AspRover

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c14jzyzm5d7o That went up an hour or so ago, doesn't say anything much

The only thing I'd say is that given the statements that the club did put out I can't see a situation where it wasn't true, was reported in the LT, and the club didn't put out a massively unprofessional statement to deny it. They are being oddly restrained considering the messaging that has been coming out of the club. Of course we'll probably never know for sure one way or the other.

There's a funny little piece in the Spanish press suggesting that Real Madrid might try to leave La Liga and move to compete in another country in protest against the league and 'refereeing bias' Absolutely laughable as it is, it would be the most us thing in the world to win the playoffs only to be told that only the two auto spots go up this year - Madrid are being given slot #3. More or less what happened to our women's team with Manchester utd if memory serves?

That feels like an important win

Cantwell needs space to operate, he's too weak and too easy to push off the ball. Presumably WBA will be attacking now and we can look to counter - he might find a bit of space. Only needs to pick one good pass to create a chance.

He'd see it as a victory I think, but he'd want paying through the nose and then some - no way the people controlling the purse strings would go for it

Be fair, he just made a great tackle on Gueye to deny us a counter attack

It's amazing how much Dolan runs about to almost never catch up with the ball. It's like watching a terrier chase a go-cart.

Dennis starting to look tired... expected tbf

A front three of Kargbo - Gueye - Dennis looks very good in the championship based on this showing to be fair. That's the silver lining on the massive cloud of vaporised piss that is the rest of the day.

Cantwell is neat and tidy but absolutely featherweight. Great as long as there isn't an opposition player within five yards.

Kargbo looks genuinely properly good. Fast, direct, great ball control, low centre of gravity so hard to knock off the ball. But that was a terrible dive

Pleasantly surprised with Dennis, Ribiero and Kargbo - all look sharp and up for it. I'd expect them to tire quite badly but for now not too bad

That's a protest line up surely - 'here's what you gave me, you say they are up to the task, let's put that to the test' We'll lose comfortably. I'm in the Forshaw can do a job as free emergency cover but should barely make the team camp, but against premier league opposition he's going to get torn to shreds.

There are always PL clubs not worth their salt.

Dolan is a highlights player - looks good doing a stepover on a reel, does get the odd impressive goal or assist. A lot of fans of other clubs I talk to assume he's our first name on the teamsheet kind of player. Someone will definitely take a punt on him on compensation - he might even go to a bottom half prem team, was it Mahoney who did that? He'll be found out as soon as he gets there, it's just a case of how much salary he rinses them for in the process.

Rhodes and Gueye up front, let the battering ram cause the chaos and tap the ball in when everyone else is on the deck and it breaks in the six yard box? (not serious before anyone jumps on, though this is more or less the role I think we should play Ohashi in)

Buckley has such a weird skillset, you get him in the right position, the right formation and with complimentary players around him and he looks a good championship player. Ask him to play the wrong role, in the wrong bit of the pitch and he looks lost. You basically need to build the team around him to get him at his best, but he doesn't really justify it.

Hedges has played left back before, and is left-footed. Right back might be a stretch too far. A few years back we actually played Buckley at right back (I think?) in a similar injury crisis and the consensus on here after the game was basically that he did surprisingly well but lets not do it again. Dolan works hard enough that he should be able to play as a makeshift full back but we tried it once and he looked completely out of his depth. After that I guess it's a kid from the youth teams.

When we were, you know, competent we used to take a certain amount of pride in picking up players other teams hadn't managed to get a tune out of and turning them around. I think that it's pretty telling though that the moment we get linked with someone semi seriously so do a few other championship clubs - I think there are a lot of teams that don't have much money to spend and quite a small pool of realistic signings that they are all competing for. That's usually when you end up paying over the odds or ending up with a Gallagher as your highest wage earner for five seasons.

The weird thing there is that 'out of the blue persuade Barry to spend a chunk of money on a young British striker' is about the only bit of transfer engagement that occasionally does seem to work - but it tends to be basically an impulse buy and utterly divorced from any kind of plan or coherent thinking. To this day I'm convinced that we spent £7m (or whatever it ended up being) on Brereton simply because the manager/backroom team were caught completely offguard that V's were willing to spend that kind of money on anyone and just kind of went 'yeah, alright'.

Three of our former strikers struggling for game time in the premiership relegation zone - you'd guess that Southampton and Ipswich want to hang onto them for the championship next season. Might be a cheeky loan available to keep them fit and get them up to speed in this league again... Wishful thinking, I know.

Middlesbrough lose, Sunderland and the other lot get draws.

He's not the worst striker we've ever had.

have we got anyone on the bench who could even slightly play RB? edit - just as I posted - get in!