Ivan Katalinic's 'tache

The Maitland-Niles central midfield thing is a bit weird. He's got into the England set-up as a wing-back. Southgate seems to want him to cover left wing-back. Why would he want to go to West Brom, assist with a probable relegation and then not go to the Euros as he's not been played in the position England seem to want to use him? Of course, if he backs himself to keep WBA up with a string of stellar midfield displays then fair enough but, even then, there's no guarantee England will want to use him there and he may get left out anyway because he's not playing where Southgate thinks he works best in his system. Not sure if it's his own ego or the direction he's been pointed at by his agents but it seems a little odd. Oh well, on to the next very last minute target...

I can see the logic of AMN going to West Brom. He'll be aiming to not play very much, get a surprise move to German football and end up at Bayern as one of the best talents in Europe like Serge Gnabry.

Now that's out of the blue but a very positive deal if it happens!! Proper competition up top for Danny & Che...

Gilmour and Maitland-Niles would make for a decent deadline day...

Seems like Leicester are going for Chalobah at Watford, among others, rather than Maitland-Niles according to John Percy earlier.

Still raging...!

Valery up against Rashford & a kid making his Premier League debut against Bruno Fernandes - what's not to like?!

I genuinely don't see the point in football when the game is no longer being decided inside the ground. Might as well ask Mike Dean what he'd like the score to be before the game & just go with that.

James Shea?

The local paper, the Evening Standard, suggest we're at the front of the queue: Southampton join race for Arsenal midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles | Evening Standard

Unless KWP is a bit more injured than Ralph is letting on? Surely Maitland-Niles would be a better bet at right back than Valery?

Let's hope we have something near completion then or a very good left back coming through the U18s, if we can't get someone in... Maybe Maitland-Niles is on our radar, if Brandon Williams isn't available, although Arsenal might see us as being too close to them in the table to loan someone out to?

Looks like Demarai Gray has sorted out his next move, according to this update from Sky Sports last night...

I think tonight we looked somewhere between we are down to the bare bones and we've been figured out going forward (hence the lack of goals recently). Missing Jannik, Bertrand & KWP at the back is massive as Stephens, Valery and Vokins are significant downgrades. Going forward, Armstrong aside, there seems to be less zip. Theo has gone off the boil a little and could probably have done with a breather in the past few games had Moussa or Redmond been fit. Danny doesn't look as on it since his injury & illness and it might take a while for him to hit top form again. Che's link up play remains good but he looks like he's having one of those droughts and we have no genuine options if we wanted to take him out of the firing line. It would be nice to think we could bring in a couple of bodies (on loan) so we don't let our excellent start drift too much but I guess that will be hampered by finances and maybe why we're now releasing fringe players who aren't going to cut it like Johnson, Slattery, Sims and Robise. On to Villa and let's hope a few of the walking wounded can return.

Latest from Ralph: “I can only say that we want him to stay and we show that we want him to be here, and he shows signals that he wants to be with us. “I think that is clear. We show him what we don’t want, and for us it is important to show that we don’t want to sell him, we want to keep him for as long as possible. “He knows that his quality now, we helped him to be that strong. It is a win-win situation if we can find the solution. He likes playing with this team and the atmosphere is fantastic.”

The club needs to get tough with Ings IMO: "Danny, if you don't sign up pronto, mush, we're removing your personalised brick from the wall..."

No longer the side against whom the longest ever goal was scored. Thank you Tom King: Tom King: Newport keeper sets world record with Cheltenham goal - BBC Sport

Good point. Although Salisu has matched his goal tally already...

Things of beauty. More please Hummel!

Played very well first half, ran out of steam & first teamers second half. Can't help but think we'd have taken at least a point with a full team but we'll never know! On to the Shrews on Tues now...

"When you have players who have been in the Premier League, earning Premier League money, one of the big questions you have is about their hunger. "In Charlie's case, he has it by the bucket-load." Looks like Charlie might've been rumbled by his new manager already?

Linked in the Mail with a young player at Northampton: Southampton and Club Brugge eye up move for highly-rated Northampton Town forward Caleb Chukwuemeka | Daily Mail Online

Erm... who the hell awards the player marks on Sky??? Diallo - 6??? 🤦‍♂️

Bloody marvellous, particularly with a bench full of kids (and all 3 that came on doing so well). Standout performances everywhere but mentions have to go to KWP and Diallo. Ask an outsider who was England's best right back and it's not Trent on that evidence. Just a second start for Diallo and he looked just a class above. Enjoy him whilst he's here. Stephens too has given everything since replacing big Jannik and even Fraser looked solid if a bit rusty at times. It'll be a while before I lose my current inane grin...

Adams concussion & Romeu calf injury