RevidgeBlue

They did in summer to be fair To the tune of around £6.5m. However most of it went on Szmodics, Hirst and a RB who has barely featured. The recruitment needs to be far better this month.

Sarcasm does not become you. Happy New Year anyway.

I'll have a pint of what you're on.

Completely unconvincing but my god we needed that. Was a "must win" game if ever there was one. How the fuck does Gallagher play every minute of every game unless injured? He doesn't have a single redeeming quality, at least Chris Brown used to attempt to put himself about physically, Gallagher doesn't even do that. Thought Garrett did well, game to forget, three points, move on.

Christ what a waste, of a wage and squad place Hirst is going to be.

Hyam is no worse than Lenihan but not as good as Van Hecke imo. Theoretically Brittain could offer more than Nyambe going forward but given expectation levels when he arrived he's been a colossal disappointment imo. It wouldn't matter if you were Roberto Carlos if you're always injured and I'd say he's been a downgrade on the Nyambe of last season. Szmodics looks a really poor signing at an inflated price and is a massive downgrade on Rothwell imo. Morton has imo been average and is preventing the better Adam Wharton from getting game time. Hirst has been an unmitigated disaster and Mola has been very disappointing. I'd say only Hyam could so far be described as a good signing with Morton coming in as OK. With the benefit of hindsight a very poor return from the summer's recruitment and we need to do much better in January imo

I would add from the same sort of era Jack Nicklaus in golf. Quite weird that He, Pele and Ali were born so close to one another.

Looking at it purely from the outside and the demeanour of the players in recent games I'd say it's a valid concern. Possibly they're not having the way they're being asked to play than JDT personally. Or maybe both? Who knows

Whilst I don't like Maradona (at all) I'd probably have them as four of my five greatest ever footballers as well Merce. My 5th would be Cruyff. I've never seen anyone with the ability he had to take a game by the scruff of the neck and completely dominate it. Pele takes the title of the greatest for me though, such a humble person and off the field he completely transcended the sport much like Muhammad Ali.

Surprised this news hasn't had more reaction, by far the greatest player of all time for me. I think it's pointless trying to compare one generation with another as there's absolutely nothing to say that stars of the past such as Pele or say George Best wouldn't still have been the best around in today's game given the advances in diet, equipment technology, pitches, training methods etc available now. I'm wouldn't argue with anyone who said Messi was the GOAT but I'm sticking with Pele. I think he gets a raw deal through many people not being old enough to have seen him play and the footage of him being so limited. Following the 1970 World Cup I remember aged 6 trailing my Dad round the sports shops in town trying to find a Brazil shirt. A fruitless task - no such thing as replica kits in those days - how times change! Also enjoyed his cameo appearance in the Mike Bassett film. For anyone who doesn't know a great deal about his career or the sort of man he was I'd heartily recommend his autobiography "Pele - my Life and the Beautiful Game". RIP.

For me Gallagher is the new Corry Evans. Stealing a fortune off the Club by being one of the top earners whilst conversely being absolutely shite week in week out, month in month out and season in season out. And even more bizarrely being picked by multiple managers. If we're ever to succeed we need to overperform slightly by having eleven players pulling their tripe out and performing to their maximum potential every single game. The Championship is so tight and competitive you can't afford to be carrying any passengers like Gallagher or before him the likes of Bennett, Evans and Lowe et al.

I'm not quite in the JDT out camp yet but I really don't see where we're going with this. We were playing badly even when we somehow found ourselves in second and now results are reflecting performances which is what we anticipated. Gallagher who has been stealing a living since returning to the Club mysteriously finds himself more or less an automatic pick, JRC is back in the first X1, our only credible striker seems to have finally lost interest, Dack's been marginalised and our own young talent in the form of the two Whartons and Phillips can't get any game time. At least Liverpool will be happy when the ordinary Morton returns having played every minute of every game. We'll have "added value" to him all right.

There's always some excuse whether it was under Mowbray or JDT. Fifth defeat in six competitive matches incoming. Plus ca change.

Would prefer it if he did his business on the pitch as opposed to describing his business off it. If we wanted a comedian we could have signed John Bishop.

Absolutely spot on. To continually dismiss unacceptable performances as inevitable and only to be expected because we have a young side is lazy in the extreme and an abdication of responsibility.

I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate.

Oops sorry. Door was shut but not locked as far as I was aware 😳

Morton is bang average for me chaddy. For better or worse I'd rather one of our own youngsters was getting the game time. Gallagher and Hirst simply aren't good enough and no sound of game time will change that. We will never be successful with either of those two as staples in the side.

That didn't work at all for Mowbray and Samba up front didn't work at all for Allardyce. I don't really recall Dalglish putting Hendry up front but if he did that's a bit of an exception as when he first arrived he from Dundee in his first spell at the Club he came as a centre forward. Putting a CH up front isn't really a credible option.

Markanday?

Gallagher and Hirst must be as poor a pair of strikers as we've ever had at the Club at the same time.

Wish we still had him instead of the perennially injured Brittain.

That was woeful. Terrible substitutions as well. All that was needed was Markanday for Gallagher but instead he brought on the useless Hirst and brought off Dack (who had produced the only genuine moment of quality in the entire 90 mins) and thereby cost any limited momentum we had started to build up.

I'm astounded that anyone expected anything different from Hirst bearing in mind he had a record of 0 from 32 at this level before arriving. And to think there was such a heated debate when he signed about whether a loan with an option to purchase at £5m was a good deal or not for us!!

Couldn't make the game tonight, due to work commitments, would have liked to have gone, and very disappointed that we seemingly treated the game as being such a low priority having done so well to get to this stage in the first place! That said think some of the criticism of JDT is a bit OTT, the other fella spent five years and spunked away countless millions of pounds in transfer fees, loan fees and wages getting us precisely nowhere before leaving us with half a starting X1 by the time he left so I think the current incumbent deserves a bit more time before the latest "project" is automatically deemed a failure. We need a win against Sunderland though to justify the eleven changes last night, a defeat and it will be four extremely bad results out of five either side of the WC break.