S-Clarke

Can't disagree with anything you've said there, well summed up.

It does, but it's quite depressing that I'd still take McNeil, Doucore, Gordon, Tarkowski and Mina over what we've got. (and DCL when fit)

I still think Vergini's OG at St Mary's was the worst ever OG i've seen, but this one pushes it very close. It wasn't just the OG in it's self, it was the fact that he'd got himself in the wrong position to start with and then couldn't sort himself out. He's not been the same since he was tracked by Newcastle (assuming it was true).

What is Dean Hammond on? How can he stand there and say he was happy with what he saw, there were positives, lots to build on. Feels like he's been fed a club script to read. I'm all for having bias people on your own club social channels, but don't fluff it up like this. Fans want to hear the truth and honesty from former pro's who have been there and done it, not a load of wet propaganda.

Hmm this is all very miserable, there's no way to swing that one. For me at HT the changes were obvious - Romeu for Armstrong and Adam Armstrong off for Adams, but Ralph has tried to be clever again I think. First half was 'ok' when we got the ball to Aribo, the problem was the lack of movement or quality up front. So the logical thing would have been to keep Aribo where he was and bring on Adams up top (I'm assuming he hasn't got an injury). But what happened by putting Aribo up top is we lost any attacking out, we didn't have anything and Spurs were able to stretch us - Aribo was covering quite well in the first half on that right hand side. The 2nd half was a total tactical shambles sadly. Pulled all over the pitch, stretched in behind, no cover for the full backs. Then when you add in individual cluster fucks to it, it makes for a really difficult situation. Salisu's head has gone, it's been gone for months. He's got a brain fart in him every game at the moment, so his partnership with Bednarek has clearly matured. Onto the few positives....Lavia looked tidy in the middle, keeps the ball well, moves it well, seems strong. He can't do it all on his own though. Aribo in the 10 looks decent, coming in from the right. I see some positives in a partnership with him and KWP. Let's not kill him by trying to pretend he's a striker. Other than that I'm struggling to see anything. I wasn't expecting to get anything today, but you want to see some chink of light and some decent things to build upon. But this was all to similar as to the Brentford away game, the Leicester away game, Burnley away, Villa away. It's just like groundhog day. Another season of not watching MOTD.

So now we have no striker, fair enough. What has Adams done to Ralphs wife??

I'd say the biggest issue stems with the attack, as it did last season. We give the ball away as soon as we attempt to play it into Armstrong as he has the presence of a feather, although that's probably being harsh on a feather.

As predictable as night follows day, we give up a lead. Feels like we've given a decent enough account of ourselves, but the same old issues haunt us. Lack of presence or quality up front, so we have absolutely no out. And dozy in defence. That sort of mix is a bit of a disaster to be honest. I'd bring on ABK and Adams for the 2nd half, maybe Stu Armstrong for Romeu. Need to get more going on when we get the ball, as bar Aribo there is zilch in attack.

It's a big chance for AA, as long as Aribo plays close to him then it could work. But I equally wouldn't be surprised to see Adams come on 2nd half. If anything it just shows how desperate we are for a focal point top quality CF. We don't have that.

Probably the right call. I like ABK, but it would have been a bit of a baptism of fire for him. Ease him into the team. I'm not a massive Valery fan, but I don't think I'm alone in being impressed by how well he's adjusted to that third right sided CB role. Provides the pace and recovery, which someone like Lyanco or Stephens wouldn't

Why are people saying this is a horribly negative line-up? ''bizarre formation''? If you're basing it from the BBC Sport formation pic then just ignore that. We played all pre-season this way, all the media chat has been about 5-3-2. The talk is to make us more solid. Why has this come as a surprise to anyone? Do some of you want us to open up and go for the throat of Spurs and get absolutely destroyed on the break? And on the attack this isn't a particularly negative line-up, as the WB's will push up very high to provide the width. I Imagine Aribo will play very close to Armstrong to provide the support and physicality he needs.

Surprising to see the best full back in the world (tm) being done defensively again.

Congrats by the way! By all accounts we're looking at a guy called Pol Lirola on loan from Marseile. Attacking wing back by the looks of it, 24 year old, not too old but has a bit of experience behind him. Loan makes all the sense for the 'full back' cover. I was always confused by our supposed bids for hat Pederson fella at Feyenoord, as it would have created an overload by mid-season.

Palace's attack is very dangerous, lots of power and pace with Eze, Zaha, Matetta, Eduarud. My only gripe with them is that they don't seem too clinical. They create a lot of 'craziness' and they look fun, but they seem to lack that clinical striker. You could put that description over alot of teams though to be honest. I didn't realise they'd got rid of Benteke, so I expect they'll be looking for a striker.

Fulham have a bid in for Vestergaard apparently.

Everton would be so odd, he's a Liverpool fan. From their academy. I can't see how that will ever work out.

£35m, in what world!! I'm not surprised we ran away from that deal!

As expected, a pointless statement by Brighton. Made themselves look very daft, and Chelsea have bantered them too. Fail.

Yeah, FFP too - that is a bit of a sham though, I think. Some clubs are taken to the cleaners because of it, meanwhile Barca are able to do what they're doing. But as we're an honest club then yeah, we'd need to increase our marketing a hell of a lot to be operating in that wage budget. And as soon as you offer that to one new player, agents of any new potential addition will get a sniff and will want some of that for their own client too. A single player on that wage would throw our model out of the window.

I can't see us ever offering a player 200k per week, it would create such an odd wage gap in the squad to everyone else. Our highest earner is on 100k p/w which is JWP, not really sure we'll ever go above that on new players - maybe renewing existing, but certainly not new players. Much the same way we'll never be spending £40m-50m on transfer fee's on single players either.

It'll be interesting to see how he does in the PL, but the fact that it's a straight loan with no option is probably suggestive that Chelsea are valuing him at silly levels. He's perfect for the back 3 they adopt at Brighton and will fill that void left by Burn. It's probably going to be a Broja situation for Brighton at the end of the season though - as I think he'll do well there.

What we're seeing now is the typical lull before a busy couple of weeks transfer wise. Focus switches to coaching what 'you have' for the first couple of games, preparation for the start of the season etc. Plus...this is often the time when clubs of our level are looking at players who may also have their sights elsewhere, i.e more established players. As the window creeps on and moves to 'bigger' clubs don't materialise, we're in a decent position to grab them. Loan situations often come out of nowhere at the back end of the window, clubs play the first few games, players realise they're not getting the games so they'll push to leave. Could be situations we see evolving with the likes of Hudson-Odoi or even someone like Elanga if Utd sign some additions (as I remember an ITK link to him). It's the same with players who we want to shift. If they realise they're not going to get games here, then they may then be open to moves and start pushing themselves which will help us remove some deadwood. Sports Republic know what they're doing, they've come in and they've not settled with the status quo. They're challenging all aspects and for the first season in some while it feels as if Ralph is actually under some real pressure to deliver.

£62m for Cucarella, the world has gone bonkers. He's a good player, but he's not that good a player. Brighton already have the £15 bleeding a hole in their pocket from Dann, and £35m from Bissouma. They've not got long, but they've potentially got £100m to play with.

It wasn't called 'LOL' yesterday, it was called Fabrizo Romanos (note the S on the end). Really sad that people do that tbh.

And at which point, Tino will be back. So whilst he would still be a big loss, we can replace him knowing that we already have Tino there who could make that position his own. As i mentioned on another thread, I'm all for our strategy and I accept our place, but it's all about selling at the right time so it doesn't work in a negative way to the club.