verlaine1979

We've had similar charges with that bank in the past. I think it's just a cash flow facility.

I'm surprised someone hasn't already suggested four lots of Steven Davis's head.

Best signings or best players signed? I suppose if the former, you could argue that a short stay militates against calling someone a good signing, which would explain why some people are picking a lumpen mediocrity like Davis. If you're just talking about the three best players that we've signed, then its obviously Mane, VVD and Wanyama, with Bertrand the only plausible outside pick.

Bit weird that Wigan is being seen as a vindication of playing two strikers. They hardly linked up at all, and the two best chances we didn't take were a calamitous back pass, and a nice through-ball and run from Gabbi, exactly like the ones he made last season as a lone striker. In return for the two strikers barely noticing each other were there, we got a massive hole in the midfield, through which Wigan marched at will until they gave up a set-piece goal and started to get tired/lose faith.

For most of the game yesterday the central area between half way and the opposite CBs was completely unoccupied. Boufal and Tadic had both been instructed to play wide, Lemina and Hoj were very deep screening our dodgy CBs, and Carrillo and Gabbiadini were both trying to play on the shoulder. It's absolutely mystifying that we've managed to invest tens of millions in the playing squad over the past three seasons or so, yet appear to have no one we can trust with playing in that position.

Looks increasingly like a player who has no particular strengths - not strong, not quick, not a great technician. £20m should buy you at least one of those qualities, even in this inflated market.

Never mind a first goal, I feel like I'm still waiting for Carrillo to win his first contested header.

There's a massive hole where our central attacking midfielder should be.

Not sure what point you're trying to make when we got hammered yesterday by a relegation rival rather than a champion's league contender.

Gone a bit pear shaped for B'mouth now as they're 1-2 down, but watching about six of them flood forward on the counter attack from a Spurs corner just now was a sight I can barely remember seeing in the last two seasons. Really makes you realise how little pace there is in our squad.

The worrying thing about him is that we seemingly bought him to provide physical presence and allow us to play the way we did with Lambert and Pelle, but he actually looks a bit of a powder puff. I could almost accept him not being a great technician or goalscorer if he was physically dominant and unsettled and bullied CBs all game, but he isn't that either. He just seems depressingly mediocre at the moment, and despite the cynicism that usually surrounds transfers, £20m still buys you more than mediocrity if your scouts know what they're doing.

Since sacking MP and bringing anyone else in is likely to involve spending a minimum of £5-6m (possibly a lot more) I wonder if the problem is that extraordinary expenses of that nature have to be approved by the majority shareholder, and that authorisation isn't forthcoming? It would certainly explain why Reed and Kruger seem able offer little but platitudes and pledges, and presumably their terms of employment would forbid them from coming out and telling us that the reason they're not doing anything is because they aren't allowed to. All speculation, as we've heard nothing from the owners, but I'd be very surprised if anyone other than Gao had the final say over expenditure at that level.

Also, why do we seem insistent on playing all our football within about three feet of either touchline?

I really can't believe that stat about the number of headed duels Carrillo wins. Every game I've seen him in he's been comprehensively monstered by whoever he's up against.

Good god, Cedric's technique is absolutely awful.

If you own a football club outside the top 6 of the PL, £300m is probably close to the notional ceiling for your investment anyway. If you want to 10x that figure your only realistic option is to sell and reinvest elsewhere.

Let's see what the club's true debt situation is before we start celebrating having the highest financial commitments in our history as an unalloyed good.

Yup, had good close control and did a good job holding and linking. The ball stuck with him when he got it far more often than I've seen yet with Carrillo.

Considering neither have scored yet, Palace's £9m January striker Sorloth put in a far more impressive performance than anything I've seen so far from our £19m buy.

Agreed, don't rate Redmond at all really, but yesterday was his best performance since Liverpool in the cup last season in terms of his willingness to take responsibility and attack his defender.

The other thing that's probably worth remembering is that she was actually much less wealthy than initially reported, so the loans she made to the club were probably a very significant proportion of her net worth at the time. This would explain a lot both in terms of the need for bridging loans from BVA and her desire to push through the Gao deal so she could finally make the majority of her inheritance liquid after five or six years.

I think we're talking about a different interpretation of the role. I don't anticipate Boufal making a lot of runs without the ball into the box - as a #10 he should be the one in possession most when we're attacking, essentially acting as a cut-price Hazard. The runs to support Carillo would come from Sims on the right and Gabbiadini/Tadic on the left (with Gabbi the more likely to make them).

I've been banging on about investing in a proper #10 for years, but in the absence of one of those, I'm not sure Gabbiadini is the answer. His game is all about short, sharp runs and anticipating the delivery of the ball, rather than holding onto possession and releasing the right pass (that said, it could definitely be argued that he warrants a starting place on the left of the attack ahead of Tadic, which is pretty much where he was plying his trade when we bought him). Ideally the #10 needs to be able to go either way, and frankly the only attacking player we have who doesn't seem to be entirely one-footed is Boufal - therefore for that reason alone he should get the attacking spot through the middle.

On the basis that he clearly has far more pace than anyone in the squad barring Long, and the technique to actually hit the ball reasonably cleanly, I'd stick Sims out on the right, Tadic on the left where he belongs, and then Boufal/Lemina/JWP/Anyone else with a valid claim at #10. My preference would be Boufal, but I suspect that Pellegrino's conservatism will continue to see Tadic play in the middle as soon as anyone else less-established comes into the team based on nothing more than a spurious notion of seniority.

So little movement. Just now when JWP picked the ball up in space on the right about 40 yards out, there must've been of our 5 players ahead of him, and they were all just standing still looking at him.