Chez

you've opened the tap to a host of puns now Uncle Albert.

Have to say, Turkish makes a pretty good argument. Indeed 8th flattered us, but the side Puel had available to him was woeful compared to the previous teams. The keep ball tactic was boring to watch, but it prevented our CBs from being exposed to regular attacks. Perhaps without that tactic results would have been worse. Who knows. Also interesting to know what he did at Leicester. I too thought he was a total failure, but those stats Turkish posted suggests it wasn't as simple as that, he also didn't have the team of earlier years and again was judged against those good sides and not on what he got out of the side he had at the time.

We did murder Inter at the San Siro. I'd argue if Hojberg hadn't kept passing to them all game long (as he did so often back then) we'd have won at a canter. How VVD didn't score I will never know.

strange how little game time he got until recently, especially considering our lack of pace up front. [I don't care what the Sun radar gun says, Armstrong ain't fast MLG. 😉]

decent points. I don't seem to recall Johnstone being anything special. Busy, but no better than what we have. What is the average WBA fan's take on him? De Gea has been pretty shit mind you for about three seasons.

decent photoshop work.

pick your best performing player while you have them, be that loanee or even guy that will be leaving in the summer. Having said that, if you are safe at the end of the season, giving a youngster game time works (all be it the £2m per place might be worth fighting for) especially if the senior player is fucking off, like Bertrand was. If, though, Forster has said no to a contract, and McCarthy hasn't decided, maybe you pick McCarthy to encourage him to sign. However, like you and others have said, is McCarthy really going to get a better deal? Also, if McCarthy can't even take the shirt from Forster, then he cant be very good, so why offer him a contact. I'm not a big fan of either. I also don't think they are as woeful as other suggest. As aways, the question is, can we sign better? Is Johnstone actually better than both of these guys?

Possibly... Saints will sign Johnstone in this window, but allow him to stay at WBA until the summer to help them get promoted. In the interim. McCarthy ain't coming back from injury soon, so Willy is needed to provide cover for Forster. In the summer, Forster departs, as previously has been indicated, and McCarthy stays - the Athletic perhaps are correct that he has already signed a contract - and he and Johnstone fight it out for the number 1 shirt. Willy departs/retires.

yep, if you lose a senior player, perhaps a little earlier than you had planned, simply promoting the junior guy (Diallo in this case) might not always work if they are not ready - and in that situation, you may need to spend on a senior guy. Keepers maybe need to be treated slightly differently.

What's your take on his press conference? What do you see differently? Mine is, nothing really changes in terms of money available or the type of player will sign, but we can get our first choice instead of fighting for the scraps at the end of windows. For this window we will sign two players, one who probably will stay at the club until the summer. Johnstone seems to fit that situation. The other will be a youngster like Delap.

by shoestring, I meant no £30m players and very much self financing/sustaining, which caps our budget somewhat and that budget will be determined by prize money and transfers. If we sell JWP for £50m, then we could spend £20m on a single player, but otherwise we will looking at less than that, which is fine if the scouting is top notch.

he talks about signing players "earlier", and "not needing to sell first before buying" - basically have the necessary cash flow when they need it, so players they want don't go elsewhere before we are in a position to buy. There was a hint there that a player we were going to sign in the summer, would be targeted now - perhaps Johnstone? And also that they would sign a player now (perhaps to prevent another club getting him) but allow him to stay until the summer - could also be Johnstone, as WBA will want to keep him for their promotion push. The type and price of player will be same as before ("the Livramentos and Brojas of this world") - so still a relative shoestring budget, but just without the pain of having to wait until Ings is sold first before doing that transfer business. In short, we wont see much of a change in policy and type of player, but we will have more chance of getting our first choice as we will have the cash flow to do it when we need to - at the start of windows or dare I say it before the window opens - which we didn't before.

yeah, I agree. They might get him for even less. he'll only have a year left on his contract and Barca are absolutely desperate to get the players on high wages out the door to allow the to sign new stars.

Not sure I quite agree. They might sign him in the summer. They have an option. if he shines then they will certainly try. Can you have too many flair players? If he fit our budget, which is doubtful, I would have been very excited at his signing on the basis of how good he was for Liverpool.

I wonder how winter signings/loan like Coutinho are justified/costed? I guess if you have obvious squad gaps then maybe you don't need to do any sort of cost analysis, but if the manager simply says we need him to make us better, then the paymasters are going to ask - what does that mean in terms of results and return on investment? With prize money at £2m+ a place, I guess if he wins you a game that you would perhaps have lost, that may be enough to cover the investment.

That's exciting, but does Tella getting a new contract count as a new signing? Cynical, me? Never.

Can you name 12 championship keepers without using google?

It felt like the Ings money may have been used to pay for the incoming players in the summer, although maybe staggered payments might provide extra capital now that we didn't have in the summer? As last winter, a loan rather than transfer perhaps? Another Minamino (flair player in the hole) type perhaps to create a few more chances? I'd of thought the only `paid for' transfer we'd make in this window would be for a keeper and we'd only be buying him now to prevent losing him to another side (such as Johnstone) - otherwise we'd make the move in the summer. Perhaps the `longish term' injury to McCarthy changes things a little, although if they are giving Willy an extension, then I really can't see us signing a keeper in this window at all. Has he signed a deal yet?

I guess in your first season, moving from Reading to Bayern Munich, that isn't unexpected/terrible. Worth our scouts keeping an eye on, I'd say.

Any chance the admins can separate sport from politics?

Anyone know how Omar Richards is doing at Bayer Munich? I was disappointed we didn't/couldn't sign him (no brainer for him to sign for Bayern) as I thought he'd be ideal replacement for Bertrand. Wondered if he was getting games, on the bench or rotting in their reserves. If things were not going well, perhaps we could bring him home, so to speak, in the summer to bolster that left back position. I guess if Small works out there wont be a need.

I watched the Cho videos and he seems to play up front, but doesn't look like a goalscorer, more of speedy wide player. He is completely one footed, which is not uncommon, but noticeable. As you say, he has a nice turn when defenders get too tight and was quick, but most of the time his trick was to kick the ball to one side of the defender, and go round the other and often had to foul the defender to regain possession. None of the refs seemed to pull him up on that, for some reason. No shortage of confidence mind. Not sure he would improve us right now. I'd say Tella was a better player, but for a 17 year old he was impressive. Bringing in 17/18 year old's is needed to bolster our lacklustre youth development. How much you pay for some like Cho is the real challenge.

have Brighton benefitted in terms of acquiring players from that Belgium club too?

Blackburn have an option to extend his contract by another year, so he ain't walking for free this summer - hence the £30m price tags being mentioned.

the 41 year old Drago Solak plays chess, not invests in SFC.