I remember watching him at Barcelona and whilst his stats are decent, the problem was getting him and Messi in the same team. His problem back at Atletico has been a contractual issue that has meant that him playing over half an hour incurs a fee, hence why Simeone kept bringing him on after 61 minutes. That being said, he was absolutely incredible prior to moving to Barcelona and repeatedly is one of if not the best player at each international tournament. Either way, he is levels above Maddison who is a good player but probably better in your mind because he is English and can be seen as the missing piece to potential glory.

A mixture of comments, your usual fans with a lack of empathy (often the younger ones who get discounted tickets, living with their parents and are totally oblivious to a different, efficient Rovers) mixed with quite a l ot of understanding. End of the day, Forest have not played in ages so their fans will be more willing, its a cup game with a likely second string side, it is midweek and absolutely freezing cold, it has barely been advertised and we have just been battered twice off local rivals. Plus that 3.5k will increase with people paying on the days. I have never got the feeling that the whole fan base has totally warmed to Tomasson to be honest either, initially there was a huge buzz that Mowbray had gone and that we had put in what seemed to be an efficient "structure" but I feel like if form really unravelled he would get it in the neck a bit more than Mowbray.

It is fairly irrelevant just because Grizemann has a track record of being world class in a France shirt over numerous tournaments. But "pretty crap?" He had that weird clause that hasn't let him play more than 30 minutes recently, but for 5 seasons he was outstanding for Atletico Madric, and he was good at Barcelona even though his signing wasn't properly planned as they struggled to get him and Messi in the same team. Maddison could only dream of such a career.

Maddison is a good player but certainly not comparable to Griezmann who is outstanding.

I didnt realise that Blackpool were 2nd bottom. Appleton always seemed a strange appointment and it would make sense for them to get rid of him ASAP.

Very entertaining semi final with Morocco really doing thenselves proud. It isn't down to luck that France have got to a second final in a row, they have that extra bit of quality where it matters. Griezmann and Tchouameni again both superb.

Yet are still active in the World Cup thread. Lots have experience of winning titles/trophies, especially the City and Liverpool players.

Its an absolute joke, there should be a cap. How many neutrals will spend their Monday nights watching that?

I do wonder if this playing out from the back bollocks is instructed or at least encouraged above Tomasson, we have heard the shite about adding value so maybe it is a flawed part of the new structure we have.

How many people have gone as far as calling for the managers head?

I certainly think that it is a big call to suggest that Brittain is one of the best right backs in the league, Burnley alone have 2 or even 3 if you count Lowton who are better. I don't think that Nyambe left a huge hole in that he was nothing special himself, and Brittain is possibly on par when fit, but definite scope for improvement. It is is not looking like a particularly good window, I don't think we have improved the playing squad nor added value from potential sales in the future.

I think most people don't like the idea of allowing such a previously valuable asset for no money having spent £7m on him. Even allowing for him to have a year left on his deal, our lauded new managerial structure should have made (if they have the power to do so) the decision to cash in on the assumption that he won't sign a new deal should have happened in the summer, even if the fee was slightly down on what we wanted it would have still made a profitable investment. Problem being that under Venkys we have never operated sensibly or efficiently, assets are allowed to either leave for free or even if we receive money for them, it tends to be with no reinvestment, with reasonable transfer budgets dished out sporadically and crucially with no connection to money coming in. Even if someone bid £5m in January, it would probably have to be considered. The best way to look at it would be, would you loan Brereton for 6 months for that sort of loan fee?

If you don't want a foreign manager then I can totally understand that. Its not that which I am calling out, it is the desperate attempts to pick and choose the best performing of loads of historical English managers to try and imply that foreign managers as a collective would do an inferior job. I am also interested to see your answer to the question posed by @Wheelton Blue

If you judge based on so far, there isnt much different. They could all go either way in the future but for now I think there isnt much in it. Take Hirst for example, you may cling on to a sudden flurry of goals in the second half of the season, but as it stands, he often struggles to make the bench, he has never played well, he hasnt scored and he missed a key penalty. Any rational person would struggle to say that SO FAR he has been anything other than a poor signing. On par with Mola in that we wouldnt have been any worse off had we not bothered with either, as it stands. The other 4 are perhaps more likely to have a range of opinions. Brittain has been ok when he has played, not one of the best right backs in the league though! And you have to factor injury proneness when judging a signing, we have signed players far better than Brittain that have failed to meet expectations down to bad luck with injuries. I said all summer that we were crying out for experience in midfield, I feel like that has proven itself to be true, Morton is not an upgrade on what we already have. Hyam has been the best of the 6, he isnt amazing and not an upgrade on the 2 that left nor on the main we still have, but happy we have him. And then that leaves Szmodics who was always IMO going to struggle to justify the fee paid, unremarkable and overpriced. Another thing I would suggest is that there is very little scope to get a profit on any of them, making all of this shite about playing possession football to add value even more bizarre.

Its an absolutely nonsensical argument that our best results have come under English managers when such a large majority have been English. It is not down to the nationality that any manager succeeded or failed, it is down to the individual.

If only the likes of Klopp, Mourinho and Wenger had realised that their lack of outstanding playing careers was so important prior to being such good managers.

Perhaps, but without such a rule in place, would we not be cutting off our nose to spite our face if we chose to choose to follow that rule even if and when superior options were foreign? That may well be the case to be fair, but even then I suppose his stock could be high enough to get a better club based job.

Hopefully Tomasson learns after a second derby day embarassment in a way that he didnt in the month that followed the first. Kaminski Carter Hyam Wharton Pickering Buckley A Wharton Markanday Dack Brereton Gallagher Subs: Pears, Ayala, Hedges, Travis, Dolan, Morton, Mola Play on the counter, no passing it out from the back.

Assuming that Newcastle continue to grow with money and potentially reach European places, would Howe want to be England manager? Big if.

So not massively different, thus the OTT comment was probably unwarranted.

Which of those signings have been considerably judged unfairly by me, regarding the summer business?

I cant get my head around justifying an only English manager stance by pointing to Eriksson and Capello. As individuals, maybe they did underachieve, but that would surely only remove a temptation to for some reason re-appoint those as individuals. They aren't proof that foreign managers would as a general rule not do as well, we have had English managers since who have done even worse. I also dont get why Southgate would automatically get 4 years. Even if the decision was made to keep him, surely you judge tournament by tournament. If we got knocked out in the first knockout round (almost impossible to go out of a 24 team group stage) of the Euros like in 2016, surely at that point a change would be made.

You said last week that you would sack him no matter what! His management at he World Cup was so naive, they left so many gaps and he also managed to do the Croatian mangers team talk for him.

The "over the top reaction" phrase seems to be your favourite at the moment. An over the top reaction would be (I agree with you here) to suggest sacking the manager, we are third. That being said, I do have big doubts that we will be anywhere near there at the end of the season. But my comments about the January window are nothing to do with the last 2 games really, I have never thought that it was anything other than pretty average. Hyam is the pick and he is nothing special, just a steady centre back. Brittain is made of glass, ok when he plays though. Szmodics I am not the biggest fan of, don't think he provides much and I can see why Peterborough fans weren't fussed that he left. Morton has ability but he is not as good as Adam Wharton and can often go missing, and the 2 loanees are not up to it. I don't think we have the players to play out from the back, no point comparing to England players who are playing at a miles higher level, it is something that the top teams do consistently, not flit in and out. When we do try it even when we don't lose it in stupid areas, because of a lack of technical ability it is very slow, side to side, and it doesn't move the other team apart. You can't just palm it off to the players making poor decisions, they are being instructed to pass it out from the back and that brings massive risk.

The irony of calling someone out for "baseless speculation" considering that you believe everything, including what people overhear on trains! We will never know if there are financial penalties, it is just a theory as it is common with teams loaning kids from the Premier League, and Morton has pretty much played every game regardless of performance dips.