S-Clarke

''What we did with Tella'' - what, held out for what we thought was too good to turn down? We weren't selling him for a packet of crisps and a fag packet, not our fault that's all Burnley have to play with financially. It's like they're entitled enough to think we should just give him to them. They're Burnley, they need to have a quick look out their windows at their town and bring themselves down a peg or 10.

Long time coming, not sure why previous regimes have said this is so difficult to do - it has always seemed quite straight forward, Family zone in the Chapel - they already have a dedicated concourse and easy access back out away from the home fans via the industrial estate for the coaches etc. Not much needs to be done Chapel side to make this work. It's the only place logistically you could move them to though, so it was either the family block or keep it as it is. Will need some work in the Northam though to great a stand-wide concourse - long overdue though, nice to see there is money for things like this and stadium improvements.

Anyone can spend someone else's money, which is what he was doing. A very divisive character, the cheer in the corridors when he left St Mary's was audible. Still can't believe he got himself on the programme for the first game in the Champ, says it all really!

Don't get me started on FFP, it's absolute nonsense and a way to protect the big clubs under the illusion that it's to help fair play. But basically we spent a shed load in 2022, ABK, Lavia, DCC, Aribo etc - I think it was over £100m. Then we splurged another £40m odd in January on Onuachu and Sulemana - and we were relegated, so I think that's why we're sailing close to wind. For a club of our size in terms of revenue/incoming, we're not going to break even on that (especially with relegation) so we're not able to really spend at the moment - even if we brought in what we did in the summer. Loans are the order of the day for the time being. It's not that we're skint, far from it.

Adds genuine depth in an area I thought we were short in in the summer - if we lose Downes then we just have Charles, who is pretty inexperienced to be fair. Given Downes health concerns it makes sense to get an experienced body in to lighten the load a bit in that area.

That was a potentially tricky game which we just swatted aside like it was no bother. That second half was as good as we've played all season, just too good for them. It doesn't matter how good teams at this level play against us if we play like that, they just can't get near - it's game over at that point. We're playing like a PL side in the wrong league right now. No one had a bad game, no one had a 'good' game either - everyone was 9/10 without doubt. I was really impressed with Smallbone today, his use of the ball was superb and he was everywhere on the pitch - a real presence in there. In fact the CM area was just heads and shoulders above them, they were truly dominated in there. I never really understood the negativity towards Fraser when he signed here. He was always someone, as an opposition fan, that I dreaded coming up against and he's showing us exactly why you'd dread a player like him if you were on the opposite side. He runs all game, tackles, chases, hassles and he's got genuine quality - he's a proper old fashioned throwback type wide man, really love those sorts of players and there aren't many if any as good as him at this level. Another PL player at the level below. Since September what we have done is nothing short of incredible, I didn't see it coming. It's an historical run that has clawed ourselves back into the automatic promotion debate, and this run has meant that we will likely be in and around that debate for the entire season now. It's going to be a really exciting second half where we genuinely have something to play for now. There will be bumps and dents along the way, no doubt about it, but all I can say right now is bring it on - play as we are and no one can handle us at this level.

Other departments underneath the first team will sign players, this is not a signing that's anything to do with the first team. All clubs recruit at all their levels, but social media means that even the most random young kids names get leaked and it's published as ''Southampton sign x'' - but it's not like that, we've just recruited a kid. It's always happened. Signing a kid for the academy is not linked in any what to what we do with the first team today. They're two separate streams.

FFP is the biggest load of bollocks the football suits have given us. I totally understand why we are constrained, due to our massive outlays in 2022 and Jan 2023 - but we've pretty much recouped all of that through sales, so it should provide us some flexibility. It's only 'fair' for the big clubs as they can continue to spend as their commercials will generate their shortfalls, whereas the smaller clubs - which this was supposed to help - end up more constrained than they were previously. Go figure.

Oh yeah no doubts, it will probably trigger a bigger rebuild than this year given the loans we'd lose as well as our remaining permanent players and out of contract guys. Will prob end up needing to build an entirely new 11, with less money and a lower rep. Certainly won't be easier. We'll worry about that in May should it become a thing though!

Absolutely, it's fun when you're a big fish and have the muscle to compete at the top end, but 2 more years at this level and that advantage will have evaporated and we will transition into a Stoke, Swansea Watford etc quite quickly. This league is a bitch to get out of, that's why we seriously need to take this season by the horns as the options we have at our disposal are ridiculous for this level (KWP being one). We're giving it a good shot now though, really looking forward to the 2nd half of the season. I don't want to think about what will happen should we fail this season though...!

You're on your other persona today then. Hard to keep up with you. Who will you be tomorrow?

I do remember seeing some calls for him 'as a name', along with shouts for Gerrard and Lampard. No idea why as none of those have ever showed anything in management.

Birmingham getting what they deserve, perfectly stable under Eustace but their owners wanted celebrity coverage over in the US, so they picked a celeb manager rather than an actual manager. They'll go down imo, Rooney won't be there by the time they do, but he's killed them.

Walsall just destroyed last season's giant killers, Grimbsy, 6-1 at their place. Not one to take lightly!

He did take a bit of a knock at the end of the first half during a corner melee - poss a hit to the head, not 100%

We only got 10. Martin out.

Definitely take a point at the start of the day, no matter how dysfunctional Norwich are this season they do still have flashes of high quality for this level. We pretty much bossed the ball as expected, but we weren't very penatatrive with it. We didn't seem to take many risks in the final third and played it safe quite a lot, it was a really drab game if i'm honest. We may have edged it in terms of deserving to win it, but I can't be too upset with a 1-1 either. 10 points from 12 over Christmas is absolutely insane, these lads have pulled it out of the bag during a brutal run. These periods are the periods where either your season dies a death or it's breathed into life - and we certainly breathed genuine life into it for the 2nd half.

How does that work? Carvalho is a wide player, Che is our only fit out and out striker. We need a striker even if Che stays, so if he goes I cannot see any possibility that his replacement would be a wide player. It would leave us so unbelievably short in a proper number 9 and that would cost us. I hope the club aren't that daft!

Good player, he was excellent for Burnley last year - him and Tella used to go in tandem quite a bit, either side - very similar players. Sounds like he's had injuries which is why he hasn't played much this year, but Burnley's approach to this entire season has been truly bizarre in general terms - forget about the players who got you there, and regress with players who are worse.

He got a season ending ACL the week after he joined them.

It feels a bit OTT celebrating a win over Utd these days, it's kind of expected. You've had a really poor day if you don't.

I think the quality of the PL this year is as bad as I can remember it. Credit to Luton for coming back and almost snatching it, but what are Chelsea doing? They're just a mess. Luton giving it a good go, but competent teams wouldn't have let them do that. Everton have had 10 points deducted this season and are above the bottom 3. No clear team for the title either, just a miss mash of inconsistency. Makes for entertaining viewing, but the quality is certainly lacking.

Such a class CB - him getting a consistent role in the side is one of the main reasons why we are so good defensively. The bloke is a leader, very vocal, good on the ball (technically) and his head is like a magnet. He's ticks pretty much all boxes you want from a modern day CB. We did well to get him, a massive coup at the time. The obligation to buy 'if' we go up was another mega clever bit of business - just have to hope we get there.

THB won't be far away once he starts playing in the PL, he's already PL quality really - stunned why Burnley didn't make a push for him, they had a weird transfer window. Edozie still has a long, long way to go. So much experienced quality in front of him, he'll need a season or 2 of playing consistently in the PL before he's in the discussion - similar situation as Eze I think, probably never going to be 'quite' good enough.

One of the toughest away games, I see it similar to the Watford game. Some good players in their team, but not a particularly 'good' team. Lots and lots and lots of criticism of their manager as well, I think 90% of their fan base want shot of him. It's not a happy place at the moment, so I hope we can take advantage of that.