doddisalegend

Really? That is bad news. Surely we need to bring in another striker in Jan then? We can't relay on Long and JWP to get us enough goals to stay up.

No I think Les and co have studied Leicester's win of the title and how they achieved it. The plan all along is to survive relegation by the skin of our teeth, change manager in the summer and fire ourselves to PL glory on the back of Shane Long's record breaking goal scoring tally next season....

When is Austin due back from his injury/ suspension? We are going to need his goals if we have any hope of staying up. Not that Austin returning can save us from a spanking by spurs.

What's really annoying looking at the stats is Austin has a much better minutes played to goals scored record in the PL than Walcott (not criticising Walcott). If Austin could actually stay fit (and managers actually played him) all season we probably wouldn't be where we are right now.

Is it that sudden or striking? The warning signs were there last season for all to see.

Shocking if that was the case all the issues this squad has and the club thought they could fix it by signing Walcott? Bizarre.

It isn't much fun this season, no arguments, but in the bigger scheme of English football we aren't that badly off we could be Coventry, Blackpool or Sunderland teams that must be a real chore to support.

ok I have to go "s****** s******" at that ....

oh will sign someone, for a bit of PR, I'm sure. Who ever it is he'll probably be cheap, young with potential and only the most ardent FIFA 18 players will know who the **** he is...

Why? how would he do a better job than the current lot? The current owners won't be giving him the free reign to spend cash like he had last time will they?

All three off our strikers have had opportunities over this season and last only one keeps coming up with the goods and that is Austin shame he can't ever stay fit.

Neither of which are anything like Lambert or Pelle for a start neither of them can hold a ball up well with their back to goal to give our midfield time to get forward in attack. Lambert in particular and Pelle both help to create for other players.

I think it's more concerning that they identified him as a key target (if they really did) when to my mind a proper CF like Lambert or Pelle is what we are missing.

I really am not bothered about Walcott I get a feeling a lot of people only wanted him because he is a ex player.

Record signing is a bit of a red herring isn't it? Player transfer inflation means a lot of clubs are breaking their signing fee record on a regular basis not necessarily bringing in players who are much higher quality than the current squad either but are just costing more. Trying to pin the blame on one particular individual is pretty pointless as Welk. We are where we are for several reasons that are all combining into one big cluster ****.

This season trying to pick player of the season is like trying to pick which STD you like to have. You don't want to pick any of them in the end you pick the least bad one.. Austin

Don't think so seems MoPe feels they are all DMs but I reckon Hoj or Lemina could play a more advance role like Davis does.

Could we get Lemina, Hoj and Romeu starting for this one? I like Davis but it does feel like age is catching up with him so could we not play Hoj or Lemina in behind the striker with some combination of Tadic/Boufal/Gabbi/ Sims out wide?

So realistically who would we have from the current squad/ youth in the championship that wouldn't jump ship? Forwards Sam G Olufela Olomola Long (possibly) Attacking midfield Davis Hesketh McQueen Sims DM Reed CB Stephens Yoshida Bednarek Full backs Targett Goal keepers Forster McCarthy I think most of the rest would think they are to good for the championship despite getting us there and try and force a move elsewhere. Obviously not all of the current squad will get a move but either way serious reinforcements would be needed to the current squad especially at Full back and DM (cause lets face it Romeu, Lemina, Hoj, Cedric and Bertrand will be unlikely to still be here in the event of relegation).

Most of this current squad will do a runner if we get relegated but we have some promising youth and if we buy the right players ( start with the championships top scorer this season) we could go straight back up.

They used to beat us when we had a decent squad..... this game, with this squad, is going to be a ****ing massacre.

I bet the players are planning for it to most of them are probably telling their agents to get a summer move sorted ....

Why are you horrified? Its looking a distinct possibility far worse if they didn't plan for it.

just found another angle

I was reading an article on Sam at Everton they are actually scoring less goals now than they did under Koeman or the caretaker but are conceding less for all our talk about lack of goal scoring and boring defensive football, good teams start with a good defence, ours has been pretty good for a few seasons, until now, but this season it has gone to **** and it is killing us.