S-Clarke

From what I read this wasn't a quick fire decision, we looked at Jones in the summer as well. So he was clearly high on our list for quite some time. I don't watch enough of Luton to know what SR saw in him, but they must have seen something. I don't like the calling of his head though, 2 games in, I think that is just social media nonsense. He has been chosen and will be given the time, we don't know if it'll work out yet or if he was brought in too late to make any notable change. The last thing I want to see is us becoming a bat-shit crazy club like Watford, who sack their manager after they lose 1 or 2 games. We have to give them time and as painful as this all is to watch, we haven't given him any time yet. The reality is that the players aren't good enough though, so debating who should be manager seems a bit pointless as I can't see anyone getting much of a tune out of this rabble. Major surgery in January or it's curtains and I wouldn't blame NJ for that.

I feel sorry for Bazunu, but a few of us made the point a year ago - we needed to get the GK position right in the summer, we can't go with a Tino approach it needs to be someone proven. We went with the Tino approach. I have no problem signing someone like Bazunu and I see the logic, but we should have replaced Forster with a PL starting experienced GK. Pope was out there if we put our chips down early enough, cheaper than Bazunu believe it or not. That would have been a better environment for Bazunu to learn in if we went for both. This situation and current environment is probably going to erode any potential that Bazunu once may have had.

My 8/10 was too high, I wasn't happy with our lack of game changing forwards so in retrospect it should have probably been 5 or 6/10 at most. We made some good signings. Lavia, ABK - good players. I find it hard to hang out our summer signings as I saw the logic in them, but what I don't understand is why the club thought this would be an environment for them to flourish when we're still relying on Adam flaming Armstrong and Che Adams to score the goals. Lavia and ABK can do great things in their respective positions, but if you have our two 'strikers' fluffing in the 6 yard box and Diallo falling over on his arse exposing the back 4 then it's all a moot point really. I'm not sure Gakpo alone would have made all the difference, so he did well to dodge the bullet here. We're so short in CM, wide and ST for me. We'd struggle in the Championship with the options we have to play with there, that's the worrying thing and the club seem comfortable with that.

He's being hung out to dry a bit, but he is clearly good enough. He is playing alongside Diallo, I think the best CM's in the world would struggle to look good alongside that sack of shit. Central Midfield is such a crucial part of any team, JWP plays well in a pivot but to do that he needs a destructor next to him and someone of a level of ability in the 10's to feed the ball to, he has neither and this season he is caught in no mans land trying to run the midfield, provide physicality and drive forward. He's not an all rounder midfielder like that, never has been, so we're making him look worse as we're trying to get him to make up for our other shortfalls. Stick some better players around him and watch the difference. It doesn't even need to be a world-beater as Romeu showed, but just someone who can pass as a footballer.

I agree, we have spent money previously - we had a period of 3-4 windows where we had no pot to piss in, but prior to that Boufal,. Hoedt, Lemina, Carillo etc - big investments, and every single one failed and was given away for free at the end of their contract. That's where the problems started for me. I don't want to hang out the signings we made this summer, as they're punts and kids in the main - ABK and Lavia prove that there are some gems in there, and with game time maybe Edozie, Larios and Mara can produce similar. The problem we have this year is that our core experience was always absolutely horrendous, and we eroded that even more in the summer. (Losing Romeu for starters) We're trying to blood talented young players alongside the likes of Moussa, Diallo, Perraud, Adam Armstrong, Ely etc - it's just a recipe for disaster. The recruitment from the previous years has now caught up with us.

Goztepe are the bigger club anyway.

You've got to save the first one though, I'd expect a keeper in a Sunday league game to save that. It went through his hands like they were made of butter, his wrists were not strong enough at all. That isn't a goalkeeper being unlucky, that was an absolutely horrendous mistake at any level and is rightfully being called out. We can't carry someone who does shit like that.

Don't be so daft.

We were never going to do that though, that's why we should have just stuck imo.

This is one of our main issues - a lack of a competent CM and depth in CM. Losing Romeu and not replacing with a player of similar attributes was just dumb. No doubting our lack of goals, but you could somewhat cover that lack of goals if we didn't let them in at will due to our piss poor midfield. It's getting to the point where I'd prioritise CM as it's so painful, we cannot compete against any team at this level or even EFL with that CM pairing.

You sign those players when you already have decent experience in the building, but we did exactly what I feared - thought we'd struck a winning formula with Tino and decided to fill the team with that approach. It's working out exactly how it was always going to work out.

We're killing him. I don't have a problem with signing young, talented GK's to completement an experienced number 1 - but to sign him as your number 1 when we already had so many other areas lacking experience was a shocking call really.

And this is why sacking Ralph was not the answer so many were proclaiming. He polished a turd for many years and we will probably not realise what we had until a few months have gone. Still way too early for these sort of threads though, but it does have a whiff of 'try and be clever on the cheap' about it, like we tried with the likes of Mara and co in the summer.

Too much work to be done. To stand a sniff of a chance we need two CM's, a GK, a LB, 2 Strikers and a winger. Not happening.

The problem with getting relegated with this bunch is that they've proven to be soft as fuck, cannot take anything bad and their heads drop at the slightest turn in a game. They will be mentally shot if we get relegated and anyone half decent will be running for the door. We will be left with the likes of Smallbone, Adam Armstrong, Lyanco, McCarthy, Diallo, Moussa stinking the NPC out. It's not going to be fun for a few years.

When we've been in 'trouble' in recent years, I've always held the belief we'd be ok - we're not great, but we do have something about us. But this season is the first season since our year with Wotte and co that I'm resigned, probably 20th. Anything above 20th is an achievement. The squad is one of the worst, maybe the worst, we've ever had at this level. Bazunu - He is 'potential' one for the future, but we thought we'd get clever. All well and good if you have quality in other areas of the pitch to make up for his errors, but we don't. Probably a NPC keeper atm, but this season has the potential to destroy any potential he once had. Butland in the making. Perraud - Love his energy and enthusiasm, but technically terrible. Slow, poor touch, no technical ability on the ball. Generally as an attacking outlet he's null and void. Salisu - Bottom half PL/Top half NPC quality. Always prone to disasters and that doesn't seem to be going away as he 'matures'. Lyanco - NPC quality at best, maybe lower. Rash, and clumsy. Plays with heart and passion but with no actual ability to back it up. Inept. KWP - One of the very few PL quality palyers, but he was dross today. Moussa - Why we gave him a new contract is beyond me. He is useless. You only have to look at the few opportunities he had to take someone on, he'd either look backwards, fall over or his touch was so bad that it would end up as a throw. Really low quality player, NPC at best. JWP - He's a little boy lost in that midfield. He's too weak to do it all by himself, he's still one of the few PL quality players we have but he can't do it all on his own. Diallo - Jesus.h.Christ. I've never seen such an awful excuse for a CM at any level. What can he do? He runs around, gets tight to a player, falls over and then they're away anyway. It's torture having to watch him try to compete at a decent level. I wouldn't even say he's NPC quality. Edozie - Young and raw, he has some life about him but it won't be long until that's sucked out of him. I don't see what is different between him and Tella if i'm honest, both of a similar level ability wise. Ely - I hear he's debating about signing a new contract, well don't offer him one ffs. Not good enough, not strong enough, not quick enough. Not a PL player. Adams - tries hard, but for holy christ sake he is not a lone striker. Never has been, never will be. It's like flogging him to the lions. When you put that lot of misfits above like that you realise what a truly terrible, terrible team we have. The bench is littered with Armstrong, AMN, McCarthy, Theo - wonderful. Someone needs to turn the lights out, it might sound defeatist but that performance stunk of relegation and I can't see us recovering from that.

I hate articles like that, they actually say nothing. But it does scream of a club leak to a certain extent to help manage expectations. It's along the lines of the quotes we get ''we tried to hard to get x, but failed''. The 'January is a difficult month' is a bingo phrase for us. But if that is what we truly think, and we're going to limp on, then we will have to start planning for Millwall and Luton next year as it's done, turn the lights off. A nice homecoming for Jones tbf.

Yeah, this feels different. When we've got a 6-10 point cushion and people proclaim we are likely to go down, people are right to take issue with it. But now, given the state of our horrendous squad and the position we sit in today it's as precarious as it's been for many, many, many years. We're going to need something special 2nd half of the season, and truth be told I have no idea where that special thing is coming from without even more significant investment.

I think people are just commenting on what they saw the other night. I saw someone who couldn't trap a bag of cement, couldn't find his own team mates all night and was over-run in the middle. That isn't new either, he's put in a few of those since he's been here. He has been a massive, massive disappointment. I expected much more, but he struggles to look like a footballer sometimes.

2nd string doesn't really exist at Man City. All of their players piss over ours in their sleep, no matter who they put out.

Lol.

I'm sure Stoke thought as much when they went down, but they're never anywhere near. Relegation in the current financial climate with the PL getting richer and richer will be an unequivocal disaster for us, no other way to dress it up.

Not me! But I probably should have said 'PL Experience' rather than 'deliver now'. That's what I think we'll be looking for and is probably the safer bet. The risk is that they are more expensive, or just cast-offs from other PL clubs. (i.e Fraser)

I think we need players ready to deliver now to be honest, not sure we have the time to let someone grow into the team. I can see the attraction of someone like Ryan Fraser, not that it will set the pulses racing.

I mean Diallo isn't great, but I'd have him in front of AMN who didn't look like a footballer yesterday. Edozie for his running and positiveness has to start, but other than that we've not got a lot. Need a big January or it's curtains by March.