S-Clarke

I read £4m somewhere.

That's a great statement by Redmond - that's appreciated by all. Clearly a decent human being. Don't wish him anything but success.

Protocol stipulates that all sporting events are postponed for the period of mourning (10 days). This will be announced as postponed tomorrow, as well as Villa next weekend (as this will be the state funeral weekend)

When the news came out at lunch it felt a bit ominous. It is very sad, a lot of us have known nothing else than The Queen. It's just part of life, tradition and she's always been 'there'. There are obviously clear protocols which are now followed but it will still feel odd in the weeks ahead. She has been a great example of our country, makes you proud to live here. A very historical moment to live through.

4-0, jeez.

The pundits love in over TAA is just weird. James is just as good with deliveries from the right, Trippiers delivers are really good as well. But Trent...wow, what a pass, what a cross. STFU seriously. Most over rated player we've had for many a year.

I don't see anything wrong in what he said. It's true. He probably ignored all the advice from good people a few months ago and without question chased the money. Now he's coming back, so the advice people were giving him has been validated. He should have listened as it's delayed his progress now. He was on the bench for us at the end of last season, now he's probably miles away again. There's certainly courage in admitting a mistake and coming back, but equally he needs to realise he made a mistake in the first place and it wasn't what was best. He was too young to really judge that, he just saw the $$ as i said.

I agree, he's nowhere near good enough defensively for the top level. He shouldn't play for England at the world cup, I'd have Trippier/James/Walker/KWP all in front of him.

They do love their OTT welcomes over in Turkey don't they!

Oh I agree with all of that, it doesn't feel right at all. But you have to take it if you believe in yourself, the money he'll earn in a short period will set him up for life probably. I see a lot of Brighton fans on their forum in a bit of denial. He believes in what he has there, he won't get that at Chelsea etc, the players at Chelsea aren't right for him and so on. So some think he'll stay at Brighton because of that. He'll leave for the money and size of club, just as every manager in the history of football has ever done when presented with similar oppertunities.

Signed a 5 year contract in 2020 - so he's still got 3 years left, but he's edging into the territory where we'd need to start talking about renewal.

Brighton have accepted Chelsea's approach to speak with Potter. I imagine they easily accepted because they threw a massive amount of money under the door.

They sacked a lot of their scouts, DoF and technical director though - so who was advising and recommending these players if it wasn't the incumbent manager?

They do strike me as a club with absolutley no direction. They've just spent almost £300m on players which will have ultimatley been Tuchels choice, as they have no footballing people in the boardroom anymore. So they would have been identified and signed on Tuchels recommendation. They feel very unstable and the new ownership don't seem to have any idea how football operates.

Wish him all the best, this is a good move for both parties. My most overriding emotion of Redmond is frustration, he had the tools but you never really saw it on a consistent basis. He did have good potential but he's never realised it, I doubt the craziness of this club since he arrived has helped, but without sounding too harsh he has been part of the problem. We've certainly been ruthless this summer which is refreshing to see, as for too long we've kept players that weren't good enough just for the sake of having 'numbers'. (Kayne Ramsey a case in point).

That miss is why he'll never be a top striker. No composure and he panics at chances, which is a disaster for a striker. Got no problem with his overall game and what he brings to us, but it's all pretty pointless unless we have someone who can score profiting from his hold up and hustling (As we did with Ings)

Crikey, that's a shocker. It was really innocuous as well. I don't think anyone will be able to top that for a worst debut. He has had bad knee probs in the past too.

It strikes me that Leicester got a little too far up their own backsides, thinking they are always going to be/should always be competing for Europe. That's not just their fans, but the club as well - a little bit full of themselves, like we did under Les Reed. Big wake up call for them now. What they're doing now is probably more their level, mid-table here and there and getting dragged into relegation battles with potential relegations. They're pretty much identical to us in that sense, they just managed to get success during that period that all other fans of of clubs at their level will never, ever experience. It's never nice seeing your team get trashed though, there does seem a bit of a toxic feel there running from the top to the players. Rodgers looks spent, so the immediate change is probably going to be a new manager. I doubt it will get them back to where they were though, that's probably them done competing in the upper ends of this league.

Officials are probably the right people to run it given their supposed understanding of the game and the laws, ex players would bring too much emotion into it. But sadly all of our officials are inept, so we're a bit stuck. I see people calling for ex players and even impartial non-football people, but this is just going to make it worse imo. Can we steal some of the European officials for our VAR? We seem to be using our VAR as a a retirement home for failed referees.

I'd agree, this is the wrong kind of game for Elyounoussi. We are going to be expected to be on the front foot here and he's not the player for that, someone like Stu has the legs to burst with the ball and open it up a bit more which we'll need. Edioze is someone to have up our sleeve to replace Adam Armstrong as the game stretches, hopefully he can have the impact Broja did against their somewhat slow defence.

I think that would just make it even more murky. VAR should be used for game-changing clear errors, penalties, disallowed goals, offside goals, foul play etc. That's what it's there for. If you start bringing it in for yellow cards and corners then you'll end up with 20 mins stoppage time and painful viewing. Half of the problem with VAR at the moment is the way the 'pro's meddle in decisions which aren't clear and obvious, which brings in an element of opinion from the referee's running it - and if it's clear and obvious it shouldn't be based on opinions, it should be clear to all. West Ham's goal yesterday for example, they shouldn't have got involved and should have let the on field referee to stand by his judgement.

A great article, really good insight and well put together. The Athletic will be tapping you up before long!

I actually feel more confident about this one than I did about Wolves. I always feel nervous going into games where a team haven't won in for ever, it's always set up for the inevitable. I think we can cause Brentford problems, they are susceptible to conceding chances, as we showed last season in that 4-1 (although the GK they had then was borderline a fan) We actually matched them last season and went 3-5-2, with Tella and Perraud at full back and it did work as we dragged them all over. The main take away from that game was our ability to break and break quickly, Diallo played slightly ahead of the two and you had the pace of Broja on the shoulder. They seemed to struggle with our energy and we sucked them in well. Tempted to throw pace at them. It's certainly not the game for a one paced Elyounoussi.

It had a nightmare of a day yesterday for sure, any surprise though given Dean is still involved? The problem is not with VAR at all, the tech is there and is useful, it's the people who are using it. Absolutley inept. I go back to the example from the CL and the Euro's, in the main VAR just happened and you didn't really notice it. Only in this country do they manage to make such a meal out of it.

I've watched it a couple of times since to try and make some sense of it, and I can't really! It doesn't look like he's sure what to do with it, he's caught in two minds and not set. But honestly if he just jumped and didn't try to move his arm it would have gone in, but he just got confused and didn't know what to do, and for a striker that's horrific. I could take it if it was ABK or Salisu, but not from our 'main' goal threat. He had a good game in the main though, similar as against Chelsea, but you just cannot rely on this guy for goals.