London blue

"All about results" Apart from when results are poor, when you decide it's about how honest he is and how he needs time. I'm sick to the back teeth of you and your hypocrisy.

I find it interesting that since Dolan's good start in Spain, certain posters have changed from "let's see where he ends up" to "he was never going to sign a contract". I'm delighted for him.

This dire reading. You can't call it anything other than systematic failure.

Precisely. Many more absent performances like today and Arsenal will look elsewhere.

I hope VI has the confidence and conviction to not play Tyjon if he doesn't deem it beneficial to the team in the short term. I've made my feelings on this clear, I have no interest in blooding him this year to improve him on the chance that he signs a contract, especially if it's at the potential expense of Championship points. Sign and play. Otherwise, best of luck.

Some shocking defending on display, though. Batty put in the softest challenge and Dale get time in the box to set up a point blank header. 3-2

Litherland looks very, very good breaking from defence. Chris Smalling comes to mind

Feels like he believes more in austerity.

He might well be. The reality of it is, though, that we're left with Tron and Tavares who, so far, has been lightweight and has a mistake in him. Our backup is the Brum lad, Foreshaw and Kristi. I've not seen the former play and I'd like to see as little as possible of the latter two.

Yes. Because winning a game does not solve the inherent sickness that sits atop our club and has infected it to its very core. You're just happy to ignore it.

Foot fracture I think? I dunno. No-one knows.

Baradji out "medium term" according to VI. Laughable transfer. Call it sensible to loan him instead of buying all you want but I'll be surprised if he plays 10 games this season. Some replacement for Trav.

Trav had his best season at Rovers last year. Hyam played our last 50 games. Sure, neither are world beaters but they were without doubt two of our best players, who, before being fucked around, wanted to stay. We wanted them to stay too. Hearing people claim this was a strategic squad restructure is driving me crazy. The club wanted all of the departing players but weren't willing to pay the going rate. I'm also interested to know which one of Tavares, Baradji or Gardner you think will be better than Travis, and why.

Looking at squads, I think Spain are by far the best around. Then England are firmly in the chasing pack with Brazil, France and to a lesser extent, Germany.

They were very good tonight. Madueke is a real player. Proper ball on a string dribbler. Adding Saka, Palmer and Bellingham to this team somehow will be difficult. Some will be disappointed, which will be one of Tuchel's biggest challenges. If he can't fit in, Bellingham doesn't have to start. Can he handle that?

What are you defending here, exactly? You say we shouldn't expect any different. No-one does. That doesn't excuse the farce of an interview from criticism. Just because it's what we expected to happen doesn't mean we should deem it acceptable.

Then don't offer out questions from the fans. If their agenda was to peddle their propaganda, I'd rather they just did that, rather than feign wanting to be open and honest.

But "new or otherwise" is dismissing the point entirely. I'm talking specifically about the extension of existing players.

You said: "they've just signed 10 players, they're more than capable of penning contracts." Again, they were obliged to sign those players, otherwise we wouldn't have a squad. The fact that a number of new, low value contracts have been offered has no bearing at all on whether they either can't or won't offer improved terms to current players. They HAD to sign new players. They had no choice.

I'm begging you to state you understand the difference between signing new players and offering improved contracts to current players.

Whether Dolan was likely to go or not wasn't the question. Again, you're trying to isolate each player as a one-off, an anomaly. The truth of the matter is that the spine of our team has left and their contract status has had a part to play in all of them, to greater or lesser extents. Signing cheap players on comparatively low contracts does not disprove that. We HAD to sign players or we wouldn't have been able to fill the bench. The greater signifier is the amount of starters that over the next 12 months will have to be sold or will leave on a free. Because nothing has changed. No lessons have been learned. The king is dead, long live the king.

Sure, it's a possibility that VI was happy to let Hyam, Brittain, Trav and Dolan go. It's slimmer than a gnats pube, but it's a possibility.

No, but in my opinion it would be. We've a difference in opinion, let's leave it there.

Sorry mate but I thought it was generally accepted on this board that something being the managers decision doesn't automatically make it the right one? I understand that, literally speaking, playing all 3 is an option. I just don't think it's advisable, given the limited players in that position, and their respective injury records.

Sorry I mean the broader sense of 'play 3 centre backs' as in regularly. I don't think it's advisable to have all 3 senior centre backs on the pitch at any one time.