S-Clarke

Yeah, I can see it playing out unfort. We wouldn't be able to pay him the wages he probably feels he wants now, so he's going to bide his time, it'll get to next summer and we'll have a 'can't lose him for free' scenario develop in front of our eyes. £30-40m? Tops.

They've got a player in James who will be a game changer for them. Calvert-Lewin will score goals, he got 15/16 last year. He's a good goal scorer. They'll be up there for top 5 or top 6, no doubts. Be interesting to bounce that view at the end of the season!

The spurs fans were sold a duff by the media. 'A forward thinking midfielder' 'the first potential replacement for Eriksen'. That performance there was him, that's Hoj. It doesn't get any better or worse than that. That's why I've never understood the clamour for him.

Ruben Loftus is exactly the type of midfielder we need, profile wise. Be interesting to see if this happens.

Standard Hoj performance really, they'll enjoy his home performances. All he'll do is stop them playing.

He is very limited, but he's still decent enough. Still pretty technical, but too slow in my opinion. Like you said, squad player and in the team for certain games etc. We really need someone to step in and replace him as a regular, I'm sure Ralph wants that but it all depends on how much finance is available. Romeu was bought as a squad player for us under Koeman and I have no issue having him in the squad, I'd still expect him to play 20 odd games a season.

I must admit, It's a bit odd hearing the commentators saying 'Koch' at random points during the Leeds game. There could be some really uncomfortable timing moments as the season goes on! Wonder how long before they're asked to call him Robin instead...? (probably not long in this world)

Fair enough. Yeah, agreed our match day revenue is a small income compared to our PL TV money, but it would still need to be covered in some way. That 80m clearly wasn't a loan to aid us in the transfer market anyway!! Agree, it's certainly not good to just say you're happy with the status quo. There's a lot wrong with his ownership IMO, and I'll always stand by that and will be very pleased to see the back of him.

Not sure anyone is being that negative to be honest, just offering opinions. As you said, everyone's opinion is different and we all have different types. So labelling others that have a different opinion to yours as bedwetters is a bit silly. We didn't play well at all, in my opinion. If that's our standard then we are in for a pretty long season. But it won't be, so we'll be in the mid-table zone again which is about fair for us.

Not entirely sure what that is for, but quite a few clubs have used a form of loans during this 'coronavirus' period. Possibly leveraged against future TV income, not sure. We've got to plan in the eventuality that stadium numbers will still be through the floor all season, that's a key income for any club. I imagine that loan is just helping us cover that issue, amongst many others. It's not great, no, but we don't have a very engaged owner so it's prob our only option.

I don't think anyone's wetting the bed.

Could have been equally him or Stephens to be honest, both way too slow to be playing in a line that high. I'm sure we didn't press that high last season? Vestergaard wasn't any better. Salisu soon I imagine.

I'm not sure what Ralph see's in Smallbone during training to suggest he's a like for like for Armstrong? Smallbone looks like a bog standard clogger midfielder to me, doesn't look like he has attacking instincts and likes to play the safe pass. Good option in the squad and he will mature I'm sure, but he's certainly not an Armstrong replacement.

Bump to this - absolutely flawless pre and post match for me. Impressive. I had days of not being able to get on here over the last few months, but since last weekend it's been flawless. Nice one Steve on whatever has been changed, as it's a different kettle of fish now.

He's not being serious 😉

a CM at absolute most in my opinion. I've said before we need more on the flanks, Redmond has no real competition pushing him from the left. Boufal isn't a winger either, and isn't reliable enough. Sims isn't good enough either, so we do need another wide player IMO, but we'd certainly need to sell more to get one.

Bit OTT to say huge pressure at this stage! Will probably lose that, but perform a lot better. We're no more than mid table, wobbling between 10th-14th, we'll finish in that sort of range this year.

Could have been a similar score line to the Burnley game last year, it was certainly a similar performance though. Inept for 90% of that game to be honest, everyone looked off it from min 1 to min 96 - bar maybe 5 or 6 mins in the middle somewhere. Dreadful, dreadful performance from Redmond. Awful showing from Smallbone too, not sure what he adds. We were playing with 9/10 men for most of that. Ings and Adams starved of anything decent to work with as the width just didn't produce. We finished last season well, but I hope we haven't rested on our laurels. Need to keep improving to keep up with this league.

Vestergaard on for Stephens. Here is the creativity...😉

Romeu is ok, but I do agree that his position is where the money needs to go. Someone with a bit of a 'box to box' nature about them, we lack that drive and power from CM. Smallbone cannot play the Armstrong role. Hopefully throw Moussa on in the 2nd half and scrap the Smallbone idea.

Standard Lemina really, it's unusual if he plays more than 20 odd games a season. Can't build a side around that.

Looks like Burnley away at the start of last season for me, we look off it in every position. Weirdly, it looks like we're on the beach. No chance for Ings or Adams to get into the game, but you kinda want to see more from Adams in games like this? Smallbone, completely unbalanced us in my opinion. It's like paying with 10 men. Credit to Palace, they're marking tightly and hitting us on the break. Very tricky as it stands to even see us creating a chance.

I respect your views and your opinions, I don't want to throw this into a 2-way either. All I will say is that I'm ambitious about my football club, I think there's potential in here to do well and I've always felt that. Investment is part of it, of course, but having a drive from the top is equally as important - it just feels like we're treading water at the mo. Kat said she'd sold us to take us to the next level, I see no evidence of that. Markus put significant money into this club to bring us back. We spent a fortune in L1 (on wages and transfer fee's) and he spent a fortune building the new training facilities etc, no...he didn't shout loud, but it was clear to see his input. With Gao, I can't see his input and I haven't from day one. I can't be the only one bothered by that? Anyway, as I said - I respect your views, we agree to disagree on this subject and we'll see how the future pans out!

As i said, I get those views and I can understand where people are coming from to a degree. But my view is that it's not sustainable long-term, there needs to be a better model driven by the owner. One bad season and relegation and that entire model is in total tatters, it's heavily reliant on us staying in the PL by hook or crook and retaining that income. My biggest gripe has always been his lack of presence. Remember the talk of the five pledges, or whatever they were? Never heard a thing, no one knows what his plan is - I think that's part of the problem. Is he looking to develop us? develop the area? sell up quickly to any charlatan and run? He's not built a connection with the fan base and no one knows his intentions, it's not a recipe for long-term success or development imo. Football clubs are unique and totally different to a normal business, running it like a bog standard business isn't going to provide much in the way of growth or development.

The whole market feels a bit dead to be honest. We could probably do with losing Hoedt first to free up a little more $$. Towards the end of this month things will ramp up in my opinion. Clubs see how their squads settle in after a few weeks/react to injuries etc. We'll see what happens.