HarvSFC

Chelsea played a mix of first/second string tonight. But, their second string consists of Ziyech, Chillwell, Loftus-Cheek, Hudson-Odoi, Werner and Saul. Not players you'd view as weaknesses from our end on paper. Will be difficult for sure.

KWP and Livramento would be the best full-backs to go up against Traore’s running.

Helped make Sheffield United a top 10 side, to a team who couldn't win a game after he left. Although, he was replaced by Ramsdale... I think he's the one that's not getting the desired game time at a top club, who's a good player, especially now that De Gea's back looking like his old self. Four years left on his contract, though. I think they'd want £20m+.

Not a Saints record, but Norwich's 15 straight Premier League defeats is pretty miserable. Wonder if they can make half a season.

Nuno was a dreadful appointment after his sacking from Wolves. Spurs fans would’ve wanted an attacking manager after Mourinho, but they can only muster three shots on target against Palace and Chelsea, two 3-0 losses and a 2-2 draw with Rennes in between. Kane’s doing a Van Dijk too and going through the motions.

It could cause issues attracting players such as Simeu and Small in the future. Pros being that there’s pathway for you to get into the first team, if you’re good enough. Cons being that when you’re not in the first team, you’re developing in an ever-losing B team side.

Lingard’s so good these days.

Any bookings for the diving yet? That’s twice.

Never gets overturned if that's the opposite end.

Here's the goal. I watched the match and Vestergaard was poor all round. Keeping players onside at times, slow against Napoli's attack, was booked for a late tackle on the halfway line. He wasn't even playing diagonal balls last night. As said, he had three good months here in three years. He wasn't half as much of a loss as neutrals thought he was to us.

The fact that Ings walked straight into the England team after his move to Aston Villa only added to his misery! Oh...

Good to see Chaplow back, it’s been a while.

Is Small injured?

You're speaking rubbish, as others before have rightly pointed out. Adkins joined before match six of the 2010-11 season. We were 22nd at the time, coming off the back of defeats against Swindon and Rochdale, while Adkins lost his first game in charge against MK Dons. Giving Brighton a slender head start, while ensuring Adkins also had to hit the ground running in terms of his tactics and management of the squad, if we were to have any hopes of the automatic spots that season. He did, winning 27 out of his 41 league matches, on 92 points and just three short of Brighton, who, like I said, had the head start. If it was so easy, like you claim, Pardew would have picked up more than four points from the first three games, and Wilkins wouldn't have managed us to two defeats. 🤷‍♂️ Then, your Championship claim is just ridiculous. Only three clubs in 24 years have won consecutive promotions to the Premier League. We were the last to do so. It's quite the achievement, even if Norwich did do it just the year before. Everyone knows how unpredictable and unforgiving the Championship is, and it's easy to get sucked down there. I don't think many expected us to get promoted at the first time of asking. Lambert, Hammond, Guly and Hooiveld had never played in England's second tier before, while Schneiderlin and Lallana's only experience of it was getting outplayed every week. There were also question marks over Davis and Richardson, given their previous history in the league. Fonte, Cork and Fox were really our only guaranteed Championship quality players before the 2011-12 season. All of these players were obviously the key to our success, but again, on paper, it wasn't plane sailing for Adkins, we weren't the favourites, we weren't expected to get promoted, we were competing against a Sam Allardyce led West Ham side, who were signing experienced pros like Nolan, Faye, Skate Taylor, O'Brien, Carew, Bouba Diop, Bentley and Almunia, and we beat them to the automatics. We were top of the league for 34/46 of those gameweeks, being pipped by Reading, by a point, after they went on a crazy run, winning 20 out of 24 matches. It was then after this, that Schneiderlin, Lambert and Lallana became international and Premier League quality.

Ings definitely carried the team at times and created something out of nothing, popping a goal out of nowhere. Against Liverpool, Burnley, Spurs immediately come to mind. It was shit that he left, but it’s revisionism to forget how good a striker he was and hail the new guy as the best thing ever after a cameo off the bench.

Ings

The ref didn’t give it as a foul. Red card on review. A red due to the injury caused?

Ref’s killing our attacks. We’re getting the decisions, but no advantages from them.

That sums Redmond up…

Playing too conservative against West Ham. We’ve attacked Man City more than this. Get another striker on for one of the anonymous trio, who only turn up against Newport. Ronaldo with the only Premier League first half goal. Scripted.

The Athletic were also reporting that we had put a £50m price tag on JWP... a day before he signed his new contract.

Rumours that he had a fight outside Junk. 🤷‍♂️

I was looking for the standard highlights reel for Johnstone, and found that there's a divide between the West Brom fans regarding him. Many say he's a good reflex save goalkeeper, but is quiet and doesn't command his box enough. We know all about that...

Sam Johnstone would really be much of a muchness and we would be having the same conversation about a new goalkeeper in a year's time. I think that we need to move away from the English goalkeeper route, as the talent is sparse outside of Pickford and Pope, as we can testify. Are there not any Finnish (He's only 28) goalkeepers anymore? I know that goalkeepers are late developers, but at 28 Johnstone has only played one Premier League season, and in that season, he conceded 74 goals in 37 matches. Exactly two goals a game. We would be signing the only goalkeeper that conceded more goals than us last season, which doesn't seem like an improvement. Even this season he's conceded three goals in four appearances, for a team in second place in the Championship. He might have made a few good saves on MotD last season, but so did David Marshall when he went down. I also think there's a reason why no one's made a move for him, despite his contract being in its final year. I'm hoping that we avoid him and that our scouts can actually earn their moneys worth by discovering someone elsewhere.

I guess the expenditure is key, but we've also all witnessed the 08-09 transfer window to experience a truly tragic window. Schneiderlin - Didn't have a pot to piss in, but chucked £1m at a French teenager linked to the top clubs. Had a difficult first year, as would any under that team and under those managers, but turned into a superstar. Now, it gets good... Forecast - The famous Gareth Bale sell on clause saga. Never played a game for us in five years, but was good at celebrating the promotions. Been without a club for eight years, since he was 26. Last playing for Chelmsford in the Conference South. Holmes - Good player, plagued by injuries, but the next Arjen Robben, he was not. Ended with 1 league goal in 29 appearances here over four years. Never made it back to the Championship after us. Wotton - Shit in a shit team, could be carried in the good team. Served a purpose and helped win us the JPT. Pulis - Haha. Never made an appearance in four years for us. A year after leaving, he was playing in America's amateur league. Hasn't had a club for 7 years after turning 30. Pekhart - Striker on loan from Spurs, 1 goal in 9 appearances. Has since played around various countries and is now a current Czech international. Maybe he can go to West Ham now. Gasmi - Schneiderlin's mate, never made an impact. I'm surprised he made four appearances for us. Cork - Was good in his first spell here, but we only had him until the January, where he then left for Watford. All these signings were then rectified of course in the winter window with the signings of such names as Lee Molyneux, Ryan Smith and the moron that is Jordan Robertson. 07-08 was a lot better. Wayne Thomas was our big signing. Youssef Safri, Andrew Davies, Adam Hammill, Gregory Vignal, Lucien Mettomo, Alan Bennett, Christian Dailly, Phil Ifil, Jason Euell and Stern John all joined to help keep us competing for promotion...