bluebruce

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.

He has great passing technique and set pieces. That's it. He isn't a good dribbler and he has no pace. He has zero chance of thundering past wingers or full backs, or of catching anybody who glides past him. Which will be any winger who has even average pace. He also has very poor positional sense - and that was at centre half where he has a few years experience. He will be a disaster at left back, I'm sticking with that. Even Bell, even on present form, is better there.

It terrifies me that he is considering Mulgrew for left back. We will get absolutely savaged down that flank if that happens.

And only adds to what I said earlier that we are happy to loan out defenders, an area we are thin, but keep hearing that everywhere else we have to wait for players to come back from injury before we can loan or sell players who are absolutely nowhere near the first team because umpteen players are ahead of them, or are making fringe appearances but are no better than others who could have played those games, like in BB's case. The more time passes, the more and more I believe Mowbray doesn't have a clue what he is doing in terms of structuring and utilising a squad.

Ok this still seems to be going over your head but I'll give it one last try. I know what the context of your conversation with the poster was. But you once again trotted out this notion that Maddison being out of contract in six months means we shouldn't pay 2.5 million for him. A concept which I have debunked. Therefore you shouldn't be saying it again as any kind of argument until you have at least attempted a counterpoint to my debunking. Unless you agree with me, in which case...you shouldn't be saying it again.

This response reads like you didn't absorb a single thing I wrote in either post. Nevermind then.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lancs.live/sport/football/transfer-news/ben-brereton-departure-right-offer-17581737.amp Something occurred to me as I read this. Tony is far more reluctant to loan out squad players in the areas we are over stocked than he is in the areas we are under stocked. We are wary of loaning out BB despite having Graham, Armstrong, Gallagher, Samuel all fighting for one position, arguably two in some games. But Mulgrew was allowed to leave on deadline day with only Tosin, Lenihan and Williams as competition for two spots. All our young centre halves of promise or a degree of experience got loaned out too. Downing was also allowed to leave when we were painfully low on defenders in two windows. What the fuck is all that about? He also insists on stocking the everlasting crap out of midfield and seeking out new midfielders every window. His ideas of squad depth for the goals and defence are entirely at odds with his ideas of squad depth for the midfield and attack.

You certainly came across like you were insinuating he is shite. I can't fault Chaddy on that one, don't think he twisted a thing. I suppose what you actually meant is you have no idea about Fox (me either) and are concerned that we may end up lumbered with another poor LB? We can't loan-to-buy on everyone we sign though. A left back in a top six team on the cheap doesn't seem an especially risky punt. If we did pay slightly less to loan him instead of sign him, he did well, then went somewhere else in the summer for free, we'd be kicking ourselves.

Jesus christ. One million is now being described as 'loads of money'...I mean it is, but to an average working Joe, not to second tier English football clubs who have spent 5 or 6 times that each summer on misfiring strikers. We don't have one midfielder missing, we have two. I hope to god he is thinking of Dack as an 'attacker' rather than a midfielder and he is talking about not spending a million to replace Evans, which is perfectly fine. We shouldn't spend anything to replace Evans because we have a million centre mids including some youngsters I'd like to try if it got to that point. Evans was our most in form CM, but we know how his form can dip, and promotion isn't happening. Absolutely every single other area on the pitch is a bigger priority. So I hope he is only talking about Evans with that figure, because you don't sign a 3-million rated mid (Curtis) for less than a million. But the comments about being 'miles away' suggests otherwise...

I can't understand why you're still saying this. I broke down at length why it no longer matters that he is out of contract in the summer, because the chances of him reaching that stage are vanishingly thin. You saw it, because you quoted me. All you said about that issue was that he has a 2.5 million release clause (which obviously I am well aware of, and if he didn't have that the fee might be even higher). Since you haven't rebutted my point, why are you still making the old one which my post completely tore down?

They want 2.5 million because they can get 2.5 million for him. Two clubs have met it already. It is now irrelevant that he is out of contract in the summer. He is moving NOW, in this window. For 2.5 million. That's his market value now no matter how you slice it. It's only overpaying if you don't think he as a player is worth 2.5 million. I haven't seen a lot of him, but with his consistent stats for 5 seasons and at 26, I believe he is. Maybe you don't. But his contract situation is now completely unimportant. He isn't going to be available for free in the summer, because he will be fully contracted and playing in the Championship within a week or two. Very likely if he is available at all in the summer it'll be for more than 2.5 mill. If nobody else was meeting the fee, like was the case with Bauer, then and only then would it matter that his contract expires in 6 months.