Not getting too excited by Cantwell, because anything can and usually does happen with us and transfers. But I think this is as good of a gamble as you can place on a player, especially in our position. Mentality/personality are why he’s going for so little. Ability is massively ahead of where we are, he is head and shoulders better than the rest of our players, on an ability level. Cantwell doesn’t have a lot of pace but he’s the relatively rare breed of player who can beat most people with his feet and brain. You don’t need that much pace when you’re one of those. FWIW, I don’t actually rate the very little I’ve seen of Ben Doak. Much more qualified people than me would disagree wholeheartedly and I’m very likely wrong, but I don’t fancy it. Seems a bit too lightweight currently and I’m not convinced he’s fully put together enough for the championship. Maybe at a side that expects teams to sit off them a lot where he has more time to think, but I think he’s still yet to get to the level. For comparison, he’s not at Carvalho’s level last season and probably not at Harvey Elliott’s level from his spell with us.

In which case he hasn’t done that yet, I assume? Didn’t he only officially sign in January?

I seem to remember something about “duration of contract” being a determining factor. The ESC slot is tied to the contract, you can apply for the work permit with a new deal and if it’s not approved, you can then use the same slot. So we’d have to have offered and had accepted a new deal, which we clearly haven’t managed yet.

Crack on! Some excellent minds for this tried in February and nowt was doing. Last group chat went quiet in June after the tennis ball effort at the Newcastle game.

People have tried, some have succeeded in organising and maintaining, but the last protest-related group chat was a wet fart of shit ideas and arguing.

Respectfully disagree. Five subs at the same time and a shape change is asking for trouble, there’s a reason you don’t see it that often. Proper amateur-hour nonsense from the manager, with an opportunity to continue the momentum, get minutes into legs and go onward to Saturday. Two things - he’ll blame the subs on needing to change shape because Pickering was injured, which is bollocks because the only likely replacement for him back left was Hedges, who played wide right. Second - if that was a warmup or audition for a change of shape on Saturday, we could see a worse do than the last time we were at Turf Moor.

Actually quite angry at how big of a fuck-up Eustace has made here.

Not the end of the world to go out in the cup, but a horrendous tactical error by Eustace just now to switch to three at the back and use all his subs with half an hour left. Just madness. Pickering being injured maybe influences it, but he’s stuck Sigurdsson at LWB and Hedges wide right. Moronic decision which may cause first loss of the season against League One opposition just before the Dingles on the weekend.

Great example.

Buckley’s early through ball to Gueye was horrendous. Played it 3-4 seconds too late and the exact opposite side to where Gueye was gesturing and where it should have gone. Has missed three or four tackles and still just maddeningly ponderous. I think his range of passing is really limited at times, he’s a League One player, he’s suited to tonight, but he’s not excelling.

Ref mindful to keep the game a spectacle. In total contravention of the laws, but thinking about the good of the game.

For those who have missed it so far Buckley seriously off it, needs to improve. Vale showing an uncharacteristically high level of application. Duru looking bright, has handled everything and looks up for it. Very few others look up for it. Batth slow playing such a high line. Rare occasion that a commentator is well-researched covering us.

We’ve needed serious left back cover for ages so let’s hope this lad gets up to speed and challenges Pickering soon. Cantwell - I actually see a good strategy here: point to Szmodics and Wharton and say to him, “come do your stuff here, keep your head down, stay away from Manchester and you could be looking at a big move in a year or two.” If Cantwell wasn’t such a dickhead (and it’s well documented exactly how big of a dickhead he can be) he’d be playing at an extremely high level. Bundles of natural talent, which should have been developed and nurtured to a very high standard, maybe world class, maybe in the England conversation. Thinking you’re God’s gift to Norfolk and better than you actually are will stymie even the greatest talent. But he’s still the kind of player that can do the very special things, bums-off-seats kind of things. I’d go for it.

Appreciate the insight. Absolutely nothing is clear with this ownership and yet it still continues. The more perspectives/interpretations we have, the closer we come to understanding (though we will probably never fully understand).

Just to stop the conversation around this (because politicians do this and it’s also incorrect): The credit card analogy is completely incorrect. The current owners have invested £200m or so in the football club and have converted it into shares, meaning it’s now equity in the business. They have - if what we hear is to be believed - borrowed that through the parent company from State Bank of India, but the football club isn’t directly on the hook to repay that. Getting it all back on the way out would be a case of a prospective owner agreeing to clear that amount with the sale of the club from the parent company to them. Highly unlikely, but they’re not going to start issuing dividends to reclaim it and pay it down. So you’re not paying down a debt as in the credit card analogy, because cash is essentially created out of thin air (in practical terms, the way a national bank does for governments and retail/commercial banks) for you by the owners. You’re not explicitly on the hook for it. Like the political argument for building infrastructure (and let’s not start that up at all here) using money that’s available to you to strengthen what you have and to try to progress, investing while you can is the only way we could meaningfully move towards actually paying it down, ironically. We do not sell out Ewood, we do not make enough from commercial and we are in an industry that is almost designed to be unprofitable for the overwhelming majority participating. Without getting into the finite FFP window, the PSR angle where not running at a loss and calling in cash from the owners means we can only lose 3x less than if they did help us (work that one out, I’ve never been able to), we’ve sold key assets that could have helped us progress up the league and towards the Promised Land, which is fine, but we simply have to reinvest it or we die. It might be slow, it will be painful and it will happen. Anybody saying any different is either being facetious, wilfully ignorant or has some homework to do.

Agreed. He’ll pop with a few, especially from set pieces and crosses, but he’s got three assists in three league starts and that’s extremely valuable

Gueye with 3 assists in three league appearances is good stuff. The manner in which Oxford lost is the manner in which we lost a lot of games over the past couple of seasons and coming back from 1-0 to win is as rare as rocking horse shit. Big game next weekend, could absolutely derail the dingles, if we nick it. They seem livid at their owners as it is, I’m not sure Burnley Town Centre could cope with the hammering it would take after losing. Turning a disaster zone into a wasteland. Let’s get it done.

I think it’ll be rare we get all of them starting and certainly not for a while, but I think this is probably our strongest XI. Maybe knife-edge between JRC and Weimann. Pick the weak spots and replace.

Last 10 mins has been really poor

Yes, you’re right, only shit keepers get beaten from 35 yards. (1:46 for Buffon’s howler).

What did he do wrong there, exactly? He’s not too far out at all and it is hit perfectly, dipping into the goal. He’s a generally shit keeper but there’s nothing he did wrong at all on that. Hyam should’ve won his duel.

You don’t save those

Everyone is off it, apart from Ohashi who’s having a really good half. Oxford were not at it early but have grown into the game. Something will need a change at half time.

Is JRC that much quicker?

I think there’re a lot of aspects to him that need changing. A few fundamentals that inhibit his ability to progress in other areas. But I reckon he’s got a higher ceiling than what he’s currently playing at. I don’t think he’s a 10 at all and I honestly think if this line up is going to persist, it should be Dolan wide right and JRC in the 10.