DJ Barry Hammond

Or are we holding back some of the transfer kitty for January - perhaps with the consideration someone else might be in charge at that point?

One very obvious obstacle in trying to get this done in a day is the distance - it’s at least a 4 hour flight away. I also expect the Panathinaikos front office won’t be in any fit shape to take early morning phone calls either after tonight’s result. So… probably not for us tomorrow.

Down with this sort of thing!

Awwwww - we seem to have missed out 😢 Weghorst to join Ajax is the last rumour in BBC’s gossip column this morning. Absolutely devastated ☹️

Did we sign Yaya Toure?

Wait - it’s 5-0 to Stoke at Boro?!? What’s going on in Teesside!

He’s not that bad in defence - and he wouldn’t be that good in midfield. It would be a pointless experiment that would only take you back to understanding his position is a central defender.

Why?

£8 million well spent

Might be more embarrassing for Faes - he’s wanted out, but no one’s put a firm bid in. Maybe he’s trying to flush out a bid now in a desperate attempt to escape.

Come on Rudders, it’s not a bank holiday today so there’s no excuse not to get this one over the line.

I’ve always thought Billing a handy sort of player - nothing exceptional at Prem level, but better than average.

Do you not look at that and think 🤔 centre half’s, we need centre half’s (as well)!

Really? They’re a team that could be as shit as us! We want as many zero pointers for as long as possible… sorry @The Bear

Maybe it was a late celebration of 50 years since that iconic Zaire defending of a Brazil freekick at the 1974 World Cup?

Interesting thoughts @StriderHiryu One thing I’m surprised you didn’t pick up on with the first goal… where exactly was Faes to begin with - because in theory, he should have been in the spot Vestagaard was. Now I can tell you - if you watch the ball into Traore that came from Fulham’s right back position, you’ll spot that Faes is quite a way inside Fulham’s half. That is not where you want your centre half going?!? Yet strangely, someone on Twitter posted some Faes highlights from the game and it seemed he was doing this sort of thing regularly? Strange!?! Anyway, it’s something you may want to keep an eye on to see if that’s something he continue to does - and whether it’s intentional! The second goal is also interesting because your still image shows quite a high line. Finally - a key reason we’re struggling to play out from the back is because we lack any credible threat going long. If teams don’t think you can beat them over the top - it makes it a lot easier to go all in on the press. Good stuff though, always interesting analysis 👍

We hold an interest in Victor Meldrew apparently - personally I don’t believe it!

You’re essentially reacting to this aren’t you 😂

He’s definitely playing that Lens game before any sort of transfers happening.

This doesn’t make much sense as a rumour. If Potter was discussing the position with us, wouldn’t he’d have been discussing it with Rudkin primarily? In which case - it’s a bold and somewhat unbelievable move to agree a contract with the person you’ve been discussing the contract with - but then demand that person steps aside. If Potter wanted to ultimately do that - it’s the sort of internal power play you go with 6 months down the line, not up front with the guy who’s deciding on the position.

Absolutely. But if you’re a manager and having to think about the side all week, whilst watching Kristiansen and Thomas get beat repeatedly by the junior’s you’ve promoted, having to prepare attacking movements without your lead striker and realising that the tea lady moves faster than your best central defender - it then becomes very easy to go that way.

It will be interesting to see how they do against Fulham at Portman Road next week. I’m sure a lot of fans will point to them ‘having a go’ at teams - not setting out defensively - as a further criticism towards Cooper. But McKenna does have some distinct advantages over Cooper in that it’s fully his side, there’s no ghost of a previous manager in the background and he has credit in the bank - he’s not going to be sacked after 6-10 games regardless of results. And when you consider this sort of stuff; you can perhaps start to understand why Cooper would go with a more defensive approach and line-up, preferring industry to creativity - because in terms of his professional situation he simply can’t afford to play open football and succumb to a bunch of 3 and 4 nils across his opening games. This is not to say I don’t get why most fans want to see Ricardo and Mav in the side and to play like we did last year; but fans also have no risk attached to their suggestions, the worst that can happen is the manager picking their exact formation and team selection and it going wrong - at which point it’s the manager and players fault anyway.

There won’t be 3 teams getting over 30 points this season. I can see a points total of around 30 being good enough to stay up this season. Luton finished on 26 points last year in 18th.

Plus Iverson is potentially leaving.