dmayne7

Dreadful idea. The playoffs are great as is. And if anything, you would be reducing it to the top 2 outside the autos from a sporting perspective.

Rodgers the best?

Yep. Very different in the case of players like Brownhill. He's probably not going to peak much higher than where he's been in his career so should take the money. Much like the golfers that went to LIV. The older European guys did the sensible thing as there career was on the way down. It's the guys like Johnson, Bryson, Koepka etc where it doesn't sit right. Same with some of the footballers in their prime or best years ahead of them.

I said this already and have done for a while but you almost have to split it in half in terms of his time here. First half, he is arguably the best we've had. Second half, he without doubt the worst, or rather, it's the biggest underperformance and destruction of the club from a manager. You use Clough as an example but he left Forest in a better place than he found them, or at least no worse. And that was after an extremely long time when they had continued success.

100%. I think you almost need to split it in 2 and say the first part is of the greatest we've had, and the second is without doubt the worst. He undid far more than Taylor did without the mitigating factors that caused further damage (ITV Digital collapse, stadium etc).

Sums up the rise and fall on national teams. When we had Seaman, Martyn and Flowers for a period any of whom would have been amazing No1's. Then there's been a dearth since then really (Hart was great and Pickford has been good for England but the fact he's got nearly 100 caps is crazy)

I always maintain that we were maybe 1 player away from having a fight good go at CL places back then, when we had those few weeks of Heskey and Collymore. Plenty of teams with more talented players but the functionality of that team, with how players complimented each other, plus still some very talented players, made it excellent.

Na. Flowers was quality but Kasper is criminally underrated by some. Remember having a debate with somebody on here who claimed that he made loads of errors leading to goals, yet he had the lowest out of any keeper in the whole time he played in the PL. Less overall than Alisson had in a single season! Even his playing out from the back was blown out of proportion. People forget how good his long range passing was and the fact that he played in Danish youth set ups as an outfield player until his mid teens.

And the condition of such a deal would be that they remain the principal partner (front of shirt sponsor), otherwise the agreement would probably be null and void.

What about Jeremy? Definitely going to make sure I name my kids something really outdated, that way they can set me up for a great retirement since it's clearly the key to being super talented.

What a bizarre sponsorship deal that would be. You're paying for the front of sponsor as advertisement. That would make these dodgy sponsorships look even worse somehow.

Limitations in pace? He was actually quick, just his running style that fooled people

2?! I agree that 8 is way too high but a 6 is fair. Shifted a lot of wages off the books and got a bonus deal with McAteer where they've paid way over the odds, so on the outgoings, I'd say 8 compared to recent years. Incomings is probably a 4 as James is good but Ramsey and Carranza are a gamble. So up top is weaker and middle we're effectively 3 established players given Winks is sulking. But the wings are better than last year with Monga getting more game time and Fatawu back. Full back much the same, and I'd argue keeper is as well. Centre of defence is probably better as Nelson is around. So a mixed bag. Concern is the balance of the squad in the centre areas. But the silver lining is there is more of a pathway there for the likes of Page.

Let's hope he gets lots of game time and we see a bit of that swagger he used to have .

The reaction to this is priceless. Almost everyone expected he might leave when relegation was confined, he forced through a move to us as he wanted to play in the PL so was likely to do that again to play in the top flight. People then act so surprised that he asked to leave. Lost a good player and could have been so much more money wise but it'll still be a decent bit of businesses overall.

Me too. When did he play for us. I remember Facundo Buonanotte though

Wanting £10m from him is crazy. If we could get a other forward in surely you'd be happy to sell for £5mish. Strange move for Betis as well https://www.skysports.com/football/live-blog/30778/13163353/efl-transfer-news-rumours-and-gossip-for-championship-league-one-and-league-two?postid=10111895#liveblog-body

He's great at playing with his back to goal. To be fair, it is the only direction he faces mind you.

If he does really well, maybe a recall option is in there?

Yet another reason why it doesn't work. Should be a minimum of a 5 year cycle otherwise it's basically take a punt on trying to get CL football/promotion etc. and if you don't, a fire sale for 2 years although you can't really do that because of book value (yet another stupid criteria as actually stops clubs from selling unwanted assets).

I hope that if we get a striker in, he does still mix it up like he used to by going on the outside or dinking those crazy dipping crosses in. Shooting looks to have improved but it's that fact he can cut inside and score screamers, beat a man on the outside or inside and that he has a really unique delivery, as a combination that makes him so ridiculously good.

Got a massive ceiling in terms of potential but physically he's just not there yet. Looked absolutely spent at the start of the second half which is understandable for a fairly wiry 16/17 year old (still haven't cracked the mystery of how old he is!)

That's one of the reasons I find to hard to hate him, even if he's been rubbish. The performance on the pitch is obviously the most important factor, but their personality does carry a little weight. And he's somebody that definitely tries. Hopefully a run of games will get more out of him

He really is. Did you not see how he got absolutely burned at Preston by a guy who's not exactly known for his pace. Had a good game but him being in the side does naturally create problems. You have to play a bit deeper and when you combine that with a negative central midfield pairing and Ayew dropping so deep, it just allows other teams to really pin you back as we saw tonight.

Think it's the kind of performance where if he was playing alongside a more dynamic or creative midfielder it would get a lot more praise from some. Don't really remember him making many mistakes, used the ball well in tight areas and scrapped. Personally thought it was a better performance than Soumare who will always seem a bit more impressive when he had a good game (which he did) because of the physicality.