egg

Madonna

+ The need to create space to actually play new signings (Manning, Charles). We can't play them plus Tino, KWP, JWP, Lavia. Something has to give.

I think the issue with JWP will be the possibility that only west ham are in the race. If they're bidding against themselves, the bid won't be high and probably below what we want. If, for example, Lavia has his heart set on Liverpool and they only bid £35m which is below what we want, what do the club do? Keep hold of JWP, Lavia and out other midfielders, or take the best bid on the table for at the least one of them?

Ok. What if a good offer also doesn't materialise for Lavia? We then have Lavia, JWP, Charles, the others, a bloated squad, massive wage bill, and no big cash coming in to balance the books. As fans we'd like to keep the big boys. In reality, that can't and won't happen. Some players will undoubtedly end up being sold for the best price we can get.

I've questioned since the season end who'd want him and play him regularly. If it's not west ham, I really can't see where he'd go. Fulham perhaps, but would he really offer more than Harrison Reed apart from the free kicks? Where else?

That 3rd kit is decent in my opinion. I like all of them in fact, but think the away one would have looked better if the trim was in a proper blue or green, not the pastel half way house.

Sad news is this. Great player, and a lovely bloke by all accounts. I've always followed Wednesday's fortunes as they are my dada team and he gave their fans a couple of great seasons before they let him go. He also pissed off Simon Jordan which makes him a great man in my view. RIP.

You either have gravitas or you don't. She does.

I'm not sure that one was a leak...feels like the work of a deluded / entitled / stupid / typical scouser.

Exactly, bur Whitey will pop up in a moment to tell you how ridiculous your excellent point sounded to him.

So is your point that Baz was good enough, or that we should have signed an upgrade in January? You surely can't be arguing both?!

It's fair to say that you watched a different game to 99% of the fans Whitey. Other people saw a keeper out of his depth who cost us goals and points.

Serious question - did you watch us last season? If so, you'd have seen lots of goals that were his fault. That led to points lost. It's not complicated.

You're fighting a losing battle trying to make Whitey see reason on this issue mate. It's staggering that anyone can try to argue that Baz cost us heavily last season, has made errors pre season, and isn't the keeper we need this season.

It really doesn't if you actually think about it and understand it Whitey. There's a thing called confidence, and shit keepers like Baz drain it from their team mates.

Absolutely. He's plainly a talented lad and properly managed he could go on to have a great career. It was a sink or scenario and the poor lad sank. We must upgrade this season for our sake and his.

Yep, and Chelsea's 3rd keeper, Bettinelli would have improved us considerably.

Put yourself in the position of che or any other outfield player last season knowing that whatever they did, Baz would likely mess up at the other end. It was evident last season that the defence had little confidence in Baz, and that will have spread across the pitch. The impact of a poor goalkeeper who costs goals and points is a hell of a lot more than just the goals conceded.

We wouldn't have been so far behind if we had a better keeper, and the players would have had something to actually play for. Who knows how things would have ended, but we'd have been in with a fighting chance of staying up if we had a goalkeeper capable of keeping goal.

The advantage I can see is the 8's having the licence to either get forward and/or pull wide to allow the wider men to get in the box. It allows fluidity for sure, and if we have one FB tucked in, then the other can stil get high up the pitch. Regardless, I'm looking to a season that won't be delivering the same crap as we've put up with for a long time.

Fresh

That's a pointless stat - gow we performed under last season's managers in the PL is completely different to how we could perform in the championship under someone who hopefully knows what he's doing.

If the FB's get high up the pitch and can make a difference, then great. If they're mostly drifting in field and sitting it'll only benefit us if it frees up midfielders to join the attack if those midfielders can offer more as an attacking force than they can. It's interesting for sure, and my only concern is losing the attacking threat that attacking FB's bring.

Someone told is half an hour that they were skint though! Good signing. They're signing some good ones. That Doyle kid from city looks very good - a city youngster who's actually played lots of men's football.

Nope. Full backs who offer an attacking threat when overlapping completely lose their attacking threat when they drift Infield 20 metres and sit in front of the CB's and try to become playmakers. It's a tactic I don't get.