I may be wrong, but given our indifferent form and fact that even Wharton was struggling for consistency at times, I suspect we couldn't have realistically got much more for him up front - though, maybe in add-ons. The sensible move would've been to keep him for another season knowing that he has the real potential to become a dominant player for us and command a huge fee - potentially pushing 30m +. His story, incidentally. is a bit like Steven Nzonzi who was signed from relegated Ligue 2 Amiens, as a relative unknown and turned out to be a silky midfielder for Rovers. Albeit, Wharton had more of a spotlight on him being in England and Nzonzi was signed for something like 650k.

I’m getting quietly hopeful about RB, Leo Duru, based on reviews lately. Sounds like he’s dependable and might have something in the attacking third. I hope he gets a meaningful promotion of sorts, either into first team squad or loan move, for next stage of development.

Second De Bruyne goal. Wharton and Hughes lose Rodri for a moment and then Wharton makes a hesitant effort at blocking the De Bruyne shot. I am being very critical and, as I said, it's no shame to be overrun by City's players. However, it's pretty clear that Wharton needs a better organiser and defensive player alongside him, because that is a weaker part of his game.

I see what you mean by that comparison. He has a tenacious and technical style on the ball. If JRC was more athletic and less injury prone he would probably be at a higher level. A significant issue with this team is a lack of athleticism. None of the Prem loanees are favoured who probably are more mobile. It seems Eustace might be a managerial throwback to his era of playing (at least at moment, as we battle relegation).

1 win in 9. Today might’ve been his first assist. He’s done well in a struggling team and is a great prospect but the hype is too much currently. He may well get there, especially with the right midfield partner. Edit: Wharton watch... Great pass for the opener finished well by Mateta - if Wharton meant it. The co-commentator seemed to doubt it. I think it was intended but whether it was a hopeful or a calculated pass, hard to tell. If calculated, it was even more brilliant. Apparently, he had a role in the second Palace goal but not covered in the highlights. On the downside, he and Hughes were overrun for the City goals. There's no shame in that and potentially a tactical issue as well. However, if I was being very critical, for the second De Bruyne goal, he and Hughes let Rodri go and then Wharton doesn't cover himself in glory when trying to block the strike.

Similar story it seems, Palace drop points, Wharton does well but lacking defensively in a key moment. For Bournemouth’s goal he gets caught too high up the pitch, not anticipating the break. Not to say it was a decisive error and his midfield partner seems to be missing, so not all on him, at all, but another sign of lack of defensive intensity, perhaps. As the deep-lying midfielder, which I assume is his role at that moment, it’s crucial. If he does get that right, he’ll do just fine.

In a stellar season, one of the few personal critiques you could put to him is his only 4 assists. This seems low for a forward that comes from deep and can link up play. You expect low assists from a player like Adam Armstrong, who played high up the pitch for us - but he has managed 11 assists this season. I'm very sure this reflects the differences in the quality and form of the teams. In a better team, Szmodics is getting more assists, but I just wonder if he could do more in this regard, especially, his tendency to take the difficult shot at times. Perhaps, also, it's just not his game and, to be fair, he is almost a false 9, rather than a traditional AM.

Gent had another good game for Motherwell at LWB, albeit against St Mirren. I hope the club have got him under a contract and have a plan for him. I have no idea how good he is but clearly is on the up currently. PS. Looking at that Bamber Bridge x/Twitter post reminds me of how pointless much of club social media activity is. What exactly does it offer that a webpage doesn’t? A rhetorical question, btw.

Watching the highlights of Forest v Palace today, Wharton made a great pass for a chance spurned and created another which was missed. However, if I’m not mistaken, he is also the player who inexplicably gives Forest’s most talented player, Gibbs-White, the freedom of the City Ground to make his own lofted pass for Woods’ goal. I think there you see the two sides of Wharton. Currently, Palace fans are greatly impressed by his technical game but at some point, he will be called out for the intensity in his game at times. Tugay got away with it and maybe, in other countries it’s tolerated from the playmaker but the pressure will be on at some point, I think. It could be partly a fitness issue, as was suggested whilst he was playing for Rovers.

Still a very slow back line and a not particularly mobile central midfield, either. However, I have a horrible feeling that Pickering will be a third CB and Chrisene wing-back. Edit: BBC online guess Chrisene at LCB, which is better, in my opinion, than Pickering, as it adds some pace there.

Really strange scenario with Lenni Rae Cirino, the U23s/U21s, long forgotten LWB appearing out of the blue to be called up by Gary Bowyer's Montserrat international team, with his younger brother who's on the books of Fleetwood. Cirino has not featured for months, if not longer, for Rovers and now, he is, apparently, fit enough for a couple of games in the coming week, in the Caribbean (albeit, presumably, a relatively low standard). It would appear that he had returned from injury but was simply frozen out by the club as surplus to requirements. His treatment is a sharp contrast to that of Isaac Whitehall after his exceptionally long and serious layoff. Whitehall has been eased back into the U23s with a view, I suppose, to see if he can still make it or, to help him with his career prospects when he moves on. Cirino, was once one of the most highly rated players in the Rovers reserves under Billy Barr's management. The team finished around 5th in the PL2 that year after competing for even higher. He got his first team debut coming off the bench in a pre-season friendly against, I believe, Leeds, a few years back. He's since been overtaken by Batty and Gent in the left back role. Injuries, especially, seem to have damaged his prospects but it seems bizarre that he should be back available and the club are choosing not to field him for U23 games. It could be that there is some financial disincentive for the club or he just hasn't been registered to play, or something like that, but again, it seems very harsh compared to how Whitehall has been given a chance to resurrect his career with game time. Whatever, he's at least got a chance with his call-up and not a bad place to play football, I would guess.

Viewing from afar, and therefore could easily be wrong, but I get the impression that quite a few of the bottom clubs don't mind too much about relegation. It doesn't seem to be the huge deal even, maybe, for fans, as it was in the past. Part of that is just realism, because the league is so competitive now, because of the influx of big-spending owners, that chances of survival are less. But, my guess is that it's also because clubs know that being in the Prem and with parachute payments (and player sales), puts them so far ahead, financially, of average Champ clubs, that they are confident of getting back into the gravy train before long. That confidence may or may not be misguided.

To be fair to England U21 set-up, Wharton has done ok but Palace have still been struggling, though, there's been a bit of an uptick and Wharton has not been finishing games regularly. I think I remember reading him being hooked around 70-80 minutes past couple of games. And, he has had his dodgy moments, like on his debut when he gave the ball away, I think, for a conceded goal and got called out by Roy Hodgson. I think he is still settling in and building his fitness and intensity, so - being charitable here - England might be thinking of that, as well as going with tried and tested. Looking at that England U21 team, it seems mixed, some really promising players and then others, like Stansfield, who, I'm not sure is on the same level. Though, to be fair, he's got a few goals this season in a struggling Brum side.

Thought this might interest others as a separate topic. The football media landscape has altered dramatically thanks to the internet. It’s the case for media generally, of course. I’m far from being knowledgeable on this but it all seems very fragmented now. However, one thing is clear, the volume of football media content has grown immensely. You have new broadcasters, online streaming, fan channels, club channels, podcasts and still have the online forums and websites chuntering on. And then there’s the small matter of the “content fruit machines” of social media pushing junk or bite size portions of this content on social media to the world, including children. I wonder what people’s personal experiences have been and how they feel about some of these changes. I wonder where you think we are headed with football media and content. The negatives and the bad examples are clear, I think. The control broadcasters have over fixture dates and timings has created an excess of coverage and disruption for fans. Broadcaster money is fuelling expansion and takeover of the game by tournaments like the Champions’ League (which should rightfully be renamed Elites League, as it has nothing remotely to do with champions any more.) There is the torrent of mindless content now flowing. I constantly get pushed social media clips of a certain football show marked by its flirtatious banter and bon homie and I find myself equally enraged and fascinated by its utterly dull self-absorption and the participants complete lack of self-awareness. But I usually watch the clips, I admit. Incidentally, I suppose those clips are designed to enrage me and trigger feels of contempt. I’m sure, if I were to watch entire shows rather than just these spoon-fed clips, I’d see that the show isn’t as abhorrent as I think and the people are actually ok. On the other hand, I’ve enjoyed seeing fan channels give a voice to fans, challenge clubs and their owners, in some cases. I’ve enjoyed seeing the mainstream media move through the stages of denial to contemptuous attack to co-option in response. The new competition has brought improvements, shaking up legacy coverage from some of its tired practices. Nonetheless, commercial sponsorship models, manipulative and censorious channels like YouTube and co-option, I think, have meant that the promise of giving a true voice to fans hasn’t been realised, as many subjects about football’s governance are, apparently, off-topic. I wonder what others have found negative and positive in developments.

I think we’ve had Hilton, Eastham, Michalski, Khan and Goddard rotate at times. Before, there was another player whose name escapes me who was occasionally coming in but now released. The signing of Stergiakis didn’t work and it’s not clear to me why both Eastham and Hilton were given extended deals when clearly they’re not considered good enough. It all seems rather unstructured and arbitrary. Whilst different players need games, they also need continuity to build confidence and lay a claim for promotion to the firsts. In my opinion, there should be a clear goalie hierarchy and an established No. 3 and 4, who are challenged to climb up the order. For me, there has been no clarity as to who is no.3 at the club for a number of years. All that being said, hopefully, Michalski can establish himself and then get a loan move in due time to prepare to challenge for a first team squad spot. Not sure what happens if/when Hilton and Eastham go. Maybe, Goddard comes in.

My guess is that platforms like YouTube and, also, corporate sponsors favour a certain type of content. Though, there definitely have been some successful non-sports content creators who have done well despite challenging conventions. So, perhaps, other reasons are at play. The big online fan channels aren’t confronting the important fan issues in football, such as the ever expanding and changing fixture list, devaluation of domestic game and expansion of Champions’ League, surging inequality, rigging of the game by wealth, fleecing of fans, corrupt ownership regime and so on. There’s some discussion about owners when teams are struggling. And the Super League was an issue. But, it seems, these kind of discussions are not considered profitable or at least deemed to carry financial risk.

As far as I know, these popular fan channels don't rely greatly on club access. They're not like so-called legacy media that appear in all the press conferences and official media events. Though, clubs are bringing them in gradually. My guess is that it's more to do with dependency on commercial sponsors of content and platforms like Youtube favouring a certain type of vacuous content. As well as old-fashioned co-option through access, incentives and social connections. I could be wrong though. It seems as if the elite game is being taken away from ordinary football fans - nothing new - but the voice of fans isn't really getting elevated here because the economics and politics of football are barely covered.

I thought successful online fan channels would really challenge the authority of owners of some of these big clubs. To some extent, they have but I get the impression that commercial models, censorship fears and some co-option have meant they have not become the open fora that they seemed to promise.

Gilsenan got back from an ACL just over a year or so ago. He’s also physically slight, so you would expect him to be gradually introduced.

Ayari is a fair shout but agree, two man midfield looks very lightweight. Buckley & Ayari can tackle but can they track runners and bark orders to organise the team and get forwards tracking back? I would prefer Chrisene in there to try and deal with Whittaker. I am getting Brian Kidd flashbacks when he came in and got the team drawing games but not enough to save us. We’ll have to see.

Whilst maybe not outstanding players, it forever surprises me that seeing the impact that Reda Khadra and Poveda had - especially, Khadra, albeit, over a short spell, didn't awaken the club management to how much of a difference a pacy player with skill can make. Having that outlet even awoke Buckley into a dangerous attacking midfielder, as opponents didn't know whether to stick or twist. If we are to play with a deep and slow defence, which isn't particularly reliable, we must be able to score goals. The management must get Dolan, Buckley, JRC (if fit), even Markanday, committing opposition defenders in the final third. Catenaccio, if that's what Eustace is going for, doesn't seem like it's going to work. Off the bench, I would use Telalovic and, also, put Gilsenan in there, to try and offer something different. I'd also be looking to have a quicker CB in the line-up, and push the team further forwards and less insecure about the ball over the top. If that means trying Koumetio, so be it. He had a mixed game against Newcastle but it's at least worth trying him out as a sub to see if he might be able to cut it.

If we are to play the same formation, I would bring in Koumetio or O'Riordan (assuming he's quicker than our current CBs) to at least allow the team to play a few yards further up the pitch. Maybe, Chrisene, from the start too. However, the manager is so attached to his current back three, I suspect he'll keep it the same.

He reminds me of the occasional small, stocky Spanish player so-called winger that arrives in the Premier League and shows flashes but disappears and a few years down the road you hear of them scoring a worldie for Juventus. Not to say he is that, at all, but to agree he’s not suited for playing out wide in our team in the Championship. No.10 is his position. The club might salvage something if they play him there and exploit his shooting and close control but not out wide.

I wonder if wingers of yesterday think of all the kicks they took and Herculean effort they put in just to reach the byline in the corner, only for it to be considered a backwards approach now.

Arsenal scored six very similar goals against Sheff Utd - they all involved cut-backs of some kind from within the penalty box. There were some variations in the finishes and the build-up play. However, it makes me wonder if we are at a point where the elite game, for all its advancements, has become formulaic, even to the point of the same style of goal being scored. Clearly, it was very effective for Arsenal and I don't blame them for playing like this - and it's up to others to disrupt. However, it seems to make for a less interesting game - or, at least, highlights package, as I watched. I'm sure there was more variety in the build up that the highlights miss. (Incidentally, I think the broadcasters miss a trick by excluding build up play because that's what makes most goals interesting. Viaplay put out 6/7 min highlights of international and overseas games and it makes such a difference, to me, at least). Edit: This is just an impression, based on not a lot of evidence, as I don't watch as much Prem football these days. Back in the day, I'm sure there was a lot of repetition based on what seemed to work and what was in fashion at the time.