S-Clarke

Is that recently? His view may have chanced now that WHU have signed Alvarez and JWP, his place in the team has just plummeted.

Surely any sane fan would jump at the chance to follow their team in any European competition, even the Conference league? I know I would, that's as good as we'll ever see - and it will require a lot to go right to even get there. It may be tin-pot for teams like Man City, but for us it's all we can really aspire to and I'd enjoy every minute of it - like I did back in 2016.

I would say there is sense in getting in players like Downes due to that, as he already has a genuine understanding of what is required of him in this system. Similar with Grimes. Those are the sorts we'll target in my opinion.

Martin's honest views on the senior pro's is needed, for far too long some of the losers in this squad have been protected as they're ''good lads'' - i couldn't give a shit if Lyanco or Moussa are good lads, the fact is that they are failed footballers and are inept in whatever league or whatever team you put them in. I will be so happy if we finally ship some of those out, I don't even care if it's for free, they have just stunk this place out for way too long.

This is the key for me, we keep hearing the snippets about how we have x and y lined up ready to go. Let's see that then, talk is cheap and we need to be ready to go in the days we have left. Lots and lots to do, and my hunch is that the posts will keep changing as we have quite a few to leave the building still. I can understand the approach of not buying when we already had so many players etc, but with JWP, Lavia soon out of the door and Tino already gone....we now have to add.

Can he play in the middle aisle of Lidl? That's more suited to his abilities, and as far away from us as possible.

It was inventible, as the window drew to a close there was a point at which this would move. We'll see similar with a few more of our players now, just not the ones we want out. You can't help but wish him all the success in the world, he has been pretty much an ever present for us for years - never missing a minute, running more than anyone else - always committed. Maybe not the most vocal or strongest of captains, but the gap he leaves in this team will be huge. I imagine Flynn Downes is on his way here now, another Martin-ball player, like Manning (knows the style). Let's see how it pans out, but he is levels below JWP of no doubt.

I think we'll have to do some mutual contract pay-ups on some of those, no one is going to pay us a penny for some of them.

He legitimately fist pumps and cheers conceding a corner, and subsequently concedes a goal from said corner. He deserves all the vitriol he gets, a true joke character.

A thrashing. We cannot defend set pieces.

It shows that the players we have in the squad are horrific, but the problem we have is until they go (Moussa, Lyanco etc), then we simply cannot add anymore. We're in a tricky position with the amount of crap we've managed to assemble over the years.

Hopefully this game means we will no longer see some of the utter turd we have in this squad. Silver linings and all that.

I think we need to shift Mara back to France. Doesn't seem cut out for it at all, missing something in his game.

He just brought him in as his mate, familiarity for him. Just infuriating that the club backed that, as he didn't fit anything we were trying to do.

Probably the most ill-suited full back, ever, to the inverted full back role. He is not a player who will add anything to us, needs shot of. Lyanco is just Lyanco, a defender who can't defend and gets people excited by his 'passion', which is totally irrelevant if you're shit.

WHU have bid £30m+ for McTominay. If they get McTominay and Alvarez, it's hard to see them being interested in JWP again.

This is clearly just a Dean Thornton recommendation, he's worked with him in the past.

Not that it directly impacts us this season, but Sheffield United's approach to the PL seems to be a little pointless. They lost their best attacking player to France, and have now agreed a fee with Burnley for their 2nd best player - Sander Berge. They might as well have stayed in the Championship. Looks like being a pointless miserable season for them.

Sounds like WHU are closing in on the Ajax CM for £40m Although one of the WHU mouth pieces has again said today that they're unwilling to go above £30m, and are looking for us to compromise to help them do the deal - umm, yeah that's not how it works.

Smallbone was the basis of it all for me, everything went through him. The tempo, the composure, calmed everyone else down. If we were a little more loose in that area it wouldn't have been as easy on the eye as it was. He may struggle against more physical midfields on his own, but technically he can run a game at this level.

I think we all saw the style last night, for once it wasn't a confused mix of all sorts, the players were totally on board with how to play and the structure was pretty obvious I felt. Two areas that do need some work, as others have highlighted, are CB and CF. Armstrong was a passenger for most of that game, feels unfair to Tella that he took that goal off of him! Armstrong is good for teams who suck up pressure and hit on the break, but in a team which dominate the ball he is about as useful as a chocolate teapot at this level. He could probably come from wide with another CF up top, but as a single man through the middle - no, not good enough and never will be. The most impressive thing for me though was how we saw that game out, I see neutrals moaning at Wednesday for not going for it - but we didn't let them, they couldn't get near us in those last 9 or so mins and that sort of game management was refreshing to see. Still way too early to come to any conclusions given that this first 11 will be totally different come September, but the implementation of a clear style was pleasing to see.

I think that's the stance we'll take, I genuinely believe we don't need to sell - we're just saying if you want our players, it's on our terms. Those terms will have to be both financially and timing in my opinion. We can't be entertaining bids on deadline day.

Yeah, that was naff. We usually get a good media effort on the eve of the season which gets the blood pumping. That was pathetically bad though.

I actually quite liked what Martin said earlier, speaks sense - we can't just aimlessly add more to this size of squad. I've seen some people on Twitter yapping on about crap like asset stripping, no investing etc, but any sensible operation isn't going to add to an already bloated work force. Needs trimming. If we go in to the season with what we have today we'll probably do ok, it's not like we're totally desperate for players if everyone stays here. I just fear a last week rush as clubs finally meet our asking prices, you just have to hope we have stuff lined up to press go on fairly quickly if that happens.

Our one time target Carlos Borges, and one who was seemingly destined for West Ham, has actually ended up signing for Ajax. WHU are having a total mare.