tajjuk

I'm certainly disappointed, the whole right back situation worries me, though I suppose we are playing wing backs and the likes of JWP or Lemina could do a job here if needed. The likes of Gabiadini, Hoedt, Davis were surplus to requirements and not involved or likely to be involved IMO. Gabiaddini was clearly behind Ings, Long and Austin in Ralfs plans so selling him is a good idea. Hoedt was nowhere near the team and seemed a bad egg and Davis had dropped behind JWP, Hojberg, Lemina, Romeu and Armstrong so again it made sense. But the squad clearly needed some extra quality, so it's a shame we couldn't get it, however I am going to keep faith with the club and manager for the following reasons - 1. No one has really signed much in the transfer window full stop. 2. I agree with the club and Ralf that there was no point buying stop gaps, we need to build a squad long term and repair the damage done over the last 2-3 years with poor signings. Some rushed last minute signing is likely to have only had made this situation worse and left us with another player to offload at a loss in the summer. Carrillo says hello basically and Promes who everyone was clamouring for us to sign last January has 1 goal in La Liga this season and struggles to get into the Sevilla team, so that record transfer could have been potentially another poor one. 3. If we couldn't get clubs to make deals in January for our long term targets so be it. Go for them in the summer, hopefully with a good kitty from the sales of the likes of Cedric, Boufal, Carrillo, Clasie, Austin, Forster, etc. 4. We beat Leicester away, with 10 men, without the likes of Ings, Bertrand, Lemina, Hojberg so this squad is clearly capable of competing. 5. The club has a budget and is working to it, long term that is better than trying to get into debt spending millions for not much gain, look at West Ham and Everton, those two clubs have spent 100s of million over the last couple of seasons, have massive wage budgets, but without Hughe's terrible management I'd reckon we would probably be level if not above them. 6. Not really sure any of the clubs around us have strengthened. Fulham are still horrible defensively, Cardiff obviously had the tragedy, Huddersfiled got barely anyone, Burnley got a 38 year old FFS. Newcastle made a big signing, but it remains to be seen if he can adapt to Premier League, and Brighton didn't sign anyone and they could potentially get sucked in. Basically it's a risk, but a calculated one I reckon. The only objective is to stay up and I think based on our performances we are going to do that, we are much better than the current bottom 3. Pick up a point at Burnley, beat Fulham and Cardiff we will be on 30 points and probably a good 7-8 points clear of relegation. Rebuild in the summer, clear the dead wood, get in 3-5 new players that suit Ralfs style, are young, and Ralf can mould, and I think we can have a great year next year.

Interesting watch thanks, shows how mental the whole thing is.

yeh agreed, luckily that skip intro button is there.

No, the Sunderland one is very good as well, really give you an insight behind the scenes and makes you feel for the people involved in all aspects of the clubs, as generally they are all trying their best even if it is not going well and cop a lot of abuse for it.

Hopefully Bertrand can be involved, maybe Lemina as well, he brings something different to our midfield. Honestly less worried about Burnley than Palace, Burnley are organised and hard working but lack the flair and pace Palace have in Zaha/Townsend. If we can stand firm on the set pieces I think we have a chance of winning the game. Plus you'd think them being at home there would be more onus on them to attack us more than Palace did.

After watching the Sunderland documentary, deals on deadline day are always a possibility, seems with the pressure of a deadline, players/agents/clubs etc. become more willing to make a decision than they do a few weeks before.

Can't see Bertrand going, not the way he has tweeted about Ralf, unless some silly opportunity came up. The Leipzig guy would be good, wonder if we could get him and the RB in on loan with a view to buy in the summer, presumably with more PL money in and getting rid of some of the loaned out players.

I don't think you can say overall either team deserved to win that. And I think probably its a good sign that we didn't play at the level we know the team can but we still came from goal down to earn a point and not lose. That wouldn't have happened under Hughes and IMO even shows progress from example the West Ham game, where again we didn't play well but still had chances to at least draw that game (hit the woodwork, clear pen etc.) so I think it shows the greater character in the squad. We will have our off days and this was clearly one of them, but we still got a point so showed good character.

At a guess I'd say its because we have changed manager and had an upturn of fortunes, Burnley have not changed their manager, so are more likely to slip back into poor form/bad ways than us.

3 top players? Spurs had 5 first teamers in that game IMO, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Trippier, Dier and Moura. They had no Kane, Ali, Erikson, Son, Lamela, Rose, Lloris, Winks, Davies, Alderweireld. Wanyama came on in the 2nd half. I don't think that Spurs team is better than our team, if that was Spurs' best 11, they'd be in relegation fight. Should also note Palace scored a penalty from a completely unnecessary and stupid handball by Walker-Peters, and missed their own penalty as well, plus the BBC gave Speroni MOM, so could have easily been a different story. I don't think we should under estimate Palace at all, they are big threat, but I don't think much can be read into them beating that Spurs team.

I'd guess that we probably had for this season a budget for transfer fees of around 40-50 million and most of that has been used up in purchases in the summer. There might be like £10-12 million left to spend. The outs have not really generated any cash yet, they are loans, so we might generate a decent kitty in the summer if those loans turn into permanent transfers. (Gabbiadini, Hoedt, Boufal, Carrillo, Clasie, Cedric, Carillo + maybe Austin) we could generate like £50 - £70 million there, plus clear like £300 - 400k from the wage budget, and might have a planned transfer budget again of about £30 - 40 million to add on top. (depending where the funds for Ings is coming from) Which could all set it up nicely for the summer but makes the big fees being demanded by clubs now more problematic.

If we can put together a couple of wins then our relegation worries could pretty much be over by the time we play Cardiff.

Just to note, and I've seen palace fans say this as well, Zaha has not been very good this season. He has 1 goal more than Redmond this season, same amount of assists and Redmond has picked up a lot under Ralf.

I think Bertrand will be back to his best under Ralph. Hopefully we'll see him take part against Palace, maybe from the bench. I believe he's been training for a while but apparently still had a little pain which ruled him out of the Everton game.

To be honest he's done quite well for himself there, play half arsed for like a year and gets a move to Inter, gets to move to Milan and probably will be playing Champions league football next year. Even if he did want to stay, I don't he would have wanted to after knowing Inter Milan wanted him.

Yeh but realistically we probably got the most for him we were going to get. It is still a world record fee for a defender. The board to be honest did the best they could here, they tried to keep him, the c*nt then basically sulked for 6 months and played utter crap to force his move through and they still got a big fee for him. It's Mane that they did badly on, we should have got £50 million plus easily.

Whilst I kind of agree with you, we seem to have already identified our main RB target, so why not just go get him now?

He defends the back post fine, he doesn't defend big strikers pulling onto him like pretty much every fullback in the country as they are all generally not very big, which is where the centre backs are supposed to help him out. Defensively he has always been a very good player and to suggest otherwise is nuts IMO or you are literally blind. Hence why a club of Inters level want him, because they are signing a good full back.

Defenders hardly make good highlight videos, do we not also remember the good youtube videos the likes of Boufal had? That worked out well. He is a good defender, a good experienced PL player which is probably why Inter want him.

Right back at you to be honest, do you not wonder why Inter actually want him? A team currently 3rd in Serie A who have been playing Champions League football this year and are way better than us, I am presuming you think their 'football IQ' is suspect as well then? 'Need', what 'need' is there to replace him right now, IF he is disrupting the squad maybe (but I doubt this), but in footballing terms there is no need and it very much looks like we are not replacing him anyway. We are loaning our our best right back and leaving ourselves with two teenagers who lack experience whilst we are in a relegation battle.

If we replace him now, fine. If we don't IMO it;s a stupid decision even if Cedric's contract is running our and he wants to leave, better to keep a solid and experienced player here for 6 months and take a little financial hit, than potentially have defensive issues at crucial times.

Defending the back post is a centre-backs job. Cedric has been bailing out our inept centre backs for the last year with covering play he shouldn't have been doing. He's never been a great crosser but he's always been a good defender, as someone above said if he'd been playing against Cardiff he would have had an average winger like Josh Murphy in his pocket, but Valery struggled. He is probably the best defender we have and definitely the best right back we have. He is IMO a loss, especially at a crucial time like this. For example for me Valery is a big worry vs Zaha, that is going to be a huge test and his performances 1v1 against lesser players worry me, whereas Cedric has the pace, positioning and 1v1 defending ability to keep Zaha quiet.

A fit Bertrand is probably our stand out player, he is at best good enough for most top 6 teams IMO, though he has not been his best for the last season or so, but I'd expect him to improve a lot under Ralph. Would be madness not to use him if fit. But I like Targett, he is a solid left fullback/wingback and certainly offers something different attacking wise and IMO has a bit of Marcus Alonso about him, not the quickest but big for a full back and very comfortable with the ball. I mean loads of us have been clamouring to sign the best young talent from the Championship, well he was the best full back in the Championship last season and has shown promise in his PL games.

Report above says 7 million euros, IIRC its was about £4.5 million at the time, back in the day when transfer fees were less over the top. IF (big if) we sell him for £15 - 17 million, plus having got 2-3 good years out of him, then it will turn into a very good transfer for the club. I am presuming we will end up paying about the same for his replacement though, but as a 21 year old who could potentially become a lot better than Cedric that is a good deal. Hopefully this all goes through.

Don't see the point in losing him unless we have a replacement. He is an experienced player and solid defender, I'd reckon Ralf rates him less not because of his ability, but I reckon its an attitude thing. Remember as well he has been covering left back as well, as Bertrand may not be ready for a little while yet, so if Targett gets a knock we have problems.