egg

Entitled to respect, yes, but it's a tournament that doesn't respect domestic leagues or the clubs that employ a huge number of the players in the tournament.

That'd be us going backwards. We've paid more than that for loads of players and if we want to progress, we've gotta aiming higher than that. Anyway, £15m bought us Adam Armstrong and if that's the benchmark at that price point, we've got problems if £15m is our cap.

Knot

Nope. It's obvious to anyone that this kid is going to be very special. Sure, £40m is mega bucks, but ask yourself whether a desperate Saudi backed Newcastle paying double what we paid for Carillo a few years ago is really that outrageous.

Only if the deal has a recall clause, or we agree to cancel if there isn't. If there's no recall clause, all sorts of deals could be done to encourage us to cancel...other loans, a transfer with subsidised wages, a deal on the Tino buy back, Betinelli on a free, anything really.

So about what we paid Guido Carillo and Vestergaard. Seems like a bargain in comparison.

A loan to a bottom end league 2 side makes you wander. Eastleigh Town wouldn't have been a much lower standard. That said, it'll be regular men's football which will do him no harm.

Yep. Disrupting major leagues in the middle of the season for that nonsense is ridiculous. Play it by all means, but off season.

It could be that, but there may be restrictions re unsettling him or seeking to buy him. One interpretation is that we've pissed Chelsea off, have smoothed it and will now shut up as we don't want to bite the hand that feeds us.

Caddy

Nice show of intent, but I'd be staggered if we get him for that. I think we've also gotta be careful about keeping our relationship with Chelsea sweet. They're a conveyer belt of talent for potential loans and talent and we've got to keep an eye on the bigger picture.

Chimp

Yep. He had a shocking period, and it was a tad odd to read people argue that he had not made mistakes that he admitted making. The corner appears to have been turned though.

It's all about opinions mate. Some people think Ralph has become more flexible, but some people can't. That's opinion, and we all see it differently. I mean some people think Adam Armstrong is better than Broja. It's the opinion of people like that, on managers and players, I struggle to respect.

New

Lol at daft posts like this that don't understand the issue that people like me had. Ralph was shocking for the best part of a year. He was stubborn, inflexible, and made bizarre decisions. Results matched that and he got the grief he deserved. I stand by my criticism of him and people supporting what was plainly a failing manager. Ralph has changed, and as a consequence my view of him has changed. It shouldn't be a hard concept to grasp.

Yep. There's still weird decisions - Liverpool away was mental - but games where he gets it right. Like you say, let's hope the good bits continues.

As someone who said he should have gone last season or in the summer I'm glad he stayed. I'm not sure what's happened, but there's been a change. Gone is the same system regardless of the opponents or it not working, gone is keeping the ball for the sake of it, gone is killing our players with relentless pressing and then being exposed for a seeing to. This season we've seen a mixture of systems, styles, good counter attacking, and a lot more steel to the players with a bit more edge to us. Fair play to Ralph this season.

Minister

I think we'll ultimately be undone by Pep 's tactics. There team looks very fluid and whatever we do, they'll adapt to it, tweak what they do and dominate. Close first half I reckon, then the game will go. Hope I'm wrong.

Tunnel

Pitch

Buying players ain't like buying something off amazon mate, these things take time. Anyways, we're not desperate, if we can't get the right player at the right price, we're good til the summer. Chill chas.

I'm not sure it'll even take a big hitter to undermine him publicly to make him go. It'll only take a few behind closed doors I reckon. The Rishi interview for ITV yesterday was interesting - he ignored the question of whether he supported the PM and walked away. Its only a matter of time I think.

That was a very young team too, especially the defence. Tremendous result.