TWar

The official twitter just put out "Boss ❤️" which is probably the closest you will get. They don't tend to rule things out like that. If he does go though, that's a very silly tweet.

I'd argue our central midfield is way better than theirs. JWP > Romeu > Diallo > Luiz > Stu > McGinn > > > Nakamba. Our depth options would walk into their starting 11. They get dominated in midfield in 90% of games now they have no Grealish, it is their biggest weakness for me aside from an LB who is stealing a living.

Agreed. Also the move where Armstrong was clean through on the break with Moi and Moi couldn't find him. I think Armstrong is about to absolutely explode into life goalscoring-wise. He gets so many good chances and his pace is ridiculous.

I don't think Lyanco looks that quick, not moreso than Bednarek. Salisu is proper rapid though.

Stu from the corner was for me the best chance of the game. He drills that back across the 6 yard box it probably goes in, or he takes a touch and tries to beat the keeper, I'd say 50/50 he manages it. JWP had a strike from outside the box that was very close as well.

Seeing that Villa are going for Gerrard. Would be happy to see that go through as this whole thing is giving me Koeman to Everton flashbacks! Gerrard is a strange choice imo. Doing well at Rangers but his first job in a top league being to turn around a slumping Villa who could be in danger of relegation feels risky! I'd have kept Smith to the end of the season and seen where they were after that as I think he would have been better at keeping them up than someone as inexperienced as Gerrard. Then maybe give it to Gerrard in the summer with a big budget to build his squad. We'll see what happens though!

In November 2019, Salisu received his first call-up to Ghana's senior squad, after being named by Kwesi Appiah in the squad for the 2021 African Cup of Nations qualifiers against South Africa and São Tomé and Príncipe.[26] He withdrew from the squad citing injury problems.[27] In 2020, after C.K. Akonnor was appointed as manager of the national team, according to media speculation he made attempts to reach him but his efforts proved futile as seemed Salisu was interested in playing for the team.[28][29] His family later came out with a statement to refute all the information within the public space suggesting his refusal to play for the national team. The statement read that '' We further wish to state unequivocally that our son is a proud Ghanaian and very ready to represent Ghana at every level and time''.[28][29] His elder brother later granted an interview on local radio station Angel FM talking about his brother's call up snub into the Black Starlets, the Ghana U-17 team whilst he was playing in Ghana, due his inability to pay to be in the team and not because his performance was substandard.[29] In April 2021, during an interview with MozzartSport Kenya, Salisu stated that he would be proud to play for the national team but it was not the right time for him to play and that he needed to focus on his club career. He concluded that when everything is fine at club level, he can go and play for the national team.[30][31] --- Sounds like there was drama afoot

I'll confirm, I have never called for Ralph's head. 4 games ago most sensible posters were pointing to our difficult schedule and our good performances and taking points off big sides like city, United and west ham, as evidence we were soon to turn it around. There was even a thread to this extent called "the season starts now"

Villa I imagine is genuine interest from their side, Norwich is sky so prolly a sky bet thing

I believe it is a sell on fee of the profit, and it is 25% but we paid like £3-4m for him up front so its a saving of 25% of £47-48m which is £~11.5m. That off of £50m is £38m ish. There is definitely some rounding going on.

We were good defensively except for one error and good in midfield. It wasn't a great game and we didn't create much but trying to claim it was one of our worst in years in downright crazy. It was a pretty standard drab 1-0 where the only bit of quality was the goal. Bednarek clears the danger properly and one of our shots is slightly better and we call that a professional win. I can't see how that is that bad compared to, for instance, the games where we are tanked for a tonne of goals.

Leaving us for Norwich certainly would be an odd move!

Gutted for the lad. Hope he rests up and is fit for Norwich. Also, on the topic of Livra for england, his mum is scottish, I wonder if he might be convinced by Che and Stu to swap allegiances. He walks into that scotland side but with James and TAA in front of him and still young he may never seen meaningful England minutes.

I think we were poor before Ralph implemented the 4222 and since then we have been good when most of our team was fit and bad when they weren't. We have better depth now though so I'm not as concerned about fitness. I also wouldn't say 2021 has been a shambles to date, we were poor the latter half of last season but I think we have been good this season.

Actually, after a bit more research I think it was most likely Brentford and Ajer. https://www.nottinghamforest.news/2021/07/20/report-brentford-perform-u-turn-on-nottingham-forest-star-joe-worrall/ Nixon reported that Brentford made a stunning u-turn on signing him after he had already been left out of a match day squad. This was reported on the 20th of July and Ajer was signed on the 21st.

Depends on the quantity of money really. I've seen them linked to Ter Stegen, Sule, and Ousimane Dembele. Obviously if they are signing bonafide starters for Bayern and Barca they'll probably be alright, if this is all hype and they come away with Tarkowski and Lingard as their business then yeah they may struggle a bit. I guess the issue with predicting is no one knows what sort of window they are about to have, this is all pretty unprecedented.

Was the wolves game bad? I remember it as super cagey with very few chances and them nicking it due to an error and us not finishing so well. It's like people look back on the leicester semi final loss and say we were shit. We weren't, we were boring and didn't make much but defended well and kept possession, we were undone by a single error by a single player (and in the Leicester game a massive wedge of luck)

Not really arrogant to say we are a good side. We are. Not sure what you mean by "history has shown we are likely to be dogshit". We have struggled before, normally due to extenuating circumstances, could happen again to us, or anyone outside the massive teams really. Not worth worrying too much about. Stephens and Bednarek would be fine for survival, still better than what Newcastle, Norwich, Watford, and brentford currently have at the back. Plus any one of them could have an injury too. Regarding Broja, he's not even in our top two forwards, our depth up there is great. We are not much of muchness with Watford or Burnley, don't be silly. No one in the bottom half is "safe" but some teams - Norwich, Burnley, Watford, Brentford, Newcastle (pre spend), and potentially villa- have a greater than about 5% chance of going down, and we are not one of them. Sorry if you think that's arrogant, I just think we have a good squad, manager, and make good signings...

I don't think a defeat against Leicester is predictable, they look pretty ordinary this season so I think we can take something off them. Brighton I back us to take something off too. Doesn't mean we will, but if we come through both with 0 points I'd be quite disappointed. It's not kneejerk, we have been good all season, we kept clean sheets against City and West ham who are two of the best teams in the league, we looked pretty solid against Chelsea until JWP got sent off, we probably could have got a win against united. It's less "we are suddenly winning and knees are jerking" and more people who paid attention to our fixtures in the first 7 games knew they were proper rough and the fact we put up a good fight against some top top teams ment we were doing pretty promisingly, we predicted when the fixtures swung we would start winning and then it happened. Now I think we will keep winning until our fixtures get horrible again around december.

We have a much better squad than all those listed imo (maybe only slightly better than Villa). One of the reasons we win a lot of games 1-0 is that we feel we can hold leads (and we are often right). Against Villa for example in the second half we actively transitioned to a defensive side as it made more pragmatic sense to shut up shop than to go for a second and get caught on the break. We should be fine tbh, we are absolutely full of quality.

Agreed. Reminds me of when some nasty piece of work on here was saying we should bully Forster out of the club by "making his life hell". Some people forget footballers are human beings. Ings was perfectly within his rights to not sign a contract because he thought a big club might come for him and was perfectly within his rights to settle for Villa when it became clear one wouldn't but he'd already burned his bridges at saints. Does it make him a bit silly for potentially overestimating his own value - Yeah, kinda. Does it he care too much as he got a big contract anyway - probably not. Does it make him a prick - fuck no, it's his life, and his career. Also judging by the fact he already has another hammy injury it could be his last contract. Makes sense for him to make it as big as poss and take those fools from the midlands for all they are worth.

I think Leeds will mostly be fine. Last season I said high pressing teams were struggling because loads of players were getting injured and they couldn't keep up, with relation primarily to us, Liverpool, and RB Leipzig. I always kind of thought it was weird Leeds weren't struggling with the same issues. It seems now though that the way they play might finally be catching up with them as their squad is absolutely ravaged this season. If you listed their 5 best players (Bamford, Raph, Phillips, Ayling, and Meisler) four of them have been out for multiple games. When they get fit they'll be fine imo. Villa have had injuries too but their key players have been mostly fine save Bailly and Ings (who will always deal with injuries, its what you get with him)

I think it could happen tbh. If newcastle throw a tonne of money at the problem in Jan they can probably just buy their way out of trouble. Norwich and Watford are most likely to drop imo but after them Burnley, Brentford and Villa are next on the block. Burnley have shown year after year they can grind out the results to hang around in this league despite the odds. That leaves Brentford, who I think could easily drop, but stranger things have happened and they do have quality in that side. I'd say 10% chance Villa drop but it would be funny. Also I put a cheeky bet on just before Grealish left at 25/1 so I am pretty hopeful tbh!

Probably just being polite. I doubt West Ham wanted him tbh, and we are only a single point behind palace.

Maybe, it does fit the timeframe though. We were interested in Worrall and it was being mentioned by all sorts of reliable sources then all of a sudden out the blue we hear that we have had a bid accepted for Lyanco. Would be a coincidence.