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Even today he can’t get into the squad. He must be absolutely terrible in training.

Nice lad but not very good. When he first came into the team I thought he'd end up a decent player in League 1 and nothing I've seen from him since has changed my mind.

This is where I'm at. I'm not a booer myself but don't object to giving the players both barrels after a performance like that. But I really don't like the self-depracting schtick that's crept in over the last 3 or 4 years. We can demand better without constantly doing ourselves down.

We need to sign a striker. But of those two, I’d play Daka over Ayew because at least he can press.

Marti has come into a very difficult situation. I like his attitude and he didn’t shy away from the supporters at the end yesterday. That said, if he starts Soumare, Vestergaard and Ayew next week he will lose my support quite quickly.

Yes I think we do. Cifuentes likes his teams to press high, which we've seen some evidence of in the first couple of games. Most of our centre backs are slow so we need some kind of screening midfielder otherwise we will be constantly at risk from counter attacks. Winks at the base of midfield is fine when we've got the ball but when we don't have it he needs someone alongside him.

Skipp and Soumare are both dreadful, but Soumare is more of a liability. He switches off, frequently wanders out of position and loses his man. Skipp is clearly limited and very low on confidence but I feel like alongside Winks he might not be a disaster if he's just asked to sit and protect the defence. Unfortunately we don't have too many other options as Page looks more like a 10 at the moment than someone who can play as a 6 next to Winks. We desperately need some reinforcements in that area.

Strongly disagree with this. We have about half a team capable of achieving promotion: Bilal, Fatawu, Mavididi, Winks, Jakub...maybe Faes, Vestergaard and Monga. Our midfield is lightweight and has zero creativity. We don't have a striker who can score 15 goals a season. We have one excellent full back but he's regularly injured. The rest aren't very good.

I was there as well, good away day that. Yeah, injury time goal from Dyer which took a massive deflection.

Would have been perfectly happy with Winks leaving a couple of months or even 2 or 3 weeks ago. As we have done business at our usual glacial pace I don't have any faith that we'd be able to bring in a viable replacement so would be left with Skipp and Soumare as the league's least mobile central midfield pairing.

Can relate to Faes to be honest, as I also hate Leicester City Football Club quite a lot of the time.

Very good goalkeeper and seems like a nice bloke. Wish him all the best for the future.

Just heard Coady’s post transfer interview on the Football Cliches podcast. So relieved we don’t have to listen to this bloke’s tedious banalities any more. Would have been annoying enough if he’d been any good but hearing him rattle on about giving everything and standards and ambition while having the turning circle of a cruiseliner really took the p**s.

Phillipe Auclair is doing good work on this https://josimarfootball.com/2025/07/29/plus-ca-change/

Would agree that the two teams were better quality in 2005 (Aussies just on the decline from being arguably the greatest ever test team, England building up to become the best in the world a few years later), but in terms of the drama and entertainment this series is right up there and possibly surpasses it for me. Could well be recency bias on my part though of course.

As disappointed as I am about the result this series has actually made me more confident for the Ashes. The top 7 are pretty much settled. You can argue about Crawley but him and Duckett clearly work as an opening partnership for what England are trying to do. Pope is a concern at 3 but Bethell hasn't done his cause any favours by barely playing any cricket this summer and then performing poorly this test. With Archer back we now have two (with Wood) genuine pace merchants which you need in Australia. Atkinson and Carse have proven themselves at this level. Stokes is back bowling consistently. The only real doubt is the spinner - really think Ahmed deserved a go at some point in this series given his form this season. If we can keep the key men fit it will be a close series I think.

2005 holds a special place in history due to the wider context more than anything else really - last series on terrestrial tv so everyone was watching, England hadn't beaten the Aussies in such a long time, some great personalities (Flintoff, Pietersen, Warne) etc. This series has had drama almost every day and the result wasn't clear until the very last moment. In purely cricketing terms it's arguably been better than 05.

Not shocked by much with our owners these days but this is really gross.

Best home series since 2005? Ashes in 2009, 2015 and 2019 had their moments but this has been almost non stop drama.

Pretty much anyone following Stokes is on a hiding to nothing really. He is a phenomenal leader, one of the best ever in English cricket. If it's Pope I'd like to see him bat at 5 or 6. Brook is clearly being groomed for future captaincy but you don't want to take away the fluency and freedom he has at the moment. There aren't too many other options at the moment. I hope Stokes carries on after the Ashes but can see him stepping down.

Of the five tests this is the pitch he's least suited for, but not playing Yadav at all in this series is utterly bizarre.

Think Derby will do ok this season. Squad isn't anything to shout about but I rate Eustace as a manager. Can see them finishing comfortably mid table, maybe pushing for the play-offs if Agyemang can find his feet at this level.

Alan Parry and Jimmy Greaves on comms?