Stats show Luton with 0 shots on target and 2 goals....

I'm sure before the Leeds game I saw a stat that we had one of, or the, best record for not conceding from set pieces in the league.

Johnson has been awful, with several misplaced passes. His most accurate and skilful touch has been that OG. Nearly all of us would rather have had Davenport out there.

Good point, hadn't noticed he was the bench option, weird. Jordan Eastham. As far as I'm aware, third choice youth goalie. I dunno if Fisher's loan made him ineligible...and maybe there's something wrong with Hilton like an injury.

Well it's pretty much exactly the team I expected to see. But personally I'd have liked to see Hilton given a go so we can see whether we might only need one keeper next season, and certainly Davenport should have been included from the start. Then I'd have brought Vale on somewhere around the 60 minute mark.

'Integrity'....

Well he had played for us, he wasn't exactly a regular at that point though. He got one sub appearance in the season before Venkys, and only made 7 league appearances in their first season of ownership. The original point was about pushing players into the team as regulars (implied anyway) and to our detriment. Particularly after the Jones sale. His first season as a regular was the relegation season, right after we had sold Jones. I always said the biggest on-pitch reasons we went down were Hanley and Lowe getting far more game time than they merited. Obviously that was SK's fault, and he was the main issue in general.

But still, some people will insist in numerous debates that because (insert manager here) is a professional, they know better. Sorry but sometimes ordinary fans can be right and the professionals wrong.

Businesses full of 'yes men' fail. You're embarrassing yourself here tbh, you don't have a clue how good business operates and it is really showing.

Has your grandad ever raved about a player that never really made it?

Thought Trav's was a much better goal than Dack's. But then I'm more a fan of solo efforts and super strikes than team goals for these kinds of things. For a team goal to win I want to see some kind of exquisite skill, or still include some kind of special finish. This was just a nice counter attack that kept going unhindered, and a bit of a tap in. It did seem to meg the keeper, which was nice, but I expect that was more by accident than design.

Also though, what someone is worth to the market, and what they are worth to us, are two very different things too. I feel the club need to be more ambitious with player sales, like many other clubs are. What does selling any of our assets for these fees accomplish? Sod all. A bunch of it gets swallowed up by the debt, FFP obligations, agent fees, what have you. Most of the academy lads are nowhere near our highest earners either. We then get left with stuff all to find an adequate replacement with, whilst having a setup far from proven in recruiting effectively. Personally I'm only interested in what values players have to us, I'm not interested in what they're worth in the market unless that's even higher somehow. If we sold any of the players we are talking about for sub 5 million I'll be fuming. If we sell them for less than 8 I'd still not be a fan of it. And the likes of Arma or Dack I want a lot more still. I don't care what other clubs want to pay. And yes I'm aware it isn't in my hands and may not be in TM's either.

They were promoted the day after the article, but it was always looking likely. Any one of a number of results going their way was going to seal it. Then playoffs as backup. But perhaps the thinking was, if they don't get promoted then 1.5 mill is too much for an 18 year old LB. But if they got promoted they can get someone more proven, for big bucks, and the kid wants game time. Anything near 1.5 mill sounds too rich for our blood too though. Especially for an 18 year old defender who the article says needs to improve defensively. When has TM ever made an 18 yr old a first team regular? Plus he keeps midfielders out the side because he seems them inadequate defensively, let alone defenders. I may have missed it but I didn't see the article saying we were interested anyway, only that he would be a good fit for our approach.

If Leeds have been put off by Liverpool's valuation like the article says, we have no chance.

Chaddy he's not wrong. You frequently ignore the most important points posters make. Sometimes you probably think you're answering them, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt there, but really you're swerving it and talking about some other thinly-related issue. I've seen you do this many, many times over the years. Nothing personal, it's just true.

Rather send him League One if somebody there is interested in playing him weekly. He does have a fair few showings at a higher level than that now. League Two won't benefit us with him for the same reason it hasn't really with Wharton. It isn't a level that can give us an indication of whether he can regularly play two levels above it.

Absolutely. Get Hilton in and see whether we need one GK this summer or two.

Almost glad our season was already over cos I can only imagine the stress of watching this otherwise!

Almost impossible that we will unless he's playing for the opposition. Duff was the best left winger in the world for me, after the 2002 World Cup. Just most didn't know it because he still only played for 'little' Blackburn Rovers. He actually wasn't quite as good at Chelsea as with us after his injury issues there (even though he'd had some before with us) but he was playing in a much better side and was certainly still lethal as. Him and Robben swapping sides was terrifying. There was a reason that when Ranieri was given all the money in the world, the first player he bid for was Damien Duff. He got Glen Johnson over the line first, but only because Duff took longer to finalise.

In fact I took a look at the lineups at the end of last season. The extent of the changes and testing of youth was that Davenport and Chapman got to come off the bench in the last game, and Chapman the one before, and Brereton got a start in the game before that (and scored, and was then dropped), with Buckley and Butterworth off the bench. So I really wouldn't bother getting your hopes up.

When I hear the term 'false 9' I basically equate it to 'number 10', 'playing in the hole', 'deep-lying centre forward', or even 'attacking midfielder' potentially, yeh. I dunno if it's meant to be exactly the same thing. But I do know it never seems to work for us. I feel like maybe the term implies you play as a number 9, but frequently come deep to collect the ball. As opposed to some of those other terms, like 'playing in the hole', maybe meaning that you start a little deeper and surge forward, like Dack does. Like I say, it doesn't do us any favours whatever it is. If it is the way I defined it, it basically means when the striker drops off there is no focal point anymore and we are entirely reliant on the overlapping players surging forwards. Maybe why TM is so convinced by it, as in theory that suits 'wide strikers'. But I'd really prefer we just came up with a coherent, effective gameplan and stop pissing around.

What's on the line is his standing in India. Luton are fighting and will probably beat us, so this may be the last real chance to improve on last season's points total so he can claim some form of progress. I think at the very most we might see Davenport and Carter start, but more likely only one of them. The out-of-contracters and loan players will be just as likely to start as in any other game. Even last season when we were safe but also un-promotable earlier than anyone else, we still didn't see a real switch in personnel until was it the last game or two? And I don't remember it being very dramatic. It's stupid because it really is the best opportunity you can get to test whether these kids might be ready. Instead we'll probably rely on some friendlies to gauge that.

I don't care if he becomes the best manager in the world, if Joey Barton is ever in the manager's seat here I'm done until he's gone. Absolute fucking scumbag.

Tbf he would probably shove it up your arse if you did ?

Forget him as manager, but I'd quite like him to come in as some sort of 'Motivation' Coach ? I'd definitely pay handsomely to be a fly on the wall for those training sessions too.