S-Clarke

I love this fella. Will be remembered for years to come as one of our 'cult' guys. Not the most amazingly talented player out there, but wears his heart on his sleeve and shows a real dedication to the cause.

Lampard has a proper job on here, he was brave taking that. Hazard was their team, they've got nothing now.

I did think the same with mine, but...it had fallen behind the little box thingy, and was floating around in the back. It does beg the question as to if all this packaging is necessary. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just send the season card in a normal envelope? What is the point of this box and packaging? There's nothing in it which wouldn't fit into a flaming envelope.

Billy is the opposite to Charlie for me. He was a top guy to have around the place. At the time....it was probably the right call to let him move on when we were promoted. We already had Lambert, Guly and had signed Mayuka (yeah, amazing..!) and Jay. So, he wouldn't have seen much time. We were clearly aiming for a level slightly higher than Sharp. But he did his job and repaid the fee without question. Got no problems with him and he will always be part of my fond memories of that promotion winning team.

Surely Hoedt will be the first of the CB's out of the door. But yeah, don't count your chickens with the recruitment strategy at this flaming club.

Think we should just go for a back 10 to be honest.

I know people will claim that we couldn't move much because of the players we had on the books already, but....why didn't we prioritise s a CB? Was Moussa really, really necessary as our first signing? He may turn out to be amazing, but you'd have thought the first priority would have been defence. To me, Moussa was maybe more of a nice to have. Bit weird really.

Let's hope that this new GK coach can make an impact over the coming months, as yes, it does seem to me that we've made every goalkeeper we purchased a lot worse over time. Picking up bad habbits, poor positional sense. Not technical parts of the game as such, more parts which would have been influenced by coaching. Step forward Dave Watson.

The problem is that it's not isolated, it's not just the first game of the season. The errors and issues are exactly the same we've seen over the last 2 /3 seasons. Mainly because the personal is largely the same. I'm sure Ralph will improve it, he's a magician in that sense. But I don't think it's fair to just isolate this game as the first game of the season, when the performance and frailties we witnessed were exactly the same as we've seen for many a year. Nothing has changed because it's the same failing bunch.

I don't think you can say we looked decent when we lost 3-0 to Burnley. That doesn't equate. We were even in the first half, maybe shaded a tiny bit. But we still lost 3-0 and that isn't decent by any means. I don't care if we had any decent passages of play, or we looked good at 35 mins. We still lost 3-0, to flaming Burnley.

Lol, we were absolutley disgusting to watch today. Fair play.

I'd just throw Danso straight in, get Vestergard and Stephens out of that squad. Poor players, wouldn't be able to handle their pace. We're up against it even before the first whistle. We're limited and this is going to be a case of damage limitation, keep the score low and keep our GD respectable. No other outcome feasible really.

The same problems, the same issues. Repeated. Bad things happen, the entire team wilts. They can’t react or pick themselves up, they just wilt and let more **** happen. The character within this squad has been diabolical for 3 years, there’s no real leadership, no real guys shouting and geeing anyone up. It’s depressing and demoralising to watch. Defensively a flaming shambles, but what do you expect when you’ve got Vestergard and Stephens as two of the starters? Vestergard in particular is again showcasing Ross Wilsons amazing ability to pick a player. He doesn’t and hasn’t ever looked suited for this league. I also wish the club would stop trying to flog the dead horse which is Stephens. Slow, clumsy, poor positional sense. There’s no real attributes there which equal a competent centre back. So, when your back includes players like that, you will wilt at the first sign of pressure or attack. Then there isn’t the character throughout the rest of the side to pick themselves up. I imagine Ralph is going into them hard right now, he needs to – but you have to wonder what he can actually do? This is a limited bunch and he is performing miracles given the fact we’re still at this level. His lack of real genuine backing in the window has been disappointing and I’m sure he’s also disappointed. The club have assumed for too long that we have a good spine of players (JWP, Romeu, Redmond, Hoj, Bertrand) – but I don’t think these are genuinely spine players, they’re not really leaders and they’re not in the mould of your Jose Fonte or Van Dijks. Good players, but they wilt too quickly and the club have persevered with certain individuals for far too long. They need better quality around them, they’re not able to do it themselves. On wards to the next one then, should be 3 points there. Oh wait. Good start to the season beckons and we’ll be playing catch-up come October. A good season seems like a distant dream to be honest.

Ah that's really sad, he was way too young. I did wonder why he'd vanished from the tannoy at the end of last season. We’ll struggle to get anyone as enthusiastic as him, he was excellent. RIP.

Nah, goals are the least worry. He's obviously not really delved too much into our squad or paid too much attention to the 2nd half of last season. We will score goals playing as we do, as we did - it’s the other end which will cause the problem. Lazy dumb pundits. Paid a fortune to put across an 'expert' opinion for ‘naturals’ to read, yet they don't really have a scooby.

The wording of these sorts of things is strange sometimes, but the clear ones where everything is agreed are those which say 'Obligation to buy'. Which is what Ings was. The Danso deal is in effect just an option, albeit an exclusive option at a set priced as far as I can see. Nothing stop other clubs from showing an interest should he storm it, although I'd hope the agreed fee is a bit more watertight than the Toby deal.

To be fair, we got a CB, and if you just look at his attributes alone he does look pretty commanding. I haven't seen him play though, so I wouldn't know for sure. And whilst it's frustrating we haven't cleared those guys yet, I don't think it's been without a want of trying. The problem has been what went on before (the long contracts, stupid fee's paid), not what we failed to do this window. I think Carillo at least will go out on loan to a European club come the end of August. Possibly Hoedt as well, given we have Danso in. Forster - he's here for the rest of his contract, no club will take a game on him with the money he's being paid.

It's been difficult because we've been lumbered with a specific collection of players which is handicapping us, seemingly removing our flexibility to do anything. However, based around those quite seemingly awful restraints, we have managed to manoeuvre 2 excellent attacking signings with attributes we were missing (Pace/strength/power). And credit to the club for realising we needed a centre back and having our ducks in a line to pursue one, once one of the 'specific players' left. Never heard of Danso before tonight and haven’t seen him play, but he has arrived with similar attributes to the attackers - pace and strength. Those two words have been missing in our side for so long and we do have a really good boost of pace now throughout the side. I'd have liked to have seen a mobile/quick CM come in as well, just to complete the spine of the side...but we still do have an array of options in there, so that wasn't as massively critical. It's still a shame that we are so handicapped though and that we have an owner unwilling to bail us out, but in the circumstances and our ownership situation, the club have pulled off a decent result I think.

Well, this is a surprise...! He wasn't on my radar as someone we could sign, but he looks like the right sort. I imagine at this late stage, it's prob a loan?

Wilsons track record is pretty diabolical though. He'd have had genuine input in Carrillo, Hoedt, Lemina. Yes, so did Reed, but Wilson would have worked on the assumption that these were good deals as well. If he pulls something off now, yes, he goes up in my estimations. But based on prior history, he won't and he will continue to steal a living.

Stephens shouldn't be concidered for CB, let alone flaming DM. Liability of a player at this level. Honestly.

Well, that's positive! One of the key bits of news I wanted to see! Good stuff.

The problem I've had is his social media activity, proper baiting of fans. But never mind, we've got a fee which I didn't even imagine we'll get. I hope we're still not paying a % of his wage and this is a total clean break. That will be a little weight lifted off of us.

I do agree with that, we're in a bad place and how we've wasted the VVD fortune in particular is just beyond depressing. It doesn't help that we have an owner not willing to invest or show any interest though. It makes me sick that people like Ross Wilson are still around. He's half of the reason we are where we are with this squad, what on earth did he do to earn a promotion. You try and have more confidence in the ‘new structure’, but then realise they’re the ones who promoted Ross.

Yeah, **** off. Overpaid waste of space he is. Won't allow us to bring anyone in and he'll still be ours as I assume it's a loan, but at least his stench won't smell the place out for this season.