Wow, some good players on there. I’d take Michael Hector in a heartbeat.

Nice tributes by Burnley today I must say.

I thought he was crap for his first few games to be honest. Improved drastically when he returned from his ban. As for playing in a 2, he’d be a lot better than bloody Pickering! If that’s the case why have we reportedly been chasing/waiting on him all summer?

Well as it stands we’ve got nobody. If/when we do sign someone they could be shit, get injured, have a family issue of their own. Doesn’t seem to have bothered Sunderland. I expect he will do well there, let’s see how he performs compared to whoever we do bring in.

So despite everyone (fans and club employees alike, apparently) absolutely clamouring for him all summer, as soon as it’s confirmed Van Hecke isn’t coming the “We didn’t want him anyway” posts start. Well I wish to God we’d had him this week! And to everyone telling us to have patience, maybe have a word with the manager, sorry, head coach. His seems to be wearing very thin.

I think the primary aspect to his job is winning games.

I’d kill for a couple of average players right now. They’d certainly be a marked improvement on our bad ones.

Kaminski - kept the score to single figures Brittain - Was never given an out ball, didn’t shine defensively. Jury is out. Phillips - nowhere near ready for the rigours of Championship football Ayala - Solid first half, dreadful second Pickering - abysmal performance, would be so bad it’s funny if he played for anyone else Edun - very poor apart from that short spell in midfield Travis - nothing game, petulance creeping back in Buckley - as anonymous a performance as I’ve ever seen. Went hiding. Szmodics - too soon to write him off, but he’s showing nothing. Dack must be furious. Brereton - Disappointing on the very few occasions he actually saw the ball Gallagher - seems destined to be a wide striker forever, so you’ll get a lot of graft, the odd goal, and a general lack of quality General word on Dolan - would probably be better suited in a different team where he might be used wide instead of big powerful forwards. As a pest in the centre it’ll work only very occasionally.

Edun has been utter dog shit aside from that little spell in central midfield. However, Pickering had made him look like Paolo Maldini comparatively.

I’d be pissing myself seeing a team defend like this against us. Comical stuff. Pickering the chief clown.

Broughton needs to be ridiculously busy over the next week or so.

Bad that. Need another body in midfield and a lot more graft. Could also do with Dack on. 3 subs at half time again? See if it works this time?

I completely agree, but it would be Pickering’s too as a centre back.

Pickering will get absolutely destroyed at centre back. We’d be better off playing Annesley, and that’s saying something. Phillips will have to start even if he doesn’t last the 90.

I know this Chaddy, and like I said, I hope you are right and he is an upgrade. I’m waiting a while before I make a judgement though. A lot of people should be reassessing their early ravings on Pickering last season, and Van Hecke really proved me very wrong as I thought he was rubbish based off his early appearances. I think we will have more idea 10-15 games into the season and I’ll have an informed opinion then. I think it’s wise to hold off on judgements til then, just as you advocated with Szmodics the other day. I obviously think more of Nyambe’s contributions than you do too - he didn’t turn in many performances as poor as Brittain did against Reading. He was excellent for us in my opinion, so Brittain will be held to a higher standard in my eyes then yours when comparing the two.

I did think twice about posting to be honest, I wanted to make it very clear it was just a whisper I’d heard. Rumours people want to hear tend to be a really well received on here compared to those people don’t want to be true!

I’ve heard a rumour this afternoon of Van Hecke to Sunderland too, wouldn’t have posted but obviously Rev has heard it to and I doubt it’s from the same source. As with any of these whispers I prefer to believe it when I see it, but the way it was phrased to me suggested he’d opted for Sunderland over us. If so that’s as bad as Nyambe going to Wigan and points to real issues in terms of the contracts we are offering.

The only reason 7 million sounds a lot for Van Hecke is because he’s out of contract in June. It’s also a lot for us to spend. Worth every penny though.

You’ve confidently stated this since we bought him, and I really hope you are right. Any more performances like the one on Wednesday and this statement is going to look very premature though.

I thought this would be the tricky game to possibly bring our good start to an end, as I certainly wasn’t expecting what happened at Reading. Need a reaction here. If we had more players available there’d be a few who should be worried for their shirt. I’d certainly be dropping Pickering for Edun. Dack should get a start too.

But you’ve made “instant judgement views” on other players even quicker. Is it ok to make instant positive judgements, just not negative ones?

Are people really trying to blame Brereton for Pickering’s shortcomings?!? Even before he became Diaz he always put a shift in defensively. Elliott in front of Nyambe is the recent example of a fullback being given no support, Pickering gets plenty.

I see it differently. Pickering was anointed by many fans and the local press long before he kicked a ball for us. We were told he was the answer to all our problems and someone who would be worth 8 million in a couple of years and a future Premier League star, all of which was clearly massively hyperbolic. He showed some promise early on, mainly going forward as he has a pretty good left foot, that headed goal where he made a great run from deep got a lot of deserved plaudits. But the cracks have been there defensively from day one and we’re extremely evident away at Huddersfield where he was pathetic. The questions of his defensive capabilities were often countered with claims that defending isn’t as important as creating for full backs, and comparisons were made to Nyambe. I have seen nothing to suggest he is competent defensively, and I don’t agree in the slightest that defending shouldn’t be a fullbacks primary concern.

Two crushing defeats in the space of a few months by Paul Ince’s reading. I’m feeling a bit silly and like my optimism may have been misplaced, but I’m desperately hoping this is just a blip. It was always a worry that we would struggle against teams who come at us instead of buying into the ridiculous notion that modern football is all about ball retention and possession above all else. What was really frightening was that we seemed to adopt that tactic, certainly sounded like a far cry from our previous outings this season. The first goal, they happen. The other two were shocking to concede. Both fullbacks were culpable, but apparently fullbacks being competent at defending isn’t part of the modern game. Give me a throwback any day.

Radio for me today. Sounds like we are struggling against a side who aren’t just concerning themselves with pointless possession above all else, to the extent that we’ve reverted to doing it. Garner is furious at our pissing about trying to play it out from the back and has highlighted a lack of movement in midfield at least half a dozen times.