In fairness, the traffic during the game will keep this thread high up the page.

Swapped Brittain out for Batty. Save Callum for Sunday.

I'd take that tbf.

Kaminski Ayala Hyam S.Wharton Brittain Pickering Travis Morton Hedges Gallagher Brereton-Diaz Desperately want A.Wharton in there 😭 but just feel Hedges has the edge atmo.

And we've just won 6 on the trot.

I always go back to the team that Hughes built, where every player was a metaphorical captain, and most were actually international captains.

4231 by looks. Happy with that.

What I will say is I don't see JDT as the type to give out contracts to his mates kids.

I do remember us pursuing John McGinn from Hibs and he's at Villa now. There was another Mc but cant recall his name as it was funny spelling.

Be fair, in scouting networking matters a LOT in order to determine what a player earns, where they're willing to move, and why. Ability is only part of the equation, you have to scout the person too. Something Clough and Fergie, and Ancelotti now, prided themselves on.

@JoeH Any tidbits for us?

Sadomasochism

Little E mk2 was born at 21.44, 8lbs9oz and 57cm tall! Slightly dramatic entrance as not fully dilated when crowning. How the hell 'the Patriarchy' exists is beyond me because women are fucking badass!

Don't believe either to be anymore unobtainable than Brittain or Hyam tbh.

A bit of pace and physicality up front would suit me. Perhaps someone like Semenyo at Bristol City? 22yo and out of contract next summer. I'm happy with our left back options. Would definitely look to add a CB and RWB to build on what he have now. A midfielder, ideally experienced, with some nous re: 'keep possession' passing and hard in the middle to keep Travis on his toes and help Garrett's development (replacing Morton at the end of the year). Not sure who, mind.

Sloppy all over the pitch tonight.

AND we know JDT rates Batty for the position in future.

He doesn't think we would now. He explicitly states it as hypothetical (if) AND says it'd be 'extremely doubtful'.

For me: Loch Lomond by Runrig.

Depends if you're using Lancashire as currently defined or Lancashire Palatine.

@WacoRover assume you're supporting USA?

There you go

JDT just gets it! Always mindful of the impact on fans, and really has been since day one imo.

The most pleasing things today for me: That defence 🤌 Hyam is the best defender in this league, Ayala not far behind, and Scotty Wharton did his best Craig Short impression. I feel as if this defense and Kaminski give each other a huge amount of confidence, something missing since the days of Friedel, Nelsen and Samba. Vale really looked like the player we saw vs Celtic and Blackpool, much better than recently. Zidane wears Adam Wharton pyjamas. Szmodics was brilliant, but just needed that finishing touch in a few areas, but I can see what JDT saw in him now. Hopefully he and Dack can complement each other behind Gallagher if ever we need to go full 'Christmas Tree'. I'm happy to hold my hands up and say I may well have been letting my mind run away down a rabbit hole on Dack. If there were any issues from JDT, they weren't on show today and while he wasn't able to influence the game, Dack certainly did put himself about all over the pitch in his short time on it. A superb, professional win, that really should've seen us defending 4-0 lead from half-time rather than 1-0, but this team refuses to concede goals now. It reminds me of a budget version of AC Milan's defence in the early 00s. Play out from the back to constantly available midfielders (including the Wilpshire Pirlo) and don't let anything come our way. It seems as if we're playing such a style that prevents us from even needing to make tackles, so when we DO we can fly into them. I love it 😄 I love this team.

I thought about that for my 2yo, but wife was getting annoyed 😅