S-Clarke

Rickie seems increidly isolated, he's the sort of player that needs bodies all around him to pick up the scraps/flick on's. Tonight he won the ball and there wasn't anyone within 10 yards. Can't see any benefit of playing him in such an isolated role. If we are going to play him that way we need genuine pace on either flank to back him up, without that it's an ugly watch.

Both absolutely stunning strikes. Any GK would have done well to get near them.

Stick Lambert and Rodriguez up front together for a start. We're wasting £7m playing him in a position he clearly doesn't like. He scored 23 goals last year, so play him where he can get them. Simple.

We're missing a bit of pace in the final third to take us away from the oppo. It sounds simple, but that's pretty much it. Good build up, keep the ball nice enough and then we get to the final third where it stops. No penetration, no pace and it breaks down. If we had pace in behind we could be much more threatening, it's crucial we have that. What happened today will happen alot next season, we'll get games where we have a decent amount of the ball, but if we don't have the quality in and around the final third we will get picked off. I absolutely hate Jay Rodriguez on the left, a complete waste of his talents. Please sort that out NA.

They're both very poor championship players. If we signed either we'd be looking at relegation.

I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. I remember finding out at around 6 o'clock, thought it was a sick joke at first as it didn't sink in. Didn't know what to make of it, a complete jolt out of the blue. That was probably the most surreal and sad start to a season I can remember for a long time.

Or he could just play the ''we'll report you if you approach Phillips'' card to scare teams off...

The Baggies played that one quite well. They got him on loan last year when his demand was less as he didn't have an amazing season for Brum, in that loan they made it so it would become permanent next season for a reduced fee if all parties agreed. I believe it was actually less than £4m.

I'm struggling to see anyone else throwing abuse around, but you.

oh for christ sake apline, just STFU.

Yep, well we're apparently after Matt Phillips, that's a quality bit of activity...

He'll never answer a direct question anyway. Just paragraphs of weird comments, and aggressive remarks. Always avoiding the question.

That's why Holloway is going to try every trick in the book to block a transfer, as he knows that the kids head would be turned by anything we could offer.

No idea.

Nice bump. Shame he's not here to see where we've come, but it's all down to him. A legend. Just tragic that he couldn't see it all the way through.

Pre-season build-ups just wouldn't be the same without the insane ramblings of our favorite Switzerland based poster.

That's how I see it, seems very bitter. I remember his comments in the FA Cup game a few years back. If anything, I reckon this could have a reverse effect and force a transfer.

As I said on another thread, it's probably a complete non-event over dramatized by holloway who has a bee in his bonnet over most events. He just doesn't want to loose his best player, and he's going to do anything to stop that happening. At least, if anything, it shows our interest...!

Yep, that's a positive swing on it! To be honest, as much as Holloway moans, these sort of approaches happen all the time. Not direct tapping up as such, but the sounding out of a players representative(s) before a formal approach is made in order to discuss terms. There's no point in putting all the work into a bid if the player himself isn't going to be interested or his demands would be too high to consider, so you'd do a bit of investigating first. That's all I see this is, but Holloway just has a bee in his bonnet over most things.

Holloway is probably just over reacting, as he does to most things. It will blow over as a non-event I'd imagine.

It's a shame you don't post regularly anymore NickG. Always enjoyed reading your posts...especially on our winning runs!

Whats wrong with Hunter? Is it juts because we lost 1 game that this area is now not good enough? Hunter is an excellent coach who turned down an opportunity to assist England at U21 level. We're lucky to have him.

It's not a simple fact at all, it's made up rubbish by people who are panicking.

Michu cost more than Davis.

Clyne was around £2.5m, Gazzinga was around £1m potentially rising to £2m. Rodriguez broke our record transfer fee. I do agree with the lack of pace, completely, I've said that since day 1 - but I'm not panicking because I know the club are working on it, I know NA wants an attacking pacey player and that we'll have that sorted by the end of August. Obviously in an Ideal world you'd love it to be sorted sooner, but this is football and in the world of transfers it's never simple. The fact is that we got most of our business done nice and early, Rodriguez being one of NA's main targets and he made sure that was sorted well before pre-season which was smart.