ErwinK1961

We better hope they bottle promotion again.

Danny doesn't play as well without Che in the team, simple as that.

Was very skeptical when he joined, proved me wrong - was excellent for a few years. Clearly been on the downward spiral for the last couple of years and probably best for all parties that he moves on. Little dig on instagram? "the time has come for me to seek a new challenge and find a new home that allows me the freedom to play and maximise my contribution to the team"

We're a better team when Che and Danny are playing up front together, simple as that.

Agree, thought Benteke had a good game (playing for a contract somewhere by any chance?) - don't think Vestergaard won a header against him for most of the night. Might have been a stretch to have him MOTM though.

Quite enjoyed Ekoku on comms. No saying stuff for the sake of it and seemed to have done his research on us, which makes a change from the usual Redknapp/Carragher and co. rubbish.

Wow, some common sense. Well said sir. I would also add that I'm sure he said he liked a small squad, which is then supplemented by having younger/academy players - evidently our current crop are nowhere near good enough to help with any sort of squad depth (Tella aside).

Great player and 100% player of the season. He's filled in well in CM, but can't wait for Romeu to be back and get him back to the 10 role. If only we had another of him to play the other side.

I think Ings looks better when he plays with Adams too. Why Redmond played up front with Ings for a period this season instead of Adams is still bizarre - they link up well

Values the squad at €260m...

Not sure you can blame Crocker for the current state of the youth setup. The well has been dry on these for a while now and it's going to take him time to build it back up again and we probably won't see the benefits for years. The immediate answer would be to recruit a load of 16/17 year old's to boost the ranks, but that costs money and we have more pressing concerns elsewhere. The current crop of 18's / 23's will have been on the books for a long time and are clearly not up to it. Also, pretty sure The Cat has mentioned that U 15/16's downwards is looking better.

This. He’s clearly giving both game time until the end of the season and then deciding who to keep for next year. Both are very average.

Should be... but it won't.

Shame, he's obviously a very good player. But we cannot afford to be paying his c. £100k a week if he's going to miss 15 games a season. Plus you'd expect the injuries to get worse as he gets older. I'm sure he'll find himself a new club and nice contract in the summer.

A pretty good summary overall there - though for me, one of the key areas we need to strengthen is the Number 10 roles. Redmond hasnt been good enough for a long time. Tella is a good prospect, but wouldnt want him starting every week. Djenepo offers very very little. Walcott - I was quite keen to retain, but the last few weeks I've flipped on that. If he wasnt an old academy product, then I don't think many people would want to keep him, he's not really done a great deal. Minamino - offered very little. Armstrong has been very good, but we are let down badly by any other source of creativity / goals, which I think has a knock on effect to how we want to play. Because of the serious lack of quality, it feels like we have to commit so many numbers forward to try and look a threat, we leave ourselves badly exposed at the back. When we try and be solid defensively, we offer absolutely nothing going forward because the front 3-4 cannot create anything out of the limited opportunities they would get. But as mentioned, we don't have a pot to p*** in, so no chance we'll strengthen anywhere like we need to. Can't see anything other than a relegation scrap next year, and we know how good we are in a scrap.

This.

Strange.

Indeed, will fit right in.

1 year left on his contract in the summer - Leipzig, Frankfurt, Nice and Brentford were interested in January apparently. 5 goals in 31 games.

Tottenham (a) L Leicester (h) L Liverpool (a) L Fulham (h) W Leeds (h) L Crystal Palace (h) D West Ham (a) L

Think you’ve mentioned “9-0” and “record defeat” more times than pundits and commentators. Impressive.

If you were a Spurs fan, losing Kane and replacing with Ings, plus bringing in Vestergaard hardly screams top 4.

Wasn’t that the issue with Sangare summer just gone?

Pretty poor if we haven’t got scouting networks in place already in South America. This has only been in the pipeline for 5 years.

This second half of the season is basically a write-off. I guess we're just working out who of the U18's are worth keeping for next year, whilst letting go a number of the current 'U23's'. Also getting to grips with the new 'playbook' style. Clearly lots of work to be done at the lower ages - hopefully the U14's, 15's 16's have got some talent, which we'll see coming through in the next few years. Wouldn't be surprised if we see some focused investment in the U18's & 23's this summer.