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"Will you sign for less than you're currently on?" "Harry?....Harry?"

Good on you, pal. I'd love to know where the wins and goals are coming from, but let's hope you're right.

Ritchie Barrett - Some Other Guy

We need a bloody good striker, to strengthen our attack.

If we've offered it, then financially probs not.

That costs money- our owners won't spend any.

Santana - Fried Neck Bones And Some Home Fries

Not the point i was making. 'Struggled with the step up' The point is they are no use to us right now and all need to be on loan getting used to mens football. Meanwhile Harry Leonard used correctly would have been very useful to have around this season but like Gueye his running/pressing stats wouldn't have impressed Ismael. Regardless of the fact we need someone with a bit of poaching/movement in the box nous whilst Andre is missing.

That appointment for Oxford nails down another relegation spot for me. Leaves one left between us ,Charlton, Portsmouth & Norwich.

If those players are the benchmark then we may aswell plan for League 1 and beyond. Dont doubt that recruitment has been not fit for purpose but Dlamini/Powell/Doherty are nowhere near ready either. The only 2 choices arent and shouldnt be playing kids who arent close to being ready or signing players as bad as weve seen to wear the shirt.

Made his Hearts debut eight months after we won the League Cup!

The question is - was the contract offer worth considering or not?

I think the only way we see the back of the 5 man defensive and the team's appalling goal scoring record is if Ismael goes.

We've strengthened our defence, can we now put right, what's wrong with Blackburn Rovers, STRENGTHEN OUR NON EXISTENT ATTACK.

The trouble with any talented player is that they'll struggle to shine in our current team. If Messi played for us, he would probably just retire 🤣

He started very slowly, but has been on form the last couple of months.

I disagree, Baradji is just back from a lengthy injury. He's one of our better players.

We have to buy him first - all well and good him doing great etc but will he sign the contract for a crap relegation threatened team?

I agree, Baradji is class in the making. No doubt other clubs will show interest in time. If we can't hang on to talented players, we remain Championship class, or lower.

I agree, they aren't first team ready but I think if they were all given the same opportunities as Tavares, Henriksson and De Neve then I have no doubt they could have had the same impact, if not better. Will they be better players in the long run? Hopefully! but based on what i've seen, I think we've spent a lot of money on the wrong players. I hope they prove us all wrong and improve next season.

To be fair, results were even worse playing 4231. Results in general under him have been shocking.

The question I keep having in my head is: IF we stay up - what has Val learned this season that he can apply next season? Is he brave enough to take a calculated risk? Does he have what it takes to bring out the best in the players? I think there is too much of an over reliance on 'trusting the data'. The trouble is, what data are you trusting and at what point does the data become untrustworthy? Our stats might look better playing a 5-3-2 than a 4-5-1 but at the moment the key stat that is being ignored is the lack of wins. I want Val to look at the overall picture and think "This is clearly not working, despite what the stats say, let's try something DIFFERENT". When I watched Macclesfield beat Palace, they had a plan. The part time players may not have thought winning was likely but they still believed in the manager and his plan and it worked. I appreciate V.I has a lot of injuries but I don't think we could have beaten Crystal Palace the other day if we played them. We don't seem to have a plan that the players believe in or can get the best out of them. I want Val to take on the challenge of having a weakened team and make the players feel 10x better. Instead, they look like they are scared to not let him down rather than try and take on the world.

That's actually a pretty good way to run a football club though, if you do it correctly. Get young and/or "unknown" players in the door, develop them, sell them for a substantial profit, re-invest. If our main transfer business would concern players with Championship experience and high wages, we'd just end up with Paul Downing, Matt Kilgallon, and Chris Brown again (unless we're bought by modern slavers or become vassals in a "multi-club project" of course). You'd of course still have to have a solid backbone of experienced players likely to stay at the club for at least 3 or so seasons, and the economical infrastructure to re-invest transfer fees rather than patching holes in a massive wage bill, but in theory I'd like us to go down that road.

Retweeted by Leonard. Wasn't aware we'd offered a new contract, makes the sale more understandable given he didn't sign it. Also indicates we're low-balling offers.

I wouldn't be surprised.