S-Clarke

But isn't he forgetting the primary role of a LB? Defending. And he can't defend. And to be fair to him that shouldn't be expected of him either, he's an attacker. If he's effective offensively then we play him as a winger, which is what he is. Would be suicide to have him as a LB in the PL.

Really? Bailey is a superstar, he'll rip it up. Cantwell has improved massively since his season in the Prem. Watkins is much better than Pukki. If they don't finish top 6 with or without Grealish then Dean Smith needs binning. We'll be nowhere near them sadly. They've gone up a couple of levels since promotion and have overtaken us in the process.

The mass subs have done the usual tbh. Killed the flow.

I know it's only a friendly etc, but I've seen him in these last two games and he's still as limited as he was when we loaned him out. Like you say, slow physically and slow to the thought as well. Really not suited to our game at all.

Love Armstrong.

Fairly sure Benduia will come out of that fee as well.

Neither of our keepers can play that 'sweeper keeper' role, so it baffles me as to why they both keep trying it. Must be coaching encouragement. Which is equally as baffling.

Tella looks like he's going to be one of the first names on the team sheet this season. His progress in the last 12 months has been extraordinary. McCarthy trying to play football again, which he can't. Wish he'd just cut that shit out and do the basics.

Life isn't an exact science, clubs and agents make things up. Injuries and knocks are made up at times, just as an excuse so they don't have to play/get injured. It might not be the case here, but as others have said...this guy never misses a game. Not friendlies, not cup games, not league games. Never misses them. Then all of a sudden on the back of interest he's missed two in a row. That's why it 'smells' a bit.

Yeah, that does 'smell' a bit to be honest. Let's see what happens.

I don't think it was just a case of us needing to pay Koeman the money, the club as a whole got full of it's self. Believed it's own hype, got carried away on the black box train. Thought we could unearth the next super star manager etc etc. We did have the ability in those days to spend decent money on players because we hadn't previously saddled ourselves with crap (And we had lots of good players already here who we were able to sell for big money). Sadly we then went on a campaign of messing up every.single.major transfer we made in that period. Boufal - failed, given away on a free. Hoedt - failed, given away on a free. Carillo - failed, given away on a free. Just there alone is around 45-50m of player we paid for...and didn't see a penny return financially or even on the pitch. That's what's killed us. Things have improved since in relation to Diallo, KWP, Ings, Adams etc...but significant damage was done in those proceeding years by Reed and co who really should be held accountable for gross negligence. I've always felt that Ralph is the right man but at the wrong time. Just think of the money we handed Mark Hughes, Puel, Pellegrino and look at the constraints a much better manager has to operate under. It's very frustrating. But again, that's all mistakes of the past.

I don't think we're up financial shit creek per-say, I just think we're struggling as are most clubs with the huge losses. I'd say the difference between Leeds, Villa and Everton to an extent is is that they have ownership to offset those losses slightly. We don't even have that. We have an owner with no ability to offset any of our losses, so we have no external investment what so ever bar TV Money, sponsorships and player trading. Those external payments have to service everything from stadium upkeep, staplewood costs, day to day business costs etc. For a club of our size...the only way we can really operate at this level is to have shit hot scouting and shit hot coaching, we cannot afford to make big mistakes and big gambles with transfers. Our ideal model means you can buy a player for £10m - sell him in 2 years for £50m etc. or Develop young players for 'free' and sell them for multi million pounds. We're not a massive club and without ownership investment then this is the model we have to follow in order to be 'successful' - but 3 or 4 horrific transfer windows have totally killed us dead. We cannot move. We just need to bide our time and see where we are in a couple of years, if our scouting has improved them we may be able to sell a Diallo, Salisu or Perrud for those big, big fees that will allow us to compete more. And we may even have new ownership, which is more important than some realise.

Strange career he's had, never really a premier league player if we're honest - very good at Championship level. Yet he's won the PL!

They're still busy spending that Grealish money then. We'll need a fair bit more than that, make it double.

The only bank we're going to be breaking is the piggy bank in the secretary's office.

That's code for ''we won't be buying another full back'' if I ever saw it!

Villa have been planning for his departure for weeks, they wouldn't be throwing around £30m (potentially) on Bailey if he was staying. They know he's off, they're just using the time to replace now.

What worries me is that we've heard this many a time from Ralph. ''We need more players'' ''We need more players at full back'' ''I need a right back'' and every time he's been left short because we don't have the money. Let's see how it pans out.

2nd half was great, we picked them apart. Tella was electric, as was Redmond. Don't think much, if anything, of Elyonoussi. Looked how I remembered him, not suited to our game in the slightest.

Agreed, it's been really good. Not biased, fair and really well researched for both clubs. Better than listening to Sky or BT Sport. On another note, Redmond has been unplayable - he's changed the game and opened it up. Elyonoussi was a little man lost out there for the time he was on.

I know it's just speculation, but that's so believable. I wouldn't have expected anything less from him. He's a totally flawed individual. A complete journeyman who will forever have an unfilled career in the sense of being a footballer, but I'm sure his bank balance and brands are strong.

I think last season was a fine example that their 'B Team' experiment was nothing short of a disaster. Much happier with more of a reserve team approach to be honest, might give some of the talented youngsters more of a chance to shine.

People calling for Svensson or Perry don't get the concept. As others, I read the post earlier this week and it's quite clear what the intention is. Sign a 'current' professional football player to play for the B Team. I'd say in the context we've done well to get Ollie in, someone who played quite regular in L1 last season - and this is just a B team player. That 'team' needed some added experience to it, the concept of 'reserve' football has been lost and I think there needs to be more of a hybrid model between experienced and 'up and coming' players in these 'B' teams. Otherwise you get in the mess we did last year. A squad full of underage players, 16's, 17 year olds, absolutely out of their depth with no experience around them.

The injuries and his fitness are the one big concern and worry about this 'possibility'. But we shouldn't turn our noses up to experience. That's what this squad lacks to be honest. It may not seem a sexy signing on the outset, but a lot can be said for a bit of old fashioned experience being added to a group. I don't think West Ham fans were doing cart wheels when Dawson signed, but he turned out to be excellent and added that knowhow and experience.

The only person who knows that is Yan himself. This is probably not the right place for that sort of speculation.