S-Clarke

I think that's totally fair. As a fan base I think it's widely accepted that we're pretty accepting and we give people (players/staff) a fair crack of the whip before going full 'Everton' on them, but you're right - he's alienated himself from word go. I had a listen to the Dyche interview today and it's light and day. He's positive, with praise for the previous regime and he then explains the principles he wants to put in place - but it's done in a way that it's not defensive, it's not covering his arse and he's not trying to blame what went on before. The 'they' comments Jones made so often at the start were unnecessary and in my opinion almost immediately alienated him from the fanbase - he's created the toxicity, we haven't. Now, winning changes everything - if by hook and by crook he gets us winning games, then the opinion polls will almost certainly flip as with the fickle nature of football, but the chances of that seem incredibly slim. As every fan I want every player and every manager who is associated with us to be a success, I'd never wish ill on anyone - but he's making it incredibly hard to make anyone feel connected to him. Not withstanding 5 league defeats out of 6, which is horrific, his attitude towards the fans has made the entire situation worse.

I think they'll be harder to beat, they've got the foundations there with those sorts of players (Onanna/Guye/Tarkowski/Coady etc). But where are the goals? DCL is injured again apparently, then beyond him you've got Maupay, Gray and Ellis Simms. Townsend did his ACL last year.

wonder what happens with him now? Can he ever come back as a player given the crap that will come his way from fans? Doesn't sound as if he's been proven to not have done anything, there simply wasn't the evidence to really back it up.

Their forum is a right hoot at the moment, worse than this place after a defeat! If you look back at their transfer wishes before the window opened, they were suggesting Mydruk, Gallagher, Kudus at Ajax. Deluded. I guess the dugouts weren't the pull they thought they were.

I think that's probably in the mind of protecting him and sheltering him from the obvious crap that will almost certainly get thrown his way. Given how defensive and spikey he is, I can imagine him squaring up to a fan if they dare say he plays shit football! It's good to see another line of communication from this season though. The owners were conspicuous by their absence during the Summer one, so it's good that SR are part of this. A lack of communication has often been a criticism labelled at ownership groups, but they’ve started speaking a bit recently (as well as putting their money with their mouth is)

I keep seeing this Bazuna guy suggested, is he any good?

My concern with the academy is that they may not see a clear pathway anymore. When they see us ignoring our own academy and spending £££ on other clubs 18 and 19 year olds then I can imagine there is a bit of unrest to be honest. (Even more so when they see what we're paying their 18/19 year olds I guess)

That blows that rumour then, definitely said Ballard so maybe we're trying to renegotiate another deal with him or something? Could well be someone else. Didn't sound like he was making it up as he was well connected, so his lines may have been crossed.

Thanks for the insight, very interesting to hear. I've always thought Dibling had something more about him, glad we got him back. He seems to have a knack of scoring the identical goal from just outside the box after running from deep. There is a post from someone very closely connected to the youth setup on one of the Athletic articles and he suggested that Morgan asked for 'at least' 12k per week to sign a pro deal at Saints. Obviously Chelsea gave him what he wanted as they're idiots with money. Worryingly he suggested that Ballard is now also asking for the same (upwards of 12k p/w) and is so far not interested in signing pro.

I think he's the guy in the black t-shirt, he does look pretty much identical.

We could make almost all of that back by selling JWP, Salisu, KWP and Lavia if the worst happens. We are actually quite well positioned in that regard with a few players able to command decent fees, but obviously still a disaster if it happens as it will mean a lot of rebuilding and those good players no longer here. So ideally we don't want that, but I don't actually think it'll be as financially disastrous as it would have been under Gao.

Sadly those two weaknesses which remain are self inflicted weaknesses, we should have sorted out GK properly in the summer (not saying no to Bazunu, but he shouldn't have been our first choice keeper signing), and also keep Romeu around and if not - replace him with a like for like. As of today those are now the the two obvious issues with our first team, so we're better than we were this time last week, but GK in particular could be costly (Especially with the players Everton and Forest have in goal)

We'll keep Janny B, but they can certainly have Lyanco and I'd help cover any loan fee.

This is one of the 'ugly' benefits I'm hoping/expecting to see from this guy and Onuachu, and I'm sure it was heavily factored into the scouting when we take JWP's set pieces into consideration. Indirect assists. Lots of fouls in and around the box as defenders hack this guy down, and additionally foul Ounoucu as they can't get to him to win the ball by conventional means. Clubs have to play on situations that will give them a chance to showcase their biggest weapon, and as of today that's JWP.

If we class the Carillo experiment as a genuine bad nightmare and forget about it, we've actually tended to get decent results from strikers who are 'target' men types. Pelle, Lambo, Rasiak, Crouch, Beattie to an extent. Hopefully this guy can do the same for us. Not expecting someone refined and silky on the ball, he will be ugly and awkward to watch IMO, but hopefully pretty effective. Our tallest striker is currently Mara at just over 6 ft, this guy is a ridiculous 6.7 ft

Agreed, I'm writing off that first half. He looked more settled in a 4, advanced well and like you I was somewhat surprised by his on the ball quality - I wasn't expecting his touch to be that refined. The added height helps us defensively as well. For 750k I don't think you could really ask for a better squad player, and if we're honest that's all he is.

His crossing was crap last night, didn't beat the first man and the final one was shanked up to the moon.

Not sure where you are coming from there, are we now celebrating that we're only losing games by 1 goal and not 2? I mean....there's a measurement of success and then there is that. 5 at the back doesn't work, and it's wrong to say that 5 gives us more in midfield as we can have 3 bodies in there. We can in 4-3-3 as well, in fact we have more control in midfield when we play 4-3-3. Not sure how anyone can be more optimistic under Jones to be honest, I'm not seeing anything to suggest he's any better than Jim down the pub.

Close, blimey my maths isn't as bad as I thought! Still it would need one hell of an upturn that's not really been seen since we returned from lockdown in 2020. I think we got something like 16 points from 27. We need 25 from 54 points as homesick said, almost half the available. And that is taking into the account that we must play Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Brighton, Utd, Newcastle, Man City. That's almost 24 points written off if we go with the form book, which kind of means we need to win every single game against the rest - starting on Saturday. That's how unrealistic survival is imo.

If you take the kind of form you are suggesting over an entire season, that's around 55+ points - which is pushing into the contention of those European places.

I think most of us have the same idea, just a shame we're not the manager. Bazunu (Willy/McCarthy) KWP (Bree/Lyanco) - ABK (or DCC) - Salisu (Bednarek) - Perraud (KWP/Larios) Lavia (hmm) - JWP (Diallo) Edozie (Moussa/Theo) Alcaraz (Airbo/Ely) Sulemana (Orsic/Armstrong) Ounachu (Adams/Mara) Biggest hole's still are in CM for me, we have 3 players for each position elsewhere. We just have to hope Lavia stays fit.

I don't think people are saying he's a sexy striker by any means, but I don't think you can underestimate just how important having a presence up front is in the PL. Tadic, Mane and Long thrived off a pretty agricultural Pelle. Rodriguez, Lalanna thrived off of Lambert etc. It makes a huge difference and it's been an area we've been deficient in for some time. The added plus to this is that we’ve filled all corners of the jigsaw, so we’ve added extra attacking quality to supplement what he’ll bring to us centrally. So if we can get our new wide man, Orsic and even Alcaraz closer to the chaos he’ll create then our attack will look light and day IMO.

Now that we've got ours over the line, how about we spare a thought for Everton? Oh yeah, thought not. What a cluster fuck for them. They had a pretty average squad as it was, made it weaker by selling Gordon so they had funds to reinvest and then didn't reinvest any of it. The only positive I can see for them is that they've got a lot of ex-Burnley players there and have added Dyche to manage them. He will have the defensive tools to work with and to make them hard to beat I think, but I just don't see anything in their attack.

I'd say for 60% of that tie we were absolutley humped by Newcastle, they could have had more than the 1 in the first leg. They controlled it and kept us at arm’s length for the most of it. For 20 mins yesterday they annihilated us through the middle and just took the piss, it was like boys against men. We did not look on the same level as them, and given that we play in the same league that is concerning to me. We rallied in the 2nd half, but a lot of that was due to Newcastle retreating and calming down themselves, so they let us play - and we just played in front of them for most of it.

The chirping back is usually the sign of someone not very confident in their own ability as it is, so they act defensive and play the woe be me card. Seen it lots of times in work. The right thing for Jones to have done to the criticism was to just ignore it, pass over the comments and get on with it. But his little snipes back at the fan base just scream of someone who know's he's out of his depth, so is trying to be defensive to protect his ridiculous opinion of himself.