Lighthouse

For reference Elyounoussi has started all three of Copenhagen's CL games this season. I'm not sure this is the 'gotcha' that proves his worth, that you seem to think it is. https://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=69537

It’s amazing how many people seem completely oblivious to this point. So many comments on here and on other social media seem to be founded on the idea that if SR sell anything that’s not nailed down, don’t spend any money and spend the season fighting against relegation to L1, that they are somehow winning. As if it’s a big conspiracy, whereby they secretly want to drop out of the football league entirely but if they keep lying about it to the fans then somehow… profits? They clearly want success, which this season will constitute a playoff spot at the bare minimum. They’ve put their money where their mouth is in every window so far, even if many of the players they bought were questionable at best.

Unless Stephens has done something like an achilles and will be out all season, I can't see there being a fifth CB. It'll be four (JS, JB, MH and possibly Wood) plus Charles in an emergency.

The reason we have four players for two positions is to cover injuries, so I can’t see the JS situation changing much. It’ll be him, JB, MH and one more by the end of the window I reckon.

Achoo?

Money has never not been an issue for all but the richest clubs and I wasn’t expecting any big money signings at all. We’re in the Championship, £15m is ‘big money’ here.

I don’t think he was ever really likely to stay, especially once Manning came in and effectively made him backup for a Championship team. Whether we like it or not, the likes of Bree and Larios are about the level we’re going to have for cover in that position. Even in the Premier League we only had the likes of Pied, Martina and Fox as cover.

He's supposed to be in Saudi, he's just out of position.

I would have thought that the Godfather of Soul would choose to haunt a better sound system than our sh*tty stadium PA, but I could be wrong.

Fair play to Liverpool, this is a great performance with ten men away to Newcastle. The gravel chewer extraordinaire doesn’t look too happy about it though.

We (many football clubs) have been playing ‘goal celebration music’ for decades now, this is nothing new. In the Burley seasons we used to play I feel good; I distinctly remember that because about a week after James Brown died, it randomly started playing on the PA, whilst the ball was in play. Anyway, if we’re going to play anything, I’ll hang my hat on Kernkraft 400, it’s a great tune and a proper stadium anthem. Not exactly American either, Zombie Nation are a German techno ensemble.

Was looking a bit squeaky bum there but 5 wickets in 15 balls did the trick. Double white ball semi-final for the second year running, can’t really argue with that.

A bit of a slap in the face for the likes of Currie, Kelly and Jack who got us to this stage but understandable I guess. Batting well after an iffy start, should post a healthy 300+.

He’ll have a family, be financially set for life and will likely be respected by both Saints and West Ham fans for the job he did. He’ll also have a hatful of England caps and be remembered as one of the best free kick takers of the modern era. I’m not sure what else you think he should want, without having some sort of narcissistic hero complex.

I don’t know why you think that’d be more important to him than playing PL and possibly international football, or why he’d really care at all. He’ll be well remembered here and generally welcome throughout the city for the rest of his life, I’m not sure what he’d really want beyond that. I think a lot of people overestimate how important the opinions of us internet dweebs are to millionaire, PL footballers with supermodel wives.

He suffers from Vydritis. Too good for the Championship, not quite PL level. Bundesliga is a smart move.

We looked much more dangerous down the left when he came on. Sadly that was the oposite side to where I was sat but there was a lot of direct penetration into their area and RF was right in the thick of it. Should definitely be him starting, rather than SAA, once he becomes more comfortable with our system.

Amazing how two people can see the situation completely oposite but I'm going to have to disagree entirely with that. Two years ago he was as useless going forward as Djenny, Redmond and Moi, that's why we loaned him out. His touch was nowhere near good enough for the PL and his only goal came in a cup hammering of Newport, if I'm remembering correctly. He was loaned out because he wasn't good enough to play in the Premier League, simple as. If that upset him he has only himself to hold accountable. I wont say blame, it's a little harsh for a player who seems to try his best but ultimately he was approaching his mid twenties and was nowhere near the standard required. Did he elevate himself to that level with Burnley? Possibly but they clearly aren't serious about putting their money where their mouth is on that, aside from a bizarre poster campaign about Nelson Mandella. If he leaves, it'll be with my best wishes wherever he goes. If it's Leverkusen I think it'll work out well for all three parties. He'll do well in Germany and we'll get £20m for a player we hoovered up on a free from Arsenal about five years ago, who never really made an impact. He'd have done a job this season but I can't see us missing him, we've more than enough wide quality as today's display showed and by most accounts we're looking to bring more in.

Areola made a tit of himself there.

That isn’t true though, is it.

Good result there and a lot of decent individual performances. A very interesting things we’ve learned: Lyanco and ABK are almost certainly off. If neither can get on the pitch/bench when Stephens is injured then they clearly aren’t in our plans. The rumours around Tella and Adams appear to be confirmed. We have plenty of wide options even without anyone else replacing Tella. AA is good at this level but not a number 9. We’re definitely lacking a proper CF. SAA isn’t ready to start yet. Baz is more than good enough for the way we want to play. Our style of football is perfect for keeping the ball after we’ve just scored and yet we seem to struggle with that, especially at home. All our signings have added something. Fraser, Downes and Charles looked excellent today.

Nope. Just wearing my usual poncho, gimp mask and ski boots.

I think there’re a few likely explanations for that. We’re fairly confident that a departure for a CB is imminent. We want to keep a back three/five as an option for the season and want five CBs to cover for it. We enquired about Piroe but were never really that desperate to get him and couldn’t agree a deal which suited both parties.

It means what it’s always meant - that Lyanco and ABK will most likely be leaving before the end of the window.

SR spent a very large amount of money both last summer and in January, something Gao never did. We were never the second top spenders in any given transfer window under Gao. Now we’re having to adjust our squad to compensate for a huge drop in revenue and to cash in on various players whilst their stock is high and their contracts are long. Not to mention we probably gambled on overspending in January, on the understanding that we’d have to recoup most of that outlay if we went down.