S-Clarke

Lallana looking proper out of his depth here.

That's only pretty poor if you expect us to have Poch, Pep or Klopp. The fact is that his record is pretty much tied in with the natrual position of our club.

But it's flawed, as the big clubs will get bigger and the gap will get larger. The 'big' clubs have had previous backing and exposure to have a big following, so commercially they can spend lots and lots of money and continue to get bigger. Whereas ourselves are now restricted to having to take baby steps to grow our revenue whilst slipping further away from the pack. There's nothing fair about it in my eyes, unless you're a big club fan and want it to stay a 'super league'.

Never in doubt................ Right, now onto the next important tasks! and is it just me, or did anyone find it odd there was no chat from Les in that statement...?

I don't think he's got the strength or pace to play there. He looked good with a bunch of kids, but put him up against proper athletes who are full of power and pace and he just gets eaten up.

wd google.

He wasn't too bad last season, I'm still unsure of his best role though. He's not strong enough to play CM, we're often over-run when he plays in there. Ditto DM. He's not silky enough or quick enough to play behind the striker in an AMC role. He's not quick enough to play as a right winger, he's painfully slow in fact. So, although he has good attributes (good crosser, good passer, good control) these are outweighed by his lack of pace and strength. Where on earth can you play him to make the most of his strenghts, but lessen the exposure of his weaknesses?

He's not the grand master some are perciving him to be. although he has a large impact on football matters, his role is overseen by Ralph/KL etc. They are the people who would have offered him any new contract.

I really liked the design to be honest, it's a shame that it had to be accociated with such a crap season. Wouldn't be against us keeping it, but we won't as they want our $$.

The problem I see with our approach now is that transfer fees have shifted. Whilst we were picking up Lovren for £8m, Wanyama for 12m, Jay for 7, Clyne for 2.5m, Mane for 10 etc back a few years ago, players of similar calibre now are in the £25m+ bracket. We need to adjust our approach so we enter that bracket, as clubs know PL sides have money so they won't sell cheap. What you now get for the 12-15m mark are unproven players that big clubs want to shift (Hojbjerg, Lemina, Hoedt). As a club we need to be prepared to spend £25-30m on proven players if we want to improve positions and not just bulk up the squad. The feeling that we're seemingly not prepared to will see us left a long way behind a lot of sides. It's a kind of depressing way to look at it, as it's still a lot of money....but it's the way this league is going.

If we have no money, is it safe to assume that we've already signed Promes? Seeing as we claimed to the press that all parties wanted it to happen and it would happen in the summer instead. I mean, that wasn't a lie, was it? Just to appease us? I can't see the club ever putting out false statements....

West Ham & Stoke have managed to sack their managers and appoint new ones in the time it's taken us to do nothing, so far......it only really needs to take as long as you allow it to take...

I have a feeling he'll stick around now, probably due to there not being too many suitors willing to pay the $$ he's on. But he's got ability we can work with for sure.

Will be the highlight of my day...

It's all a bit iffy. He was apparently going to be announced last week, then that was changed to late last week, then that got changed to early this week, and now we're almost into Thursday and still nothing. It was probably the easiest appointment we could make, he was already in situ, seemed quite happy and had an understanding of it all. But apparently not. The bull with the lawyers delay seems like the club trying to spin the blame to someone else, as they do with everything that doesn't go right. (Suing Atletico for e.g)

Never heard of him. Any good?

I saw that post and the first thing I thought was ''Oh, the WBA celebration. Good one''. Anyone who saw that as racist needs to have a word with themselves. When you see some of the absolute tripe posted by the most obvious trolls get allowed on here, then you get done for something like that.

And the same club that took until March to sack Pelligrino. We love a drag out.

This is very true, and this is the same at all workings at the club. And why I'm not handing over any of my money until there is a bit more clarity over what we're trying to do.

That was a great game. I think it was the game Davis and Baird got into a little scuffle towards the end as well. 3-0 up....almost threw it away.

How was it correct if it was proven to be incorrect a mere minute or two later?

Seriously, don't play the race card.

I'd personally like to see us go back to signing players from 'lesser leagues', who are already stand out at that level. Wanyama, VVD, Mane, Pelle, Tadic etc. With our recent signings of Hoedt, Hojbjerg, Lemina, Gabbinadini etc - whilst good pedregree and coming from top sized clubs, they've not been regulars there and there's a reason for that. This is why getting someone like Quincy would be a good start in getting back to that approach, he's a standout player in a lesser league who will see us as a stepping stone.

I'd snap someones hand off for £20/25m to be honest. Not sure there will be any real interest in him though.

Can I just ask who you'd prefer? I personally think this has always been a bit of a no-brainer. We need a bit of stability now and we have someone here who already knows our weaknesses and squad. Getting someone new in to go through that process all over again is probably a tad risky.