hypochondriac

I had an itk contact last year because they worked at the club which is why I got the scoop on the kit. Don't talk to him much anymore though so no hot takes I'm afraid.

I highly doubt that 6 million was our limit. Let's not rewrite history and pretend that Lyanco was literally our only option. No one on the forum knew who he was a couple of weeks ago.

It's not what we do? So peraud was someone we promoted from within? Kwp? Armstrong?

Absolutely laughable that you'd consider an upgrade on Stephens as completely unrealistic for the team who had the second worst defence in the league last year. Its not unrealistic and wouldn't be difficult to get an upgrade in Stephens. We've clearly made a choice.

I didn't say vestergaard was particularly good, simply that he is demonstrably better than Stephens which he clearly is to anyone with eyes and a working brain. Anyone can nit pick about an attribute where Stephens may be better but he's clearly an inferior centre back based on performances alone. If it true that we have brought in Lyanco as a backup option to the first team in order to learn his trade then that's a real folly that we may come to regret come the end of the season. Its vital that our central defence was improved significantly on the dire performance from last year and even if Salisu has improved, overall there's no evidence so far that it's better. We could look back on this with real regret.

Exactly. Signing some youngsters and good prospects with a lot of potential or rough diamonds is a great strategy and one I fully support but it has to be supplemented with quality starters to allow these signings the time and opportunity to develop. No one is going to convince me that Stephens as a starting centre back most weeks is going to lead to a solid and steady defence. My evidence for this is enhanced by the fact we have already conceded six goals in three league games despite some promising performances.

Is vestergaard stronger than Stephens? If the answer is yes which it obviously is then I'm not sure how you can argue we aren't weaker given the public statements about Lyanco.

Absolutely. Getting in a prospect that needs polishing to maybe replace one of the CB options in time is perfectly fine if you've got a decebt first choice defensive pairing. We don't have that and let's not forget our defence was absolutely appaling last season and we've already conceded six in our first three games.

No I expected us to get in someone to play alongside Salisu obviously.

Wasn't there a transfer window recently where everyone said no I comings and then the club bought someone in anyway after that?

That sounds like exactly what we need. Seems unlikely though.

We needed to sign a CB that would improve us, not a backup to Stephens. Stephens is not an improvement on Vestergaard therefore our central defensive positions are overall weaker than last year. The signing of Lyanco is of pivotal importance to our season and assuming we don't sign anyone for defensive midfield it's probably our most vital area of the pitch that may be the difference between survival and relegation.

No links then...

That's really stupid if true. Stephens first choice all season is not the answer.

Personally I found it interesting that the only person who has publicly announced themselves as gay on this thread actually thought the whole rainbow shirt thing was incredibly cringe. I'm also interested to know how you can ascertain someone's skin colour by what they post on a forum. That seems pretty racist to me.

Surely if you oppose something woke then it would make sense to question the motives of a supposedly woke campaign?

Odd comment. Surely it's fun for fans to get an unexpected signing on deadline day although that shouldn't be the motivation for the club to do a deal?

That's a bit harsh. He can't really help having a succession of injuries. You're right though, he should jump at the chance of Wigan.

Isn't there a LGBT month? Any reason the march isn't planned for that period? Seems a bit inefficient otherwise.

I haven't seen many people expressing surprise, more frustration. I think most people hold out hope for a change of heart, particularly if the poor performances continue.

Continuing to play crap performing players week in week out regardless of performance is incredibly bizarre. Announcing Mccarthy as first choice based in the fact that he was happy to sign a new contract and be second choice no doubt next year is just weird.

I wouldn't call that team selection very strange. I personally wouldn't play Stephens but he played well last week so probably deserves to keep his place. Other tha are that Theo replaced and trying to fit in kwp and Livramento to the same team (something a few people wanted) and I think it's a pretty good team selection considering Armstrong is injured.

Because he's crap.

I think that had we got in some experience at the back to marshall the defence that many of the concerns would disappear. If Lyanco isn't the answer then I'm very concerned that we are even weaker in central defence than we were last year and we were already very poor there last season. I think to a large degree the success or otherwise of our season will hinge on the success of Lyanco and how adaptable Ralph is. The latter showed some good signs last week and the former is yet to be seen.

We can add David Baddiel (not that he's an expert) to a growing list of people who agree with the Washington Posts analysis above judging by his twitter feed.