Any chance this one is being screened anywhere online?

It's his age that gives me added pause. If he was 18 I'd get it, but I dunno what we are accomplishing by taking on a 22 year old then putting him back down 3 tiers below us where we found him. The LT article talked about Davenport pushing for first team involvement, well if that happens we need the bodies in the u23s, which is why I thought we got him in the first place.

Wondering what the point is of Tom White going out on loan to the same level we plucked him from. Thought he was doing well?

Hope so. Otherwise it is Bell at LB and Nyambe on the bench...

My only issue with that (other than whether Lenihan will be ready to be plunged right in) is Johnson. He has been very shit the last few times I've seen him. Currently I'd put nearly any of our CM options ahead of him, he's been that poor. Evans, Bennett or Downing. Not that I'm sold on any of them.

In a nutshell. Tony just isn't a good judge of a player. That's probably his single biggest problem, closely followed by having no clue where to play them on the pitch.

Sorry, I thought you meant January. I'm still not convinced it'll be the right area of the pitch to target in the summer, but the budget should be larger then. More because that's when a new pool of Venkys money is likely to appear, if it does at all, than because of the outgoings above. Walton and Jayson are going to need replacing. Tosin and Cunningham are going to need replacing. Even one of Hart or Bell is going to need replacing for depth. Mulgrew may need replacing (I know we aren't playing him now, but we are seeing that we are too thin even on numbers at CB..I'd be looking at two CBs). Smallwood doesn't need replacing. If TM is still here you can bet your left nut Bennett won't be going anywhere. Even under another manager, EB is likely to be deemed a useful, experienced, versatile squad member (hopefully not a fucking starter though) so may be kept. Downing I wouldn't replace unless someone special shows up (that might be where a Milner might fit tbf), think we have enough wide options and kids coming through there. Graham and Samuel out of contract is likely to be more than swallowed up by the need for a new striker (again, jesus...). Unless this is a clever loan, there's probably gonna be a big fee sucking up any savings we make after replacing all of the above and probably more. I don't see a lot being left over after all that. I'm not even sure we can afford getting the right quality of players to replace those properly as it is, unless our recruitment steps up its game big time or some youth players absolutely light it up this year. I can't see us shifting Evans for more than 500k. With his wages we could be lucky to get that. If we did sell Lenihan we better be spending the proceeds on a better CB. A Dack sale is the only one I can see raising enough that a Milner level expense in a Milner area of the pitch might be a good move. I think Holtby can replace Dack, albeit with less goals, but it still might be sensible to spend a chunk of the sale on another quality player in his area. Christ I just depressed myself.

Because it's the wrong position unless we have a ton more budget than we think and can afford to fix the whole backline too. If you can't see that, not only are you not the only sane one, I'd have to question whether you're sane at all. It's nothing against Milner as a player.

Fair enough, not sure how that applies either tbh. Do you mean harsher? Since you seemed to be talking about levels of patience. Sucks that there are any politically influenced clubs but there are...were most of them from Italy and I'm guessing maybe Russia?

As someone who is left wing and thinks Simon consistently talks tosh, albeit eloquently, I don't get you there. It's football, not politics, there's no correlation between political leanings and wanting our manager sacked.

For comedy value you mean? Aside from the realism factor, I wouldn't want to spunk another huge wad of the wage budget on yet another midfielder, no matter how good, when we are sorely short of a decent defence and goalie.

His name popped up a fair bit on the boards this summer, but I seem to remember a few people saying he was inconsistent? Won Ipswich player of the year three seasons in a row though, so...

I actually thought he was going to say Darlow.

Or zero minutes in this case.

If there was a chance of that, I reckon we just undid it by taking off two attacking players to bring on two CMs.

A shocking 49 percent passing accuracy today. More than half of our passes are failing. No wonder our possession is so dismal.

Good header from Del for that goal

Didn't do so badly last year against them tbf, was the same managers then.

Fair enough. Although we have tried the 3 at the back with 2 wing backs thing a few times. Personally I'm a staunch 4 at the back supporter. For me it's the rest of the formation you tinker with.

Eh? We never play 4-4-2...

That was my next thought, yeh. Still crazy though to have 3 subs for 2 positions. The only one who could really remotely play another position is Buckley, and not sure I fancy that. One of Evans or Johnson shouldn't be on the bench, in favour of someone like JRC.

With his failure to invest in defence and the current injuries, there isn't too much choice there. The only option, apart from playing an untested kid there, would be Williams in the middle, so that Nyambe can play RB, then Downing, Bennett or Bell at LB. Which ya know, is what most people would do...all those LB options do suck though.

I'd rather put an actual bell on the pitch and just leave it there, than play Bell these days.

Nothing like putting three central midfielders on the bench.

I put money on it too - when we were 2-0 up. Sadly, I only bet very puny amounts unless I'm absolutely certain of something (ie when Berg was announced as our manager in the LT but some bookies were still stupidly taking bets...bet a couple hundred on that, knowing only a Sven situation could screw me). So it was only about 50p haha. I bet a couple of quid on the draw at the same time. I had a very strong feeling we were going to throw the comfy lead away, as I know what we are like. It was scant consolation though. I expect to lose too, but 7-1 is almost offensive. I've put my 50p on that, this time. If we win I can buy a single pint to celebrate ? Woop woop