Lighthouse

TBH I’m actually alright with the business we’ve done. Welly looks a tidy player, Gronbaek is a risk free loan, we’ve sent the useless Cornet back, loaned BBD out for Championship game time and got a half decent cheque for Sam Amo. Nothing we did was really going to make a difference; we’ll beat Derby’s total fairly comfortably but still be solidly on the bottom of the table come May.

Given that he’s trotting around Stamford Bridge as we speak, I’d say it was never likely.

Yes but we won’t know for certain until Crook says it’s definitely going ahead.

We’ve brought in some very poor players but so far I’ve seen nothing to suggest we’re naive when it comes to actually seeing a deal through. It would seem Sylla had a range of options on the table and has chosen Parma. It happens.

I’d have thought that the deals would be separate, I can’t see why you’d include clauses which are based on a different deal for a different player. In the unlikely event that there were some concessions, they’d surely be predicated on a deal being completed, not just the fact that you’ve made an offer.

What makes you so certain it’s our fault?

Odds of it hitting Fratton?

The vibrations help to break down compacted wax.

Deadline Day just isn’t the same without Jim and Natalie.

Hopefully he’ll stop us conceding a lorra lorra goals.

You’re being tipped over the edge by losing a player who has made four ten minute sub appearances for us and one start, where he looked out of his depth against against a poor Championship side? Between the coaches who see him every day and two managers with completely different styles, nobody seems to rate him particularly highly. Some people need to accept that most of our 18 year olds end up in League 1 and 2. People were similarly upset about losing the likes of Sims, Hesketh, Gallagher, Vokins, Thompson, White, Hatch and Jankewitz at one point, where are they all now?

Two goals in just shy of two years, I’ll pass thanks.

That’s literally the reason he’s an avatar for our crap recruitment. The fact that a player as substandard as Bednarek has played so many games shows how useless we’ve been at finding anyone better.

Torn on whether I want Bednarek to go or not. On the one hand he’s clearly a decent Championship defender and will be useful next season. On the other, I’m just so f**king sick of watching him put in consistently sub-standard performances, season after season. He’s been the avatar for our atrocious recruitment since 2016.

I think we need to stop thinking of academies as a route to the first team for promising youngsters and more as a source of income for the club, which is basically what they 99% are these days. If we can turn profits on the likes of Tella, Meghoma and SAA then it’s relatively successful in that regard.

I don’t think anyone is denying that (although the situation with Japan and the Soviets made it somewhat more complex) the point is that Trump wouldn’t have changed the course of history, had he been president. The Axis basically made it inevitable.

At the start of WW2 most Americans were more than happy to stay out of it. That all changed in one morning with Pearl Harbour, Trump could never talk his way around the red necks after an attack like that.

Decent goal from City that, well worked and patient. 30s later, Arsenal back in front. Game's woken up now. Edit: I'll never understand defenders turning their backs on a shot. Seems to end up in a deflected goal more often than not. Man up and take one in the tits.

Because it's like winning 'man of the pre-match warm up'. It's not a competitive game, so there's very little to be read in 'winning' it. All you're saying with the second part of that post is that there's basically no correlation between having a good pre-season and being a good player. I never implied that having a good pre-season indicates you can't be good but if Mo Salah and Mario Licka can both look excellent in pre-season training, then it's really not much of a barometer.

Are you new to the Sun's particular concept of journalism?

I remember Mario Licka being our stand-out player in pre-season once. Those games are just friendlies for building fitness and integrating new players, being good in them doesn't really count for a lot.

As with Meghoma and Tella it seems like a tidy profit on another player who's never actually done anything here. Makes sense I guess.

'Problems' could cover a wide range of scenarios, including private family matters. Hopefully it's nothing too serious and we see him back soon.

Potentially a good time to play Brighton, they've got Chelsea at home twice in six days before they play us. We'll see in those two games how much of a glass chin they've got, following a 7-0.