S-Clarke

And he's pretty much unplayable so far! 2 assists, Bournemouth 3-0 up and they've not even played 15 mins.

Absolutley, as a club we're not scared to throw young players in if they're good enough. Like you say - JWP starting at Man City, Shaw coming in at the back end of that season and then starting the next season etc. If they're good enough they'll play, if they're not good enough they won't. I think as a club we've got as good a record of giving young players a chance than any other.

Before the Liverpool televised game I think, load of nonsense. TV dictates football to much these days. I remember our run back in 2003 - the draw for each round was made on a Monday lunchtime, they used to allow us to stick the TV on in the college library to watch it. Those were the simpler days.

Don't forget Vestergaard as well, he came out of that VVD fortune.

If I remember right, when we pocketed that VVD money, the media circuits was in full frenzy linking us with lots of exciting names (at the time) We were going to re-sign Shaw, sign Sessegnon from Fulham, Promes, Theo etc. But we just ended up with Carillo late in the window. Easily our worst ever transfer window in my opinion, when you put into account what we'd sold VVD for weeks before - and the best we could come up with was Carrillo. Our last January effort was almost on-par, but like you say at least Onanchu came with some pedigree - I still don't think we ever really gave him much of a chance here, so I don't really know if he's any good or not.

Fulham even invited the KKK.

There was quite a prolific poster on here who hated him, ripped him apart after every game. Can't think of his name now.

Agreed, the scouting has not been up to scratch for many years. I don't think it's unfair to say that they're still firing blanks either. (things have got better, but there are still question marks for me) Mara, Onuachu, Sulemana, Larios, Stewart, DCC - that's £70 odd million worth of player there up the pisser over the last 18 months. Our most success this year has been via the players our manager and new DoF knew - Fraser, THB, Charles, Downes, Manning etc. Our best 'club' signing in recent years has to be Charly for me - I'd like to see more of those finds to show that we're finally moving away from our banter-scouting era. You can't always rely on the manager being the scout, the club scouts have to have to be finding some gems too.

One of my favourite players we've had in the PL era, part of the best PL side in my lifetime. A key part of that too.

I reckon Monaco have a picture of our £19m cheque in their boardroom, as one of their greatest ever achievements.

You can't just assume every link means that we're after them now. Clubs have plans afoot for the summer as well, dependant on what league we're in. If we fail this season then our midfield will look very threadbare when Downes and Rothwell return, and Armstrong's contract expires - so I'm sure the club are pretty focused on the CM area for the future, that doesn't mean we're getting them now.

Something has been a bit off with him all season to be honest, I thought maybe he was frustrated at seeing the likes of Bragg, SAA, Dibling etc get involvement before him - but then I've just noticed he's been injured, so I'm not sure how he can be miffed at a lack of game time. It's a strange move for him if it's playing time he wants, if we don't quite make it this year you'd see the likes of him, SAA, Dibling etc get much more first team involvement as we'd have to plan around young players. I'm not quite sure he's getting in Brighton's first team for many, many years. (unless they get relegated, which isn't beyond the realms of possible in the next few years)

Reading came from nowhere really, they got 44 points out of 54 from their last 18 games, that is incredible. Their GD went from +8 to +28 in that time as well. That shows how anything is possible, but you just feel Leicester have set too high a bar this year.

I think what we saw last season was the club split into two parts, both in conflict with each other. You had the Crocker/Semmens/Ralph part which were wedded to one way, then you had Rasmus, Henrik, Dragan who wanted to move in another direction. There were definite power struggles last year and it sadly filtered down onto the pitch, as the club were caught between two different directions. You can tell how keen Martin was with the RB project, he'd have never got rid of Ralph imo - that was on SR. Ditto Nathan Jones. But sadly it was fractured at the most important level, which is why you ended up getting the January window we did. The key difference this year is the CEO, Manager and DoF were all employed by the ownership group and are all aligned to the same approach. You can never get success with a club as fractured as we were.

10 min interview shown here -

When he's back, won't it be almost 2 years since he's played proper football? (I'm not counting a 10 min sub app). Not many players, if any, ever return the same after that long out. It's not like he was a word beater before his injury either. We've clearly lost the gamble on this one and failed with another striker signing!

Not sure why you're putting such a downer on what we're doing, talking like we're failing and belittling anyone who may be a tiny bit positive. What we're doing this season is really good - in any other season with what we're doing we're top 2 by a distance, probably top - no dramas. This is a freak season, we have done better than anyone could have imagined back in September but for us not to be sat Top 2 isn't a slight on us at all - we've fought as hard as we could have to get back into the picture. If you want to be picky and look at the 1-1's against Huddersfield and Rotherham then go for it, but every team is going to hit those sorts of results over a season. We just have to keep plugging a long with the same relentlessness. I'm sure there will be a dip, but we need to make sure it's the smallest dip. We're in a good place, I don't care that we're not Top 2 today, tomorrow or next week - doesn't matter. What matters is the momentum in this league and we have shed loads of it, and that momentum will ultimately land us where we want to.

No result was really a bad result tonight. Leicester didn't look great in that 2nd half, and their forums are a hoot right now. You'd think they were battling relegation, some of their fans going on about how they won't get promoted now - over emotional wallies. Points taken away from Ipswich and Leicester though, being 2nd today or tomorrow means fuck all - it's the long game.

I think the quality of the 3 relegated sides has created an unusual gulf season, the gap between us 3 and the playoff chasers is pretty illustrative of that. All 3 of us have been able to keep hold of players who are PL players, as we were all established PL sides with some hefty wages bills/expensive players. Ipswich are the anomaly in all of this, but in most leagues you often get 1 side who do something against the norm. On the other hand the PL for me is as low quality as it has been since I can remember. The three promoted sides look like dead-rubber, if you stuck Luton and Sheffield United in this league this year I don't think they'd be anywhere near us, Leeds and Leicester. I have seen people saying that the bottom 3's struggles in the PL this year shows how the gap is widening, it doesn't really for me - if you come up, sell your best players and don't spend any money then there is only ever going to be one outcome. I'd say Leeds, Leicester and ourselves would give the league much more of a crack. The quality for me is much lower than the media try to make out (Palace, Forest, Brentford, Everton, Bournemouth in and around it). Not much to be scared of up there if you are prepared to compete.

What, the same Sulemana who has also been part of this 21 game unbeaten run? Why must people always look to pick out someone to moan about.

I have no idea how that bloke has made a career out of punditry. A very limited footballer, but as a pundit he's got nothing about him. I have to mute it when he speaks.

Still weird seeing JWP celebrate goals for someone else. Sheffield United's lack of any quality coming to the fore today, they haven't played bad, they just have no ability up front. When you're relying on McBurnie then you know it's game over.

Surprised it took as long as it did, Preston did not deserve anything from that. Horrific side.

Absolutely, I keep looking at that game and it's giving me the shits even now. I really, really don't want anything on that game. If it was at home, maybe, but at Elland Rd needing to win or something would be enough to do me in.

I'm not sure how anyone could be harsh about any player off the back of that 1st half, every single one of our players were head and shoulders above the opposition. Not a single bad performance in that first half from anyone.