malcolm waldron

Fairly sure that Brooksy's yet to make an appearance at the Club World Championship and so by my reckoning he'll be free to come straight into the first XI for the first game of the season when he signs. I'm told a deal is very close - with Bazunu, Manning and Smallbone making the short trip along the M27. The only sticking point is how much we pay B'mouth to accept them.

I can remember vividly the key moments throughout England's route to the semi-final in 1990 - McMahon's error against RoI, Gazza's trickery against Holland (as I'm sure they were still known as then), Mark Wright with a plaster on his eyebrow nodding the winner against Egypt in a dreadful match - followed by the excitement and agony of the knock-out stages. Yet ask me who we played in 2018 and 2022 and I'll need to google it.

I forget about this phase of the summer every year. I come on here to get some good news (I hope) about transfer deals and possible deals, only to find it's been taken over by people trying to prove points about being right 12 months ago.....

Surely there's zero chance of Bazunu playing in that half of Glasgow - or have things changed now?

I suspect it will be mid-September for the away and 3rd kits, with the home shirt set to finally be available in December due to 'problems with our supply chain partners....'

Agree with most of this - and there were enough signals very early on (Norwich/QPR at home and Plymouth away for some reason are lodged in my mind) to see that we avoided losing/drawing games when good chances were given away by passing out from the back / having a suicidally high line, which were missed due to poor Championship level finishing. That, and a whole load of drawn games in that autumn period of the 25 game run where we seemed so ponderous going forward.

I'm just thinking that with all the news building up to the announcement yesterday - and random French journalists saying he's the best young coach in Europe - have we got the wrong Still? Lets face it, if he's that good he'll be off to Leeds, Burnley or Sunderland by mid November, and if he isnt very good he'll be sacked by the end of October. So should we have cut out the middle man and gone straight for one of his brothers? I'm not fussed which one - either the one with aspirations, or the video analyst one? I hadn't heard of either of them before last Wednesday but I'm willing (no pun meant there) to trust Dragan, the Spors geezer and of course Mr if it aint broke break it man.

I've seen this reference before somewhere I think - and couldn't believe it at the time and I'm struggling to believe it now. Who did we lose that summer? Adams, Stuart Armstrong, Charlie A, Sekou Mara? Probably some more (I'm too lazy to check) - but if you can't set out to replace that lot with something stronger then why bother. Which is, in effect, what we did.....

Would the fanbase accept Rooney as a left of centre option? I know I would. He'll have learned so much from relegating three clubs so far in his short managerial career, and so I'm confident he would meet the SR ambition of getting us out of the Championship at the first attempt.

I blame him for much of our current woes - but then realise it's not his fault someone gave him a job he was unqualified for thus setting him (and us) up for failure. So a part of me feels pleased he's got his redemption. Someone much wiser than me on here said back in those dark days of early 2023 that he'd be the sort of manager we'd need when/if we're stuck in Championship midtable mediocrity - not fighting a PL relegation battle at that time. We'll always have the post-Brentford meltdown interview and for that I'll always be grateful.....

What an annoying word - unless of course you're american then - if so - fair enough.

Now there's a name I haven't thought about for roughly 25 years. Saw him play for the reserves/U-21s (??) against Bashley one warm August night back in the late 90s. Thought we'd got a special one then. Mind you I thought Kevin Gibbens would have a long successful career. I was right on that one of course - only it was with Sholing........

Just came on here to comment on the boy Wellington and you've beaten me to it. Thought he looked very good yesterday, disciplined, switched on, has good ball control, looks to get forward and if he'll be here next season then he looks a real asset.

What a player.....

Have you not watched the league games he's overseen so far this season....?!