S-Clarke

To be honest, as an attacking full back in this day and age you need to be able to cover both sides. He can still offer a threat on the left, he just has to learn when to cut back in etc. Cancelo at City (obviously at a different level) does this brilliantly, he's naturally a right back but flops between left and right. It's not like KWP isn't getting regular first team football anymore, the LB spot is up for grabs and it's up to him to take it and become a name on the 11. (which he probably already is)

That's a blow, that would have been a good loan for him.

Too much of this cancel culture at the moment. There's not enough evidence to say either way if there was any wrong-doing on his part, so as it stands this is a non-story. The guilty party of the horrific acts in this has been put to account and been jailed. The club have put their hands up and admitted failings, these failings were in the past and under ownership and management who aren't around anymore. Ted would have been part of that, but to tarnish him with the same brush is incredibly harsh because none of the other people who were at the club will be treated in the same way. It's just the visibility I guess, but that shouldn't make it the reason alone.

Just..!

They're panicking, which is why you're seeing this really slap-dash, hap hazard player search. There doesn't seem to be any plan or strategy to what they're trying to achieve. When City got their millions there was a plan (with the Sheik takeover) they had the bonus of being somewhat established, but they went out and got up-coming players like Kompany, Zabeletta etc and experienced signings like Lescott, Kolo Toure etc. Then once they'd established themselves further, they went after the likes of Silva, Augero, Yaya etc to really push them to the next level. Newcastle's attempts at the mo has close parallels to QPR. They were also relegation candidates when they got their billionaire owner. So they were throwing money at so many average and over the hill players who just went there for one last pay-day. Loic Remy, Samba, Bosingwa, Cesar the GK etc. Exotic names at the time and I remember a poster on here called Flyer who was very excited by it. Didn't end too well though. Moral of the story is that you can have all the money in the world, but if you have no real plan of what to do with it then you might as well open a window and let it fly away.

Interesting list, most of those have been absolute disasters. I can count the successful one one hand - Van Dijk, Tielemans, Ings, Sarr (although he was a bit too much at the time). Jury is still out on the likes of Mwepu, Ajer and Buendia, but if those clubs want to keep progressing then those records will be eclipsed in forthcoming windows anyway.

They haven't played too bad tonight really, and Toney does have one now to be fair...! They just didn't take their earlier chances.

And that is why no one gave a shit when Vestergaard was sold. Awful defender, his every day job and he's horrific at it. Shocking from Tiliemanns as well, such a sloppy give away from kick off. But to have your CB's split by one ball with Vestergaard running the other way is just ludicrous. They need a bit of a defensive rebuild in the summer in my eyes.

If people haven't seen him play, this is an obligatory Youtube vid. He's an attacking midfielder who scores goals, oh boy don't we need that.

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 -