maybe allowing a player to get within 12 months of leaving for free is not quite as bad as it seems, especially as you get an extra year of service from the player. If the player knows Newcastle are interested, and the massive wages they will be able to pay, I suspect they won't rush into signing a new deal and getting `trapped' by a high asking fee. It must be a bloody nightmare running a football club. As soon as you find talent and get it working for you on the pitch it is taken by a bigger fish. How on earth do you ever build anything long term...

Give it a few years and no one will believe that the richest club in the world made Targett their second signing.

have Liverpool pulled a fast one/clever trick? Have `serious' negotiations with Fulham on the last day of the window. Everyone else (like us for example) is blown out the water, as the player is not going to sign when Liverpool are at the table, but the deal falls though at the 11th hour, which means, LFC don't get him, but nor does anyone else. ...and then come the summer they can pick him, this time for free! Probably lots of hole in my theory, like they risk Chelsea or Man City stealing him, but if LFC have shown all the interest, then the player is half way there already.

BBC saying first installment of £10m is due after 20 appearances, rising to £40m. 2.5 year deal.

the goal he scored at Newcastle was sensational and the kind of strike our current batch of attacking midfielders fail to offer (perhaps Armstrong apart...although its been a while). I thought we'd got ourselves a gem, but as the loan progressed he didn't seem to be able to grab a game by the scruff of the neck, really dictate play or changes things much when coming off the bench. There was always the feeling that you'd like to see more. I wouldn't be against another loan, but is there another better option maybe?

if we could get £20m, then that would be fantastic and exactly the kind of buy low sell high deal we want to make. not sure thats gonna happen though. He's committed, half decent in the air and OK with the ball. He's just not top class and I want us to keep trying until we land one that is. Not sure which youngsters you are referring to. Simeu going out on loan to Carlise suggests he is not ready, which is not unexpected, but you always hope you've signed a wonderkid and I still struggle to understand why Ramsey ever got a new contract, as he didn't look look good enough to me. I am not sure what question Valery is the answer to.

if you judge a fanbase by social media users, then is there one that isn't cunty? Whenever I've gone up to see Saints there they have been extremely hospitable and actually been welcoming. Not sure that could be said about another team/city.

its all hypothetical, but the fact remains we do need to sell a player every now and then, so selling a player we (as fans) don't see as critical, is a lot easier to take than selling a favourite. I'm not a great judge of CBs, but I've never rated Bednarek, and feel we could improve on him with the right scouting.

interesting question. feels like top end (not sure)...which is when we MUST sell for our business model to work. ...in the summer of course.

Pretty sure this has been discussed on this thread in the non too distant past. If you mean at short notice, in this window, then yeah, almost no one, but £20m is a fair chunk of cash, so I'd be disappointed if our scouts couldn't find and tempt someone. As an example Duje Caleta Car is available for £15m, apparently.

if you can offer more money and perhaps greater assurance of remaining in the league, that's a step up the ladder. Frederiks left Fulham for West Ham when they got promoted (he was also out of contract). Whether that endorses the concept, I am not so sure.