Fulham aren't poor, they're one of the best sides in the league. However, they didn't particularly impress me today. We simply conspired to have no threat.

Think people are being harsh on JRC. Granted I've missed bits but he's done alright when I've seen him. Far better than the likes of Bennett would do in that role.

Think Armstrong is having one of his cold days so far, which is a real shame as he is our main goal threat lately. Still, he's always a threat so could still pop up with one.

We have eight players out of contract in the summer if I'm remembering rightly. Walton goes back and his wage goes off the books. Hard to say what the result for our wage budget of all that will be. It does seem Forster is on something in the region of 60-70k per week, but I doubt Celtic are paying anything approaching that. Sinclair was meant to be their highest paid player on about 35k. Maybe Southampton will loan him out again. And contribute most of the wages. Maybe they'll be thankful after shafting us for Gally. I do agree it's probably one we can't afford without a huge wage subsidy (and he's not out of contract until 2021), but I don't think there was any need to snark the poster about him paying for it personally. Not everyone has looked up everyone else's (reported) wages before making a suggestion.

I think you've confused bbrovers with the owners.

You're gonna want to use a more successful example...

These comments are a serious stretch. The fee has intensified criticism of him, yes. But if he had just come through our academy and played like he has, we would be saying he was promising, and hope for him to press on over the next year or two. We wouldn't be saying he looks good, or a star. I think he'd be regarded in the Buckley bracket at the very best, or possibly more in the Mols bracket (who is rarely talked about, though some here insist he is better than BB). He is behind so many players in the pecking order in pure football terms, fee aside. In fact if he hadn't cost so much he would have had nowhere near his number of first team appearances. On the other hand, the lack of pressure may have improved those performances. Maybe he can still come good, but I think this will 90 percent come down to psychology and that the club aren't doing him any favours in that area.

He watches nearly every u-23 game.

Wow, we really are pretty fucking stupid with this, aren't we.

You're the same, it's just a different broken record is all.

Nice goal, but it caught my eye how paggered he looked after it in the celebrations. Absolutely huffing and puffing. Makes me question what all these piddly cameos and never having a starting run (at least not for a long time or ever in his real position) has done to his match fitness. Been saying for a while he looks like a player very short on confidence. Hopefully this gets him going, if he is given the chance to capitalise on it properly in the first team. That said, I'd still be concerned to see him starting... Should have gone on loan.

Manager is very different to scout though.

Wow, was I naive in thinking we wouldn't have to go back to Jones and Henley for the answer? Really odd that we were doing it in the Prem, at a higher level.

Truthfully that last part may even play into our favour. It seems like the utter dross in this league give us a harder game than the good sides. I firmly believe that ties into the stats I've researched and posted previously about us getting better points hauls from the games where we have less possession. You'd expect the better teams to keep the ball better against us and hem us in a bit, and we have shown we are more effective at counter-attacking, as well as being vulnerable to counter attacks in the games where we control possession. I'd have to run the stats again to see if this is still true, I think I did them in about November. But a quick look at the last few games shows it is still more or less holding up. Sheff W is a bit different as they were awful, we were absolutely electric, and they had ten men. But for instance we slaughtered Forest for possession (67%) but lost, shipping three goals. QPR had more possession than us (58%). It's not a cast iron rule or anything, but it does seem to be a general trend.

It does, however, matter what they say. If they present the club, manager or players positively, they're 100% correct. If they cast them in a bad light at all, they are ignored at best, instantly wrong at worst.

6 points behind, not been in the top 6 all season (closest has been 8th I think?) midfield decimated with injuries and the only club to fail to recruit anybody in January. I think you know why it's very unlikely now, but your relentless positivity won't let you see/admit it.

With no Dack injury and some defensive reinforcements in January, I think we would have had a really good chance. Sadly I now think it is an extremely small chance. If Holtby is out for a fair spell, I'd give us no chance at all.

This has made me wonder, when was the last time someone 18 or younger got a league debut for us? Or a start?

U-18s lost to Manure, 0-1.

I don't know that he's a must, but I don't know his game. Wiki describes him as a deep lying creative central midfielder. It isn't the deep lying role we need filling, for me. I'd still like to take a proper look at Davenport, and he couldn't even make the bench today. If injuries happened in CM, we even have Smallwood who is no great shakes and doesn't fulfil the creative part at all, but can fill in as a spoiler in a pinch. It's the attacking roles we need sorting in midfield. LAM, CAM and RAM as FM would call it. A versatile, quality player who can fill those spots would be ideal. Mind, transfermarkt shows him as playing LM and RM roles so maybe he could be wedged in there. Anybody seen much of him?

That was dire. I think it's really telling how supportive his team mates were after it though.

"We have been trying to sign some free agents now the transfer window is closed. But the wages that unemployed footballers are on these days are astronomical..."

That's all of the core skills on the application form ticked then.

Thought Johnson was ineffective again when he came on and would rather have seen Davenport coming on. Looking like it's gonna take a lot for him to get a real chance.

I wouldn't care if he wore a full on ski mask on the hottest day of summer if he did the business. Sadly it's probably true that he no longer would, with enough frequency, to be worth the hefty wages. I'm just glad he didn't seal our fate today, would have been that much harder to take.