S-Clarke

I don't think we've been ''well off the pace'', a little bit frustrating to watch but the amount of games we've played has been insane. Absolutely bonkers. Don't remember in recent times having us play pretty much twice a week all season. We were going to drop off, victim of our own success really. I enjoyed the Europa League, but for clubs of our size and stature it is a complete killer. We're not the first club it's harmed and we won't be the last.

Completely over the top.

I think he's garbage to be honest, given the amount of money he'd want. Man Utd would probably want 10-15m for him. Watching him against us made me cringe.

We're not going to be replacing Forster or selling him, so it's not really worth debating.

I'm not going to jump onto the bandwagon certain people are seemingly keen to (i.e he's always been crap, L1 keeper etc). He's not right this year though, his mobility was better than this before. He's having a truly forgettable season and the only thing I can attribute to it is that he's carrying an injury of sorts. He hasn't been this bad before.

As a team, we really couldn't have done much more. In big games at Wembley, especially when you're the ''smaller'' side, you need luck on your side - we certainly didn't have that yesterday. That was the difference really. A couple of inches under the bar and Romeu made it 3-2. The linesman doesn't have an off day, and it's 1-0 to us before they score. Those little things make a huge difference to the 'underdog', and we needed them to fall in our favor for sure. But the performance was as good as we've put in all season, we attacked with purpose, pace and got in behind them on numerous times. I thought JWP had a standout game in the middle of the park and it was pleasing to see him finally live up to the potential, he would have certainly caught the eye of some yesterday. It's hard to critisse anyway, but you have to say that with VVD and or 'another' experienced centre back in that side, we wouldn't have conceded that last goal. Stephens inexperience showed massively yesterday and Maya had to cover him on a couple of occasions, and he had an amazing game for what it's worth. But the sad thing is that we shouldn't have been going into our first final since 76 with an inexperienced kid at the back. That will always be my main gripe and it did cost us. But the overriding feeling is - proud. We fought to the death, even at 2-0 down we still believed - a lot of sides would have given up and packed up at that point. So credit to the team, the manager and the coaches for what was seemingly 2 great weeks of coaching and preparation. Final word from me goes to Gabbiadini - incredible goal finish for that 2nd. To come into a new league and have 5 in 3 is incredible, he really does look the real deal. All in all a great day, hopefully we get back there again soon.

Huth and Morgan have always been pretty dog **** players at this level, they got luck last year because they had a machine in front of them. They're now exposed to **** and you can see how incredibly limited they are. Kante was enormous for them, his play was infectious and he the protection he gave their defense enabled the entire team to play on the front foot. They have to play a different way now, and they've reverted to form. I feel sorry for Claudio, talk about victim of his own success. If there was any sense they'd have sacked some of the under performing players before the manager, they're more culpable.

Spurs must be looking forward to playing at Wembley every week next season.

If he signed on Monday, or friday, he wouldn't be available for Saturday whatever fitness wise.

Seriously, why can people not see through his act?

Isn't he contracted till 2018?

What's Allardyce got to do with them?

Should have been done long before now.......but at least it's an experienced international head at the back, if it happens.

I assume this was said in jest.

Not sure why people keep posting about loans etc, there has never been a loan window in the PL outside of the transfer windows.

This is a good post, makes a lot of sense. I think the club as a whole have taken their eye off the ball somewhat this year, whatever is going on in the background with regards to investment/takeover is certainly unsettling and it's causing a little less direction from the top as we're probably in a bit of limbo. I think we're probably the most arrogant club in the league, we seem to believe we're automatically better at doing things than anyone else. But we're not. We're as vulnerable as anyone else and I think people at the club have believed their own strap-lines too much this season and have actually taken their eye off what is an incredibly competitive league. There is a basis of a good team here which is being hindered in a couple of places. A lack of a creative force in the middle of the park to play between the lines, the midfield and attack are too far apart. The suffocation being placed upon large parts of our team. There is a lack of ambition in our play this year which is seemingly following down from the club as a whole.

The recruitment department falls on Wilson's doorstep, he's the one who should be sleeping nervously right now.

I never listen to him post or pre match, can't bring myself to.

Davis has been a key player for the last 4 years, it's crazy to say he was ever over rated. But for some reason there are a few who have some sort of anti-davis agenda. But he's a position we now need to evolve with a forward thinking midfielder (a Sigurdson type).

We really are in an atrocious place right now. That was a total shambles. We honestly had no idea, no game plan, no attacking intent. Nothing. It was as unidirectional a performance as you're likely to see. We were always going to have a dip eventually after the last 7 years, it would be naive to think otherwise. But the way it's happened has just been brought on by ourselves. Defensively, as predicted, we were a shambles and that's the defence we have to carry for the remainder of the season. A colossal ball up at the club and heads should roll over that. We're not going to get rid of Puel, he's here for this season at least. I don't think there's much point in doing anything now anyway, it's a bit knee-jerky. What I would say though is there is no connection with the fans and the manager, nothing. We had one with MP, Adkins, Komen etc. But there's nothing, he just doesn't seem to fit....but whatever, no point really debating that.

It's so sad that we're having to compare our defense to that of Sunderland/Swansea in an effort to remain optimistic.

Skates can't get any.

One things for sure, we'll need to have a storming end of the season goal scoring wise. Not that there is any indication of that happening what so ever. I think it's harsh to put all of this on Reed's door though, fair enough he does waffle some rubbish, but there are people in the 'recruitment' dept. who have failed here - Wilson being the head of that dept. Les isn't the one who searches for players and identifies them, that's down to the team who we/wilson put together.

I'd look in Wilson's direction, since he's been part of the setup our recruitment has been a little iffy.

Massive fail by the club. We've now gone to Yoshida being our primary CB for pretty much the rest of the season. I'm not fussed per say about Fonte going, but he needed to be replaced with another experienced head. Stephens may be a decent, but ideally he needed to be eased into the side (as he was being). Now he's our main CB, and even Gardos is in consideration. It really is a huge let down by the club, there's no other way of painting it. As exciting as last season was, I'm now in the position where I'll be happy once we hit 40 pts. Not really good enough for a club which strives it's self in being consistent in all it does.