Saint_clark

And yet it's literally the only position we aren't looking to sign anyone in.

Neto, usually very, very good.

Certainly increasing the level of talent in the side this season. The keeper is still my favourite though.

Need some pace at the back and most importantly a keeper who can make himself big and make saves you don't expect him to make, regardless of whether he can pass it or not. If his passing is cack then just get him to lay it off short or boot it straight up the middle.

Bless them. Limbs everywhere, I bet.

Think that's your own inferiority complex making that connection mate.

What formation does Martin favour then? Two up top or a 4-2-3-1? I would have thought Smallbone would suit that slightly further forward midfield role.

If we'd stayed up I would have looked to move Sarmstrong on, as is he could end up being a 15 goal player for us.

What's the attendance like?

We could petition to get it discussed in parliament?

Guessing ABK is off negotiating a deal somewhere else then? It's such a weird situation to be in, knowing that none of our current centrebacks might be at the club when the window shuts. Need to get some reinforcements in and decide who our CB partnership is going to be, sharpish.

E I E I E I O

Wearing glasses or running round with a diploma in his hand?

Ah you're just a fair weather forum poster, criticising posts on the forum without really watching the thread to get the full picture of what's going on. Maybe if you stayed home instead of going to the game i'd give some merit to what you're saying but you've just completely discredited yourself.

Really feel for him, after the highs of the world cup he probably thought a move to the Prem was a sign he was going to progress and be an internationally renowned star. Gone from bad to worse for him since then. I saw some clips of the World Cup earlier that involved Croatia and he was heavily involved, looked really good...we never really gave him any chance so makes you wonder why on earth we signed him.

I've always hated the mismatched sides in pre-season. I'd much prefer we do first half first choice, second half reserves. At least then our strongest line up (if the manager knows what it is) gets plenty of minutes together.

What a miserable couple of years for him, just after the highs of the world cup as well.

Mbappe for a billion Euros, anyone?

This is the stat that sealed it for me. Our defense looked leaky, sure, but they still protected the keeper better than 13 other teams in the league. Bazunu let them down because every time he faced a shot it was essentially a coin flip as to whether it went in or not.

Yeah, I guess that's fair.

Not really comfortable with the discussions of peoples private lives and personal identities I have to admit. Sure there isn't anything nefarious in it, just don't think it's necessary. Pretty sure this forum (or one of its iterations) had a "play the ball, not the man" mantra in terms of responding to posts before, which I think is worth trying to stick to.

He's probably referring to me. I've never said that our relegation is entirely down to him. What I have said many times is that if we could go back and change one single thing about our season to give us the best chance of staying up, I believe signing a more experienced keeper instead of Bazunu would give us that chance. I also believe had McCarthy played all season we would have stayed up, as we did with him as first choice previously. He was chucked in way too late, massively lacking match sharpness and bereft of confidence from having to watch Bazunu flap at the ball every week, dive out the way of shots and throw the ball in his own net and still get picked ahead of him.

Surprised he isn't tied down already given his impressive performance V Liverpool.

He meant cost less. Leno went to Fulham for £4million, was excellent for them. Navas went to Forest on loan, we could have got him. Bournemouth signed Neto on a free transfer - his return for injury is what turned their season and kept them up. Sam Johnstone signed for Palace on a free transfer. What was most interesting to me whilst looking at goalkeeper transfers is that there was about 15 goalkeepers aged between 19 and 22 who were signed by premier league clubs last summer...and then promptly loaned out again to gain experience. We signed a 19 year old and stuck him in as number one.

Fair enough, I admit other than one half of the first game I haven't actually seen anything myself.