Sheaf Saint

I'm certain he would be much more effective in this team in the PL than he was previously. He's playing in a system that suits him now, unlike previously when the whole team was devoid of confidence and he was either played as a lone striker or in midfield, and never given a decent run of games in either position.

Was just having a little browse on Owlstalk. They are very complimentary about us, but scathing of their CB Diaby. They reckon DR has a real blind spot there. Another great performance, and it's lovely to see us finally putting teams to the sword. 19 goals (and only one conceded) in our last 5 home games isn't to be sniffed at. Shame Ipswich won, but if we keep up our form it won't be long before we overtake them and stay there.

Dibling coming on.

Was it a fetish site then?

WEE MAN!!!!!!

That's a bonkers call from the ref not to play the advantage.

Oh Arma! Golden chance for 3!

There it is!

How is that a foul by Arma FFS!

Turning the screw on them now.

AFTER he took out Smallbone.

Pretty sure VAR would have given that.

That looked a penalty all day long.

Settling down now after a nervy start. If SHW carry on like that, there will be plenty of gaps in midfield.

Nailed on yellow card there. Not given.

Yeah we know that, but who scored?

Likewise. I watched him plenty of times for Everton and he's far too error prone.

I seem to remember back in the late 90s, we signed a young striker about the same age as Mara. He struggled to make much of an impact at first, looking a bit out of his depth at times and lacking in athleticism and finishing ability. But you could see he was trying and we persisted with him, despite him only scoring 5 goals in his first two seasons and going on a horrendous run of nearly 18 months without a goal at one point. He had some absolute stinkers during that run, and everyone was bemoaning how crap he was and suggesting we get rid of him, but you could see there was a decent player in there. And then, one day, he started banging them in and went on to become a club legend, scoring the goals that took us to a best ever PL finish (at the time) and the FA cup final in 2003. At this stage in his career, Mara looks a better player than Beattie did in his early days with us, and moving him on before we've seen the best of him would be a bad move IMO.

Not yet. There were a handful left in the corners when I went to get mine just now.

Wanting to see your team win a CL trophy makes you an entitled little shitbag, does it? OK then.

For the same reason that we loaned them Tella last season - to get a decent loan fee for a player that is deemed surplus to requirements and put him in the shop window to attract a decent permanent fee the following summer. There's no room for petty grudges when you're talking about a potential multi-million pound deal.

Sounds like clickbait nonsense from the Athletic to me. The fact is we loaned them a decent player for a season who helped get them promoted, then refused to accept their bid to sign him permanently because it was significantly less than what we ended up selling him for. That sort of thing happens all the time, and I don't see why it would sour relations so much that it would negate the possibility of any mutually beneficial deals being done in future. If the Burnley board held a grudge against every club that refused bids for players from them, they would never get any transfer business done.

Is that just speculation based on the fact that we wouldn't let them pull our trousers down over a deal for Tella?

Rohl has injected some energy into their play and got them performing somewhat above their level, in much the same way that Ralph did with us when he first joined. But we have a handful of senior players still here who will have played when Rohl was with us (Stephens, Bednarek, Stu) who will know all about his pressing tactics. The way we knock it around at the back is most effective (and designed for) when teams press us, because it's all about waiting for the right moment to beat the press and play it forward into the space left by the pressing front line. Their setup should provide us ample opportunity to get forward and create chances, and as long as we maintain our composure at the back and don't give it away cheaply in dangerous areas like Stephens and Holgate did on Saturday, we should beat them comfortably.