bluebruce

Really? I wonder if a Prem team might take a sniff at that, pretty much every time I've seen him he looks top drawer. Think we kept him a bit quiet in one game though.

The Polish league is nothing to write home about either, outside of a few outfits. I don't know it well but would have thought that was a bit of a step up too? It certainly has a lot less money in it than the Championship. 4 goals and 3 assists, with 3 goals in each of the last two seasons in that league, doesn't exactly have me wanking with joy. The translated Polish article seemed to have question marks over whether he can adapt to our game. I think it was trying to say he may lack stamina? And if he wants to move to make the Euro 2020 squad, six months of 'needing to learn how Sam Gallagher plays the wing' won't help.

Hes been unexpectedly brilliant. But. He is old and could go at any time. The older he gets the more likely it becomes. Despite how good he has been, the sensible decision would be to offer him 12 months...at a reduced wage. I'm sure some won't agree, but you will if his legs give out in November. A player-coach arrangement may also suit all parties.

Hmm. If JRC can play right back, and on Saturday came on on the left side for us, does it not stand to reason he could play left back?

No. I'm tired of listing this. Travis, Downing, Johnson, Evans (not right now but still under contract for quite a while), Bennett, Buckley, Davenport, Smallwood, and arguably a few others can all play CM and are capable of less than disgraceful showings. Lyons doing well in u23s too and JRC can probably play there (think I was told it's his natural position). If we shift about three of them then sure, let's get another. Or if the budget is infinite, sure, let's get another VERY good one (Ollie Rathbone doesn't sound like he cuts that mustard). In the meantime, we have 9 other positions on the pitch which are all bigger priorities, and all the budget should go on them first.

I pray to all the gods that we are not trying to collect another CM. I'm sick of this obsession with it.

Dude. He literally showed a quote of you saying 'Sounds a good choice and what we need in the keeper area'. This might not be the exact same words as 'would be a good signing', but it's baffling that you're trying to argue this isn't basically the same thing. You would get a lot more respect from your fellow posters if you could just accept when your argument has been shown up as inconsistent, or a big hole poked in it. Lots of other posters can do it. You don't have to stubbornly resist every counter point as if it will somehow make you a worse poster to accept being wrong sometimes. Accepting it would have the opposite effect and make people take you more seriously.

Not asking for a flawless keeper. Just a decisively less shite one. We are going to have to agree to disagree because I think he has been bobbins on the whole, and we urgently need an upgrade. Now. Which I don't see costing more than 1-2 million if done smartly. Probably do-able for a lot less if we are really smart.

Christ. I can only think you three have entirely different criteria for a keeper. As for the last few weeks, Tugayisgod, he's been ok overall but fairly sure he had at least one game with two game-costing fuckups, though I forget which one. And seen at least two where he appears to have moved out of the way of the ball. Keeper and left back still the biggest priorities for me. And keeper is the cheapest position to recruit.

No player with a sense of self preservation is going to tell you any differently though.

I don't feel that a description of one good save in a quiet game makes him exactly what we need, but to each their own. If we do get him though, I of course hope he's a good un. We definitely need to get someone in there. If we do have an outside chance of a playoff push, Walton is more than capable of derailing it.

He has. Not three time over though, and he was plenty good enough to be starting for us before. Would likely have reached this level earlier if so.

I have a bit of concern about this right sided attacker business. We finally got to see JRC play today, and he got an assist, plus came close to another. It would also seem to be the final death knell for Chapman's Rovers career. My hope/thought is that it's to free up Brereton for his loan move, whilst also stopping playing Gally wide right (even if he had a good game today) and therefore strengthening the first team. I suspect it's Jordan Jones. Like I said before, that probably spells the end of any chance for Curtis or Maddison, who would both have been more exciting. But if the lad delivers then great.

It really is a mystery how we went from serving up what we have been, to today. Sadly I missed most of the game as I had things I needed to do, so I just caught chunks here and there. But every time I did, we were nearly flawless. Wednesday were a bit poor, but by god we were on fire. Every touch, bit of movement, every dribble...it all looked top notch. The more it went on, from every player, the more astonished I was. A really, really long time since I've seen us so on the ball. So long I can't even remember when. That can't come from the manager. Credit to him for, obviously, getting it right, and he presumably said something that struck a chord with the lads, but ultimately that performance has to come from within. That each and every player looked at or very close to the top of their game...that's a real rarity in football. This is a real win to be cherished. Given what we have seen previously it's probably going to go down as a rare confluence of everyone being on it all at once, but the players really need to look at themselves and ask, where did that come from? And can they do it again? Because if they can, and keep doing it or somewhere close, their dreams will come true. Not many teams will be able to live with us playing like that. They've shown what they can do now. God knows what big chunks of the rest of the season were about, but they've no excuse to go back to that from here. They'll be doing the manager, the fans and themselves a huge disservice if they do.

I think if we are getting a right sided attacker in as the LT thinks, we can forget about Maddison or Curtis. It would be pretty stupid to recruit two wide attackers without sorting the defence and goalie.

Fuck it though. Preston should have had up to 3 against us. Karma. If teams are going to insist on kicking us around and the refs are gonna play along maybe it's time to start diving. Even though I despise it. Honestly I wouldn't have called it a dive when I saw it though, just a 50-50 that he got to first. Looked like it probably hurt but not the Weds player's fault. Travis was the one who had to stretch to get it, so the Weds player had every right to go in for it. Tbh I thought it'd be a kiss of death as we usually fuck up against ten men.

Weird thing was the commentators were saying that never seems to happen to us. I was like....eh?

Been offered a 100k bonus if he can stop TM looking like an imbecile for playing him there. Agree though, he has started well.

Lovely run from Gally there, beat about three players before losing it.

So Gally is on the wing again. Same formation Sharpe suggested it would be. Great.

In fairness, we don't actually know yet whether we are playing them both up front. Probably not though I expect.

What I find interesting is that Tony would never have fielded a mid and attack like that a year ago, let alone away from home against a good side. He would have argued it had too many artists and not enough soldiers. I'm worried Nyambe will do his hamstring properly today. Came back from it, tweaked it last game...it obviously needs a bit of rest I would think. So often this kind of thing makes it worse. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if TM wants that to happen so he can justify Benno at RB, but the realist in me knows TM doesn't feel he has to justify any of his decisions.

Probably decide he wants to suck up a wage in our u-23s again because he's convinced he can get back into the first team...we don't seem to be having much luck reducing our wage bill to make funds.

For some reason the LT ran the story about the loan ending again today. And by for some reason, I mean they're a horrendously amateurish publication.

I would and did. The majority of goals we conceded which were his fault were due to him being in entirely the wrong place at the wrong time. Every goal we concede I watch several times over on the highlights and look for everybody involved's movement and decision making. His positional instincts are all wrong. I dont care that Scotland (hardly a top end footballing side these days) are daft enough to play him in defence, more fool them. He isn't good enough to be in ours. Let alone at LB. He really wont have a clue where to position himself there as it's not a position he has any real experience with so far as I'm aware. I don't even want him in what is now his chief position if it can be helped, let alone experimenting now he is pushing 34.