S-Clarke

I mean, Fernandes can also do a 10. I wouldn't discount us continuing with Fernandes and having Rudoni too. We'd just have a really strong attacking base. (still need to improve the wide areas). What I would say though, if we get Rudoni and keep Fernandes, that almost certainly equals the end to that Eduard move - if it was ever on in the first place.

That's what I'd call him, yeah. A more attacking Downes, or an upgrade on Smallbone if you like.

I think he'd rotate with Downes, and potentially start in a 3 if we ever reverted to that (and dropped the 3 at the back crap). He's more energetic than Downes I'd say, more of a goal threat from late runs. I wouldn't call him a 10, defo a CM with an attacking upside.

He puts in an effort, he just can't pass the ball accurately enough. Definitely wouldn't compare him to BBD, at least Suguwara looks like a professional footballer.

Would be a really smart signing, Championship ready (one of the best Championship players in his position) and a PL upside to him if coached properly - he's still only 23/24. One of the midfield signings I wanted us to make, we defo need cover in the CM area.

Standard early season cup game really, the only memorable one in recent years has been that 8-0 away at Newport. They're always pre-season friendly-esque, just like this one really. Nothing to really talk about, other than what we already know. Archer has such a poor touch, and BBD is simply not a professional footballer. He reminds me of the centre forwards you see in Sunday league games, I'm not kidding either. How can we get rid of him? Anyway, next round.

Pushed them up much higher, moving it quicker in the final third. This comm keeps mixing up all our players too. He's called Suguwara THB, and Fernandes Suguwara a few times already.

£51m now.

Cracking finish that. His touch and composure was top class. Great run and intelligence too.

Maybe we can package BBD in a box labelled Dibling? Could work.

The natives are really not up for this Martin train. Plzten hit them with 28 shots today, could have got 4 or 5 goals on another night. His defensive coaching is still top notch.

Back to my eyes bleeding again then.

Yeah, horrendous. Not much more to be said really. Not even close to being a competitive team. It looks very much like an early season game, lots of rustiness etc, but for the wages and rep some of our players have, they have been technically horrendous. None of them seem to be able to control or pass a football. I don't like 3 at the back, never have done. I think it confuses the entire shape. Charles lost on his own in the middle, Fernandes isn't a partner in the CM role - he needs to push higher. We need better alongside Charles. We need such an injection of quality in the attacking wide area's though, but sadly what we have out there is almost £20m plus worth of it, which we need to ditch first, and none of it is good enough. A real problem area for us. (I'm not including Downs in that, way too early)

Every summer we're linked with a 'coup' level signing, but we never manage to pull it off. I'm not getting myself excited over Eduard until there's more evidence to support an actual move. It's all hope and speculation right now.

Pretty poor, didn't do much. More sub appearances for Anderlecht than starts. He was injured and in and out of the team too. I hoped it would be the season that announced him, but sadly it was just more of the same form Sam - so the club are well within the rights to ditch him at this point.

I notice that ABK isn't even mentioned or spoken about anymore, not even included with the 'Aribo/Edozie/Dibling' cohort training separately. I can only assume he's not even present at the club and is keeping fit away from the group. He's always been proven to be an incredibly bad egg around the place, he has been kept away by multiple managers. It can't just be rumour at this stage. I'd personally accept buttons for him, just to get him out of the club.

I don't think Aribo is part of the squad anymore, he'll be off sonnish. I thought the use of BBD yesterday was quite telling too. We threw everyone on the pitch at the end, even Ross Stewart, but he stayed on the bench. I'm sure the club are hoping for a bid to come in for him too. One of the worst attacking players I think we've ever had, almost certainly not suited to any form of high pressing football.

Factoring in wages and loan fee, apparently it 'could' set Everton back £25-30m to sign Grealish for just 1 season. Seems a daft investment if I'm honest.

I'd say the 10 would be the purchase, either Rudoni or Eduard (i'm not trying to spell his last name). Then use the loans to fill out gaps and lift the quality over the rest of the squad. Keep the loan possibilities open until the end and we could maybe grab a CM and a wide attacker as starting loans with PL quality. Defo need to focus on paying $$$ for a 10 now though.

Very strange takes. Leave them to believe what they want I guess, they're beyond deluded. They'll come down with a bump sooner rather than later with reality hits.

Yeah there was a bit of a tap from Coady, which just moved him those inches away from getting to the ball. No drama though, Stephens was there!

100% what I said yesterday, it sounds jokey but it must have been a reason. He favoured the ball cyclers in Downes and Smallbone who just crab the ball. I'm not entirely convinced Downes is a good fit for us now, but we'll see. Part of my feeling for him has bene soured by his mid-season antics though. Charly was another one who saw a forward pass and made it, but unsurprisingly he was also ushered to the scrap heap.

Just to give some fair balance, we did win quite a few games in the final mins in the last Championship season too. Whilst fitness comes into play, you've also got to factor in the strength of the substitutes in comparison with the opponent. Inevitably quality will wear teams down. But one thing I did notice yesterday was the ''who gives a shit about philosophy, just get as many strikers on the pitch at once and push the CB's up'' - and it worked. Under Martin we'd have spent the final 10mins passing between CB's and CM's.

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Not really seeing any negativity, there's nothing better than a last min win. There needs to be realism with it though, it wasn't perfect. It would be daft to stand there and proclaim it was all unicorns and rainbows, it really wasn't. Great feeling today, long time coming, but there's a lot of work to be done.