S-Clarke

I did think it was a bit shit stirring to be honest. He'll always get gigs in the media because he's a 'cheeky chappy'. But I think the fans a the clubs he's been at know what he's all about.

Bit of a bump, but I saw these quotes from our old mate Austin, and thought they were quite interesting. I'm not sure if Austin is doing his usual shit stirring though. Manchester United decided to sign Victor Lindelof over Virgil van Dijk in 2017, says Charlie Austin | Daily Mail Online

He was being picked, but he was never anywhere near being good enough. We had no other options at that point, it was pretty clear we were looking for any half decent RB to come in and they'd automatically take Valerys place. Dreadful positionally and switches off too much, seems to be in his makeup. There was a point we were trying to get a second full back as well, so we clearly don't have full faith in him as backup either. I can understand why.

I don't think we have the money for even a loan. I'm not sure many clubs do to be honest, I've forgotten it's a transfer window. Martin Seemens comments the other day were quite telling - we won't be buying players who are first team ready players, our now model is to find the Diallos, Salisu's etc who we have to build up to get to the level we need. Might take them a few months until they make an appearance etc.

So it'll be Valery then, awesome. Should be a game to watch from behind the sofa. Saka will have him for dinner and then finish him off for desert. Whoever is in front of Valery will need to be tracking back and then some.

Chelsea have got a history of having no patience though. They didn't stick with Salah, De Bryune, Lukaku - all 3 turned into world beaters. They brought in a policy of developing young players, so they sucked up every young player they could find and sent them all out on loan for 5 years if they hadn't become a world beater by day 30. Lampard was the manager to help develop that join between young and first team, but they only gave him 18 months. The only time they have ever had stability and what looked like a recruitment plan was when the Roman era started, back in 2004. Since then it's been a bit chaotic in the main.

So much time for that bloke. Created the most enjoyable 3 or so years I've ever had supporting this club. We were relentless. (I will credit him with input in what we did under Poch as well, he built an amazing foundation)

Good to see you still around. We've all had our 'arguments' over the years, but we all still had the same thing in common.

Proud moment for you. He's on!

Ok? I didn't question any of that. But there's no doubt he's happy enough with his load, even though he hasn't actually done much for any of the clubs he's been part of - apart from taking lots of $$$

He probably doesn't see it like that. Lots of bling, nice fast cars, nice women probably. He's laughing all the way to the bank! This potential deal is no surprise though, he's a proper journeyman. Hopefully at some point clubs stop giving him the opportunities, he's a hopeless professional.

Surely a part of any fee we receive will have to go towards servicing the debt? (not least the interest for year 1). Probably have around 10-15m to play with on a replacement. It won't get you much at all, but that's the world we live in now unfortunately. It'll be about developing a young player, not a straight Ings replacement. How that works out is anyone's guess! Hey, Ings may not even go yet.....although it does look very possible. Too much chatter for this to be progressing to a positive conclusion - we all know how this ends sadly

We all thought Koeman would leave us for a CL side, PEH said the same etc. The money will talk and the reality is that Everton and Leicester's owners have far more ambition and money than ours, so they are also in the equation for potential clubs - if he's available for £30m. A snip for those clubs

I share your fear and frustration. I think most of us knew that we'd struggle to sustain our form over an entire season. Whilst we had a good run for 40 or so games, that was actually spread across two separate seasons, so fatigue/fitness/injuries didn't come into it. Putting that form across 30 games in an actual season is impossible for us, it can't happen. With our current squad I'd say 10th-12th is about fair. It's frustrating because the core quality is probably top 8 plus, but we don't have the depth to cover for the inevitable loss of form/injuries over the course of a season, so our true position will always be 10-12th. It just felt like we were always an injury crisis away from slip sliding away from that top 7 area and unfortunately that seems to be happening. I will say that our recruitment over the last 4 years hasn't helped, it's been disastrous for a club of our size. Spending big fees on Hoedt, Lemina, Elyonoussi, Carillo, Boufal. That's upwards of £60m quid of players, 3 are out on loan and two of them left for free. That has killed us without question and I think it'll be years before we recover from that. Throwing 12m at Salisu doesn't exactly seem like a sound decision either, although still time there. It would be nice if we had an ownership who was engaged and interested in helping us progress in the here and now, rather than sat back and ensuring we make them money and run 'sustainably'. That's code for spending what you sell. It is a sad state of affairs and until we get a change of ownership which has some ambition (which looks further away than ever now) then we are hamstrung massively and relegation battling seasons will always be a possibility.

Second half we weren't at it, but I think we should have been at least 2-0 up in the first half. We were excellent then. We are just not scoring enough goals at the moment, Adams seems really off the boil to me - not sure if anyone else agrees? Theo is Theo, runs into blind alleys a lot and snatches at chances. That's pretty much Theo. Ings looked good, but he needs a run in the side to build some consistency again. Jan was my MOTM. Rock of a CB. Also a little note to Cedric - that's why most were glad to be shot of him. He's absolutely hopeless and today summed that up.

Is that one of the first ''He's not that good anyway, take the money' posts...? He's class in all elements of his game up front, he creates chances out of nothing and some of his close control in and around the box to bring others into play is second to none. He's struggled with a bit of consistency this season, but go back to last season and he was incredible in all areas of his game. Priceless to us.

I think he's absolutely class. He's so quick, so agile on the ball and surprisingly strong as well. On the ball his passing is pretty much spot on too. I really like him, I think he's a huge find. He will without doubt evolve into the starter in front of Romeu, but Romeu has earned his rep with us at the mo. Very nice conundrum to have though, as others have said.

David from Sweden is still around, he popped up with some posts the other day in the academy thread.

Liverpool dipped around feb last year and have never recovered. They are a long, long way off of that 'all conquering' side of 2019. This is not a 'blip', they have been throwing in performances like this for a year now. They've returned to their default level of averageness.

Smallbone and Tella are injured though, so Watts and Chauke are automatically promoted to their slots. Given we have no Moussa, Redmond, Tella etc then we are pretty stretched in the wide areas. I guess we could go for N'Lundulu and Adams up top, with Theo and Armstrong in the two 'wide' midfield slots.

Which is now much harder for clubs like us due to brexit. Basically, we're f***d.

Likely too expensive for us.

All footballers are the same. I'm sure we said the same about Wayne Bridge. $$$$ and that's the motivation. To be honest, most human beings are driven the same way.

I imagine we'll bring back the players who were on the bench tonight/got a rest tonight. The likes of Armstrong, Theo, Walker-Peters, Bertrand in from the start. I reckon Watts will get a start in the 4 alongside Diallo, JWP and Armstrong. Theo Adams up top. Back 4 - Bertrand - Jan - Jack - KWP Long left in the dressing room I hope.

Step forward Shane Long, this is your time.