Midfield_General

Now they go 1-0 up and the opposition have a man sent off. Football eh!

HT. 0-0. On another day they would be at least 2-0 down - Butland made two fantastic saves to keep them in it. They've been second to everything and overrun in midfield every time Pana come forward. They are a mess defending corners and have only had one shot on target. This is against a side most of their fans were expecting them to comfortably roll over. Fans already asking why they play it sideways when there is a forward pass on, and seem puzzled that the high-energy, aggressive, attacking football and high press they've been expecting is nowhere to be seen. Already questioning why players are being played out of position, why the full backs are so narrow and inverted, and whether this style of play will work against packed defences in the SPL. To be fair to them, 22nd July is very early in the window to be having a tough competitive fixture, and I'm sure the team they start the season with will look quite different to the side they've got out tonight. It's also somehow still 0-0, so it's not beyond the realms that they could nick something. But it's not a very good start.

Branfoot-era favourite, David Lee

They've brought some players in since he's been there but no-one of any real note. A few weeks ago they genuinely seemed to think they might come in for Ramsdale and Downes. Since then the highest-profile player they've brought in is Joe Rothwell, and they seem properly excited about him, which really does say it all about the difference between expectation and reality up there. The team they look like they're putting out tonight looks very, very average on paper. A bunch of £500k - £3m journeymen and loans brought in from the fringes of Luton Town and Peterborough. It's going to be fun watching them try to Beckenbauer their way out from the back with Champion's League qualification on the line.

Massive first game for Martin tonight. CL qualifier, first leg, at home. Will be watching with interest to see if he's learned from his experiences and adapted anything. This comment from one of their boards made me smile: You won't. The days of bluffing and excuses are gone. Russell Martin is a straight shooter and it's clear he wants not only to be the man at Rangers but to embrace the pressure and expectation. Come what may he's not going to waste time with junk talk. 😬

£18m for an 18-year-old who's only ever played in the French second division, yikes Ah - OK, stand down

However many times he saved our arses in a poor side last year though, I can see a PL move for next season being hard for him now. There just aren't many PL clubs who are in the market for a first team keeper, or would see him as enough of an upgrade on what they've got to make it worth the £25m or whatever we'd ask for him. He's not elite level, so the CL clubs won't want him. Go down a level to the clubs outside the top six and I'd say he's comparable to people like Sels at Forest, Leno at Fulham, Henderson at Palace, Vicario at Spurs, Sa at Wolves. They're all good quality Prem keepers and don't need replacing. Pickford's not going anywhere at Everton, Brentford have bought Kelleher, Bournemouth have just bought Petrovic and West Ham are going after Hermandsen. So what does that leave - Brighton maybe, as an upgrade on Verbruggen? And it would be interesting to see if Villa were interested if Martinez went. Other than that, it's only the promoted teams left which would more than likely mean a fourth relegation on his CV and another season of getting smashed every week which I very much doubt he wants, especially if as reported he's already got a £100k per week offer on the table so wouldn't really need to move for the money. The one I'm surprised hasn't shown any interest at all is Man Utd, because he is head and shoulders better than Onana, very affordable for them, and you could guarantee he'd go there if they wanted him. They should snap him up, but I hope they don't, and they won't because that would be way too obvious and sensible for that shitshow of a club.

A lot of his former managers have said he'd make an excellent coach. The dream: Romeu does his badges, smashes the Segunda División in his first gig and then returns as manager to lead our 2031-32 promotion charge. The likelihood: In six years' time a 38 year-old Jack Stephens proudly leads us out as player-manager (with Bednarek as his assistant and McCarthy as goalkeeping coach)

He was the only thing between us and some more proper, humiliating 0-7 or more hidings on several occasions. Bearing in mind how many records that team still set for being shit, it’s mind-boggling to think how many more we would have conceded if we hadn’t had Ramsdale. Bearing in mind our other options can only dream of being competent shot stoppers, let alone excelling at any other part of their game, we were very, very lucky to have him.

Four lucky lads got the chance to meet an actual Premier League quality footballer.

Interesting that we're taking a 4th goalkeeper. Surely suggests that they are expecting to give Moody more of a role with the first team this season, which would suggest that one of the three seniors is off. Also see that West Ham are rumoured to be going for Hermandsen from Leicester, which if true would at least be one potentially attractive suitor for Ramsdale who could be ruled out. Obviously it's still overwhelmingly most likely to be Ramsdale who goes, but one can live in hope.

That's why I think Rangers fans are in for a bit of a shock. They are all under the impression that he's going to bring an intense pressing game, when in fact his teams do anything but.

Rules out Manning too unfortunately

What a leader though. What a ruddy bloody leader.

Well, that's a shock that no-one could possibly have seen coming

Credit where it's due, that was a sweet pass with the outside of his foot from BBD in the build-up to Dibling's goal

Jesters

And because of that I believe that to this day he still holds the record for worst ever fantasy football score for any player in a single game: minus 21 points. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55921200 Better still, he took the crown from... Ryan Bertrand, after the Leicester game God it's shit supporting this cursed club sometimes 🤣

Still time to sign that Saints contract offer KWP... and let's just forget any of this ever happened

Lucky for him the CoT wasn’t around then. He’d have to be thrown straight out and have his membership revoked for coming out with bullshit like that.

Jason Wilcox and the rest of Ratcliffe's lads continuing to do a cracking job at Man Utd: - Only made one signing (Cunha); Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City etc have all made multiple major signings already - Struggling to get Mbeumo over the line because Brentford keep raising the price - they are now demanding £70m, and fair play to them for seeing United coming and knowing they'll panic and pay it in the end - Rashford, Garnacho, Sancho, Antony and Malacia all estranged from the first team and training separately. Hundreds of millions of talent going to waste and no buyers I wonder when they start freaking out, panic buying and sacking more people? Wilcox has got to be next in the firing line if this window doesn’t improve pretty quickly

Imagine being synonymous with - and represented by - that

Yeah, it wasn't really meant to be an analysis, just a list of dates when we brought people in. You're right though.

Last time we were preparing for the Championship it went: 1st July: Manning (Perm) 6th July: Lumley (Perm) 12th July: Charles (Perm) Unspecified date in July/ August: Stewart (Perm) 21st August: Downes (Loan) 25th August: THB (Loan) 25th August: Fraser (Loan) 25th August: Holgate (Loan) So we got a few cheap perms in early and then the two 'big' signings, Downes and THB, both came towards the end of the window and were both loans, with Stewart somewhere between the two (and let's just forget about Holgate shall we). Different management and recruitment team now of course, but from what we've seen so far, we may definitely be following a similar pattern. Let's hope so.