Chez

Dragon spent a big amount buying the company, but exactly how much has he invested since? I'm not criticising, I'm just asking. The club spending money on players isn't the same as Drago spending his own money on players.

about fucking time.

when we were struggling to get past their first line of defence, passing it left and right and backwards, I thought the same. I have no problem Martin being sacked, but at least we had two central midfielders that would receive the ball and help us get out. We cant even do that now.

It's utter madness. If you are short of center backs, go to four at the back. Aribo did ok when he was dropped in there in an emergency, but starting him there. Fuck off. The hand Juric was dealt was terrible, but this formation is hurting us. As soon as I saw he was one of those managers that kneels in the technical area I knew I wouldn't like him.

We have nothing. The fight has been completely knocked out of the side. We don't know what they are doing. The players look like they all want the ground to swallow them up. Half the stadium left at 2-0. What's the point in staying on? This side ain't coming back from 2-0 down.

Almost from minute one our three centre backs were bullied. Brighton could just ping it up to a forward at and the ball stuck, almost every time. Aribo, Bree and ABK were simply not strong enough, tight enough, good enough. In contrast, we struggled to get the ball up to our forwards and when it went longer, their CBs dominated. We couldn't get out of our own half. Brighton seemed to have a stranglehold on us and the two man midfield killed us. Les doesn't do enough and the Fernandes cant do everything. The formation is limiting us. The fact Dibling touched that ball abut twice i the first half says it all. The stuffing has been smashed out of the side. They don't have it in them to win games. We might lose them all from here on in. We are done.

Aribo, Bree and Abk are woeful as our centre halves. Wellington poor too today. Horrible first half. Thankfully sun right in the eyes so could not see much.

Nothing in that specific match to criticise him about. Great that he’s fit.

Let me find some armbands, you appear to have got out of your depth.

Bednarek is contracted until 2027 and Aribo has another year on his contract. There are some sellable assets, Downes for example, but I can't see us getting £150m. We probably dont need to recoup that kind of money this time around though. The wage bill may be smaller and we didn't just spunk £60m in the January window like we did last time.

It's early days. Gronbaek is another attacking midfielder, so is up against Dibling, Fernandes and Sulemena. Would you drop any of those three at the moment? Not immediately replacing them doesn't mean he's a squad filler. Behind those three mentioned there was nothing else really, so there was a need to add another option. He'll get his chance and if he shines then we will be very keen to sign him.

The different style and expectations may well be a factor, but lets not ginore the obvious, he was dropped by Juric. I'm pretty sure that will have contributed a lot to his thoughts of leaving. What player is happy to sit on the bench when they have another side keen to sign them? Perhaps us not wanting to sell is a strong signal that we value him and hopefully he responds accordingly in the remaining games this season.

Tell me, where are Saints in the current rolling three year financial cycle? I presume you have analysed the accounts for the last three years, plus you also know what's going to appear in the next set of accounts? If not, then how are you able to conclude that: "we wont sell any players this summer for financial reasons, we will only sell them because they want to leave"?

I did not say relegation reduction clauses were not a form of cloth cutting, I questioned whether they were enough to balance the books. What is nonsense is your suggestion that there are no financial pressure to sell players on relegation.

I'm not banking on the opponent playing badly (although I certainly hope so), but Brighton are up and down, so could play poorly. We murdered them at their place in the second half and if you watched their game against Forest recently, you will know they didn't just give them room, they gave them the whole of the midfield, without any contest. If you are asking me what we should do if they don't give us room, it will be the same: have lots of players on the half turn, passing the ball very quickly between the lines, but obviously it will be harder.

Excellent. Hope he has a great game on Saturday.

If given the room, we need to replicate what we did in at Old Trafford, which was having lots of players on the half turn, passing the ball very quickly between the lines, with the likes of Dibling and Fernandes epecially showing off their tremendous first touches to make that work. The second half at Brighton was built largely on getting the ball to Dibling and him beating a man and breaking through the lines. We need to see much more of that. Our defence hasn't been able to keep the ball out of the net, so maybe attack - which has been severely lacking - is the best form of defence?

The solution to our leaky defence is to remove a center back and have Fernandes as the only other CM? I'm all for going to a flat back four, but a 4-2-3-1 with Fernandes as part of the 2 sure is attacking. I'd get Downes back in and leave Gronbaek on the bench. Aribo provides fresh legs for Downes

I fancy us.

Is it? Here's some fag packet maths. PL income from TV and prize money is roughly £120m for the bottom placed team. Which is roughly the same as our wage bill (£114m) the last time around in the Prem. The parachute payment is roughly £45m in the Championship. Now cut that £114m wage bill by 40% and see if it equals £45m.

He will likely leave because he wants to play in the Prem (so will be open to another move), but also because we need to cut our cloth accordingly.

If he was good at Burnely, why didn't a PL club better than Burnely (and us) look to buy him at some point, or at the very least take advantage of the fact he was available on a free last summer? I didnt know what he was like as a player when he signed and I still don't.

a quick Google has the NHS website telling me that a "nasty torn calf muscle could take up to three months to heal". That might require surgery, three weeks in a fixed cast and three weeks in a stretchy cast followed by light pysical activity. Your guess is as good as mine why, 5 months later, there is still no sign of him.

Nonsense. We sold £160m of talent and spent just £20m because we had financial pressure to do so. Burnley sold £100m of players last summer and spent about £45m. Are you suggesting that £55m difference is just sitting in their bank account?

Does Burnley, Sheffield and Luton's situation have any bearing on our own? It's very difficult to compare clubs' finances, as each will have spent differently in terms of transfers, be carrying different amounts of debt, have different wage bills going up and then coming back down, different acceptable losses and actual opportunities to make sales.