Ric Flair

Watford for all their absolute chaos behind the scenes do pretty well at unearthing some serious talent from abroad.

Thanks for the well wishes, appreciate it. I'll be OK and the pod is a massive help when times are shit anyway so WE CONTINUE. We'll get one done this week 💙🎄

Sorry everyone, I've had some extremely distressing news and I'm in a bad way. We were due to record tonight. Hopefully will get a pod done later this week, I realise we need to get one done as it's been ages.

Balague is going to be beyond unbearable if Chelsea win the league. Wonder if he'll do another Chutney I've gig, ten grand a ticket.

Reguillon ought to be a priority target. Nominal fee to Spurs, 2.5 year contract that is ripped up if we're relegated and a £2m bonus if we stay up.

Hermansen or Stolarczyk Justin Okoli Vestergaard Kristiansen Soumare Winks Bounanotte El Khannouss Mavididi Vardy

I said he wasn't the cause of the 4 nil hammering but I'm concerned the amount of football he is being given, he's not at the level. I like his work rate and endeavour but it's not enough right now. Skipp and Hamza today were an absolute disgrace. Not a single tackle between them in the first hour.

Thst was utterly vile. Our away performances and results in the last month or so have been an absolute disgrace. Big job to make us competitive with the unavailability we currently have but that was shocking. How on earth Kasey McAteer is getting this much football is a mystery. Weren't the cause of today's debacle but it's alarming me.

0-2 Vardy and Vestergaard

Whilst I agree that PSR is a massive barrier that both of us have either fallen foul of or ran in to huge issues with, we have also proven you can win things and bloody the nose of the greedy 6 multiple times. I think you're under achieving with the squad you have and whilst PSR leaves little margin for error for ambitious clubs trying to break through, you've got to have the determination to go against the grain and achieve. They don't like it either when you do.

His name was on my radar under Enzo and I ruled him out because he's only 5ft 8 and I thought back then (and still do) that we need an all round tall and physical striker. However, he's so so good. He's actually very adept at scoring headers and very versatile. I'd be amazed if he wasn't being scouted by us given we will have covered Brondby exclusively in the past. They have some very exciting young players. Bischoff being another one.

Monga is so good. I don't get why Evans isn't in the England U17 squads either, he's extremely good for his age.

It's quite possible he can develop to the standard required, he gets in good positions too. Hopefully there's an important goal coming from him soon like last season.

To be fair McAteer didn't do much in League Two and within 18 months is starting games in the Prem after a full season in the Championship too. Whilst there's doubts he's at this level, some loan moves don't work out but Braybrooke needs to play football and I think he can deal with lower league football.

He was quoted last week saying he rates Golding as he can play various midfield roles. Cartwright is more of an out and out defensive midfielder though.

In style? They're different, Cartwright is far more combative than Braybrooke. Id say Braybrooke is more of a Winks player and Cartwright a destroyer who has some technical ability too. From what I've seen of both, Braybrooke was massively clear of him but I maybe wrong.

Great to see he's properly assessing them. That's Golding, Alves, Cartwright, Joseph and Monga all being part of training this week and have a shot at making the squad.

In 2022/23 the cup game and 1st game back after the World Cup was a rude awakening. We prided ourselves on having a classy midfield under Rodgers but it clearly showed that was long gone as they dominated us from start to finish. Bullied us if you will. It's a shame we're going to be stretched in defensive midfield as I think under RvN Soumare and Ndidi give us a bit more guile than we've seen for a while.

I don't see where he fits in here this season and not when you think whatever budget we have for January is better used on defenders, wingers and possibly another striker if Edouard goes back.

Debut in the FA Cup at the very least surely.

I'd have said unquestionably so but time will tell.

As it stands I think McAteer is integral to the way Ruud sets us up. He needs a right winger who operates a bit of a wing back role and isn't purely attack minded. That's because he currently pushes Kristiansen high and Justin tucks in to form a back three with El Khannouss coming inside. We could flip it around with Justin going high, Kristiansen dropping in and Mavididi giving us the width off the left. Lends itself better to Bounanotte being the RW that tucks in next to El Khannouss as the 10.

It's been reported in the press that Top had doubts about Cooper's appointment and he took action to axe him early, so reading between the lines the appointment of Cooper was influenced by those around Top and the removal of him driven largely by Top. Not sure who deserves what credit there 😂

I'm in grave danger of being a huge Soumare fan you know. The lads still got the potential to be a monster of a player. I see fee weaknesses bar having to micro manage his tracking of the opposition runners past him. He has improved recently on that, whether it's a motivation thing and it's short term I don't know. Someone mentioned that Pogba had to be constantly instructed through a game to do certain things and maybe that's what Bouba needs. Is that feasible? If it is then do it already as the rest of him is very good.

Weren't we offered what we paid for him in the summer but he didn't want a permanent move (likely die to the wages he's on here post promotion). His stock is rising. An ambitious PL team pays £10m or more for him comfortably.