Well, after the first round of games we're sat 3rd. I'd still take the season ending immediately though!

Considering that as I understand it, Klopp absolutely could qualify for citizenship due to naturalisation, having been here for 9 years (I believe 5 years is required), and having made a massive contribution to British sporting life would almost certainly get it approved.... @chaddyrovers would you accept Klopp as England boss if he obtained a British passport and therefore had dual citizenship?

No. He's under a lengthy contract he signed half a season ago that doesn't, it seems, include an 8 million clause. The only way Sammie stays is if we reject all the bids.

From what I've seen and heard, I'd have thought we could have landed him a loan at least one league higher. Hopefully he bosses that league and gets recalled in January to go a league or two up.

Whilst I do like us loaning out the youngsters (despite questioning the level some of them are being sent to), I'm starting to wonder if the youth sides are going to have enough decent players to be competitive in their leagues. Granted, that matters less for the U21s than it used to thanks to that ridiculous system they introduced last year, but it still helps players develop if their teammates are better.

Or at 21 perhaps he is just coming into his true ability. 9 goals in 20 might not be 'setting fire' to this league, but it's a pretty good record. Not 27 million quid move to the Prem good though. Again, frustrating we have to humour bids under 10 million for a far superior player.

Annoying that someone who is apparently shite in the Championship can sell for about triple what we're apparently being offered for Szmodics who just obliterated the Championship, just because they're younger. He might have 3 times the peak career remaining, but he's costing 3 times as much and isn't as proven. That said, I'm only going off your assessment that he's shite...I notice he scored 9 goals in 20 games for Hull (or 9 in 12 when played up front according to transfermrkt). Seems a decent record. Not 27 million in the Prem decent but still.

We're going to have to get keen on spending money to bring more players in then, because if we're not relying on young prospects to pad out the squad, it's far too thin. A centre half is definitely needed now O'Riordan is out on loan.

Palace are the ones who dropped out? I've been wanting us to loan Rak Sakyi for ages, but christ, he's had one good season in League One and a handful of Prem cameos with no goals. 12 million is a fantastic deal.

If that's a reference to my post, I wasn't comparing him or his price to a goalkeeper. I was illustrating that what someone will pay for a player can change rapidly and dramatically, so you don't just sell for what the first bidder is willing to stump up.

Or wait until they do pay the asking price. De Lange was only worth about 800k according to this logic of value. Until a few days later when he was worth 2 million because Bordeaux or whoever it was paid that. If we were only being offered 2 quid, should we take it? No of course not. We only 'want' to sell him because we want to get the asking price.

If they can take this form into the league, they'll be laughing

Oh poor, sweet, naive Chaddy. He's lying mate. That's what he does. If we could get money from the owners just by asking, we wouldn't have had so many windows scraping by, and we wouldn't have done fuck all in two January windows where promotion was realistic. If Waggott asks Venkys for 1.5 mill, they're going to say 'Fuck off Steve, that would cost us 3 million'.

I don't think it's that the going gets tough, I think he wears out a bit after giving his all for a couple of months, doesn't get rested, and just loses that 10% to his game that he needs to be effective.

Imagine if they knew we'd actually fucked it up thrice (Brierley).

Maybe it's not that kind of entrance he's waiting outside...

Early days, but almost since we signed him (I think it was from the moment he said Mr Shearer) I've had a feeling he's gonna be a bit of a cult hero here this lad. Might just be my love of many things Japanese though.

Dunno if that was in response to me talking about Gueye just above you, but I agree. I only wrote that because Mani decided it was time to be smug about him already. I think 10 goals would be a good return if he can also be a menace to the opposition. You need a player like that to disrupt teams, even if it's only as a bench option. I don't expect a top end finisher but I do expect some goals at least. When those come in we can see about being smug. Not sure he will be selling for that tbh if he has the kind of record you suggest. He's gonna be 28 next December, and looking at what we're struggling to get for Szmodics at about a year older than that after an insane 33 goal season, I don't see 5-6 million for someone scoring 10. But you never know. For now, it's just good he's putting himself about and causing problems, gives the opposition something to think about.

Gordon Banks is a stretch. Wahlstedt was slightly worse, from what we saw in just one season. At first when he came through he was a bit of an improvement, once he lost confidence it fell to shit, and that was that. I believe they're keepers of roughly similar ability, but Pears had more confidence. Walton was distinctly worse though, I agree. The worst number one we've had over a full season in my time. Fettis was horrible too, seemed like every shot went in, the worst per 90 minutes played...but we only had to put up with him for about a dozen games.

Well Gueye is gonna have to provide better finishing than that for anyone to be smug, or else he might just end up the new Chris Brown - a bit of a pain for defences but no cutting edge. Hopefully the goals will come though and I'm sure he will turn out better than that donkey. Ohashi though, wow, the balls on that finish in your first game in a new league and country. Bravo! Props to Carter for a superb assist too. Sent two defenders for a kebab with a smart touch then found Weismann lurking at the back sticks when the whole Derby defence had missed him. I myself thought he was going for a sneaky shot at first.

Well it's tricky speaking 'Englisg'. I certainly don't know how to 😉

Agreed with all of this, just posted similar...except that last bit, why is he like Private Pyle?!? Made me laugh though!

This is the problem with Pears and why not everyone realises he isn't good enough. He isn't always doing high profile glaring errors. He makes lots of small errors. Ones that are acceptable in say a League Two keeper but over the course of a season if you look carefully at everything he concedes there are too many where you're like 'a good keeper might have stopped that'. Take tonight's goals. Even the best do sometimes ship goals like that, so you can't just say 'yeh crap keeping'. They're a little tricky but they're right down his throat, and for my money someone like Kaminski is usually gonna save at least one, possibly both of those. The first one, like I say it's tricky because although it's right down his throat it has decent power and is perfectly placed under the bar. But, if he sends both hands up for that instead of one he probably keeps it out. I can't say a good keeper saves that every time, but I can say there's too many of those going in over time than there are with a good keeper at this level.

Travis always starts the season really well. Or at least, the previous two seasons. Hopefully he keeps it going this time, he's an asset all over the pitch when he's firing on all cylinders. Shown he can even be a goal threat when he's in the mood.

John Eustace.