S-Clarke

I find it hard to class Tella as a 'youngster', he's 22 this year. I'd expect to see much more from him by this age if he's going to be a mainstay. Youngsters for me are 16/17/18/19 year olds. F**k me, I sound old now.

True, there was that chatter for a while. Her and KL had quite a strong relationship or something. But again, I don't think I've ever heard Nelly speak? certainly no statements.

He's probably too good for L1. No better than Championship though, he may make a decent lower half PL player at some point...but I've always thought we should be aiming higher.

I'd say we're missing Vestergaard more than people realise. That's not something I thought I'd be saying a year ago. Our key outlet to breaking an opposition press was by having Vestergaard play an accurate ball through the middle (by passing the oppo's midfield) or accurately switching play to the right flank. It was a tactic which was getting us success time and time again, we were breaking through a teams midfield through one Vestergaard pass. If you watch the way we played, we'd draw the team onto us...and then he'd make the pass, and half the oppositions team would be out of the game and we'd be in their half. We don't have that now. We have Jack Stephens thinking he is Frank Beckenbauer - and then giving the ball away, that's it. Jan Bedenrak has never been that sort of player (passer) so I don't expect that from him. And away from that...set pieces. He was a massive threat from a JWP free kick/corner. If he didn't always get on the end of it, his presence would leave another player free. That's what we've missed in my opinion. That's why we look so poor going forward. A lot of our attacks were started by an accurate piece of distribution from our centre back, Jannik Vestergaard.

I think N'Lundulu has something about him, but that's his strength and power in the main. His touch in the last couple of appearances, as people have said, was shocking. Tella - not seen anything there, don't see a top level player at all. Doesn't seem to have it for me. I've heard so much chatter about Jankewitz over the years...so I was kind of excited to finally see him. Better touch/presence and technique than N'Lundulu, Watts, Chaulke or Tella in that small time he was on the pitch. There's obviously something with his attitude, but I'd be frustrated as well if I wasn't getting the chances. He probably thinks he's a better player than Watts and he's probably not wrong... If he does go then I think we'll be looking back in a few years time with a frustrated feeling, whilst Watts/Chulke head out on their 15th loan to Tranmere rovers.

I agree with what you say. I do like the leadership at the club (Martin, Ralph etc) but they can only work with what the owner provides. The local leadership and the manager have done wonders with the tools at their disposal. The start we had was a total false position and I think some people got carried away with that, where we are now is probably our ceiling. If we finish any higher than 10th then that deserves plaudits, would be a great achievement. My problem with Gao, and even Kat, is their silence. Of course, I don't want a lunatic owner who wants to change our name to Solent FC, but I do want an owner who at least communicates with fans and shares their plans and their ideas. Gao doesn't even have a 'Cortese' type who is his voice, he just isn't involved at all...and because of that It feels like we are just floating around with no real plan. Where are we going? Investment would be welcomed, of course, but I think in part we need to thank Les and Woss for their criminal waste of £80m of VVD money. But, I'd still hope for an engaged owner to at least give us a tiny bit of flexibility in the market. We seem to struggle to get a loan in without moving someone out first. We act like a club which is on the brink of financial collapse, which we may well be, but how would we know? We don't have an owner with any reassuring messages to fall back on.

Jeez, he's a no hope isn't he. What did we ever see in him!

No, not at all. I wouldn't want that. I don't know why people equate showing ambition to spending endless money. I guess all I've ever wanted from the ownership is a plan. 'This is why we've bought the club' 'This is what we want to do' 'It will take some time, but we want to take this club to this level''. Just providing us some flexibility and agility in the transfer market is all I ask for. We have to sell before we can even get a freebie and that will kill us eventually.

Sounds like we are still very interested in Brandon Williams on a loan deal. I don't see why it wouldn't be possible either, Man Utd can't give him game time. They've got Wan Bissaka, Telles, Shaw. The only question you'd ask is if they have a backup right back, and Williams can also play there. It's probably up to Williams to force the move if he wants to be first choice somewhere else.

If he does leave, then yourselves or Everton are the best bet for him in terms of regular game time. I'd say clubs of your level are his level....if he steps up further to a Liverpool, Man City etc then he will end up on the bench as they chase the European super stars. You'd be a good fit for him for years to come if he did leave. It's just a shame we don't have owners who could provide a similar level of ambition to that of yours, but there we go.

I'm not sure you're thinking straight. If you think Forster is underrated then you're not quite with it. McCarthy is our best goal keeper and will continue to be our first choice. When he isn't our first choice, it will be because we have a new player, not Forster.

Not sure he's under rated at all? He's clearly our best left back by an absolute mile, no one is even close. He's slowed and aged, but still....we have no one who can touch him. We do need to have a better player behind him who can come in when required and then potentially become his replacement in a few years. Sadly I don't think that will be Vokins. We've produced a lot of good left backs and it's often been quick to see that they're capable, but Vokins doesn't look anywhere near the right level to me.

On top of the injuries....we also have key players out of form. Ings, Adams, Theo not great at the mo....so if you have those players dipping in form, and others missing...we have no chance! That's why I'm kind of pleased in terms of how well we competed really.

I hope KWP is back, I don't want to see Valery in the team again. Vokins isn't anywhere near either, so he needs to drop back. Glad Bertrand will be back for this one. I'm not sure about throwing Diallo at full back, as we take away his clear quality from the midfield. It's a really tough call. How about Ramsay? He may be a shout. Anyone but Valery, basically.

I wasn't expecting anything today, so not really surprised. I thought we played kind of ok, but we lacked the quality in the 3 areas of the pitch where we are stretched. Full backs, and CB. They took us apart down the flanks all game because of our full backs, who to be frank, were diabolical. We need a new full back as soon as possible, as neither of our backup options are clearly anywhere near the level we need. Ings is out of form, he's had a very stop start season due to injuries and he's struggling to get a head of steam going. Adams hasn't been great either for me, not really impacting the games as we have seen him do. Looks like it's all got a bit tougher for him all of a sudden. Diallo and Armstrong probably our best players, Armstrong's running in particular is a big positive to our positive approach at times. Onto the next one. Let's be honest, 10th-12th is a fair reflection of our squad. Let's not get sucked into the dream of finishing top 6 or even Top 4, it was never ever a possibility - we just had to enjoy it when it happened, and I think we did! Where we are now is realistic and without investment it's where we will stay, with occasional seasons flirting with the drop.

People are just expecting/demanding him to be a world beater. But he's not. He's good at what he does and he's been a good outlet for us. He's never been a clinical finisher, a good decision maker or blessed with the most amazing technique - so if fans want that, then they need to watch Messi.

I think it's more a case that we are 'aware' of the contract stuff, and some fans are now reading way, way too much into every single move, pass, smile, or facial expression he gives.

Wouldn't surprise me, I've already seen some 'he's shit anyway' type posts in recent days. Shocking really, but that's modern football fans for you.

Agreed, best player on the pitch for us. His running with the ball has been very impressive.

Yeah, JWP is certainly a better option than Valery. The prob is you lose that midfield join, he's really key in that pivot. I wonder if we'll get that backup full back before the end of the window which we've clearly been looking for!

Certainly not helping, but every team has a similar schedule. They have squad depth though. Our core squad (first 11/12) is Top 8 quality, the depth is bottom 3 level.

Any fix needs to include replacing Valery, who is one of the reasons we are being cut open down that side. Vokins not much better though. No one on the bench to replace either, herein lies our issue! Let's just see what happens.

It's been a very hectic game, end to end. They look like cutting us open on most attack. Stephens dreadful, Valery positionally shocking, Vokins not quite switched on either, McCarthy with a brain fart. We keep giving the ball away in the middle of the park as well. We've hit the situation we all knew we would. A very stretched squad due to injuries and on top of that some key players a long way from a decent level of form. Our squad depth was always going to even our league position out sadly.

It didn't take long for WHU to swing that around! 1-2 to WHU atm.

If you're going to spend big dollar on a striker, it surely has to be Haaland? The guy is the most natural finisher I've ever seen. I think he's got a £60-70m release clause at Dortmund too, they are probably regretting that low amount!