Lighthouse

Just to put the icing on the cake, Leeds draw and their best player is now determined to get a three match ban.

You kinky slut.

I think a lot of people are massively overestimating the importance of being able to tell people that they were once, “that guy who played for Southampton for six years.”

I believe he’s still diving down towards Jesse Lingard’s shot in the League Cup final.

There is a difference between being officially injured and just being quite blatantly not fit enough to perform regularly at a high level. I don’t think Marian Pahars was actually injured in his last season with us but he was regularly absent from the match day squad.

There’s that much sports coverage, with plenty of banter and trivia that it’s basically lost any sense of purpose and identity. It’s pretty much just the clios everyone watched on Sportbible or Givemesport on Facebook, several weeks ago, interspersed with a selection of dull talking heads.

So in other words you've been wrong about the same thing twice.

No, we should sign players who fit our style of play and are within our price range. Most of all we need to be able to assume, with reasonable certainty, that they will stay fit for the majority of this campaign and perform to a consistent standard.

But he’s anything but proven, he’s done naff all for a whole year and has serious fitness. Ings has scored three goals in 2023 and two of them were against Forest. It’s a little strange you telling me it’s pointless to bang on about what he did years ago, because that’s literally what he’s dining out on right now.

No, it’s the point at the heart of everything. He will only end up here if he fails to attract any PL interest, I.e. his fitness and form dictate he is no longer performing at that level. Talking about a good season four years ago is a non point, it remains to be seen if he can even do it at Championship level.

AA made more mistakes against Cardiff, a game in which he scored twice and was MotM, than Bazunu has all season. You're going to need a new, irrational argument.

I would take him, assuming we couldn’t find another player with a better fitness record, but people talking about the one season in his career when he stayed fit and scored 22 goals really need to lower their expectations. He has fitness problems and if he ends up on loan in the Championship it’ll be for a very good reason.

Great season, no doubt about it. Doesn’t change the rest of what I said though. Ings was James Beattie with injuries. Decent on his day but never ‘world class’. Given choice, I’d have Beattie, Lambert or Pellè over him.

Yep. And thoroughly mediocre in the other two, and every other in his PL career. His second best season goals tally at that level is 12.

I don’t think averaging 13 goals a season counts as world class but he was decent overall. Personally I have my doubts he’d stay fit enough to make it worth it and whether or not his motivation would be there.

To do what? Stick around as a lower mid table side, flirting with relegation?

His bank manager disagrees.

I broadly agree with this and in isolation you'd never say there's anything wrong with a point a piece in back to back games at Watford and Coventry. What concerns me most is our completely inability to put in a truly strong performance, which includes taking our chances and maximising our good play. Our points total, as you say, would usually put you top two but we're halfway through the season with a GD of +4. That's pretty awful and is normally indicative of a team struggling to get into the top half, not league leaders.

Once again our plan to become the best Championship team ever, by winning every game 1-0, seems to have come unstuck.

And New Orleans Saints.

The Same Dozie player scores!

Substandard.

pas /pɑː/ noun a step in dancing, especially in classical ballet.

Dawson was one of the few Stars to come out of their innings with any credit, 22 n/o against Scorchers.

A different player obviously but your post made me realise how quickly I'd forgotten our own Diallo ever existed.