S-Clarke

I don't mind Stephens, he's improved enormously since Ralph has been in. Although, as he saw against Palace (the Benteke chance) he is still liable for an absolute nightmare. Although most of our CB's are, to be honest. No problem with him being part of our squad, I wouldn't have him as one of our starting centre backs though.

It was also mentioned in other places Convict, I'm just waiting for MLG to dismiss insidersport as a poor source as well. But this certainly did happen. The rules were tightened to stop another Gao taking over a PL club based on professional conduct criteria, sadly just after he'd taken over us.

Isn't this threatening to go down the road of 'nothing is ever going to be enough', though? The key statistics they need to look at are the infection rate, the amount of deaths and the amount of people going into Hospital. I'd say going forward the key stats need to be hospital admissions and deaths rather than infection rate though, the vaccines aren't designed to stop an infection entirely, they are there to reduce the severity of it. So if we still get people going for tests and it coming back positive, but they don't end up in hospital, then that alone isn't a reason to to panic. The reality is that deaths and hospital admissions are at an incredibly low, low level now, thus they should continue with the easing as they have been. The chatter about bringing in local restrictions and stopping the ease of the restrictions just 'in case' and because it 'might' do x and y is entering very dangerous territory and a never ending lockdown cycle for the rest of our lives.

If the fit and proper persons test was taken tomorrow, he'd fail it and his takeover would have been blocked.

Nothing to do with Semmens though, it's Gao who'd need to be on the phone. I think stuff is happening in the background though, but Gao will only sell to who gives him the best value, he won't care about their plans for this club. We just have to hope we get lucky and the fit and proper owners test actually works this time.

Don't disagree, we did kind of show up in the first half of the game up there...but we were then just picked off in the 2nd half. Raphinia is the game changer if he's on form IMO, Harrison is equally very important to them. Over the course of the last month, since we've had players come back, our performances and now results have slowly improved though. These next two games will be a show of our progress for sure though.

I just think it removes balance. We saw Vestergaard move to right sided CB the other night, only to quickly revert that right round. He doesn't look as comfortable to me.

Haven't we been looking for a number 10 for years? Boufal, Ramirez spring to mind. Tadic wasn't actually signed as a number 10 really, he played on the flanks for us most of the time. And we do miss his quality and guile in that attacking third for sure. I don't even think our formation suits a number 10 per say, especially if we play two up top. We have two inverted wingers who come very narrow towards the middle - so adding a number 10 there would just congest things. What I think we need is just a much, much better attacking wide player. Someone who can play the flanks and play that inverted role equally as well.

He's what i'd call a patchy player, he's liable to go on huge stretches without a goal, but when he does get a goal the door opens and he pops up with 5 or so in a short space. But even during his runs of no goals, he's not ineffective by any means. Assists, hold up play, stretching CB's etc. He's still doing all of that. It's not worth underestimating his partnership with Ings either, which has really flourished since the Lockdown football last year - the period between June - Dec. From December onwards Ings has just had injury after injury, so that partnership has been disrupted a lot and it's all fallen on Adams shoulders. 'If' Ings can stay fit next year there is easily 30-35 goals in that front two, IMO. And for a club of our size that's huge.

But do we need two of the the quality of Vestergaard and Salisu, who can't actually play together at CB by all accounts? Not sure we can for a club of our size. So if we need funds, Vestergaard looks to be the most sensible place to generate them given our ready made replacement there. In my opinion. Then we can go and get a loan CB to fill that 4th spot. Did you not agree that our attack looked markedly better then? He was stretching the game and doing things from the 'up front role' that Redmond should have been doing from the wide role. There's no defending Redmond's lack of attacking impact on this side.

This will be a much tougher game than the last two. Trying not to get too carried away because Palace and Fulham are new levels of shit. Leeds are actually a decent outfit and will provide a test. I reckon we'll get a draw here and I'll take that.

Solid performance yesterday, still some glaring issues but probably as comfortable as you'll get at this level. Fulham are diabolical, so let's not get too carried away. Armstrong was excellent again, all over the pitch, box to box, driving and opening space. KWP equally great down the right hand side. Those two were the stand outs. Adams seems to be getting his standard end of season goal flurry, but if you look at his record it's actually very respectable and not worth the posts ''he's a championship striker'' - he's not, he's a decent PL forward. Salisu looks good doesn't he? So mobile on the ball, reads and intercepts so well. Very strong and wins a lot in the air. My only concern is where do we play him next year? He can't play right sided CB, and neither can Vestergaard - so it's one or the other. Sell Vestergaard for as much dollar as we can get? Attack was ok, although it improved markedly once Tella came on. It makes such a difference when you have an attacking player, you know, attack? Redmond is defensively sound, tracks back well, gets up and down well. In an attacking sense is is a shambles and always has been, bar 1 purple patch every 18 months. If we are serious about progressing he needs to go. He's been here fro what, 5 years now, this is him and it's an absolute mess trying to watch him create for us every week If I'm honest. It's nice to end the season well, but Leeds at home will be a much sterner test.

Loftus-Cheek has born the brunt of a lot of fan frustration from Fulham this year, they've had enough of him. I've seen the terms 'washed up' 'waste of space' '10 men' posted quite a few times when he's playing on twitter and their forums etc. He's a player who seems to sit on the periphery of games, doesn't particularly put himself about and seems to react rather than proactively press. What on earth do we see in him based on that? I don't get it, nothing adds up there in terms of type of player we'd be interested in. It does feel make or break for his top level career though, maybe he'll take this as his last chance saloon.

What a game that was. Great fun.

Why on earth do a top flight club want Valery? Would be a weird move for Newcastle.

I don't think he really said anything? He knows he made a mistake against united, Ralph believes he can one day play at a very high level. Hard to get into the team due to Diallo, and Armstrong adapting well to that role - and with Romeu around usually etc. Needs to take his chance when it comes. Not sure what's bizarre in any of those comments really.

I think he's equally as adept on either side to be honest, obviously being right footed helps the attacking element from that side, but I think he's perfectly capable of producing a similar game at left back. I think we will also buy a natural left back though, but someone with an eye on the future rather than a ready made starter (Our market will be the Diallos/Salisu's etc). Williams would be the immediate addition on a loan whilst the new permanent signing grows accustomed to this league and our ways.

To be fair, he's improved massively with playing out of defence. He was a big factor in Ings equaliser as he sprayed the ball left to Redmond in the first place. He's pretty average, but he's probably suited to our level right now more than anyone. He struggled a bit last night I thought with Benteke but I genuinely don't see how we're going to get better than Bendarek, a polish international, with our budget.

True, he does suffer with fitness issues but that's because he does expel a lot of energy in games. Buzzes around all over the place. Maybe he needs to manage the games a bit better? I don't know, but he does have periods in games where he is just full of it.

28 WTF. Where has my life gone.

Our best approach is to keep him, buy someone this summer for £10-15m (or a loan with a view to buy) who can use a season to grow into the side with the idea of them replacing Ings. Still risky, but probably the safest way of doing it. Selling now and pocketing £20m would put us in as worse a position as letting him go for free without a replacement.

I don't think we can count on Will having a pre-season or being avaliable for the start though, so I don't think we can count on him. I reckon he'll head out on loan in January to get some game time. I do genuinely think we will see another CM arrive, esp if Jankewitz leaves. Two full backs, a CM, Theo and depending on things, maybe an attacker late on in a loan deal is what I can see.

I remember when we signed him, there was collective uproar on here that we were replacing £32m Shaw with a freebie loan who had been relegated the season previous with Villa. I guess it's a lesson to give everyone a chance, no matter where or what they're coming from. We have enjoyed Bertrand at the peak of his career and I'm glad that he was here throughout that. He has provided us some wonderful memories, particularly in the Koeman years. It was probably one of the best £15m we've spent in recent times, an absolutely no thrills full back who rarely provided any glaring issues. We've been pretty comfortable for 7 years at LB because of Ryan being around. Sadly his legs have started to go a little, he cannot get up and down the pitch with the same vigour that he used to. That massively impacts our game as it requires the full backs to press hard and stretch, so he's struggled a little bit with the intensity over the last 12 months I've felt. Overall though a great servant for us, lots of good memories - but now is the right time for both the club and himself to follow different paths. Hopefully he finishes his career at a decent club and maybe one day comes back here in a different capacity.

He can play anywhere in the midfield really, he has such good energy. Absolutely perfect player for this kind of high tempo game. Easily my player of the season. I think he's been someone who has stood up throughout the season, even during the bad games/bad runs he has been someone who could always hold his head up high.

There have been links to Arsenal for a while now, cropped up in the last few windows so probably something in it. Arsenal fans must be close to mutiny though, Bertrand isn't a signing who is going to take them anywhere bar where they are now, maybe lower. All a bit strange really.