benjii

Alarm bells were ringing for me when it became clear that Gao couldn't even muster up the competence to find some buyers himself and let Semmens handle things. That has just led to a continuity of Semmens' nice cushy number where the club bumbles on and he enjoys the trappings of over-promotion. We need a proper clean sweep, and we should have done that in the last summer. I fear it is too late now. Also, whoever appointed Jones is an utter fuckwit.

"And that's really encouraging because their desire to then succeed is greater than somebody who's perhaps played 100 games already in the Premier League – are we just another club for them?” Worrying if they actually believe that.

We're shit. We don't have anyone who is a quality finisher (maybe Stuart Armstrong), we have no central midfield. We've got our best right back at left back. We've got a slow, technical, poor quality winger in central midfield. Aribo was a pointless signing. Edozie is good but we are reliant on him, which is wrong. We're screwed.

A midfield three of JWP, Aribo and Elyounoussi can't seriously be what we're planning. Absolutely mental if so.

Always seemed to me that Gao was a complete nobody with no clue, who delegated far too much authority to Semmens to pick his successor. The sooner everyone associated with the post-Markus era is gone, the better, in my view.

The way I see it, we have a lot of players who are not really good enough so we need to build the team around the core of players who have shown they are capable of performing consistently to a good level in the PL, or who have good credentials to do so and are not proven failures. Those players are: - KWP - ABK - Salisu - DCC - JWP - Lavia - Stuart Armstrong - Adams So, that's a back 3, a midfield 3, one of the wing backs and one of the forwards sorted. Perraud isn't a disaster so can be included. When Tino is back we have the option of KWP on the left. Then we should be looking to bring in a better GK and a striker to partner Adams. Ideally another combative CM too. I can't believe that the following isn't good enough to stay up with a competent manager: ---------New GK (or McCarthy)------ --------ABK-----DCC----Salisu------ KWP----------Lavia------------Perraud ----------JWP-------Armstrong ----------Adams----Striker-------- Bring Tella back, Edozie looks promising. We have 4th CB cover with Lyanco. Striker signing is key.

Exactly this. Pochettino imprinted an impressive new style on the team after having been in the job for about 3 days.

Yeah, he's obviously out of his depth. Terrible appointment.

Tactically we're all over the place. Jones out. Seriously.

He has scored 19 in 40 matches. Do the math. That's a goal a game.

Obviously the best World Cup final I've seen, because they are usually shite. France were terrible for 75 minutes but scraped a couple of goals. I thought Martinez could have saved the second. Definitely the best extra time I've seen! I don't think the quality of football has been great. Past winners over the last couple of decades have generally been much better than any of the sides in this tournament, but there were certainly plenty of entertaining matches.

Lolz. Obviously a tax avoidance/money laundering/unlawful donations scam.

Lol. What utter bullshit. He was our best attacking player all match.

I'd like to see the team and coaches properly harangue the ref at half time. Latino style.

I think England would have more chance against Brazil than Croatia, to be honest. Croatia will kill us in midfield, like Italy did in the Euros final. Massive respect to them though. Mental giants.

Keep forgetting this guy is the manager. I'm sure I'll remember once we start playing again.

So many empty seats. Pretty sad really.

Manji hasn't got a clue.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63690765 Looks brilliant.

Not necessarily the best goal, but one that always sticks in the mind for pure elation was Pahars against Everton at The Dell. BIG win.

It will be high 20s or low 30s. Cooler than a summer tournament in most places.

To be fair, it's not going to be crazy heat. It's low 30s during the day and 20s in the evening and temperatures will drop during the tournament. It's cooler than a summer World Cup would be in a lot of places.

That's a sports science / performance consideration. May very well be true. Remains to be seen. But that's not the World Cup. The World Cup is the fan experience, the mingling, the colour, the inhibition, the build up. Summer evenings, beer gardens, BBQ and the match, the gap between football seasons. Anticipation etc. This is shite.

Anyone give a shit? What a load of rubbish.

It'll be someone from a league where he gets paid 10 or 20k a week who can now earn 80k a week. So, yes. But whether we actually sign that person or not remains to be seen.