Saint_lambden

What a weird thing to get annoyed by. It doesn't ask for gender when you add friends/family and I've only seen the MX on tickets for names that could be male or female like Joe, Charlie etc.

The only snippet I've heard is that we've been focusing a lot more on the American market (North and South) in terms of scouting and we have an interest in Santiago Rodriguez who is at New York City. Attacking midfielder, 24 YO, 8 goals and 4 assists in 23 games this season. No idea if it's a goer other than us having watched him a few times.

If we assume that Adams and Stuey are off, the only one of the loaned out players with a future is Alcaraz, that Rothwell and Brooks go back to Bournemouth, McCarthy signs a 1 year extension and that we get Fraser and Lallana done early, I'd say we need at least: - 1st Choice GK (Ramsdale is unrealistic and looks like 2+2=5 after Sunday, no other obvious names at the moment. Butland link seems like a lazy one) - Left-Back (Manning not good enough for Prem, Larios needs a loan move to get back to fitness, Meghoma still developing but could compete with Manning for back-up role along with Fraser as WB if needs be. No obvious names at the moment to come in) - Centre-Back (Stephens, Bednarek and THB all decent options but need a 4th. Matip linked and would bring experience but could we afford the wages? The club really like Jacob Greaves at Hull so that may be one to keep an eye on) - Defensive Midfielder (Downes the obvious preference but need to have a natural cut-off if West Ham delay their decision on whether to let him go. Definitely need to look at other targets in case they want to keep him and/or he wants to stay there) - Creative Midfielder (Alcaraz can come back in and his style should actually be more suited to the PL, Smallbone can play in number 8 position but if Stuey is off then we need another in his type of role to compete with Charly. O'Riley would be excellent and exactly the type of profile we should be looking but may be hard to do. O'Hare on a free would be smart business with not much risk associated with it) - Left Winger (Fraser game time likely to be limited, Edozie a good back-up. I suspect Sulemana will go. Jack Clarke a top talent and should be our number one target - aggressive, end product, wins fouls, still relatively young so has scope to get better) - x2 Strikers (Armstrong should continue on the right-wing, Adams going and Mara hopefully shipped out which would only leave us with Ross Stewart if we assume Tall Paul has no future here. Miovski linked for a long-time but feels like a big step up for him. At £6m quoted fee however, minimal risk and a good back-up option? Another buy from the Championship like with Adams, Armstrong feels like a big risk so maybe a left-field option from abroad? We're admirers of Vangelis Pavlidis from AZ (29 goals this season) so that may be one we go in for.

When Dan James' shot hit the bar, it just felt like our day. And what a brilliant day it was - atmosphere, result, journey and the rest. That certainly made up for the apathy and, frankly, total shite we've had to endure for the past few years. A day to be proud of the football club and the city.

The fact that he went and shook the hands of Leeds' players/coaches whilst our players were lifting the trophy says a lot about the guy. He's one of the good ones. His adaptability has been questioned plenty of times during the season but he's made us incredibly tough to beat in the last few weeks without sacrificing our general philosophy. There will be plenty of tough days next season but he deserves a decent budget in the summer to build the team in the shape that he wants and to get a fair crack of the whip.

Trying to buy for friends/family who are members but it is showing as 'unavailable'. Any ideas/help?

11am update from H&IOW Fire: HIWFRS Incident Commander Mark White said: Because of a change in wind direction people who were previously unaffected may now be seeing and smelling smoke, our advice remains that people in affected areas should keep their windows closed. Road closures remain in place and people are asked to avoid the area if possible. If you find ash and debris from the Marine Parade fire on your property you are advised to leave it alone. --- From the pictures, the situation has improved a lot in terms of the fire itself and smoke so I guess the club's attention now turns to the clean-up, noting that the fire brigade are still using the South Car Park (adjacent to the Chapel stand) to fight the blaze from the back of the warehouse unit. Fingers crossed the game will still be on.

There's certainly a lot of hysteria about. Just a reminder that after the same amount of games last season, Burnley had just one more point than us. We've a more solid foundation now, helped by playing a more consistent X1 each week, so I think our biggest concern moving forward will be if we're clinical enough to finish games off. We're creating plenty, but need Adams to get out of his funk and start scoring or hope Ross Stewart can hit the ground running. We'll be in and around the play-offs, but probably not good enough/street smart enough to go up this season.

I suspect there will be rotation, but I'd be keeping the back 4 the same at least and maybe just bring in Adams for Alcaraz to give the latter a rest as he looked knackered towards the end on Tuesday. Then again, we've got the international break after this which Charly won't be a part of so he can recover after that. Maybe Edozie or Fraser in for Sully too as I don't think he's ready to start 3 games in a week yet but best not to tinker too much. Their away record at this level is laughably bad (haven't won in the last 20) but shouldn't take anything for granted in the Championship.

Best squad depth in the league now. Over to the manager and the players to deliver.

Pretty high as he's injured for a couple of weeks.

Suspect it'll be KWP to Arsenal.

Belgian media reporting that we're competing with Atletico Madrid for Tajon Buchanan. Plays for Brugge currently, winger.

No chance we keep Che and sign Stewart.

Seen Stewart live a couple of times and he's excellent at holding the ball up/back to goal in general and 9 times out of 10 if you give him a sniff in the box, he'll score. Sunderland were hoping to play him in a behind closed doors friendly during the international break so he's really not far away from being fit again. Of course it's a risk but at £5-8m it's surely worth it and gives us more options at the top end (assuming Che stays), allowing Adam Armstrong to play in that slightly deeper role he's been thriving in. He's excellent in the air too which will prove important in both boxes. Worth mentioning that our 'new' Head of Recruitment is Sunderland manager Tony Mowbray's brother so that should help in getting a deal done.

He's back in training this week.

It was Friday I was told so looks like old news now.

Only snippet I've had is that we're very interested in 'a greek forward who plays in the dutch league', which I've deduced to be Tasos Douvikas as Pavlidis who plays for AZ would be well out of our reach. Douvikas scored 19 last season and can play off the wing or through the middle. No idea if we've bid but sounds like one to keep an eye on.

"Sign some experience!".... "No not that experience!"

Swap deals get rumoured all the time but are incredibly rare in football with how complicated deals tend to be nowadays.

Couldn't even save the date for it.

Would it really though? After a poor season by his standards in the Premier League, he's now playing Championship football and at 28 has no re-sale value to West Ham. I'd say it's about fair, although of course it would have been nice to get more. If a significant chunk of that (if not all) is upfront - which is sounds like it is now compared to the previous deal they put on the table - it'll help us buy our replacement targets sooner.

That missed header/handball on the line at their place early in the season got them wanting more.

On Lavia, it's a tough balance now between trying to get as much money as possible from the deal and concluding it quickly (hopefully by the end of the week) so that we can use those funds to go after our own transfer targets nailed down before we get too deep in to August. Martin's comments last week that we have targets who are willing to wait suggests that we will be going in for them as soon as we let two or three go. Hopefully we've done much of the ground work on those incomings so that we don't spend weeks negotiating on a fee with their respective clubs and personal terms. I suspect we'll accept the latest bid on the table give or take some minor adjustments and move on.

They're just on the wind up. There's one or two on there whose only contribution is to tell people where they should sit in the stadium, what they should wear and sing etc and where they should come from. They're just fishing for bites so I'm not sure why people are nibbling. Nobody genuinely gives a toss where our fans are from and currently live.