Midfield_General

And hopefully that's what he will do. He's adapted before when he could see he needed to, and while he's trying stuff in pre-season (which is exactly the time to do it), I think he'll do it again if we don't have the players to do it his ideal way in time for Newcastle. He's never going to throw his principles in the bin, but he's shown he can be pragmatic in terms of formation and personnel when he needs to. He's not stupid, and he's not as utterly inflexible as some suggest. The play-offs showed that. He identified that we needed to play a certain way to get the results, and that's what he/we did.

Another interesting post-match snippet: Interviewer suggested that last night’s result was the first ‘hiccup’ of pre-season. Russ gives a wry little chuckle and says ‘oh there have been plenty of hiccups, you just don’t see them’. Would love to know what that was in reference to. Wonder what’s gone on that we don’t know about?

Getting worrying now. I really hope he’s just saying what he needs to say in public in order to not throw McCarthy under the bus, while in the background telling SR we badly need a keeper upgrade. Because if he really thinks Macca just ‘needs games’ to get to the required level, then yeah, we are bang in trouble.

Russ not happy in his post-match comments. Paraphrasing but said they lacked intensity and that it ‘felt’ like a friendly which he didn’t like. Said no excuse for it and they shouldn’t expect that to be acceptable. Said they played without joy or personality, especially in the first half, which he was surprised about as they try to make sure they enjoy training etc, and want to see that enjoyment translate to the pitch when they play. Called out Sam Amo as the only one who really played with joy or expressed himself, and questioned why it should be down to the 18 year old to set the example. Said BBD will get some minutes on Saturday. Overall sounded quite irritated and disappointed, especially with the first half team. Clearly pissed off that they didn’t appear to be putting in maximum effort.

Still pretty good value for £8m no?

I for one am sure that 'modest Charlie' will be a great lad to have around a non-league dressing room, and absolutely won't act like a complete knob giving it the big one and decimating any team spirit they may have

New 'Chilean' forum comedy character incoming in 3, 2, 1... Amor y luz

No, but if it doesn't work out at St Mary's he's got a strong fallback career option as a Tommy Fleetwood tribute act

7m is buttons at PL level now so on paper he looks a very shrewd signing. Welcome BBD

Or until we actually see them play in the PL. Let's not forget how brilliant lots of people thought our transfers had been before we went down with a whimper.

I'm sure someone can enlighten me, but how is this sort of thing not considered bent? One club buying players and then immediately loaning them to the same team who otherwise wouldn't have the means to acquire them - isn't that seen as trying to circumnavigate FFP or whatever? Is there a limit to the number of times we're allowed to do it?

That's really interesting about Jones. Obviously his football was awful, so whatever good he was doing behind the scenes wasn't translating to PL-level results. I do wonder though how much longer he would have lasted if he could have just kept his mouth shut and given bland, media-trained interviews like everyone else, rather than blurting out the mad stuff he came out with which quickly lost him any remaining respect and turned him into a joke figure with the fans and the media. That's illuminating, given how much speculation there was at the time over the 'injuries'. Pretty sure that was what that non-league manager - Paul Doswell? - was driving at when he gave the Solent interview that Jones then went barrelling into afterwards to defend himself. Also explains why there appears to have been absolutely no attempt to reintegrate the other one, who presumably is the one still at the club but just back from loan, back into the squad. Just get rid and move on from that toxic chapter. Thanks for sharing the insights.

Well, that’s the complex, nuanced and long-running national debate on identity and gender conformity finally settled. I’ll let everyone know. Thanks SaintsLoyal.

They could do with watching everything in that video.

Forest casually unveiling Keylor Navas was also a fairly spectacular loan signing. It shows it can be done.

Behave yourself. How many chances have Mara and Sulemana had. And it's not because they're 'not the finished product', it's because they contribute absolutely fuck all, ever.

I think he could offer something too, especially off the bench. Big lumps can always have an impact, even in the PL, even if its just to change the complexion of a match and cause a bit of chaos and either get a head to something, hold it up to bring other players in or just attract worried defenders to create more space for others. I've got no problem with it if you're a goal down with fifteen minutes to go and have nothing to lose. Look at Koeman too, regularly bringing on Weghorst in the Euros when he needed to shake things up. There's still a place for it. But Martin's such a purist that I just can't see him ever lumping it up to the big man, in any circumstances. If I was in charge though, needed a goal and my bench options were Onuachu or Mara? There's not even a discussion to be had. Get warmed up big lad.

Onuachu has scored 74 goals in 179 games in Denmark, 85 in 134 in Belgium and last year scored 17 in 25 in Turkey. He's old-fashioned, doesn't fit our style and will never be a Martin player but comparing him to Mara is like comparing Zlatan to Antony Pulis.

Yeah Carillo was absolutely awful but you could see he was trying. I'd rather have ten of him than that fucking prancing gimp with his stupid fucking hair.

I think Sulemana has been a huge disappointment as well, but at least he occasionally looks like he wants to get involved, even if he's not very good. The same argument could be levelled at him with his penalty though - christ man, you've been handed on a plate a chance to actually score for once, maybe try and take it? Mara has got that toxic combination of having the 'I'm so good I don't need to try' attitude of the second coming of Mesut Ozil, whilst being absolutely laughably shit at football. Why he's even around the first team squad makes no sense to me at all. I guarantee that if we put him out on loan to a lower league side he'd be shit there too and would just vanish from trace like so many others have. I'd rather have someone who actually cares playing out of position as a false nine than ever see him play for us again. God he makes me angry 🤣

What Mara is meant to bring to a professional football team, let alone a Premier League side, I will literally never know. He's been given way too many chances for his ability, and every time he is given yet another chance he just jogs around like he doesn't realise there's a football match going on that he's meant to be contributing to. Even when someone else wins a penalty and one of the proper players lets him take it, presumably out of sympathy because they feel sorry for him, he can't even be fucked to take a proper run-up, or think about placing it or striking it properly. Nah, I'll just walk up to it and casually side-foot it to the keeper then just turn around like I don't give a fuck. It's like he's got a bet on to see how shit he can get away with being. I regularly watch Wingate and Finchley in the Isthmian Premier and I see players at that level week in and week out that would bring way more to the team than he ever has, just because they look like they might actually care about trying to help the team. I can handle players being crap but I can't forgive players who don't try. What's wrong with him? And what's wrong with us that we keep giving him chances? I just don't get it.

What a fucking shit penalty who does he think he is? Him and Sully, absolute jokers

Not even close. According to Wikipedia: "Mr Potter is the station master of The Shoe Town Railway Station." "Marshall is a cowboy who loves country and western music, loves Wild West films and does safekeeping around Shoe Town." "On the corner of Shoe Street lives Charlie, a clown."

The reviews of Welington weren't much better. They both sound absolute dogshit by anyone's standards, including Goztepe's. This all smells very off. What's going on here?

STOP THE STEAL