Jock's Hill

It's now just us and Chelsea who have yet to make a signing. We are therefore the only club to have made no transfer deals in or out of their first team squad. It doesn't even feel like we are going to sign someone or that anyone will leave. The refresh idea is way off course as time doesn't now really allow for a series of considered deals in and out. We don't want to be rushing into anything as that's what happened with YV.

Still trouble with this blooming gate that won't let anyone in or out. Latest reports are that people are hovering around with oil cans and WD40 but still no definite progress.

I'm in a race to decide on this!!!!

Is there a lock on the gate at the King Power stopping anyone going in or out? Strange as other clubs seem to have a very loose freedom of movement policy.

The world class status refers to Real Madrid. Why would Man City be shown the video - to make sure they hang onto their leads of course. 😀😀

I wonder if Man City were shown a video of the Leicester v Tottenham game from earlier this season? Just shows even the mighty can fall albeit against world class opponents.

Following on from the 2004 quantity not quality there was a similar input under Frank McLintock in the 70's. Many of that group came and went quickly.

Wasn't Ricardo a goalkeeper?

I suppose it is down to ambition and whether they might push to move on for regular football. Sometimes surprise transfers take place. Hernandez the right back we signed under Ranieri moved on quickly.

I wonder if there will be any opportunity to move on Vestergard and Bertrand over the summer. The latter has been injured for a while now and neither are likely to be more than squad players next season. Trouble is they will both be under contract and possibly happy with that. We had only just cleared the "non players" when first Slimani and then Benkovic left.

I have noticed that Bristol City have not had Danny Simpson, Andy King or Matty James in their squads for sometime now. Are they all injured in unison with our defence? Is anyone in the know?

I'm not expecting anything from these two games. hopefully neither of the scores will embarrass us. What would be really lovely is just one point out of the six from one of the games with a really gutsy performance. It can be done but needs a lot of good fortune and playing for 90+ minutes.

Anyone got an idea of what our defence is likely to be over the 2 big Christmas games? I make it some combination of Castagne, Albrighton, Ndidi, Vestergaard, Bertrand and Thomas.

If we were to play our reserve goalkeepers as centre backs it would seriously reduce the risk of getting anymore injured defenders!!!!!😁

............Whitworth, Rofe, Kember, Blockley Cross, Weller, Sammels, Worthington, Birchenall, Glover.

Shame we can't get out of it. We have enough on our plate with domestic games, Covid and injuries. Pushing our players even more could do more harm than good.

Any game that is cancelled in December may mean that we have time to get over our defensive crisis and have Justin and Fofana back when the games are replayed. Also our lesser injuries may have time to clear up too. I think we may be facing a short break in football fixtures anyway, hopefully only 2 or 3 weeks this time.

Almost like 4 points from this today as we have sorted our very negative goal difference. 😀

Noticed James and King have been missing for several games now.

I wonder just how much our performances have been affected by the serious injuries suffered by several players over the last 2 seasons. It is bad enough to have players missing for many weeks or months but then to find they struggle to rediscover their form and maybe become more injury prone. The worst example is Ricky P who was out for so long but struggles now to maintain fitness and form. Fofana and Justin have had similar long lay-offs and we have no idea how they will have been affected. Barnes has been nowhere near his best form since returning from several weeks out. Maddison's hip has clearly been an issue leading to a serious dip in form until recently. Ndidi has struggled since his spell out of the team and looks a pale shadow of the outstanding performer he has been since we signed him. You have to wonder if some of these major injury concerns will be ongoing and whether the players will rediscover their form. (On the positive outlook, someone like Callum Wilson has had at least two major injuries but seems back to form and scoring goals).

Boxing Day fixtures against Bournemouth and Shrewsbury were pretty bad under David Pleat in the 80's!!!! There was no height of optimism to drop from in those days. Then, of course, there was the Allen, Megson, Holloway year. 😩

Is this the worst defending this season?

Both will take some games and time to get back to match fitness and the pace of games. Fofana may not play many games this season and along with JJ Brendan will need to be very careful with them. Just look how long it has taken Ricardo get back to anywhere near his best form.

No Mendy either.

Does anyone remember the massive injury list we had leading up to one of our play-off finals under Brian Little in the early 90's? I think it was prior to the Swindon match (3-4).