S-Clarke

Interesting. Thought it was a £3m release fee? Not sure he'll move though. If he turned down Leicester then we haven't got a chance. (and he's already turned us down once..)

I think people are being harsh on De Ridder, he hasn't been given a real run in this team - and he always has a bit of spark and energy about him when he's on the pitch. I thought he was our best player over Christmas, when he played 2 games back to back... The team setup and ''feel'' didn't hep him a single bit today though, any half decent player would have struggled to look good.

I did feel that as well. Certainly didn't sound like he'd given up according to some people on here. I think it's typical Nigel, keeping his cards close to his chest and playing up the positives he can play up - i.e the players we have coming back. That doesn't mean we won't see more. let's wait and see.

Kingsland? There was a guy near me that blamed Guly for everything.

Nice post. You're right though, any team without their spine is going to be weaker - and when you have such poor replacements for them it's going to be even worse. In the first half of the season when we had everyone fit, the team tonight is pretty close to our reserve team. That's how stretched and depleted we are at the moment. So let's hope we get over these injuries quickly, get players back fit and get the spine back into this team. I still feel we need better backup though as the ones we have clearly aren't good enough.

Nice and honest from Jos - let's hope it's not just hollow words and we see a reaction to this.

The ''committee' which I think includes NC, Reed and one of our scouts. (NA Obviously has input too)

You make some good points trousers. The squad IMO has over achieved and we lived on the momentum generated from last year, especially at home. Now we've become unstuck at home we've started to slide, that's all that's kept us at the top. I'd be gutted to finish mid-table now though, it'll seem such a waste of a first half of the season and it's not the sort of feeling you want going into a new season. Because I think all the players would now see it as a failure if we didn't finish top 6. I just feel we need to grab the massive opportunity we have, because we may never ever get to 50pts at this tage again - which is why I'd love to see us add to the squad. They need help.

From the outside looking in, it does seem we waste alot of time on players that are never going to come here. Same happened in the summer with Rodriquez, and similar again this window with Hooper. It's great to read and to see the ambition, but and the end of the day if they never actually join it's just hollow words. You'd hope some research would have gone in beforehand to work out what Celtic would listen to offer wise.

To be honest I think they've worked their absolute arses off, this window and the summer window. The fact seems to be that we will not pay the prices clubs want. We're not after squad players/reserve players anymore, we're after teams established first team stars - so the selling club dictate the situation and put a price on the players head that is above what we value them, as we would do in our situation. Sometimes though you need to loosen the strings and just go the extra mile to get that 1 player that could make the whole difference, but based on the last 3 windows I don't think we've got the real 'clout' to do that and Cortese isn't the sort of guy to over spend. That's my take on it anyway, but I certainly don't think we've been sat around doing nothing.

This. Spot on. We struggle to play the way we want to play when he's in the side. Always has been the way. He's not a bad player, don't get me wrong, but he's not got the ability on the ball to be able to play out from the back with the assurance of someone like Fonte for e.g.

Yep the guy who told me is going to get a whack round the head for that bit of mis-info.

True. I agree with the general window, it's been dead for all clubs. WHU were hoping to go megabucks spending, and even announced on their OS that they bid for 3 players....they've not added anyone yet either. So it's a frustrating time for everyone. You'd say that they have a better squad though, we're in more need of fresh additions.

He loved it tonight. Sort of player who grows in those sort of atmospheres. And he's also exactly the type of striker we need. (not that I'm saying we should sign him)

Nice one. Will give the guy I spoke to a smack round the head for mis-informing me!

Surprised at the OP of this thread, in fact totally gobsmacked. I guess you've been waiting for this moment. He's not beyond criticism and he seems a bit stubborn in this frustrating narrow midfield formation, but you cannot really ignore what he's done for us since he came here. He's got a lot of leeway before we even get slightly on his back.

I don't think he's even training tbh

We have no game plan without Lambert and will always struggle against the better teams. We kept hitting it long today to Guly and Connolly which was half our bloody problem.

Let's not write it off till the 31st, but it does look like we'll struggle to get who we want now. I hoped we'd go for it, and from NA's comments after the Cov game it sounded like everyone at the club was going to go for it. Obviously they've been put off with the money clubs want for our targets.

He was incredibly light weight tonight. But he was one of our better midfielders. - that says alot I guess

It's not just the amount of injuries, it's the players that have got them. The spine of our team has been ripped out and we're relying on players like Holmes, Forte and Fox at CB to get us through games That is not good enough at this level and we will be shown up against half decent teams, as we saw tonight.

It's obvious we've hit some brick walls because we only pay what feel is right, which is fair enough I guess.

Most teams would!

He's injured, fact. Done his groin, doesn't sound good either from what I heard tonight - could be quite a while.

When you have to play Fox at CB it shows you need additional cover for sure.