S-Clarke

There are way too many wrongun's in this world.

Manchester City: Pep Guardiola says he will leave club when his contract expires in 2023 - BBC Sport

Basically from how I read that is that he intends to see out his contract with us, what happens after that is still a bit unknown. I thought that was always the case if I'm honest. I guess he gets so emotionally involved in the cut and thrust of football that he fancies a bit of a break. I can't imagine it will be the end of him in football once he leaves us though, he still has a lot to offer. Similar to Pep, he's toyed with the 'quitting' football idea after his City contract finishes but I'm sure he'll be back. We just need to give Ralph all the tools we can in these next 2 years in order for him to put us on the strongest footing possible, he can also have a hand in appointing his successor.

Yeah, he was the manager when we won the U17 world cup. He was in and around the England setup at the same time as Crocker, Ashworth etc.

This is the side I'd expect to see. Tino played longer than we wanted on Saturday so he should be on the bench, otherwise we're risking him again for no reason. Peraud has played himself into some decent form I think. They're not easy to score against under Conte, so we're going to need to be ultra clinical...which we can be. Another 'bonus' game though really, anything we get from this is a plus.

Bit of a disastrous January for Brighton all told. He was crucial to their approach in terms of transfers and strategy. Not sure they can get anyone who is any better than him.

He's certainly done well wherever he has been, he did a decent job at Swansea too and got them close to promotion a couple of times. Weirdly the Swansea fans felt his football was a bit stale and boring and they were desperate for a change of manager, I wonder if they still think that as they sit towards the bottom of the Championship.

Thought I'd give this match a shot to see what it's all about, what am I watching? It's absolute dross, has this been the standard of the tournament? They want it to be respected, but I get more entertainment from Vanarama league games.

Bournemouth were so bad. Boreham Wood deserved that based on their efforts alone, Bournemouth just huffed and puffed without doing anything. Everton away is a great money spinner for Boreham Wood, given the way games have gone in this years FA Cup who knows what'll happen.

Leicester are just returning to norm as a mid-table prem team/strugglers (Very similar to us) - they've had a few years above their norm and it was never sustainable long-term for a club like them. They seem to have decided that they are top 4 challengers/Cup Winners every year and that's clouding their judgement, they'll regret getting rid of Rodgers imo.

I'm completely lost at these points as well to be honest. Broja wasn't even in the team, he was a sub. Ideally we didn't want to use him, but we had to in the end. So, what did we do wrong exactly? Should we have started him and risked him getting injured from the start? The argument that we'll be knackered is confusing as well, the reason for rotating the team is to avoid tiredness so we wouldn't be as knackered. If we went first team today there is no guarantee we'd have got through comfortably either, not at all. Flogging the likes of Stephens, Long, Valery, Theo etc for the majority of that game whilst saving Slaisu, Adams, Broja and Romeu in the main is squad management. And we got through, so that's all that matters really.

Their takeover was a bit weird, the Americans basically leveraged their buy out on the club and saddled them with tons of debt, more than they had before they were sold. Which is a bit insane. It's not allowed them to move on either as they can't sign anyone. All in all a bit of a sad situation for Burnley and it feels as if they're at a crossroads, they've peddled the Dyce way for many years but as a club they probably need to evolve now. I might be wrong...but if they do go down I think they'll struggle to get back for many, many years.

But if it's at the determinant to us as a team then it's hard to really encourage his appearances, if I'm honest. He's got another 18 months left yet. From the bench at absolute best I'd say, but he shouldn't be starting anymore. I doubt he takes much notice of social media if we're honest and anyone's views, but it's shocking how far off he looks nowadays. I don't remember seeing a player so far off the required level playing for us for quite some time. I thought his return was a bit sentimental at the time and was a bit of a PR job, certainly the contract after the loan, and sadly it's proving to be no more than that. 'Never go back' they say, and they're probably right. A lesson I should have learnt a few times in my own life as well!

Good luck for the season, you've got a tidy team there. Another decent Chelsea youngster in your midfield I think. Think you lack genuine goal threat, but you're not a bad outfit.

Bit of a disastrous result for Burnley that one, struggle to see how they get out of it this time round. Spurs, Liverpool and Man Utd in the next 4. I'd say they're all but gone, but the other 3 above them are equally bad that they'll always be within touch. It's going to be a low 'safety' total though, I'm pretty sure on that.

If he'd have got that injury as a starter there'd be pelters because we didn't rest him etc. In an ideal world Broja wasn't going to be used at all today, but sadly the replacements were so bad we had no choice. And even worse is that he got an injury in the mix of it all, right in the final min of 120. The difference he made to our attack was frightening though, it shone a poor light on the players on before him as this is a young kid.

With Theo it feels as if the club and the player himself is in denial. I think someone close to him needs to have some serious words with him about his plans. He doesn't move very well, his pace has gone, his touch is awful and his strength is non-existent. It's honestly the equivalent of playing with 10 men and it's a waste of a squad space. This isn't 'form' or 'confidence', this is just a lack of genuine ability and physical attributes to be any use to us. I guess he's good around the place and the bonus is having him to mentor the likes of Tella etc, but honestly just give him a job doing that. I hate to see his professional career ending like this with us.

Yeah, Coventry should have won really, bit of a sucker for them. It's a tough call though...we've got two away games in 7 days at the Top 6 teams, I think if I were a manager I'd probably go weakest in this home game with the confidence that the squad we have is good enough...but as I said players like Armstrong, Long, Theo etc let the manager down today, as 'on paper' they should have been able to create more than we did against 'lesser' opposition, but they were all utterly abject. I'm fairly sure the plan today was for Armstrong and co to show up so we didn't have to see Broja, Redmond, Romeu, KWP etc on the pitch.

I think we need to wait for the MLG confirmation...! But I'm sure there is VAR if the game is at a PL ground, which is daft because it then becomes very inconsistent as it's not applied to all.

He's certainly stuck in it at CB, which is weird. He's certainly not going to make a career there but his recovery pace is helpful, but he is still prone to these absolute brain fucks with pass backs. It's like he's programmed to do it at least once a game, he should have cut that out years ago but it's part of his makeup which makes him a very dangerous player. Did ok though, but not really one to count on going forward.

There was VAR I thought, it's in all games if the home ground is a PL one. Their goal was clearly offside, the player who took the shot was onside but it was tapped in by Waghorn who was about 5 yards offside. Didn't need VAR for that, which is why it was odd it took so long for the lino to put his flag up.

On the note of the selection, I think this is probably a case of Ralph being dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn't. Players like Armstrong (both Armstrongs), Stephens, Long, Theo etc needed minutes if they are to be of any use to us. This was a dcent opportunity for them to get those minutes and I'm fairly sure that we felt they'd be enough to see us over the line. I think a few players let Ralph down today, I'm sure he'd expected more from them. Two tough away games next week and I could see the logic in rotating strongly today (the easiest of the 3) but the players brought in let him down.

A really substandard showing for me. We started the game very slowly and Coventry had the foothold, if we're honest they were the more composed and tidy team for 60-70% of that game. We were a bit of a rabble to say the least. It's one of those games where you need something out of nothing to get you back into it and Armstrong gave us that, he had no right to score from that. It reminded me of Wayne Thomas's effort at home against Ipswich many, many years ago. Good play by KWP, who improved us on the left when he came on and provided a threat which ultimately lead to the winner. There were big opportunities today for Adam Armstrong in particular and sadly he just looks shot. It looks like the lack of game time and goals has just drained him of anything, he doesn't even look Championship level now which is a shame as he was clearly a decent Championship player. He needs some confidence from somewhere but he also needs refinement in his game, which he doesn't have an inch of. I've seen him many times now and he's just a hectic hit and run player which isn't good enough for the top level. Theo is just not there anymore sadly. It feels like we're flogging a dead horse with him and it's not fair to have his career end watching him look like this. Small has amazing physical attributes from what I saw, reminds me of Micah Richards when he first broke through - that sort of stature to him. A really sloppy style of play though I'd have to say, comes across lazy but that may just be his style. Certainly didn't look ready for the cut and thrust of first team football and would get caught out in the PL playing that way. Willy - great experience. To be honest, dreadful finishing by Coventry but he stood tall on 3 occasions and blocked those shots. For an OAP he has insane reactions to get up for that 2nd shot. Overall, not an amazing night. We won, but one of the worst outcomes generally - 30 extra mins, which we could have done without, and some very horrible looking injuries to a particular key player which we can't really afford to lose, but there we go.

Don't think he'd be one for the future, he'd be one for now. He was a regular for Saint Ettiene from what I can see, got an injury and that has kept him out for a bit.

I thought a loan had been ruled out as an option, but to me it was the only realistic avenue we had really. So if that is open again as an option then of course take it, it's our best and probably only chance of keeping him beyond this season.