S-Clarke

We seemingly thought he was worth that, as he's our current record signing at £23.5m. And I imagine we'd be looking to recoup close to that when we sell him in the summer.

Not every human being is the same, some people are really sensitive and are affected by things like that. The thing is he didn't even need to go onto twitter to specifically look for that comment, it had been retweeted and just ended up on his normal feed I believe. Not everyone is made of steel and that's why those nut jobs on twitter get a massive kick out of it.

Leeds won 9 on the bounce, went to Huddersfield and drew. Nothing is guaranteed in the run in, especially with the relegation battle going up to 12th place. Every game has something on it.

Exactly, silly season is upon us now.

It will need to be tweaked quite significantly should we go up though, you can't play that way in the PL - as the better quality will always score more than any quality you have.

He got some horrific stuff sent his way in mid week, as someone mentioned the lowest point was someone wishing he had cancer. Absolutely twitter is full of non-people, just bots and lunatics who should be locked up, but it doesn't mean shit like that doesn't effect you in some way. You'd have to be inhuman to not let it. You can also use it as a bit of a galvanizing thing to throw back in peoples faces, which he did yesterday. Let's not forget that Martin is an extremely emotional person, so it won't take much to get to him.

I think they're better than that to be fair, their wide man (Miller) is a real threat. Usually plays from the left so I'd certainly throw KWP back for this, or at the very least Bree. Obviously that means we have to keep Manning at LB though.

I think all 3 relegated teams have been left in similar positions with their squads - all 3 have utterly ridiculous levels of talent for this level. I don't think any of us are doing anything magical, just doing what should be expected. Leeds were gutted quite a bit. Of their first team PL squad from last year they lost Koch, Rodrigo, Adams, Aaronson, Harrison, Sinistera, Kristensen, Roca, Wober - quite a bit to be fair, all of those went on either nominal fees or loans. Leicester lost Maddison, Barnes, Castange, Kristiansen, Tielemans, Soyunchu, Armartey, Perez, Evans, Mendy, Soumare - all first team PL players last year. We lost Lavia, Livramento, JWP, Salisu, Moussa, ABK, DCC, Diallo, Perraud, Ely - who were part of our PL squad last year. I'd say we didn't lose half as many critical players as the other two, the first 3 were our key ones. We managed to retain KWP, Bednarek, Adams, Stu Armstrong, Aribo - and then added THB, Downes, Fraser, Brooks down the spine of the team whilst re-integrating the likes of Adam Armstrong and Will Smallbone into this level. Our loans were PL level loans, not Championship level loans. My feeling is that all 3 of us have ridiculous squads for this level, both financially and the level of quality available. All 3 are pretty much performing as they should be in terms of the points tallies, Ipswich are the big anomaly stuck there in the middle. Just for comparision, we are currently 1 point better off from our last promotion effort from this league - but with a -10 worst GD (That September onslaught still lingers)

I think the run in will be quite interesting, a lot of people have lots of games as bankers for our rivals - but it's the run in, there is almost half of the league in a relegation battle - there are simply no easy games for any team, apart from if you've got Rotherham! No one had Leeds dropping points against Huddersfield, nor did they have QPR beating Leicester. It's silly season now, nothing goes by the form book or league position.

Yeah that's ridiculously harsh. The way we play is very much risk/reward, it's how we play and it won't change. No point debating it after game, we will always and forever play it around at the back whilst he is our manager. The benefits I thought were shown in spades in today's game. You invite the press, move it quickly and all of a sudden you create overloads and an opportunity to break quickly. Which we did countless times today. Yes there are times where you give it away and it's risky, but that's what it's about - being brave, taking a risk and if it comes off we're pretty much through and a goal is in the offing. I think the posters who are saying we're 4th in spite of the manager are absolute lunatics. Give your head a wobble.

The likes of Forest, Everton, Palace etc should be breathing a huge sigh of relief that the bottom 3 this year are so, so out of their depth. Luton have made more of a fist out of it than the other two, but you can tell they're too limited for this level. I think it'll be decided weeks before the season ends. Very low total to stay up this year.

The confusing thing with people saying that he's ''playing how he's being told to play'' is that Martin knows him better than any of us, better than any of the players at the club. Martin knows his weaknesses and his limitations. He's got him playing in a way he surely knows he can do, and has seen him do it (albeit in a much lesser team). I just think this is a step too far for Manning in terms of a level, he's a pretty middling Champ player for me.

You misread my post, I said we've had our chance (our opportunity is gone) I honestly felt Leicester would wobble at some point, and we just felt invincible at the time - but we didn't take our chance, so I'm not here still saying we're going to catch them. We're not, done and dusted. But had we done our job in games you'd bank us for (Millwall for one), then it would have been very, very, very interesting. Even just winning against Millwall would have put us to within 5 points of them. They've had more of a wobble than I thought they'd have!

He didn't unsettle us as an individual performance - as I agree, he was good today, but it's the moving around of THB etc to accommodate him - I think it's unsteadied us a little.

I'd have Fox every day, he was decent for us I thought. At least he had an attacking output that season, 11 assists I think? If Manning was able to make up for his defensive dodginess with some attacking threat, then he'd have a few more fans - but even in attack he is pretty piss poor tbf. We will be so much more stable with him out of the side. Guarantee it.

Now you've put the bait down Trousers...... We had our chance tbf, I knew Leicester had a wobble in them - but we decided to have ours at the same time. 8 points between 4th and 1st is pretty mental at this stage though. Ipswich somehow have clawed themselves back to within 3 points of the top. After Leicester were what feels like 11 points clear of everyone all season it's a bit of a bump in their rear view now.

Not sure what that's all about to be honest. Feels very shoe-horny.

I called it a few weeks ago, on the back of our Huddersfield win - it was in reach, esp. with the Leeds/Leicester game on the horizon. We didn't do our job though so it's null and void. But it wasn't that ridiculous 'never a chance' opportunity that many made it out to be. We had every chance.

Someone get this fucker banned. Sicko.

We made fucking hard work of that, should have been a really comfortable 3 or 4 niller, we were very good today and created stacks and stacks of chances. Defensively though, notably down the left side, abysmal. Manning had a role in each of the goals they scored. I'd personally have him on the bench now and try and shift him for a fee in the summer, he's cost us in games too much. Not entirely sure moving THB to right back helped the stability either, we have a ready made RB in Bree - just play him there. No need to break up Bednarek and THB. I thought Stephens had an ok game weirdly, but I think the change around has unsettled us a little bit. Good to see Downes back, I thought Brooks had a great game - really in his groove now. A Armstrong back to his best. And Aribo taking on the Fraser mantel. This result has the potential to be a critical one, could look back on this in May and how important it was.

I think there is over reaction on here from people and they make a judgement without really knowing why - it's how it is. But I personally don't rate Manning, positionally all season he has been inept. It could be how he's told to paly, which is even more alarming given that the manager should know him and his limitations more than most. All of our problems come through that left side, they have most of the season. I don't think it's coincidental if I'm honest, teams target that space because Manning is always out of position and simply doesn't have the pace or physicality to recover. Maybe our tactics hang him out to dry a bit, but if the manager knows him more than most then it's pretty worrying.

I thought on the second goal particularly, he's too close to Bednarek. He's got to be aware of his surroundings and be in a position to respond to any sort of misplaced header, but he's kind of in no mans land there - they win the header, or if Bednarek gets it wrong (which he did) and they're away - and that's what happened. He just doesn't seem to have any positional awareness or sense danger, he's everywhere bar where he should be defensively. Reminds me of Oliver Bernard.

We've played alright I think, should have at least 3 goals here given the chances and openings we've created. Controlled 90% of that. Sadly undone by horrific defending on two occasions. Manning was tucked too narrow for the first, but where was the cover? Second goal Bednarek and Manning are too close to each other, Bednarek miss-does the header - but if Manning was a little further behind in a positional sense Stansfield wouldn't have had all that time. It's fine margins, and Manning has been pretty poor on both goals there. Football/possession/attacking/chance creation wise - really good, as well as we've played for weeks. But that left side is just all wrong. Still think we've got enough to get some goals here in the 2nd half, but we're making it much harder than it needs to be.

Personally for me the best combo still is Smallbone and Downes, that hasn't changed. Smallbone was terrific in that 25 game run for us, he was as pivitol in that as THB was at the back. Basically what we've seen in recent weeks is Smallbone playing a role that he's not necessarily suited to physically, so it's showed up more of his limitations than his positive attributes. So with Downes back we will get to see Smallbone deployed higher up the pitch in the area's where his positive attributes can come to the fore, where physicalness or positional awareness isn't as critical as it would be in the 6. There's nothing wrong with Smallbone at this level and some of the fans OTT comments towards him are drivel and are born out of a lack of understanding of football from themselves.

What's that got to do with anything? Some of the abuse Jones got was also utterly detestable and was posted in main by the same trolls who target Smallbone. Neither scenario is right, fans who throw disgusting comments (well, any human to be fair) at people on social media do not deserve any spotlight