Mattster

The counterpoint to that is that if Broja continues to develop at the rate he has, and is even more impressive in the second half of this season (and remember he wasn't even a nailed on starter for us at the beginning of the season), then we could be outbid, or Chelsea could decide they really can't afford to let him go. Of course, it could go the other way too, that's the risk you take. A bird in the hand is worth two in bush - for me, if there is any chance at all of getting it done in this window then we should go all out for it.

I'm wondering if this bid is the culmination of talks with Chelsea with a good idea of where each club sits on the issue, or whether it is a slightly more desperate act given that we are now towards the end of the window, and we just want to force Chelsea to make a decision. Or somewhere in the middle. Fingers crossed in any case, we should know more soon.

We've got one of those behind us - a kid of about 14. I'm not sure I've ever heard him say anything positive about a single player or passage of play - and I've heard him say a lot! Even my 11 year old comments on how annoying he is.

Exactly. I'm actually much more excited about the possibility of keeping some of our better players for longer than I am about spending big on new players. If we can get out of the cycle of selling our better players every few years and having to rebuild, and actually get a longer term project going whilst accumulating and developing reasonably priced talent then I think we could really go places. I just hope Ralph is able to convince the players that there is a long term strategy in place here that is worth staying for, and the owners can step in with a bit more on the wages side if required. I'm a lot more confident of this post take-over, and it would be really gutting if we ended up losing any of our most promising players in this window or the next - hopefully these rumours are just that.

Thanks - was aware of this, thankfully, but it is a real piss take doing it on match days and this isn't the first time they have done it this season. How long have they been working on that stretch of road anyway? Five years? More? And the latest is that they are going to scrap "smart" motorways anyway, so perhaps they'll spend the same amount of time turning it back!

Apparently the smart money is on Brentford because of the Danish connection, but that did get me thinking about our very own recently acquired Danish connection that also has connections to Brentford. Wishful thinking probably because I haven't seen us come up in connection with Eriksen even in the wilder parts of the transfer rumour internet.

The counterpoint to that is that he might not find out, and might find himself warming the bench for a season or two, as countless other talented youngsters have already discovered at bigger clubs. The benefits of him staying at a club like ours are that he is pretty much guaranteed first team football every week, which is the fastest/only way to truly develop your game, and puts him on show against premiership opposition. If he's good enough he'll be noticed much more quickly here than in the odd cup game for Chelsea, and he's young enough to have plenty of time ahead playing at a bigger club if he ends up being as good as we think he will. Not to mention, he can do all of that while on double or triple the salary he is currently getting from Chelsea. From Chelsea's point of view, they can insert a buy-back clause (makes very little difference to us in reality, as we'd end up selling in a few years anyway), so they get their player developed and put a few quid in the bank in the mean time. OK maybe that's wishful thinking from someone who wants him to stay, but you can certainly make a good case for it. Plus apparently he likes it here and his family want him to stay (I think I read that last bit somewhere..).

Arsenal have now formally requested a postponement of Sunday's game at Tottenham with only player missing due to Covid. The rest are injuries, suspension or AFCON. This is getting a bit silly now isn't it? https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jan/14/arsenal-tottenham-premier-league-covid

So the article above seems to suggest that other prem clubs are in for Broja in this window. It is Sky Sports of course, so hopefully it has no basis in fact, but does anyone know if the loan agreement we have would allow this to happen? I'd love us to sign him but am resigned to him going back to Chelsea at the end of the season. If another club managed to swoop in for him, especially right now, that would be really gutting. If it was Newcastle, and he came back and scored against us.. I think there might be medical emergency in the family stand!

My thoughts exactly. This smacks of sabotage more than any particular player strategy for Newcastle, and it might just come off - and for that reason it might also end up being good value. Incoming bids for Sarr and Dennis?

It is extremely weird and I don't ever remember it happening before, although I dare say it has. I'll be streaming hopefully. Not going to make it to St Mary's as it is too late for my youngest on a school night. It's annoying that with these two postponements we've lost two weekend daytime home fixtures but there it is.

Agree on retirement, he hasn't seemed to have much interest in football at all for the last few years, apart from when playing for Wales. Maybe that fact alone could be enough to motivate him for a few more months? All depending on the playoffs of course, which look very tough. There's no chance we'd cover his wages, which are absurd at nearly 700k euros a week, but a loan deal where we chip about 50k a week for six months? Doesn't seem to be much in it for Real tho! I wonder how much Spurs were paying?

Coutinho all but confirmed at Villa now, apparently, and flying in for medical this weekend..

"Play" perhaps being the operative word here. How often do we see bright young things bought by the big clubs, only to spend years on the bench? I think younger players are cottoning on to the fact that they need game time to develop, and that they are much more likely to get that at smaller clubs. This is where clubs like ours really do have something to offer - Premier league game time - giving players the chance to show what they can do. If they really are good enough, people will notice.

Just as important as acquisitions, perhaps even more important IMO, is the ability to keep talent once we have found it and nurtured it. I don't need to list the players we have had over even recent years, who have gone on to bigger clubs and great things - imagine if we had been able to keep some of them. And I think just as important as money for retaining some of these players (and hopefully we will have more of that to offer them, too) is that the club has a vision and ambition to get there - something that has been lacking in recent years for us. If we can say to these players, who would have upped sticks after a season or two in the past, that we are looking to push on in the league and not just survive, and they can see that this is actually happening, then that could be a great thing.

I think/hope that is just wrong. It seems quite clear that a ban from 2 yellows in one game can be cleared in any eligble FA competition, which should include the FA cup, whilst cumulative yellow card bans can only be cleared in the competition in which they were earnt. We'll see I guess.

But we won't have KWP, who would have served his suspension over the Newcastle game. Not a huge issue, but these are all the knock on effects so things will inevitably be different now than they would have been had Newcastle not cheated. A total piss take. Also almost certainly going to be played mid week at some point, which is always harder/sometimes not possible with my two young kids so we might not even get to see the game. Really annoyed by this. Run out of posts today so edit to say to answer below, we won't have KWP because cumulative yellow card suspensions can only be cleared in the same comp - that is my understanding anyway.

It's always going to be variable depending on the person, exposure and vaccine history etc. But the government do monitor flu cases, and I have no reason not to believe the average of once every 10 years on average per person. Which would make my old friend getting it twice every year so unlikely as to not be believable.

This is 100% true and something I am always banging on about to people complaining about having it. I think the stats are something like once every 10 years on average across the population, so it is really not that common, and it is or can be a really nasty disease (no such thing as "just" the flu). There's no question of muddling through at work when you've got the full on flu despite what the Beechams ads might say. I had a colleague who swore he got flu twice a year, every year, and wouldn't budge on it, but colds can be pretty nasty too sometimes.

I'm much more relaxed about this game after yesterday's result. West Ham on current form were a free hit as far as I was concerned, so now tomorrow can be instead. Get a result against Newcastle and we'll have more points from this festive period than I was hoping for quite honestly. It will be interesting to see how many turn up tomorrow after the half empty stadiums on TV yesterday - I am fully intending to go. I assumed people would be less concerned post-Christmas, but maybe not.

Agreed. In some ways it is very encouraging - seeing how we can play when everything is clicking and everyone is fresh shows that the talent is there, IMO. On the other hand, of course, it is intensely frustrating to watch the same team fail to consolidate a great half of football with more than one goal (or even any goals), and throw away so many winning positions. I get the sense sometimes that Ralf thinks you can sit on a 1-0 in the prem, regardless of when the goal is scored. Sometimes you might get away with it (just - see e.g. Villa), but more often than not you won't, and we are a far less effective team IMO when we are not being aggressive. Perhaps Ralf tries to tell them to play within themselves and defend the lead at half time, when a more effective strategy for us might be to continue to go for it and just hope we score more goals than the opposition. I don't know, that's probably pretty naive but something has to change. On a more personal note, as someone in the family area, almost every game we have seen this season has had most of the action up the other end, as we almost always point that way first half when we are going for it, and then the opposition generally does the same (also at that end) for the second half. For that reason alone things need to change!

A copy of Wednesday and at least half of the other games this season. Let's hope this is the game it changes!

Not had one, but someone sat down near me with a pie last night and I thought it looked surprisingly good. Might be tempted next time.

Yes.

Agree completely. I don't want to be too down on the team, and perhaps a bit of this "grass is always greener", but we have had quite a few (at least three) first halves this season where we really should have put the game to bed with 2 or 3 goals, and we haven't been able to do it - even against some quite limited opposition. We've got away with it a couple of times, but it is a big problem IMO. We are really lacking a quality striker at the moment, and although I'm still hoping Armstrong comes good after his recent belter, I can't really think of any team in the prem (possible exception Norwich) with a weaker strike force. Even the supposedly weaker teams have at least one well proven striker, whether that's Wilson at Newcastle, Dennis, Toney, Zaha, Watkins and Ings, Cornet, Jimenez - the list goes on. I'd probably take any of those right now tbh.