S-Clarke

This is certainly helping me heal some of the scar tissue he caused me.

Why are we rating a first window which hasn't ended yet? Seems a bit daft. I've always said the best value comes at the end, loans, dominos falling into place and all that. If we're sat here in Sept with Dibling sold and the same squad, then yes, we can be a bit concerned - but you can't rate him yet. I'd also add that it will take a couple of windows to cycle through the squad. Some players we want rid of won't go this window, it may be January or next summer - so that has to be taken into consideration. This wasn't an overnight window fix job, the squad has been entirely fucked for years and needs a reset which will take a couple of windows to cycle through. We'll get an idea how things have started by the start of Sept for sure, but I don't think it can be a full judgement even at that point.

The bloke simply cannot coach a team to defend, brave bollocks and all that nonsense. But his teams simply do not defend. He's a disaster of a manager. Isn't it Celtic this weekend? Maybe I was optimistic in suggesting he'd be there 8-10 weeks, he'll be lucky to last into September at this rate. They will end up chasing him out of the city. He'll struggle to get another job after this.

He'd almost certainly be included in any deal IMO. I know the current popular trend is for those 'swap deals' to be advertised as 'entirely separate deals, they're not linked', but they are. And it would be directly linked if it happened.

The fact that he came out after and said ''Yeah, if we had to go again we'd target more physical players'' - yeah whatever. We started the season with Will Smallbone, Joe Aribo and Flynn Downes as the midfield 3. He got rid of Charly and loaned out Charles and he felt that was acceptable. Absolute bonkers bloke.

Yep absolutely, be great if they do. Quashie needs to learn how to control and pass though . Downs will score goals, he's got a presence about him. I don't like how some of our fan base have already written those off though, just reading social media and there are people saying they shouldn't play for us again.

We had Aribo at CB though, don't forget that magic moment.

If I'm honest, if we'd stayed down I don't believe Martin would have stayed in charge. We'd have dumped him. I think it would have entirely changed our course.

If our scouting has genuinely improved, we need to be finding players like Tanaka, Torp, Sakamoto, Wright, Van Ewijk, Bogle, Gruev etc. None of those cost big bucks, just well scouted and well suited players who slot straight into the team. No clever bollock kid signings, just ready-made starters. If Coventry and Leeds can obtain those sorts in the Championship, then there's no reason why we can't.

That playoff final feels a bit of a sliding doors moment, it shouldn't have been for us in any way, but we mismanaged it so badly that it was a pointless promotion and we're now light years away from the team we beat 2 years ago. Leeds stayed down, became stronger, and have now come back into the PL with a stronger base to compete than we ever had. What a mess we made of planning for that PL season. Honestly, we couldn't have done it any worse if we tried.

Is that you Rasmus?

There's an element of squad management still required though. We need to get players out before we add. Ipswich have their squad under a little more control. We created an absolute mess last year. The next two weeks will be telling. I still think we'll make one big sale, and that's when the dominos will start to fall.

They've had a couple of their big sales done and dusted though, we're still hamstrung with a bloated squad and not huge amounts of money to invest. I think we were expecting a big sale to fund some moves, it hasn't happened yet though. We don't have the money otherwise imo

Wasn't sure if he was 27 or 28, as i saw someone mention 28.

Wouldn't say he's potential, he's 27/28 - he's for now. He's as good as he's going to be.

I wondered WTF happened there, as his transfermarkt history confused the hell out of me. That makes a bit more sense then. Bit like Villa signing Archer back and then selling him to us, all to make a profit I guess.

Are you having a break down?

Maybe you're thinking of Thierry Small? We got him from Everton as a highly rated kid, he had a loan at Port Vale and then up in Scotland, didn't ever kick on here and left for Charlton to work under Europe's greatest manager. Charlton sold him in the summer to PNE.

He's a winger who was shipped out on loan by Lens last season to St Pauli, 7 goals and a couple of assists in the Bundesliga. He's not small for a winger, exactly the sort of profile Still would favour. He has played under still, but was mainly used as a sub in the season he had him. Interesting option as he'd be known by Still and our scouts pretty well.

Wissa has gone all Morgan Schneiderlin

To be fair, he did smack the post against Northampton from far out. I think he has got it in his locker, that Bree goal was a bit of a WTF moment though. There's no way Bree fits Stills style imo, not even close. He didn't even fit Martin's style. He's your typical PNE type steady Championship clogger, we need better than him. I'd be totally up for a new RB.

They're in different leagues in player and club senses I'd have to say. JWP was on the edge of England for a while, genuinely deserved to get picked more often I'd say. He was a regular captain for the U21's too. Flynn has never and will never be in the conversation for International Football. He's too limited for a higher level.

All seems very past tense. It's done.

Not heard him on the Womens games, he does a lot of Championship games though.

He tries too hard with all his antidotes, makes me cringe sometimes. It doesn't roll naturally anymore, you can tell he's trying too hard these days. His best commentary came in the Wolves 0 - 6 Southampton game when he used to do the ITV Championship coverage. I quite like Seb Hutchinson, he's prob my favourite commentator right now.