Saint Mikey

Lewis Cook was called up to the England squad, earned a cap and then was injured - he hasn't got back to form yet. On form he's a CM who keeps the ball well and someone we could do with. Fits our usual age target, but Bournemouth may want a few quid. Bournemouth have a few players others teams will want or gamble on. Ake, Willson & Brooks (as already mentioned), but I think Lewis Cook, King and Ramsdale will also get PL moves. Billing, Lerma, Solanke, Ibe (who's already left on a free now) have been a big waste of cash.

Exactly. The intention of the programme is to highlight middle-age men's issues with the neglect of their mental & physical health. Some, who have serious addictions that (in Ruddock's case) are driving them to a early grave. Some (like Merson) are trying to turn their life around, and for the moment at least - are achieving it.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting reading. Still basically hamstrung by poor buys on high wages that we can't shift. This has had a knock-on effect with performances, attendance and ultimately overall income.

John 'Budgie' Burridge! Listened to Paul Robinson chat about him on Graham Hunter's podcast recently...

Agree Lee was bad and another terrible Branfoot signing. Was better than Frankie Bennett though - 'the flying waiter', at least Lee went on to have a career as a league footballer.

Jimmy Case?! He played over 200 games for us. Was a very good signing, on the pitch and also helped the young players we had at the time thrive. Branfoot's first mistake was getting rid when he easily could have done another season. Had Cockerill & Hurlock running around trying to fill his boots, and neither were up to the job. In fact, Hurlock is a good candidate for this thread - if not already mentioned.

Paul Allen Speedie & Dixon (can't believe neither have been mentioned!)

Really enjoyed this interview - thanks. Will be good if you can produce more with other players in this format.

Scott Sinclair signed for Preston in January.

I saw this news and was pretty disappointed. I think he made his debut over the Xmas period and Lampard has talked highly of him and was unsure whether they could keep him due to the options they have at RB (particularly the emergence of Reece James). He is pretty short in stature, but looked good on the ball.

Anyone know KWP's contract length at Spurs? Would influence the fee, if he turns out to be decent.

Been enjoying the Pod this season. 'Total Recall' is a good addition! Keep up the good work chaps...

Had £50 at 25/1 for Redmond to give two craps during a game in Sep. Cashed in big time! #fakebets

It still surprised me to see players in that list who are 24/25, never made a first team appearance and nowhere near the first team. Whilst I know the idea is to eventually sell them to a Championship/lower level Prem team, is that really going to cover 6/7 years of pro wages?

It'll be a disgrace if the club turn down this reasonable request, for a man that has done so much for this club and English football. I would expect a bucket collection, and fans to give generously should the club decide not to contribute.

We missed a trick by delaying this, and not getting Dan Ashworth in when he was clearly available. Don't have much confidence that it will be a suitable replacement that will get us out of this rut.

At our current PPG (0.63), we will gain less than 24 pts by the end of the season. Something needs to change, or we are going down - no question. Trying to second guess the club's targets, you'd think we were at least 4 points, or maybe as much as 5/6 points down and it's really early on. Hughes needs to instil some belief, and start getting results otherwise I can see the chop looming before Xmas.

This reminds me of the time when I heard some lads moan about Guly outside the stadium before a game, claiming that they 'had a better first touch'. Not sure how many Serie B, or Championship games these lads had played, but I reckon it was zero. I thought it was ironic that they were essentially paying to see Guly play, whilst claiming they were better players! You're living in an absolute fantasy land to think that anyone on here could have done a better job on recruitment. Just look at those jokers down the road when they pretty much had fans on board, they were clueless. Since they've shed them, they've improved their recruitment of players and managers massively.

Southgate's selections in these two games have been influenced by him wanting to show loyalty to the WC group, including the players that didn't play. I would expect the next round of games to have more players staking a claim in the squad and first team. Still can't see us beating any 'big' teams until we get a world class DM (in the Kante type mould), or AM (in the Eriksen type mould). Our midfield is so pedestrian. You can't fault Henderson for effort, but he hasn't got the ability to control a game in the same way as a Modric, Busquets etc. Having one player of this quality would improve us massively.

The fact he wasn't even on bench last night, shows the clubhave told him that unless he goes on loan this year, he's going to be playingzero football this season. Unlikely to even play in U23s, is he? Given Lewis is likelyto play in those games. Going to have a serious detriment to his career, a wholeseason with no football…

In fairness, he did a decent job at Birmingham and at Burton Albion prior to that. Has struggled since though, and with much more resources than his first appointments...

The forum is an utter mess now. I have floating javascript code all over the place, it's constantly jumpy and slows to a halt. #mess

What do you want the club to say? 'Yeah, we f**ked up, turns out he's sh!t and we've wasted £20m'. Privately they may think that, but they are never going to say that in public, and neither should they. The player is on loan, has an opportunity to play games and potentially we may get some of fee back we paid. I'll be really worried if people at the top start making statements like this, as it'll show we are run by absolute amateurs.

Out of interest, how many caps did Van Dijk and Alderweireld have for Holland and Belgium, when we signed them? Can't remember them being fully established first choice CBs.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting, some of ads made me laugh!