derry

Ake has played quite a bit in midfield at Watford, CB at Bournemouth and Left sided CB3 at Chelsea. He would be a very solid partner for Romeu. We should try and sign him anyway.

Club should tell VVD he will not be sold to another Premier club. Do him a favour. Either he plays here for us or loaned abroad for a big fee.

Hojbjerg played against Bournemouth, WBA and Middlesbrough and was dropped next game, Rodriguez scored against Middlesbrough and was dropped next game. After his display against Bournemouth Rodriguez deserved better than to be judged against Spurs in the 1-4 hammering and deserved a run. Not as if we were getting loads of goals. Puel was a poor manager and deserved the sack.

Rodriguez scored 2 and assisted the other, Clasie scored the only goal. Rodriguez played against Spurs and was dropped, Clasie was left out altogether.

The above is my answer, the club obviously agreed or they wouldn't have wanted him to change the way the team played and his refusal sealed his fate. It is not up to any manager how the team plays, it is up to the club to lay down their requirements and the manager delivers them. Puel was dogmatic and his way of playing didn't suit the players and barely achieved enough points. It was his second choice players that hauled our nuts out of the fire with victories that resulted in them being dropped. Eg Rodriguez v Bournemouth, Clasie v WBA.

I wonder will there now be a surge in season ticket sales, as those who didn't renew unless Puel was sacked, buy their seat. My mate renewed his this morning. I did mine before the deadline as I was convinced he was a goner.

He wasn't taken on because he was a nice person. As a football manager he unsuccessfully, fundamentally changed the way the team played, unsettled some players and made the team worse than the sum of the parts. His job was to do the opposite. I will remember the EFL Cup SF and Final as highlights but the other cup games were dross, the Euro campaign was a failure, the home league performances were dire and a total of 46 points was abysmal barely above the safety line of 40 points. Some players performed well in matches, won us games and were dropped for the favourites who then usually failed to perform, get a result or even score. I won't miss Claude Puel at all as our manager. It is up to the club to learn the lessons from and get in a manager in that provides the football style that suits the players we have and gets back to the team performance exceeding the sum of the parts again. Adkins, Poch and Koeman all to a lesser or greater degree provided this, Puel did not.

LLS still posts on here now and again.

And while we are at it get rid of that bloody dirge on match days.

Puel is now in the same situation as Koeman was last year, with the club not prepared to allow the manager to run his contract down and become a lame duck. They can hardly keep Puel as it would be a lame duck disaster waiting to happen.

One of the cabin staff I knew did it twice to different footballers. They must have been desperate as she wasn't even that attractive but an absolute tart.

Has over four years left. Going nowhere unless club agrees.

Les possibly confronted Virgil and got his evidence. Very difficult to cover up flight histories, passenger names because of security, a trail that would be very easy to follow. I suspect the apology is an attempt at damage control after the panic reaction of being caught whilst having already been banned for tapping kids for the academy. I doubt Saints asked for an apology as they are looking to make a point. Lambert admitted regular contact with Gerrard before he Lallana and Lovren left leaving a nasty taste. Then Clyne and Mane. I know we got good money but it was the way it was done at the time. VVD has over five years left on his contract and Bertrand over four years giving the club the decision. Liverpool may well now get charged. It's time they got their comeuppance. A few more need a lesson. The Sky money to everybody is a game changer.

As far as I am concerned the player can earn millions more by moving to one of the big clubs, those that pay the players much more than the others. This year the big clubs have received circa £150m in TV and prize money. Our job is to take as much of that as possible by setting up the fiercest auction that we can set up with the problem for the buying clubs that enough is going to be a hell of a lot or he's going nowhere. We are reported to be interested in Ake from Chelsea and Sakho from Liverpool but I would hope at realistic prices. Taking players in part exchange rarely works out and usually mean a deflated transfer fee for an overvalued make weight. I think a cash deal is the best deal then we buy whoever we want at a competitive price. In my opinion VVD is potentially the best centre back in Europe and would be better going to either Real Madrid or Barcelona rather than the second rate English clubs. That's really where we should be targeting getting them into any auction or waiting until they are.

Long and Rodriguez were grossly underused but between them came up with some decent performances and when they played together at Middlesbrough scored a quality goal from a forward pass from Clasie. I would have been interested to see them play with Gabbiadini. I also think that Hojbjerg and Clasie were underused considering the negative dross played by the other five. Passing the ball forward or making runs forward into the box isn't hoofball but Rodriguez, Long or Gabbiadini playing as an isolated forward in front of the crablike players behind them did the team or them no favours. Gabbiadini thrived on his arrival because of the surprise factor but what became more obvious as the season came to an end was that Puel had been worked out and teams easily neutralised us. If he stays, next season will be a trial unless he completely changes the way we play together with some of the personnel that are too slow and unimaginative.

The lack of goals is because we played three forwards behind one striker who rarely scored goals, made runs, or bust a gut to get into the box. Max one from Redmond, Davis, JWP, Tadic and Boufal not three of them or even four at any one time. It should have been three proper forwards in front of the holding midfielders not three more midfielders. Managers choice!

One in particular lives close and uses it also another disillusioned lives close..

I wonder does the source use the Rockingham Arms?

If people want to criticise Forster at Wembley, Davis had a part in all three MU goals, Davis bent his knees whilst the others in the wall jumped, the ball went over Davis, MU left side, Davis let Lindgard go and left him unmarked free to score, then Davis again on the left side of our penalty area stood with both hands behind his back, made no attempt to close down Herrera and gave him the room to cross to Ibrahimovic for the third goal. Against WBA without Gabbiadini, Romeu and Davis, Hojbjerg, Long and Clasie who scored, did well, resulting in three points, next game Davis and Gabbiadini in, Clasie and Long out lose 3-0 to Man City. Middlesbrough, in come Hojbjerg, Clasie, Long and Rodriguez, great move by the last three results in the vital first goal and three more points, next game back in the usual Puel team at home, no goals and lose to Stoke. Take away those two wins, six points provided by players Puel wouldn't play whilst his 'best' team grubbed around and probably wouldn't have won either of those games. That would have left us with a very poor 40 points and 16th place. Puel is not a good manager.

A lot of people left early in that game and the League cup and FA cup games. The Hull game was exceptionally poor and got a fierce reaction.

I went to the EFL Final and a great day out it was. the 8th position with a poor 46 points has been well explained but the EFL Cup needs a comment. We entered late due to the Europa, beat a mixed Arsenal team, then repeated that at home against mixed CP and Sunderland teams whilst playing a mixed team ourselves. We were then in the semi finals and had two backs to the wall displays with two very good 1-0 wins. It wasn't until the semi finals that anyone took the cup seriously so with most sides playing weak sides the bulk of the rounds were throwaways. Getting to the semi finals was no great achievement, beating Liverpool was. We did however seem to have the Indian sign over Liverpool. These cups are no longer the ultra competitive competitions they used to be until the late rounds. Credit for the last three games but the early rounds were poor.

The team that Puel picks as a first team contains a decent enough defence plus Romeu and a striker then four from Davis, JWP, Tadic, Boufal and marginally Redmond who are occupying goal scoring positions but have no scoring instinct or record. Hence the abysmal scoring record. When we did score and win it was Rodriguez then dropped, Clasie dropped, Long dropped, plus Hojbjerg so the next game back to the same nonsense producing another sterile no goal performance. Stupidity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different result. He is not the wise old manager, he is a stubborn manager out of his depth producing underperforming teams by design and ignoring other options which could work eg WBA, and Middlesborough away when his first choices weren't available. The sooner we get rid of him the better and then steady the ship and bring all the players into the fold.

Today was the day to break the mould, We could have played without the ball recyclers and given the strikers a go. We lost, finished 8th playing ultra cautious crap. Puel still hasn't worked out that the three behind the one striker are supposed to be goal scoring forwards not ball recycling midfielders with no instinct when it comes to getting on the end of chances. The sooner he goes the better.

A successful football manager gets more out of the team than the sum of the parts. Taking the players and playing them in a formation that suits their abilities is the way to go. Picking a system and sticking square pegs in round holes is what we have ended up with. If he can't see that he is in trouble.

Better he goes, as he now says he likes the way we play and is going to continue that way next season, so good luck with that.