Saint Matty 76

Typical Shane Long action really, would've been a harsh pen.

Well that's super depressing. Can't help but think this may accelerate Ralph's doubts too.

His personal circumstances aren't remotely comparable from where he joined to where he'd be supposedly leaving. He has every right, as the clear best player in our team, to seek assurances that he wouldn't be wasting his prime years here, when he'd clearly have the interest to go elsewhere. It's a nice idea to think he'd like to stay here after we gave him the opportunity, but if he's getting the impression from the club that we're not looking to invest and will sell other players, at 28 why would he stay? Lallana's stick was driven from the comments he made and the way he left, that's well documented. If Ings were to do the same, then I'm sure the reaction would be the same.

It's a bit of a mess how public this one is. Dan's latest tweet, combined with another from earlier stating that "he wants to stay", makes me think it's all down to the club not providing Ings with the necessary assurances about our ambition. If that is the case, no blame to Danny whatsoever.

I'm almost certain its the assurances, just like you've mentioned. It seems he'd be happy to become our highest paid player (£90k-£100k p/w) but what is the point if he isn't given assurances based on the clubs future? This also ties in with Dan's comments so I can't see what else it'd be.

It's so strange for us to be in such a good situation on the pitch, but to be so worried/nervous about us moving forwards. I know there's a big financial impact from the pandemic, but if we can't put the money together to give Ings a contract when RH has come out today himself and said he wants to stay... then we are fucked with this current ownership.

Been a bit of a tough time for Valery but maybe that's not a bad idea moving forwards. He can't defend but I think he's showed plenty of glimpses of being strong dribbling with the ball (Chelsea H?) so maybe we'll see a few more minutes of him at RW.

There's a huge difference between the two in what they bring to the team in an attacking sense, more so than a defensive one. We drastically missed Vestergaards passing through the lines yesterday, and we had absolutely zero threat from a decent amount of set pieces (apart from one headed chance which Stephens skewed way wide). I agree they're probably at a similar level defensively, but Vestergaard brings way more to the team than that now, and I think that's why we were largely struggling to create too many chances.

Awful first half. Better in the second with 2 slightly offside goals and what should've been a penalty. Going to need to be better with West Ham, but the front four can't play much worse.

Solid play from Diallo. The four attackers having a competition on who can play the worst though, not much on the bench to change this either sadly.

Another good performance, onto Fulham and West Ham now which are completely winnable. Shame about Danny but Walcott showed enough today to make me confident he can step up again.

Disappointed we didn't create a few more chances last 30, but the Redmond effort probably goes in on another day and we win the game. Another decent display and I'd hope he rests a few of the leggier ones against City with an eye on Fulham & West Ham.

Pretty embarrassing this, you wouldn't think we're sitting where we are.

Do we even need anything? Full-back cover would be nice but this will be the first window in a long while where I'll be happy enough with limited activity.

Romeu picked up a lot of loose balls, but my god he needs to stop getting caught in possession in the midfield. It must have happened 5-6 times today, with a few of them in the final 10.

Thought Che was unreal tonight. Touch and passing was brilliant.

Always believed that Redmond would develop but he's quite literally the same player we bought. Hopefully his time is limited moving forwards with Theo and Djenepo.

A fun 20 minutes.

The owner's son (followed by Forster, Kelvin, Jaidi etc...) has just posted this up on his Instagram.

He can cover at ST and RAM, it's a no brainer really. He's certainly fallen off a bit but as a stop-gap to next summer I'm pretty happy with it. If he's going to rejuvenate himself anywhere it's probably here.

I'm not going to lie and claim I've seen him play but he's extremely hyped by a lot of people who watch football over on Twitter. Would be very happy with him coming in alongside an offensive-minded loan such as RLC.

Playing Loftus-Cheek and Ward-Prowse as a CM partnership would be the stupidest thing of all time.

He seems to play into rumours a lot more than Carl did, although I'd assume he gets fed very similar information so wouldn't be surprised to see this as a go. Djenepo/Redmond on the left with Armstrong/RLC on the right, certainly enhances our options. My only thought is that I can't imagine Chelsea allowing this move without significant first team assurances, does he get that here if Redmond and Armstrong are both fit?

Same opinion as most here. If we’re bringing him in as competition for JWP/Stu as well as signing a proper DM, then it’s great. If he’s the only midfield signing we make, it’s an absolute shambles. I’d have expected the first few games to convince the board that we need a proper signing, not to take the cheap option and leave ourselves in trouble in what should have been a comfortable year.

Would happily get rid of Bednarek for Hinteregger, if we somehow manage to profit on the change as well I'd be delighted.