That just isn't going to happen unfortunately. We couldn't keep two players who graduated from our own academy and another who didn't, who are good Championship players but no more than that for now. Why would we be able to convince a Chilean international star, coveted by numerous clubs, to sign on for far less money than he will get elsewhere and forego the fantastic signing on fee he will be eligible for next summer? Optimism is all well and good but it should be grounded in reality too. The only scenario I can see it happening is in the fairly unlikely one that we get promoted this season. Even then, it relies on him not signing a pre-contract with a foreign club in January. We know some are looking.

Hopefully they're all like that for most of the season!

Is this something he has actually said? The only young debuts he has given so far are Vale (first start anyway not first game) and the young lad on loan from Liverpool.

No no, it's not a question at all. It's as near to a fact as it's possible to get, that he wasn't.

No need for the 'blimey', I'm not saying sack the manager or anything, it's not a huge deal, just think it's the wrong judgement call. The chances of one of our keepers picking up an injury on the day, and then the other getting injured during the game in order for him to actually need to come on, are extremely, extremely slim. I see no reason he couldn't have played the game, and then driven down tomorrow for the unlikely eventuality of a keeper becoming unavailable at short notice.

Don't talk to Pep like that, it's disrespectful.

It makes sense, but not at the expense of him missing the u21s game. He won't even make the bench.

Doesn't make sense to me. They spend all week together. Making sure Hilton has match experience and sharpness, as well as helping the u21s get off to a good start, seems more important to me than some nebulous idea of keeping the team together for a day by keeping the third choice keeper loitering around.

As well as Pears? It's a full day before a match he has almost no chance of playing in, would have thought we'd keep him in shape with the u21s.

Who is Khan? One of our 11 million young keepers? If I remember rightly, Eastham and Goddard are out on loan...is Hilton?

Nah mate, Mowbray left months ago.

Aye I was only being facetious. You know how that is 😉

If he affected the team last season, he's something special. We only employed him this summer.

What's most astounding isn't that people persisted in supporting him when he was out of his depth in the Championship, it's that Jason Lowe actually made 33 appearances in the Premier League, the strongest league on Earth.

😬 That doesn't reflect well on how much he enjoyed working here.

In a way he (and all 'coaches not managers') has a pretty cosy gig with the role separation. Asked about transfers? Just tell them to ask Gregg. When they try to ask Gregg they're told he isn't talking til the end of the window. Also means JDT can't be held responsible for transfers going wrong, all Gregg's fault. As long as things don't look fucked on the pitch, ie players who were already here performing worse than before, Broughton would probably be fired before JDT would be. Please note, all those who are happy to have a go, this is not a criticism of JDT nor the club. And the flipside of course would be that he has reduced involvement in the players we sign for him, which might reduce his ability to deliver the results that keep him safe or progress his career. Though he still has final say.

Haha fair comment! Although Smallwood was actually invaluable to us in League One. And although I did say at the time I thought Lowe might have been more at his level if he had stuck around that season, I don't think he would have proven invaluable at that level at all. Sadly Smallwood was poor in the Championship, but for me not as poor as Lowe was. But then we're back onto faecal fragrances.

I thought Ben Rosen had been brought in to replace Chris Rush (the fitness guy). Unless there was another that has scarpered too. You're right we have been bringing in a lot of backroom staff but we've been losing a lot too.

Don't agree really. The one thing you could say about Lowe was he always put a shift in. He did cover a lot of ground. Hiding from receiving the ball, I would agree he was sometimes guilty of. The biggest difference between the two was simply that Andrews had better technique. It wasn't good enough, but he could occasionally pass and shoot. 5 goals for us in 70 games compared to 1 in 173. 47 career goals to Lowe's 7. His passing was unambitious of course, but so was Lowe's.

I was gonna say (Keith) Andrews, but a quick look at the wiki suggested he didn't use him much. A closer look now though tells me it was only the last season he fell out of favour with just 5 apps, but that was probably partly cos Sam got sacked. Before then he was a fairly regular feature. Wasn't as dire as Lowe anyway, for me. Poor though for the Prem.

It was athletic performance, or whatever I said before. A technical coach would focus on the technical side of the game. Technique, maybe tactics. Athletic performance would all be about fitness and pretty much nothing else. At least that's how I understand it.

Nope, he definitely wasn't better than Smallwood. Nothing will change my mind either.

Nah sorry he's already done that. I know you don't agree, but he has. He hasn't proven he's a perfect one, but he has absolutely proven he is capable.

You're right, not sure who I was thinking of, but there was definitely a shite player Allardyce persisted with to mass bemusement.

I remember seeing that sentiment several times from his defenders. Proof once and for all that the 'football professionals always know best' argument is complete and utter bollocks. Even Allardyce played him consistently. Yet by his prime years he was piddling about in League Two if I recall. Sometimes the fans can see what managers miss (and yes, sometimes it's the other way around).