Wonder if they will give Nuno Gomes a call if the next potential manager is Spanish.

That may be true to be fair. Although I guess any worries about a replacement for Tomasson whenever he moves on comes more from Venkys history rather than a conversation with a former player.

Surely you just trust a man you have just appointed probably at a significant cost to decide on the manager following a thorough process, not asking an old player what he thinks.

Not going to increase player value doing that! (or so I am told)

But what if a stand out candidate didn't want to pass it out from the back, would you ignore him because of that? Surely you find the best manager and let him play how he wants, not have people who aren't managers telling a manager how to play.

4 in 36 this season suggest he was struggling to find it at senior level. Vale could barely get a kick at Hull.

Fair enough. I think he has done an article that any of us could have done, indeed there has been mentions of Tomasson to Feyenoord before today. Easiest article in the world.

Do you subscribe to his patreon?! How would they be to blame if our manager was poached by a huge European club? If Tomasson does go, let's just get the best possible manager available, whoever that is. If he wants to play passing football or otherwise, fine. Can you? The owners asked Morten Gamst Pedersen for his advice last summer, they can always scupper everything even if there are good intentions below them.

Would be a huge blow if Tomasson left, and he would go, 100% and you couldn't blame him. But I wouldn't get too ahead of myself just yet, the key is IF Tottenham get Slot, and then if Feyenoord would automatically come to the Championship for his replacement. Tomasson has done a decent job but not as yet a remarkable one, but of course there is his history as a player there which clubs often seem to obsess over. The worry would be getting a replacement. It has come out in the last 2 days that the owners asked Morten Gamst Pedersen for his advice last summer, so that is what we are dealing with.

Who stands out for you? Of them 4 strikers, Delap struggled at 2 clubs at this level, Jebbison has struggled at this level, Scarlett struggled in League 1 and Joseph has barely ever played. Doyle has done well at Coventry but would he be interested and do we need a young loanee CB, probably not.

You would think the remit would be, I don't care how we play or how it looks, just get us up.

Please see below. I am a cynic of such stats, I think there are a lot of holes in them, but that is a big difference which doesn't surprise me, as purely from seeing them, Kaminski kept us in far more games with saves he wasn't entitled to make, Pears isn't a match winner.

What is the obsession with becoming a possession based teams? Possession for both teams can only ever total 100%. Rather than appoint a manager with high possession stats but pretty average results over a 2 year period, and with a squad not suiting that style, why not just get a manager that can focus on getting them up in the first season?

Pickering takes at least as much blame, 100%. But that sort of goal was in the pipeline for weeks, there have been numerous occasions of misunderstandings when the ball has gone in behind, Pears often half coming out and leaving nervous moments. Kaminski gives his defenders more confidence. You are very keen on data etc. What do you think to the stats that the difference between Kaminski and Pears in terms of expected saves is 4.5 goals this season in Kaminski's favourite.

Who are you thinking? There are only 3 keepers who have ever gone for more than 40m, one was Buffon over 20 years ago, one was Alisson and the other was the curious Kepa deal.

Whilst it is definitely a valid argument to suggest that we sold Raya for a low fee and it was a short term move, he made so many mistake in that first season up and he wasn't a patch on the keeper he is today, and likely wouldn't be close to it even now without the coaching and development he has got at Brentford. The year with Walton was a joke, but what frustrates me more at this current time is that we did (a year too late) get an excellent replacement in Kaminski and we are probably going to sell him to go back to having someone bang average in net instead.

You've listed some very average signings there but it's a huge stretch to say he was dishing them out to put them first, especially as many of those only signed the one contract here so he was hardly "looking after" players he had never managed before, as if he was doing an old mate a favour. Should some of those signings have been made, no of course not. We signed Brittain this season who had a number of injuries and Szmodics missed a few games having suffered bad injuries prior to joining. We will probably end up signing injury prone players at times and having to take slight risks.

Will he be expecting £18k a week? And Sunderland have lots of attacking midfielders, Pritchard, Embleton, Roberts etc. Could argue Dack is better than them, but not sure it is much more than 2+2 at the moment. But if he did sign a player of his quality for free, hardly a sympathy deal.

Quite the opposite. Many people seem to be suffering from recency bias in an attempt to justify a transfer before it has happened. Quite a few goals? Up until the new year, Kaminski was the best keeper in the league, he kept us in many games with fantastic games in a way that Pears has never done, the general performances at that time were poor and Brereton's goals and Kaminski's saves led to us getting many wins that we wouldn't have got without them. Quite a few goals he let in that he shouldn't? There were a couple during his wobble in January, his biggest 2 errors came against Birmingham in the last game before his injury and against Rotherham in the third to last game before his injury. He then broke down in training a day or two after and Tomasson said that he had been struggling for a few weeks with the problem. There is a clear disparity IMO (and many others) between them in terms of saving shots, if you are into your stats, @Mellor Rover pointed out that there are 4.5 goals between them in terms of expected saves. If you aren't, I saw with my eyes that Pears has not won us points like Kaminski has. The alternative argument is that Pears is better with his feet, even if you assume that both skills are equally as important, and I don't think that is the case, the disparity between the two is nowhere near as big as it is in terms of saving shots. And then there is a third area, command of the penalty box which Kaminski is again far superior at. Many times in the run in, there was indecision between Pears and his defence that led to unncessary set pieces being given away from nothing. In the last 2 games, Pears made a big error against Luton where he was nowhere and Luton hit the bar, and then the second goal at Millwall was a result of that lack of communication and faith in him from his defence, Pears came charging out and Pickering panicked and it led to a goal.

Russell Martin is great if you ignore the minor part ie results despite him being at Swansea for 2 seasons.

Id say to get Armstrong, Brereton and Gallagher for £15m is pretty good going. Only the latter blotting the copybook.

McAllister is 24! Is that particularly young? (Not aimed at you chaddy, aimed at the awards)

I never said that it was as good now or even that it is good in general. Point being, you cant possibly know how good it is now. Similar with Champions League if you dont watch that. Although watching our best teams go up against Bayern, Real Madrid, PSG etc, trust me it is the very best standard. Better than those same teams playing Leeds, Leicester and Bournemouth.

Well you are missing out on the best players in Europe and often some thrilling games by missing the Champions League. Serie A, I watch it occasionally, not enough to give an expert opinion. But you certainly cant say that it isnt very good when you never watch it, that was my point and I dont see how you can argue against that.