S-Clarke

To be fair, this is one rumour which hasn't gone away in a long time. It crops up most windows, sounds like we've been all over this for a long time. Ralph said that we will be able to act 'quicker' on signings now as well, who knows...we may attempt to get him this month before he is available on a free in the summer. Fabio himself will know there is a genuine pathway here to be a superstar if you're good enough.

It'll be in Feb sometime, once all their new signings have bedded in and they're on a good run of form.

Well, that didn't work. Next game off - Burnley v Watford, officially off. Arsenal also pushing for their Semi Final to be postponed. What happens in a week or so? Oh yeah, the 'two week' break. Then in Feb when they come back, they'll have their AFCON players back and their transfer business done. Stinks so bad. Corrupt load of utter bollocks.

That's not exactly Martinez's fault. They were shafted by the EFL's FPPT.

Wouldn't get anywhere near our starting 11? wtf? For real? He'd be in my team without question.

That's the only hope I have, and to be fair they have exceptional form at being foolish with players. De Bruyne and Salah being two that stick out like a sore thumb. They were daft with Lukaku first time round too.

That's the worry, they've totally lost control now. The season has become an utter farce.

Sounds like it's Brentford who are the club trying for Christan Eriksen.

City do struggle with intense pressing sides, but I think most sides will get caught if a pressing game is executed to perfection. My concern with City is that they have the quality of player to quickly play around any press, and get straight at our back line with 1 or 2 passes if we commit too high. Defensively we've been much more sound this year, in my opinion. Not individually, but as an entire team unit. There are freak moments where we are a bit crap, but generally we seem decent. I hope and expect us to give City a good hard fought game, likely it will end in defeat but if we give it a good go I can have no complaints.

Yeah, agreed. No pointing taking anything he says seriously, If i ever come across his stuff I see it as a bit of a parody really. 99% of fans think the same. It's the same in all walks of life really, you look at certain people and wonder how the hell they've made a career out of being shit at something.

Sounds like Chelsea smell the immediate $$ to be honest. That's probably us out of the equation if they won't re-loan him, I think Chelsea would demand way more than we can get to. We might try, but I'm not sure it's realistic. A loan was the most realistic shout for us.

Everton fans deludeness starting already I see. ''Just go and get potter and their DoF'' ''Moyes would come back. West Ham's squad is poor, IMO'' ''Jose Mourinho'' 'Valverde' Why do they think they're attractive to any of those? Rooney is probably their best shout.

Leeds list of absences: Kalvin Phillips - injured Liam Cooper - injured Jamie Shackleton - injured Tyler Roberts - injured Joe Gelhardt - injured Patrick Bamford - injured Junior Firpo - injured Sam Greenwood - injured Diego Llorente - suspended Adam Fawshaw - injured Two of those were added to the list in game. Fair play to Leeds for not inventing up a COVID positive test to get that one called off.

The situation at Everton goes beyond the manager. They are tied up by FFP because they spent shit loads a few years ago, that spending should have propelled them to the Top 4 levels, but it didn't as their scouting, not just one or two...but most of their signings have been as bad as anything I've ever seen to be honest. They've got themselves in a right mess through terrible recruitment, they gave Rafa the baton knowing that he'd be working with freebies and the such in the market (although they did get Dignes replacement before they sold him). He's not blameless, but there are deeper problems at Everton beyond the manager. Ideally they need a massive clear-out. Iwobi, Gomes, Keane, Coleman, Allan need to go and they need to reinvest similar to how we are operating. I didn't see it coming a few years ago, but I think we've stolen a bit of a march on Everton in terms of our own development from a similar, albiet much less extreme, situation.

I think you're in the danger of looking to deep into all this with stats. In every corner of the world, Buendia is on a different level to Redmond. If we had Buendia he would be in the team ahead of Redmond. I don't think Redmond has been much above average this season, he kinda like you said ranges from absolutely abject (i.e today) and average. He's one of the first players I'd get rid of and replace, so I don't buy this argument at all.

It was outrageous. Reminded me of this one from Roberto Carlos -

Nod to Derby, what they are doing is incredible. Don't particularly like the club after the play-off shenanigans, but to come back from a -22 deficit and not be sat on the bottom of the league is remarkable. 8 points from safety now.

Yeah, I saw those posts. It was relating to scapegoating or similar. It strikes me as if to certain fans you cannot critise any of our players, otherwise you're scapegoating them. For what it's worth I've always been of the opinion that Bednarek is fairly average, for a mid-table bottom half side he is adequate. For a team who have ambitions to potentially get back to the Koeman times then he needs to be replaced. I don't think there's anything outrageous saying that. We'd also need to replace Redmond, Moussa and our GK too. Those are our starting 11 week links. CB, GK and 'number 10'.

It's the sort of free kick that only a few players attempt, let alone score. His free kick today had a wiff of Roberto Carlos and Juninho Pernambucano about it.

That is a killer result for Newcastle, they really needed to win that to be honest. Massive game in a few weeks against Everton at home. Everton sinking like a stone. Not sure Rafa has any more time there, it's toxic at goodison at the mo.

A decent contest between too fairly evenly matched teams, they're just better at the back than we are. I thought we created the better opportunities and looked the more lively, Wolves were happy to sit and block the space in the first half. It made it difficult and there weren't avenues. Brentford were a bit naive and left a lot of space, Wolves were clever and they didn't allow us time or space when we had the ball. 2nd half was a bit of huff and puff from us I felt, we didn't have as much of a threat and it was fairly comfortable for Wolves up until that out of this world free kick. No right to score that, no right at all. We were caught on the break and they did us for 3-1 and that was it really. It wasn't a 3-1 game, closer than that, but we just had awful lapses at the back whereas they were very organised and solid in goal and CB. Not sure what we were doing for the 2nd goal, not a clue. Who was marking Kilman? and Forster doing a Forster, flapping in the middle of nowhere. Horrific goalkeeping and that is why he's leaving on a free very soon. We're not going to win every week, we'll have days like this against similar level teams. Let's see what the next few weeks brings, might not be particularly pretty but at least we have that cushion and the likes of Everton are still shithousing it.

It's off, confirmed by the PL. Disgraceful. So, going by that wording, if you have one COVID case which 'tips' you over the edge, because you've decided to sign a lot of African players who are away at AFCON...you can actually get a postponement. Give me a break.

Only between fans I think! Not in the media, no Garry Neville coverage etc. The whole situation is a farce, clubs are playing the game. Everyone can see it. If they play it well enough they can get their players back from the AFCON before they play another game.

If it is off then it's incredibly weak by the PL. Arsenal put a team out on Thursday night, they also decided to loan out Maitland-Niles. They also loaned out Guendouzi, Torreria etc in the summer. Their squad depth is on them, not the PL. Show some balls PL and play it, otherwise get Arsneal to forfeit and give spurs a 3-0 win.

KVB not at his usual standards this year, seems to have dropped off a level or two, but you still can't give him space as he has so much quality in that right foot.