S-Clarke

I'd definitely agree with that, if it's the approach we're taking. There's no question we need a right back, but my feeling is that the RB will also end up being someone who can cover left back - and we'll also sign a first choice left back.. Can't see Bertrand hanging around, no real value in keeping him apart from experience. I'd like another midfielder as well, if we're letting Jankewitz go (and Smallbone is long term).

And to add to that, we also have a game in hand against Palace (plus we play Fulham at home). Personally, I don't see Fulham getting anymore than 34 points. Not really sure why this thread has been bumped again to be honest. There's more chance of Diana coming back to life.

God forbid a player has a poor run of form. He's shown us what he can offer, just struggling at the minute - like most of the team.

Being honest, I think we need a rebuild of the lot. But I know we can't do that, so we have to try and polish the turd a bit. GK: McCarthy - Keep - decent backup, but pretty average truth be told. I think we will sign a new goal keeper next summer, not something for this window. Forster - Keep - no one is going to buy him, so we might as well use him given what he's being paid. Lewis - Leave. Not good enough, needs to leave for his sake. RB: KWP - Keep, no questions there. Valery - Sell/release/free - whatever it is, no where near to the level required. LB: Bertrand - Release. Thank him for his service, he's been a great long-standing player for us. It's clear his legs have gone though and this is one position we 110% need to add to and improve on. Vokins - Loan. I don't think he'll ever be good enough for us, but another loan won't do him any harm. He's not yet good enough to be backup for the PL though. CB: Bednarek - Keep. Solid, average PL defender. No more, no less Vestergaard - Keep. Solid, decent ball playing PL defender. If a big bid comes in, upwards of £25m, then I'd be tempted. Otherwise, keep. Salisu - Keep. Certainly has ability, needs to grow into the team. I just hope we don't try and shoehorn him in at LB just so he gets game time Stephens - Keep - Squad player, decent to keep around. CB is probably our most covered area, so I'd be reluctant to reduce that. RM: Moussa - Sell. Not great, he's been here 2 seasons now and hasn't ever done anything. Looks too lightweight and we need better than him IMO. Armstrong - Keep. One of our best players, just needs to work on his fitness. He can't seem to last more than 40mins. LM: Redmond - Keep, but as a squad player. I'd be keen to either give Tella the birth or buy better in this position. Tella - Keep - more game time I hope, I think he's one of the better 'winger' options we have to be honest. Minamino - Let go. Doesn't look suited to this league, certainly wouldn't pay any fee for him. CM: JWP - Keep, nothing more to say there. Diallo - Keep, again pretty decent young player Romeu - Keep, no arguments. Jankewitz - Keep - I'd keep him, but I think we'll see him sold to be honest. Smallbone - Loan. I like him, but after a bad injury I think he needs football so a loan will make sense. ST: Adams - Keep, good player. Handful for CB's. Needs to work on his finishing though, it lets the rest of his game down massively. Ings - Keep, no question. The best attacker we have, when on song, we are on song. If we lose him and try to be clever with a replacement we are pretty much gone. He's our only source of goals really. Theo - Keep. It's a tough one, if you look at his performances overall I think he's been no more than average. But when you think of what you're getting for free (plus wages)...it kind of feels like a no brainer in terms of adding some experienced depth to the squad. N'Lundulu - Loan. Needs some regular games in my opinion in a lower league Obafemi - Loan. See how he does with a season on loan, see if he can overcome these injuries and get a run of games. Players on loan: Elyonoussi - Keep/potential to sell if the money is right. I think the club will keep him as a squad player, adds another option in those front 3 positions and wide areas. I don't think he's particularly suited to the league, but we might as well keep him as we're not going to be buying anyone else, as we'd only be able to loan him out again. Lemina - Sell - to anyone. Hoedt - Sell - to anyone Gunn - Sell - if we get a bid, but continue the loan at Stoke otherwise. What we need: For me, the priorities are clear. A new starting left back and a new squad full back, someone who can cover both left and right. An additional striker up top, if we loan out Obafemi and N'Lundulu I feel we need another 'powerful' option to play through the middle. I'd also be tempted to buy a new central midfielder, someone who is a different profile to what we have at the moment - a box to box style all action CM, we don't really have that. Lots of nice pivot players, but no one powerful who can go box to box. We need another attacking wide player too, Elyounoussi may well come back and provide more depth but we need a better winger than Moussa imo. So, 4 or 5 additions (whilst retaining the core players of what we have) ..can we do that?

Any chance of a new owner actually happening by the summer? It feels like a very slim hope.

Yeah, it's all a thoroughly depressing state of affairs to be honest. In 2020 this club gave us all some life after a horrible few months being stuck in doors, football was great again and it all gave us something to enjoy and celebrate. Now I just want it all to end. Who knows what happens next season, but let's be honest this bunch of players have always struggled at this level, that's never changed bar a few purple patches here and there (Ralph is the only manager who has managed to get any sort of purple patch out of them to be fair)….but generally this group have been struggling under different managers for years.

Good point, in the whole reaction I forgot he got injured. Great. He's had an absolute season to forget hasn't he. I think he'd be foolish not to take up the contract offer here to be honest.

I think he's quite a tidy player, Diallo. He's on a bad patch of form now though, there's no doubt in that. Let's no re-write him as a player on the back these games, he's shown some real ability in previous matches - in a two with JWP as well. Players go through poor form in a season, every player does. Our squad cannot absorb that though, so we have to carry out of form players when they get those runs.

Probably because Stephens can cover RB if required. Jankewitz is there for the worst case.

Leeds have a better squad than us, I'd say anyway. Much more depth and players more suited to that way of playing. They were able to go and throw £25m at Diego Llorente, 30m at Rodrigo (albiet, he hasn't done much), £25m at Raphinia and it took them above us in quality during the summer. I don't rate our players as much as some do.

This is the problem, none of those names are anywhere near realistic. That's what some fans aren't realising. If we get rid of Ralph, we are not attracting people like Steven Gerrard or Lampard to us. Not a chance. Maybe Sam Allardyce if he doesn't stay at West Brom? That's probably the level we'll be aiming at. They'll all be out of clubs too, you won't see us appointing a new manager who is currently employed such as Frank, as we don't have the funds for that.

It needs to be said, 100%. You can't ignore that run of form, that is what we've all seen and why I'm a massive fan of Ralph and his approach. You have to caveat it slightly though - that year was bookended by two breaks, so we had a lot of recovery time during 2020 and quite a weird/unknown situation to come back to in June which we seemed to adjust to better. The problem is over a full season I don't think the squad has the legs for this type of football, that seems to be showing it's self clearer by the week at the moment.

I'd say in the end it does boil down to fitness issues, probably like you said a lot of self inflicted fatigue through our poor control of games. But we do empty out of energy as the game goes on. To counter that, we're not going to get better players, so is the only other way here another approach? I like the approach of the counter press/high energy football, but if this squad doesn't suit that and we don't have the funds to build a squad to suit that, then....do we go and get a manager who fits this squad better? I'm fully behind Ralph and the philosophy, but if the club aren't willing to back that philosophy with the right players then we're kind of at a complete dead end and it's going to hurt the club.

Too much focus on VAR or decisions. We didn't deserve to win the game on that 2nd half showing. We had a decision in our favour through Moura's offside, but we still couldn't repel them and it was a clear penalty. Who and what handled in the build up, who knows, but Moussa was there again with all his legs causing carnage. That's all that matters and it was clear. VAR or referees had nothing to do with that result.

Sorry, very fair point - did mean to mention him. He was very good, comms kept calling him a young left back etc, it was easy to forget he's a centre back by trade - but he adapted well, I think he shut Bale out of the game most of it. Obviously helps defending when you have 3 CB's in the box as well. I just hope the club don't see that and think we can skimp on a left back, because Salisu will be a good centre back for us - don't see him as a left back going forward.

He's marked his card I think. Ralph doesn't often go back to players he's clearly discarded. He'll be going, just hope we get a decent fee so we can improve the catering facilities.

I wouldn't say so much it's a case of a manager changing it up, the players are professional and they didn't turn up in the first half. So they were automatically going to be better and do the things they should have automatically been doing in the first half. The problem was two fodl really, we expelled all our energy in the first half and iddn't really capitalise and then when they did improve, as they were going to, we just didn't have the energy in us to repel it. I don't really know what to do, I'd change the entire squad up to be honest with one that is more suited to how we clearly want to play, but we all know that's not going to happen. Clubs in limbo and a very, very, very dangerous limbo.

That was a game which summed up our season and demonstrated the two sides of this team. 1st half, high press, counter pressing, quick movement in the final third and just too quick for Spurs in thought and play. We were fitter, stronger, more energy. We just had too much, everything was positive and things were going well, players looked 20ft taller than the opposition - nothing bad happening to derail us and we had it all our own way. The reality is that during those phases we need to capitalise and score as many goals as we can at full throttle. 2nd half, as you can almost guarantee, the opposition will improve. They pushed up higher and on top of that you could visibly see our team getting sapped of energy, physically and more worryingly mentally. Bit by bit you saw our energy draining, it was like a computer game really - you see the players on green and full health at the start, and by probably 50mins we were all on a tiny red line. In those situations you rely on 2 things to get you over the line. 1) The substitutes to be the right ones, and to impact the game and replace that energy and 2) Leaders who galvanise the group and pull us through the periods of dips, but sadly that didn't happen and never does happen. Diallo ruined our midfield and just didn't get up to the game at all. Moussa, well, what more can you say. Had enough of him. All legs and absolutely nothing else. As has been said many a time, when the going gets tough they all shrink by 10 ft and pass responsibility to each other. That might sound harsh, but it's what I've seen for years with this group. On the good points, Tella - excellent, full of energy in the first half, lots of positive running - Redmond and Moussa could learn a lot from him. Ings and Adams movement and link up was as good as it's been for a while, so that was a positive. Armstrong in the middle was outstanding, driving forward and gobbling up the space Spurs were leaving. Sadly he only seems to have around 40mins in him. Same old story really. Shit squad depth that is absolutely out on it's arses fitness wise, and a severe lack of mental toughness. End this season now please, we all need a total reset and we need to work out what the fuck is up with our fitness levels - and squad depth.

Uefa showing their lack of balls by 'welcoming back' Man City: “I am delighted to welcome City back to the European football family," said Ceferin. “They have shown great intelligence in listening to the many voices - most notably their fans - that have spelled out the vital benefits that the current system has for the whole of European football; from the world beating Champions League final right down to a young player’s first coaching session at a grassroots club.

I'd take him on loan tbf, as long as Chelsea pay 90% of his wage.

All the teams in the play offs have a game in hand over the few as well. It's a shame really, I was kinda hoping for one of those play off failings again. They have provided some end of season entertainment the last few years.

Good old Nige, taking Charlton above the few. Charlton are 5-0 up atm.

Maybe Chelsea will have to refrain from loaning out 350 players every season now.

Absolutely, if anything positive comes from this it would be that.

Reckon this is a possibility. All these big power owners pulling away their purse strings and stopping any of these clubs buying players. Could go that way. At least we might keep Ings now.