Could be. Would have thought maybe the Canadian would get game time in the U-23s if that were the case though. Get him some game time for if he is needed later in the season, so he can be sharper. You can still have up to three senior players I think?

No Fisher even on the bench...interesting. Loan deal maybe about to happen? Is that Garrett on the bench our 16-year old defender Jake Garrett? Interesting to see him in a u-23 squad already. One to watch I think.

Looks like on Saturday though, the u-18s got spanked at home by Liverpool....7-1!

He basically did exactly what he did last window. Both windows, everyone could see the defence was short on quality and, due to the injury proneness of some, depth too. Both windows instead of fixing this he let people go out on loan. Except last time I think it was just Downing? This time he tripled the folly. Staggering. Both times, Lenihan proceeded to get injured immediately to highlight it. Hopefully the injury is less severe this time.

Tosin is meant to have done well yesterday, and impressed a fair bit when CB at WBA. Cunningham is also supposed to be a good player at this level, which puts him at least a full level above Bell. Personally I rate Nyambe and Lenihan most of the time. Think they can both kick on too, especially if helped by better partners than they've had. Past reputations elsewhere don't matter in blue and white though. Many players look good or crap at one club and completely reverse at another. The key here is in how they end up gelling as a unit. But yep once we get injuries - and it was always inevitable Lenihan was going to get one, fuck knows why Tony didn't learn his lesson there - it starts to look really thin. The jury is out on whether Williams is adequate cover at CB. He gave me nightmares at LB. Even if he does prove adequate in the middle, any more injuries, suspensions or loss of form there leave us more vulnerable than a Venkys 'dry powder' transfer fund keg once the window shuts. Goalie still not inspiring yet either.

I research the points I'm tryna make, not the ones you're tryna make Just didn't think showing their games with us shows their inexperience. It'd be like saying Downing was inexperienced. Absolutely take your point with the youngsters though. To have any reliance on them when they've had no game time at this level is madness. All but the most insanely defensive of the club can see the lack of depth in our defence now. In fairness, the best four is probably a fairly decent one. But the fact two of that best four were injured this weekend goes to show why failing to add properly to the defence was borderline suicidal. The fact that the manager seems unwilling to play one of those even when he is fit puts a huge question mark over the gaffer. I wish it were the only one...

Tbh, in a thread about how the transfer window went, it's a bit odd to talk about the games players have played for us. Anyone we sign, unless an ex-player of ours, will start at 0... Would have been better to show the total games in those leagues or higher. That would have still highlighted a lack of experience at the back for a few players.

Were you told who won? Also, did you pretty much just do a Bielsa for Fulham by posting it?

OK fess up, who are the 3 people who voted for Bennett? I really hope it was just Bennett with 3 accounts. I was going to joke one might be TM but I pray not.

Whilst a win would be a marvellous tonic for the current malaise, to expect it in any way is just setting us up to fail. We are away to what is thought to be one of, if not the, best teams in the league. A draw must be considered a good outcome regardless of how they got caught flat-footed last weekend. Not that we shouldn't go for the win if the opportunity arises. I suspect we are going to finish the day wishing we had got a point rather than wishing we got 3.

He's not on anything like 25k a week I'd happily wager. Probably about 15k. Still too much.

You can make this argument about pretty much any player at pretty much any point of their career. Which is what you've done.

Mowbray expects Fulham backlash Have to say, I completely agree with him. But I'd like to have seen some fighting talk about a backlash of our own. No talk of improving from last time out, only that we hope to give a good account of ourselves. Seems a bit timid and preparing us for a pasting tbh. But all that matters is what happens over the 90 minutes, not the pre-match guff.

Not sure if this has been posted. Mulgrew on Wigan move Looks like the usual empty flattery when players move clubs (fairly sure neither Wigan's facilities nor stadium are on par with ours so why be impressed?). No insight into the reason for the move, unsurprisingly.

I don't know if this is the right place to post it, as I seldom venture out of the football messageboard. But could we please increase the limit on the amount of Likes we can give? Substantially would be good. I'd say it should be at least doubled. Busy posters/readers, especially on busy days like today (transfer deadline...the whole transfer window really) can very easily run out without having given spurious likes. I've also seen people quote just to say they wanted to put a like but ran out, which just creates spam that doesn't need to exist. I've ran out myself on about 3 different days lately I think, and I'm not one to praise other people easily so I know I'm not giving them too flippantly!

I wavered between neither good nor bad, and bad, for a while. I've opted for bad in the end, and the more I think about it the more I think that's right. It could still all work out well. But if it does I think that'll be more due to luck than design, as our transfer strategy and approach has seemed very unbalanced and often illogical. The priorities have been all wrong and I believe that has stopped us getting better players in the right positions. On the plus side...if Tosin and Walton work out well, it has probably actually been a pretty good window. Much hinges on that, as well as whether Gallagher has developed enough and, if he hasn't, whether we will persist in playing him, possibly out of position, to the detriment of others who could break through. Cunningham appears to be a good signing we can rely on to improve us. We overpaid for Gallagher, by about 2 million. It also wasn't the right place to spend big fees. We are very thin on the ground at CB when Lenihan inevitably picks up an injury. I don't feel Mulgrew is good enough anymore, but shipping him and Magloire out today without bringing another CB in is madness. We are going to need to ride our luck at CB in many ways and this is the biggest failing of this window. We appear to have been misled about the budget, considering the 3.75 million of sales and 5 million fee spend. This raised expectations. Our European scouting 'network' hasn't yielded any dividends yet. We look overloaded in most midfield and attack areas. I suspect a career or two will wither away as a result. Or move away. Despite this, we looked a bit toothless against a poor but organised Charlton team. Time for this to click though. We also have 4 left backs, the same as we have for CBs (one of whom has mostly played LB for us, one of whom has mostly played RB for us). This not counting Grayson, who I don't think is ready. Only one of those LBs is good. Hart needs to go out on loan again. We haven't shifted enough deadwood. TM's reluctance to actively get rid of players has hampered us there I suspect. In turn, this has hampered our ability to manage the fees and wages for new players who can improve us. We have absolutely no backup worthy of the name for Walton if he isn't good enough, loses form, or gets injured. This backup was one of our main stated objectives all along. As another minor fallout of this, Fisher surely won't go out on loan. I have no issue as such with using loans. I think they can be a great way to temporarily plug gaps. In our case this window though, the big problem is we have loaded all our loans into one area of the pitch - the defensive unit. This isn't really using loans to plug a gap, but more like to fill a canyon. Two main issues with it. One is that next summer, we need to do it all again. We will still need, just to tread water, a goalie, a CB and a LB. Really, we are a goalie and a CB, at least, light already. Probably an RB too. So next season many of us may feel we need 2 goalies, 2 CBs, an LB and an RB. Maybe 2 RBs if the marginalisation of Nyambe continues and he leaves. Bell is out of contract too, so potentially two LBs. That's terrifying. It may also be in the context of trimming back our budget to meet FFP. Academy players may grow to fill a bit of that, but still. And that's likely to still be a risk even a year down the line unless someone proves themselves in a huge way this season. The other issue with all the defensive signings being loans is that a defence, probably more than any other area of the pitch, needs time to gel and understand each other. Fine, permanent players would have needed that too, sure. But permanent players wouldn't have needed to do that all over again next year, as our new recruits will. Given the numbers I said we may need in that area next year to truly fix the problem, that could become an even bigger ask. With all of this considered, I can only conclude this was a bad window conducted with an apparent lack of direction and vision. I concede it may end up looking good for this season if a few key signings do well and CB injuries are mininal, but even then there will be long-term issues still, some of which could have been fixed now. I can't envision it looking good enough this season for promotion, which is the only thing that will make those long-term issues less onerous next season.

Have to say, I believe I've had the last 3 seasons predictions pretty much spot on at about this stage of the year. I don't know whether I posted them all each year, but I definitely predicted we would go down the year we did. I predicted we would go straight back up (I think I even said in 2nd place). I predicted broadly mid-table last season too. I don't recall what if any actual positions I said for it, but 15th is in the middle third of a 24-team league. I think I was expecting 2 or 3 spots higher, ish, but like I said that kind of stuff can change very easily based on almost any unanticipated event or mid-match fluke. Mid table is generally quite crammed with not much space points-wise between clubs. Hope I'm wrong in a good way this time!

I wasn't willing to answer this until the window was done. At this point we are still waiting on whether Mulgrew is off or not, but I think it's still time for me to give my prediction. I expect us to finish somewhere in the 10th to 14th bracket. I'm not going to name an exact position, that sort of thing can hinge very easily on a single fluke result. Obviously lots of things can affect the season in general, including the sheer vagaries of fate. But there are still large question marks over a number of things that could see us finish better than that bracket or worse. Will TM play the right players in the right positions or continue failing to learn? Will Mowbray keep his job regardless of results and runs? If he is fired, how good will the replacement be? If Mulgrew does go, are we going to get another CB in on a free, as our cover is very limited there? Will the new players perform as we expect them to, or better, or worse? I think Walton is really key in this regard as our options to replace him if he does poorly are shocking. Will we strengthen at all in January, or piss about like last year? Will the highly promising youngsters be given their chance and kick on when they are? There are other questions that come to mind, but these are the most important ones I can think of right now. There is a rumour tonight that Mulgrew and Mowbray kicked off this morning and it has potentially unsettled the dressing room, that could have an impact too (good or bad, as I think some need a kick up the arse). I wouldn't be amazed if we finish 2 higher or lower than I predicted, so 8th to 16th, but anything more than that either way would surprise me a lot at this point. Pending the answers to some of those questions above, of course. Based on what I've seen and heard so far, I'd snap your hand off for a 10th place finish. Which is a great shame, as with a better window addressing our real issues properly, we could have been strong playoff contenders. But I don't think we have enough for that level of consistency at all. I also think we have too much to go down. Not that it would be the first time we've said that and gone down.

What interview where the defence was slagged off? As far as I've seen, TM has bent over backwards to not blame the defence. Saying the defence is fine, we're ok with not bringing any more defenders in, it's hard to find defenders better than the ones we have despite them being abysmal, the goals shipped last season were Raya's and the whole rest of the team's fault but not so much the defence, etc. The only interview I know where he slagged the defence was the one back in March or whenever. If there was a time to throw your toys out the pram it would've been then. If I've missed an interview lately where he finally did slag off the defence, then Jesus Christ Charlie, take it like a man because you and your pals have all been wank for ages and been defended to the hilt. If he can't accept some totally warranted and overdue criticism and roll up his sleeves to cut out these ridiculous errors then I'm even more glad he's on the way out. How he could think defending like against Charlton shouldn't be called out is beyond me.

Uh where have you seen that other clubs think we have had a decent window? In fairness, if you just look at who we have brought in in isolation, ignoring fees, whether perm or not and the glaring weakness in our defensive area, it probably does look 'decent'. But the priorities have been all wrong.

My only concern with Cunningham is the limited amount of football he has played in the last two seasons. 8 appearances in all competitions last season (in which he got 3 yellows) and 21 the season before (4 yellows, a goal, 2 assists). I don't mean that this means he mustn't be good enough. I assume the limited games for Preston that year must have been due to injury since he moved to the Prem for 4 mill at the end of it, and last season he was apparently just up against a very good LB. But players sometimes go backwards after not playing much for a couple of seasons. Also a bit of a shame it's just a loan and with no option to buy either (according to roving rover's ITK info anyway). But I can see the logic. They paid 4 million last season so I assume would want about 3 now, or in a clause for next year. This would be quite a lot for a LB who would be 29 by then, when we have 3 other LBs on the books taking wages. That said, Bell will be out of contract next summer. I think Hart too? But the key thing is, we were crap at LB all last season and now we have somebody who is meant to be very decent there. Along with Johnson, this is probably going to be our key bit of business in terms of being someone who should definitely upgrade our first XI from last season.

Nah. I'd be on the blower to someone who is actually a CB and has kept themselves fit this summer.

You keep your finger away from him.