Sheaf Saint

I think you might have been watching a different Ryan Manning from me then. Because what you have described above doesn't correlate with what I've seen. So far he's had one good game - as a sub against Wrexham. The rest of the time he's been mostly underwhelming, free kicks aside. As for your last sentence - just no. I never want to see him playing LB in a four because he's simply not good enough defensively and leaves us badly exposed time and time again with poor positioning and a rank inability to prevent crosses into our box. And I absolutely do not want to see us play with 3 CBs against Pompey, because it leaves us wide open in midfield and that's the last thing we need in a highly charged derby game.

4-0 now.

Just watching Plymouth v Stockport (my nephew is playing for County) and Caleb Watts is playing AM for Plymouth, having moved from Exeter this summer. Edit: and has just scored a belter to put them 2-0 up.

For someone who "doesn't make points", this is a very good one 😉

Time will tell, I guess.

It's perhaps unsurprising to see a few people jumping on the Rayner story and suggesting that it proves Labour are 'just as bad' as the Tories, but that's an obvious overreaction from people always willing to look for any stick to beat them with. And it demonstrates some laughable double standards from some political opponents, who have resolutely defended their own colleagues for far worse transgressions in the past. What Ange did was obviously ill-judged and she has rightfully had to resign over it, but it's not exactly an abuse of her office when it's just a very common tax dodge that pretty much anybody could do and easily get away with. It's the lying about it and the attempt to cover it up that made her position untenable though. Compare that to a certain previous holder of her office, who really did abuse his position by, among other things, unlawfully approving a property development proposal from a Tory donor to help him avoid having to pay £45m in Community Infrastructure tax that would have been reinvested in local health and education projects. And despite presiding over scandal after scandal during his time in the post, he still kept his job until he was reshuffled out of the cabinet for political reasons. Believe me, I'm far from happy with this government so far. But in terms of ministerial scandals, they're not even in the same ball park as the previous lot. Not yet, anyway. When one of their ministers gets caught illegally meeting with foreign government counterparts while on 'holiday' to discuss the possibility of diverting aid funding to their military, then we can start drawing fair comparisons of corruption.

Nothing has made it out into the media, but Still did mention in one of his recent press conferences that both of these players had pending transfers lined up and that's why they were training separately. We know Edozie was close to a move to Bruges, but whatever was going on for Aribo was kept out of public knowledge. But yeah, the Turkey suggestion was just because their window is still open I think. The fact they are both back in full training might suggest they have decided against moving and are willing to stay and fight for a place (or sit on their arses and get paid not to play because nobody was matching their current deal).

Drama in the Eastleigh v Scunthorpe game last night. Match was abandoned after two players were hospitalised following a clash of heads. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/c9wy4zynww2t

Both of them could be useful assets if we can't sort out a move for them. Edozie was starting to look very dangerous last time round in this league, before being cynically taken out and crocked at Norwich. And Aribo is a solid if unspectacular midfielder who could be useful in an area where we're still a little light after shifting MF and Smallbone.

Are you suggesting that Weston Shore isn't a proper beach? 😉

Exeter isn't on the coast. But swap them for Torquay and your point still stands.

Don't do it.

And the total sales can't be right either. We got nearly that much just for Fernandes and Dibling. What about the money we got for Sulemana, Bednarek, Onuachu and SAA?

Hypo said "hardly any of them were Ramsdale's fault" and you replied with "here's four which spring to mind", which suggests that you thought all four were his fault. No matter. You're probably right that one or two would have blamed Baz for them all, given how some people immediately blamed him for not saving that FK yesterday. But I don't think it's fair to say most would. And if you think that save against Wrexham, from a scuffed shot with hardly any power behind it, was 'excellent' then you must be easily pleased. Credit where it's due, he did the bare minimum to push it just round the post and that allowed us to go on and win the game. But that's literally the only time I can remember in all his time with us that he's made a match-winning save. And it's a save that any competent keeper at this level should be making, rather than being excellent IMO.

Interesting you think they were all AR's fault. The first one took a deflection and you can see how AR had to readjust having already started going the other way. The second one was a great finish right in the corner, and even the commentator said it gave Ramsdale no chance. I wouldn't have blamed Baz if he had conceded either of those. On the other hand, the header from Wood looked saveable, and the disallowed one was an obvious howler. So yeah, some errors there. But the big difference is that Ramsdale regularly made some excellent saves of the kind that Bazunu just never does.

They've just brought in Matt Targett, so I can't see that happening now.

OK so who is it then?

He's level at most in this shot, so wind it back to the point it left Azaz's boot and he must have been onside. Anyway, the point here is that it's a bit unfair to call him an offside liability based on this incident. I think he timed this one just right. An offside liability, to my mind, is someone who carelessly wanders offside on a regular basis, like Sulemana for instance.

This was actually after the ball was kicked, so the LB was clearly playing him on...

That's a bit harsh. The one where he would have been clean through from Azaz's through ball was onside and flagged incorrectly. Not Archer's fault that the Lino got it wrong.

In fairness, he picked up an injury towards the end of last season and missed all of pre-season and then the first 3 games. It's no surprise he's looking a little rusty.

Don't know anything about him, but it's good that we've got more reinforcements at FB. With Wellington out for a while we need someone who can actually defend at LB, because Manning is a liability.

Thought he had a decent debut yesterday. Always looking to play a forward pass or a through ball, and might well have got an assist to put us 2-0 up if not for an incompetent lino. Looking forward to seeing more of him in a stronger midfield once we've finally scrapped the 3 at the back formation.

He has a terrible habit of cancelling out those interceptions though, by giving the ball away again incredibly cheaply having won it back.