Lighthouse

I refuse to get my hopes up.

I think it’s quite poetic actually, a fitting end to this season.

I really wish we’d never brought him back from Everton at all. He has offered painfully little across his last three years here and the fact that he has been one of the marginally better players in the most pathetic season I can remember really isn’t saying much. Bringing in a has-been who couldn’t get a game for Everton is a wonderful avatar for just how poor our overall recruitment has been for several years. Im not buying all the stuff about what a great guy he is either. My uncle is a smashing, kindly spoken bloke who loves Saints (although unlike Theo he didn’t decide he actually preferred Everton five years ago), it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than that to make me feel any real gratitude. I’m not sold on him being a great role model and personality in the dressing room either. Our mentality, particularly in attack, couldn’t be any more pathetic. In fact; short of Mara collecting the ball, sprinting 60 yards back towards our own goal, slamming the ball past McCarthy and bursting into tears crying, "I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!” I’m struggling to envision an attacking force which could possibly be worse.

I think you need to read back a few more posts. That’s the whole point I was arguing against, if the clause is that none of City’s rivals can buy him, he can’t go elsewhere and get anything.

I think the buy back deal was mutually beneficial to all parties, without the need for an exclusivity clause. Lavia gets first team Prem football, we get a decent player and City get the chance to buy him back at a reasonable price should they choose. I think the two year thing was probably because we wanted to get a second, decent season out of him, before being poached back by City. Like I said, I just can’t see Lavia and his agent agreeing to what you’re suggesting. Supposing he’s on £40kpw here, he could put in two absolutely sensational seasons, be in the PL team of the year both times, and City can effectively say, “here’s £40,000.10, take it or leave it.” I’m only suggesting what seems most logical to me, I guess we’ll all find out in due course.

These Enid Blyton novels are getting a bit dark.

I can’t see Lavia’s agent agreeing to a deal which effectively bans him from signing for anyone but City. It would put them in a much weaker position. None of us know the exact details of this clause but most of the rumours point to a pretty straight forward buy-back fee, starting in 2024.

Mids go from 161-4 to 171ao. Some collapse that.

No, Brighton absolutely sh*toting the bed against them in one of the most bizarre games of the season has kept them up. They’ll likely stay up on 36 points, which is absolutely crawling to safety really, and if it weren’t for Pickford, they’d have finished bottom. True RE Allardyce previously, I was just referring to Leeds.

Because they'll look like a bunch of wallies if it goes tits up and it'll put us in a much weaker negotiating position, whilst achieving absolutely naff all.

Middlesex not looking too clever with the bat tonight either, could do with putting them to the sword.

Those three haven’t.

TBH I think it’d actually be funny if the stadium was just 32,000 Liverpool fans.

Which is ruch a roundabout way of saying he doesn't do half of his job and needs a better player along side to do it for him. He's a decent Championship striker and worth keeping but a poor one at PL level and very much part of the problem.

None of the other three above us are any better than the teams who've gone down in recent seasons. Everton will stay up on 36 points, have been crap all season and money has seemingly dried up. I don't see any real calibre to Leeds and Leicester. Both have looked rudderless all season and will need a serious rethink in summer, same as us. My main hope is that Everton have to sell Pickford to balance the books and next season they're as bad as we are now.

He's Jake the Pegged it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60393842

I once paid €50 for a suck session.

I think being banned from Eurovision two years running was just too much for some Russians.

But that’ll be because we have a proper manager who has the team better organised, not because we have inferior midfielders.

How on Earth is a worse player going to make them a better team? Fulham and Brentford are better because they have better teams and managers, not because they have bad midfielders.

There are a lot of options out there who I'm sure would do a decent job IF there's a solid plan in place for a way we're going to play and we adjust our squad accordingly. The reason Jones was such a disaster was because we simply looked at him as doing a decent jon at Luton but ignored the fact that he was a direct, long ball merchant whilst we had a squad full of slow, technical players.

It's not going to change the world but, whatever business you're in, customers walking out en masse is never a good thing. It may just hammer the point home that if things don't pick up next season, we wont be back buying more tickets. Then they will give a sh*t.

We know nothing of his mindset. Collectively this team is awful; the players are substandard and the tactics are hopeless. Passing it sideways and backwards is simply a sign of how poor all the options are around him and how ineffective we are at mounting an incisive attack.

We lost 9-0 to Man United with 25% possession. Just saying.

If you think we’re getting anyone in this summer who’s anywhere near as good as JWP, you’re in for a very nasty shock.