S-Clarke

The Brighton game livened up in the 1st half (Towards the end). Brighton had a pen awarded by VAR and then subsequently went on to miss it. Two mins later Brighton bundled the ball into the net and celebrated a goal from a corner, but that was then ruled out by VAR as Maupay 'brushed' it out of Butlands hands. He had two hands on it to be fair. Brighton being brighton, better chances but cannot put the ball away.

I don't think people are expecting to get him for £5m, but the same deal is still a possibility in the sense of a buy back or first refusal. I think it's all academic chat anyway, I don't think we have a sniff of getting him. Best chance is a loan for a 2nd year.

I think you often see clubs that are united from the top down do well. Leicester are a fine example of that. Whenever there is uncertainty at the top it will always filter down and eventually impact the first team, maybe not immediate but certainly over time.

That's not obvious at all is it! The PL have screwed the season with this unambiguous rule. Clubs are just taking the piss out of it and will continue to do so until the PL refine it.

It's all looking really positive to me. Our head to head comparison is very healthy, which is probably pointing to a better season than last season. The last season comparison is closing up as well, so as long as we have less of a disaster of a 2nd half then we will finish in the 50's points wise in my opinion. Feels a long way off, but if we replicate or even better the first half then we're on for that.

Hope you get out soon Minsk and hopefully you're feeling better!

I've never really rated him myself, but he's been one of the best keepers in the league this year in my opinion. Didn't expect him to do as well as he has at Arsenal.

He was epic against Brentford, his best performance for us in my opinion. I know at the time we bought him he was the PEH replacement, but I don't think he was ever that really. I know when Romeu is out we put Diallo in there but they're totally different players. Diallo will thrive in a team with security behind him and where he has the freedom to burst forward. I don't think we'll see the best of him if we deploy him in a two alongside JWP where he is expected to be the deeper of the pivot. Very talented player though, lots of pace and really agile.

Sky don't check sources a lot of the time, they just throw it out there for the big story. A lot of what they report in January is agent fed or twitter rubbish. They are like twitter on steroids on deadline day.

I'd imagine talks have already started in the background. He's got all the tools to be top class, he's still a bit of a rough diamond in certain aspects though - for that reason I don't think top, top clubs will be sniffing 'just' yet. Probably in his best interests to sign a new 5 year deal with us, carry on playing regular and progressing for another 18 months and then we will probably start to see the big interest.

Nah, not really sure he'll add anything we don't already have. We've already got loads of number 10's who flatter to deceive and don't actually score, so we don't need another one. He seems very erratic. I don't think you can question his application or commitment, but I think as fans we may be a bit bias towards him as his best game of the season is 99% of the time against us.

I remember that one very well! We weren't fancied at all, I remember dreading it. Wolves were playing well themselves, we went there with a threadbare squad and lots of square pegs. Wolves attacked us all game, created so many chances, missed a penalty. We just kept hitting them on the break and we were very clinical about it. Saganowski was in the mode of everything he hit went in as well!

It would be a shitty relegation for all those clubs in the Champ hoping to compete, especially whoever got relegated with Newcastle. They'd just buy all the best Championship players and storm to 100+ points or something daft like that. As funny as it would be, a relegation wouldn't really harm Newcastle or set them back. It would allow them to 'walk a league' and get some serious momentum to continue when they get back up.

I think you can often tell if a player has it (the superstar level potential), you don't need history of stats to back that up. When Bale, Shaw, Ox etc made their first few starts with us, they didn't have any stats to back them up but you just knew they had a bit of superstar swagger about them and that eventually they'd get those high end stats. As fans we're lucky to have witnessed the development of some great young players, so we should all be fairly good judges of a young player without needing stats to validate it. From what I have seen, Broja has that swagger about him, so does Tino. They will both go to the very top. Compared to players like Armstrong, Adams etc, they'll do a job...but they just lack that extra step those young guys have.

Agreed, 28/29 will be the cut off. The rqd points has dropped so much over the last couple of years, probably a case of the gulf getting too big. Established clubs are miles ahead. Bar the ocasional stories of the likes of Leeds, Brentfords, Sheff U (using momentum from their promotion - but it does catch up with them) promoted clubs nowadays just struggle to even get close to competing. So you'll get a clutch of clubs who just bounce between leagues for infinity (Norwich, West Brom, Watford etc)

And that was after he'd previously blown up, at 85mins. Only to be forced to restart, but like you said he still didn't finish 90mins. All very weird. He must have had some money on Mali.

Very fair assessment of him. I described him as a bit of a terrier, never giving away much space and not afraid to get stuck in. He doesn't hide and you can never have any question marks about his application. From what I've seen he just lacks that bit of quality, it really does show when he's being expected to attack as he doesn't produce that final ball. Decent player to have around longer-term I can see Small as our LB.

Glad he's got a move, didn't want him stagnating in the U23's. He was put into the spot light quite a lot last year because we were so short, never looked quite ready but didn't let anyone down. Hope he does ok there.

They did well out of that one. They got Ben White in to replace him. We were linked with him for quite some time back in the Wilson and Les days, looks quite slow to say the least.

He's got a 'Tim, nice but Dim' vibe about him. Thinks incredibly highly of himself, but hasn't really done anything to back that up. Talks a lot but doesn't seem to know what he's saying half the time. He kept incorrectly calling out Diallo as Tella in the goal replays.

Lambert - He was awesome for us in the first couple of PL seasons, he went up another level under Poch Jay - Started slow, but under Poch him and Lambo were unplayable at times. They worked really well together alongside Lallana in the hole. That was a great team. Ings - Kept us up for a couple of years with his goals, he was a pleasure to watch during 2020 under Ralph. Pelle - He got some pelters for his debut, but he gave us such a preseance up top and it allowed the likes of Mane and Tadic to flourish in and around him. 12 goals in his first season isn't to be sniffed at. Can't quite go with Broja yet, give him a full season and see how it ends. Attribute wise he's certainly got it all though. Gabbianni had the 'Saganoswki' effect for me, good for 6 months and then non-existent there after. Good player in there for sure, not sure if our shitty managers at the time played him wrong or not, but he struggled in the grand scheme.

I guess it's a hard sell, but they have a lot of money to offer in wages so it becomes an easier sell in that sense. I know Howe said Trippier didn't go there for the money, but whatever. He wouldn't have gone there otherwise. 30/35m on Chris Wood just feels a bit panicky to me. No real plan to that one and someone they'll probably loan out in 12 months time to a Champ side. He's not even been particularly good for Burnley this year.

That is his position in a nutshell really. That formation did work really well for us in the sense of our 'style, but I think we'd need another Salisu style CB though before I'd be fully confident playing that way.

He's done well this season, certainly looks more accomplished and complete compared to McCarthy. The problem with Forster is the stupid contract he was given, so he'll drift out of contract and find a club elsewhere. He still has limitations in his game but that's where we are. I think we'll get ourselves a new number 1 in the summer either way, McCarthy will end up the backup keeper and Fraser will be at a new club somewhere.

I'd be tempted, if we can, to start negotiating that loan deal now. Clubs have extended loans in the January window before. I'm sure chats are happening, so we'll see what happens. We're happy he's here, he's happy he's here, Chelsea are going to be happy with how he's doing here.