dmayne7

No but he missed a pre season game towards the end which will always affect things. Especially as a centre back where the focus is on the partnership and not the individuals so much.

It's day 1 of the season. Going to be very different as it progresses. Nelson has been injured which has shunted him down the pecking order for now, but the fact that Page made the bench is a pretty big indication of how much he will trust these young players. Disappointing to see no Alves but Aluko currently has others ahead of him. As for Evans, he doesn't look quite ready and we're absolutely stacked with wide players and then a couple of strikers ahead of him.

People laying into Skipp but the performance difference between Skipp and Soumare was night and day. And wasn't exactly top quality from Skipp (same for all in the first half) which tells you how awful Soumare was.

He wasn't that bad though (not a high bar in the first half). Certainly did more than Soumare. And that's the problem, why have 2 defensively minded midfield players in there? Should have been Winks and Skipp and hopefully we manage to bring one in this month.

Way too congested when players make a run.

Knew he'd score after slagging him off

Get BEK in there and somebody else closer to Ayew. Skipp's been ok but what's the point as he's basically playing the attacking role which is mental. Soumare has just been a waste of space. We don't need to 2 defensive minded players (1 who can't even do that)

Everyone has been crap but that was just about the first time I noticed Soumare on the ball and all he did was pass it backwards. Quality.

Vestergaard is so bad

Dack was quality. Was basically a done deal to Palace then did his ACL (I think) and absolutely destroyed by injuries since. Can't shed the pounds these days

Criminal if Monga isn't in the squad (unless non+footballing reasons or an injury)

I went to Gillingham v Walsall yesterday and it's really sad how the gap between League 2 any even the championship has become so massive. Some decent players in there but they just cannot play and intricate football as a team. Mind you, Gillingham are absolutely cursed when it comes to scoring goals so could be that!

If they're club grown. So Golding and I believe Silko Thomas wouldn't be exempt https://blog.transferroom.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fifas-new-loan-rules?_gl=1*18i7fh3*_ga*ZmliREdNa1I3WVJLNTJIeTItTDE4REloLW5laGhFTC0xZ3pVbi1saTNKLVVvM1lmQ0FZdzhLcFVWbXhtWXUwbg..*_ga_PYZHW2Y9DP*MTc1NDgxODMzMi4xLjEuMTc1NDgxODMzMi4wLjAuMA..

The ridiculous thing is, I could actually picture him doing that for real . Gutted that I haven't seen a comparison to Soyuncu on here for a while. That's always good for a laugh.

He did some good cultural bits at first but the first sign of things going against him, he had no interest in the fans

This has annoyed me... . Such an extreme stance. The club's communication is nonsense but I don't see why they would come out and state why they sold him as it's just a bit of a given. Every club that gets relegated is at massive risk of losing their best players for below market value in order to address a financial shortfall and because those players rightly want to play in a better league. Got a more than adequate replacement ready to go as well.

Because there's been other incidents that give evidence to the contrary. You could even be cynical and say that's a publicity stunt if true, as it would obviously get out and then it's even better publicity as you didn't seek acknowledgement for it. Regardless, if that's true, fair play.

Ipswich signed all these players for the championship yet somehow their team looks weaker than last season. They're also suffering from the classic possession based football woes, where it just slows to a snails pace after a few years. I'd be losing my **** at how they've played these last 10 mins

Yeah, what I specifically was describing was Kone (so even more a rough diamond) but meant that more generally, being outside of professional footballer in and period of your formative years means that there are going to be aspects of your game with a bigger space to grow compared to those who have stayed in pro football all that time. Vardy might not have missed his formative years but he missed a big chunk of development time as that's probably why different aspects of his game continued to get better as he got older, which compensated for the areas that naturally declined.

Just turned 22 with absolutely no academy upbringing which means that yes, he will be very raw, but as we saw with Vards, that also means you've probably got more room to grow that most other players at your age. Whether or not he does that is a different matter. But £3m-£5m for this type of player is a bit of steal really. If it doesn't really work it's not a huge loss but if it does, the upside is massive.

If you're putting shoes on an owl, you need sectioning.

Each to their own. I wouldn't say I expected it as nothing is certain in spot, but I certainly felt it was very realistic that at some point we could do it since it is just a few games won in a row. There's been plenty of smaller or similar sized clubs that have won it.

That may be the case but as soon as you say things like it's hard to put your finger on why it went wrong (when there's plenty of reasons) and blowing smoke up Brenda's ares (when it should be the opposite), it's hard to think that they've just chery picked the best quotes. Unfortunately, articles like this and that ridiculous one from Dorsett earlier in the week (where he praised the loyalty and commitment of KP) start to undo a bit of the momentum building up against the way the club is run.

Can only assume Kate is 90 years old. PL unrealistic yes, but I'm pretty most fans realised that the FA Cup was definitely something we could win (even if you ignore our depressing history in it). The way she talks about Rodgers is galling too. Describes him as the best manager but then doesn't acknowledge that he was a massive part in the failings, which she apparently finds hard to say what went wrong anyway.

We do but we also have to be fair about his performances in pre season and the very brief cameos he's had. Been very little to get excited about based on those. I think that's why you've seen the likes of Page and Aluko jump ahead. But of course, the lad is only 17 so to get those chances says a lot. Really hard to pin just how good he's going to be