bluebruce

If so, happy days.

Yeh I was thinking about this the other day. It doesn't make sense to give your shiny new keeper their debut against the Dingles. Too much of a baptism of fire in a real confidence position. One blunder, and they and the fans will suffer a serious loss of faith. Sadly we may have to risk conceding the game to the Dingles (by having Pears in goal) to avoid having two keepers we can't rely on for the foreseeable. Cue somebody telling me footballers should be immune to the effects of psychology because they're paid a lot, I'm sure.

I know you haven't been here (or at least posting) all that long, but Unleaded has consistently, for years now, been the most reliable ITK on this forum. He actually works in the industry. I'm not saying everything he reports will be true, but when he says something like that it can't just be written off as BS.

Unleaded said the recruitment team have previously gone over Eustace's head.

Agree with the first part. The second part makes him sound like a psychopath.

Haha yeh, imagine losing a bunch of quality players recently, and one of them to Ipswich...... oh, wait...

My guess is it's not a non-starter yet, but that it depends on whether we want to use the foreign non-WP player slots (I forget the rule name) for someone else, especially if we get a foreign-based keeper. And/or the budgetary restraints meaning we might need to hold back until higher priority positions are filled. Although I believe the Japanese window has closed now, leaving his club unable to replace him, so that's probably added a fair chunk to the price.

6 yards. He's stood right on the line of the 6 yard box when the shot is struck. As I explained in the other post, being stood on his line in that situation would be an unusual choice very few keepers would make there. Just because he probably would have got to it if he'd done that doesn't mean it's the rational place to stand. It's a bit like saying a keeper would have saved a penalty if he'd stood central instead of jumping right/left. Sure, but they're not psychic. We still need a much better goalie than Pears, but he's not at fault here.

Whoever finds players for Peterborough, we should really try to add them to our recruitment setup. Superb track record for a League One side. Always seem to have some quality players good enough for the Championship and with potential for the Prem.

I'm not a fan of Pears and would be delighted if we sold him and bought two new keepers, but this time I think that's a little harsh. I really wouldn't expect my keeper to be stood on their line there. Just because in hindsight it would have helped doesn't mean that's the right spot to take in that situation most of the time. You don't want the goalie to have too much to do to cut the angle off if someone breaks through the line instead of shooting. Also most of the time, a shot from there won't rise and dip, it will be arrowed straight, and if you're right on your line you're giving yourself a lot more reaching to do to stop it going top corner. Pears isn't the biggest keeper either so it's natural he wouldn't adopt the position which requires the longest reach if it heads to the top corners with a shot with a direct path. I think that goal is beating nearly every keeper in the league 9 games out of 10.

Yep, we're definitely not the 'someone comes in with enough money' to get a player that a fairly large club want to keep, kind of club. We're the 'someone comes in with enough money' to sign a player you either don't want or desperately want the money for, kind of club. If you're/we're lucky. Likely after offering a derisory loan deal first.

Experienced yet sluggish centre halves are best when you're backs to the walls. Having two slow CBs today will open us up to the counter attack.

No, it isn't. It never is. This is football.

That wasn't the topic of discussion. But having some is better than not having some, regardless of outcome.

Mbappe would be a very good signing too. But much like Stansfield, he's not a realistic target either so nobody is talking about us signing him.

Swansea's owners have been clear for years now their ambition is to return to the Premiership. So yes, they have shown more ambition. Return to the Premiership versus 'pushing' top 10. Night and day.

Is Swansea's objective just to stay in this league? Because Swag has made it pretty clear that's ours.

We did batter a side about a week ago too didn't we, after most of them were on loan? Guess that can just happen though.

Could be. But weren't there even more than that during preseason?

Anybody got a good explanation (apart from it being preseason) of why we were annihilating everybody in preseason and now it's reversed? Are we now putting more u18s in the u21s now, or are other teams putting players they used for first team preseason back into their kids teams?

Well, got spanked 7-2.

Stritch puts us back in it, 1-2 now. We have a stunningly low 18% possession.

I struggle to see it being true, right after being given the captaincy and giving an interview in which he was gushing about being back and how much he loves the club. Of course, you can rule nothing out at this mad club.

A real shame to be pretty much battering all comers of all levels in preseason, then the first league game is going like this. Stats look similarly one sided, but hopefully second half we get back into it. Probably missing Tyjon.

Well we're 2-0 down so it's not going well.