VectisSaint

Too late, only applies to players until they are 23 or so. GB is 25 going on 26. However,, we did receive compensation when he joined Real, even though he was 24 at the time. Training compensation shall be paid to a player’s training club(s): (1) when a player signs his first contract as a professional and (2) each time a professional is transferred until the end of the season of his 23rd birthday."

I reckon Shane Long more than broke sweat. I suspect he is absolutely cream crackered today.

Not helped by the soporific "commentating" by our old friend Lawro. He basically sounded bored rigid even before the game got underway. He seemed to think there was a lack of quality, he may have mentioned it once or twice.

Have Palace been given a bye?

Total dross. Thanks God for Shane Long and his one moment of magic. Ipswich were dire (with the exception of Tyrone) and we were less dire than they were. How we managed to let Mings go because he was too small is a mystery, we really should be trying very hard to get him back, he is class.

I'm sure one of the "I told you so" brigade on here will have done this for certain. The ones that told us all along that all would be well, and like to keep resurrecting the posts of those who said otherwise just to prove how all-seeing they were.

Just a flesh wound.

mea culpa. Clicking on link and not engaging brain, mistakenly thinking I was on the OS, instead it was just Armstrong's preview. I know its blindingly obvious the difference, put it down to old age and decripitude. And yes he did originally have 12 players, including Toby. To be fair he was right about Steve Davis (though he is on the bench) but was a bit out with the rest of the team.

Nelson would have given his right arm to get that gig.

Three, you are forgetting the football God that is Mayuka.

But not getting mentioned by the Club in their expected XII, suggests he is not fully fit, there is no other real reason not to include Steve Davis in a team.

He was probably discussing Dusan's new shirt sponsor, Tattoo Sanctuary.

Well spotted. Suggests that Steve Davis is also not fully fit.

You'd think that someone opening an "appreciation thread" would at least be able to spell the name of the subject correctly.

I expect him to sign a new deal once he is 100% sure that he can return to playing. That may be quite soon, but I really don't expect it to be until he is at leas back in full training.

Think the OS has a bit of a problem with their predicted XI: "Toby Alderweireld is sidelined due to his hamstring injury PREDICTED XI: Forster; Alderweireld, Clyne, Fonte, Gardos, Bertrand; Ward-Prowse, Wanyama, Cork; Long, Pellè, Tadić." we have a bit of a shortage of players at the moment, 7 out injured or unavailable, that's a very significant portion of the very small squad. One thing we must do for next season, Europe or not, is add depth to the squad.

Less than 3 actually. Let's hope this doesn't go to extra time.

Clearly the guy knows very little, event he fact that he cited Sunderland as an example of how exciting we can be. well the reality was that we were quite poor in the 1st half, it was only when Sunderland had committed suicide for the third time that we really took them apart in the second half.

Thanks Richard. I was aware of AdBlock but didn't realise you can configure to just block adds on selected domains. Given that my own web sites serve ads, I didn't want to just block ads on all sites otherwise it is a bit difficult for me to see what is going on.

Agreed, it is one of the most aggravating things on a web site when music starts or people start talking in an advert, especially when you are trying to listen to something else. Ad-block does not solve the problem without blocking all ads, which I don't want to do. Most sensible web sites now make sure that this sort of ad is not served, but not the OS for some reason.

Not really, if you're from a software/computing background.

If Smalling's shirt pulling had gone much further, Pelle would have been booked for removing his shirt.

Smoking in the shower.

Please no, would be better to register Ronald as a player. Perhaps Liverpool could loan us Lovern

Didn't work against Sheff Utd though. He did look good today, beginning to show more composure and able to deliver a decent ball. Looks like we will be relying on him for the next 3 weeks. No back up again, our squad depth may be shown up if we are unlucky.