verlaine1979

Since it seems quite likely that the current Ajax team would comprehensively thrash us, it's hard to argue that he made the wrong decision in moving.

The fact that he's behind JWP in the assist table despite having played the equivalent of over 55 full matches more (14000 minutes vs 9000 minutes), says pretty much everything you need to know about what a mediocre player he's been for us.

Online video performance isn't measured in impressions.

Eh? He wasn't bad in that game, but I'm sure more than a few people commented that he wasn't quite as dominant in the air as they were expecting.

It's mostly because there is a consensus around JWP that he's pretty mediocre except for his striking of a dead ball. I largely agree with that verdict so there's no need to labour a point almost everyone shares. On the other hand I disagreed with the consensus that SD was one of the best/most under-rated/finest signings of recent decades, as I regularly saw him let us down defensively and slow us down in attack. I've never been on a wind up, just stating a point of view that I didn't see many others expressing based on what I watched week in, week out.

Only caught the highlights, but the contrast between Murphy and Redmond was quite stark on that evidence. One has pace, the other doesn't, and it seemed to make a big difference in transition and attack.

Ffs, you're not clinging to the fantasy that pep thinks he's great are you? He was having a go about our negative tactics, not singling Redmond out for praise.

Eh, this is just a load of cliche-ridden waffle. Both players have deficiencies and neither have really performed as well for the club as was anticipated when they were signed - you only like one better than the other because of his nationality.

'slightly'

Boufal is quicker than Redmond.

Eh, every international break someone comes along to say he's put in a man-of-the-match performance against some European minnow or other. Fact it, it's been almost three full seasons since he was an effective PL player. The pace of the game has overtaken him, and most of the time he's a dithering liability.

We also sneak in a mention with: "No side has had fewer different individual scorers than Fulham (4, same as Southampton)."

I suppose you could call not getting thrashed by Watford a positive sign, but you have to be starting from a pretty low base of optimism. We pressed with a little more energy (but not a lot more organisation) in the game, which was good to see, but aside from that I don't think the Watford game showed any great advance on previous performances. Moreover, I think Hughes' decision to pick Yoshida and Gabbi was really just a cynical ploy to distance himself from Reed.

Spot on.

Hughes is the one sending out a paper-thin 4-4-2 week after week, despite the fact that pretty much our entire squad was recruited to play a different formation.

There was really no downside for Hughes picking a few of the irregulars today. It immediately reinforced the narrative that Reed was a problem, whether the result was good or bad. Call me a cynic, but I don't believe Reed has had any say over the first XI this season, and that the fault with the tactics, selection and substitutes rests entirely with Hughes.

The total market cap of Lander is under half a billion quid. I'd guess your estimate is out by a distance of several hundred million pounds.

Trump has bankrupted is companies a number of times. If you regard his tactical use of bankruptcy as 'innate business acumen' then I can only hope that one day someone who owes you a large amount of money uses the tactic on you.

Despite all the obfuscation, the clear message coming out of that interview is 'we've got no money, and should count ourselves lucky that for the moment, the owner isn't actively taking cash out of the club to support his debt' Hopefully no one will bring up their erroneous understanding of FFP. The mechanisms of FFP allow for increased capital expenditure and wage expenditure every year, particularly for clubs who aren't participating in European competition. If the owner had cash and wanted to, he could pump in double-digit millions almost every year pretty much without penalty. We've been sold down the river.

I didn't say it would happen - it's just how I interpret the thinking behind paying a fair whack for what looks on the face of it, a reserve keeper. Gunn had a lot of hype behind him when he first emerged at City, so I suspect the club jumped at the chance to acquire a young potential England international on the assumption that his value will rise significantly, despite the fact that there were more pressing needs in the squad. With Kepa and Alisson setting the bar for prices, the likes of Pickford would easily go for £50m in this market.

Seems unlikely that LR was running a private scouting operation through Europe while steadfastly ignoring the minor-league gems being served by by Wilson. Far more likely is that the job was too big for RW, so he tried to shortcut by scouting the fringes of bigger clubs like Bayern, Juventus and Lazio for prospects. That way, at least he could say that someone else with clout had already passed a positive judgment on the players he was suggesting.

Assuming the entire point of buying Gunn was so that we could play him for a season or two and then sell him for 5x what we paid, they're going to have to start bedding him in sooner or later.

I don't think it's Reed who made MH play 5 at the back all pre-season then immediately switch to an antiquated 4-4-2 45 minutes into the first league fixture. The tactical shambles is entirely of Hughes' own making.

Looking at their last few games, they seem to play 4-2-3-1 with Delofeu, Hughes and Pereyra playing behind Success.

Exploiting these opportunities so successfully that the market cap of his main business has fallen to less than half of what it was around the time of the takeover. So, an owner who never really cared about the success of the football club, who has around half as much money (or less) as he did when he bought the club (and was never particularly wealthy to begin with). Now there's a recipe for long term stability if I ever saw one...