ClaphamFox

APPEAL!!

Ha. Yes, obviously just wishful thinking on my part...

One rumour I read somewhere yesterday was that Martin has been telling people in Brighton (where he now resides again) that we offered him the gig until the end of the season but he turned us down. Supposedly he said that he would have accepted an 18-month contract, but we wouldn't commit to that. Now I'm hoping very much we didn't offer him any kind of work, but if this rumour is doing the rounds it may explain the slight narrowing in his odds.

If we take King's comments in his press conference at face value, I'd expect at least two of them to start tomorrow.

He's still 4/1, which means nobody has a scooby. Any narrowing of the odds was probably just down to one punter having a speculative nibble.

King on the inclusion of the new signings: “I think they’ve got to come in and be ready,” King said at his press conference on Thursday. “I don’t think we’re in a situation where we can bed people in over a period of time. “The reality of our situation is that we need them to contribute. It would be silly for us to rule them out to say they need to get up to speed. They’ve not played loads. The younger lads haven’t played much senior football, the two older lads haven’t played many minutes at their clubs, which is why they’re available. But ultimately we need them, we’ve bought them here to play, and the only way you’re going to get match-fit is by playing games. I’m hoping they can all be involved.”

The media certainly doesn’t seem to have got the memo about the decision coming ‘sometime in February’—for the past three weeks at least they’ve been reporting it was a matter of days away. They’ve also been very confident in stating that it will be ten points, but it‘s not clear who’s telling them this given the IC comprises (I believe) three senior legal figures who would be highly unlikely to leak their verdict to the media before it is announced.

Why do you think Gerrard and Lampard are similar? By all accounts they have completely different personalities and management styles. Lampard is known as a tactically flexible and a very good man manager, whereas Gerrard is apparently rigid and distant, which led to him losing the dressing room in spectacular fashion at Villa. Whenever Gerrard’s name is mentioned somebody always cites the example of Lampard, but it’s never really explained what connects them. If Gerrard had been a relatively unknown lower league player before going into management, would you be keen on him based on one success in Scotland, one spectacular failure in England and a distinctly underwhelming job in Saudi? If your honest answer is yes, fair enough but I’d love to hear your reasoning. If it’s no, that means you partly favour Gerrard as a manager because of his reputation as a player—and that’s crazy.

Same as what? Okoli was sent off and is suspended.

If Villa were in transition, why was Emery able to walk in the door and instantly transform them into a vastly better side before he acquired another player? Villa were a horrible mess under Gerrard and he completely lost the dressing room. If we were judging him solely on his managerial record (ie, ignoring his playing record), I don’t think anyone would want him.

Who do you think will play at centre half alongside Nelson?

There is nothing in his previous work to suggest he’s the man to take on a mentally fragile team with an appalling defensive record and turn them into an organised, resilient unit that grinds out results. And given that that’s the job we need doing, he should not even be in the conversation.

For no particular reason I think they have a target in mind who has told us he’s not available until the summer, and they’re struggling to find someone who’s happy to take on the interim gig in the meantime. So King it is for the foreseeable.

Didn't we pay around £25m for Maddison and £22m for Silva?

I think it will be five (we got fees for Maddison and Fofana), but that is still an astonishing fact.

Daka’s and Ayew’s popularity among fans appears to be negatively correlated with their minutes on the pitch. When one plays, the other becomes more popular, and vice versa.

I understand why people have reservations about King (I have them myself), but his choice of striker last weekend was Ayew or Daka, neither of whom look remotely like starting 11 players for us. What was he supposed to do?

Ah yes, I think you're right. But he won't be available this weekend, and frankly the sooner Lascelles replaces him the better.

Vestergaard was out injured last week and King's comments after the game didn't suggest he would just be missing for one game. Okoli is suspended for three games. We probably won't see much of Souttar at all this season. Choudhury, who has filled in at CB, is also now injured. Aluko was very impressive when he came on against Oxford but he's 19 years old and a full back—I'm not sure playing him alongside Nelson will appeal to King. Assuming Vestergaard doesn't make a surprise return, the only way Lascelles won't start is if he's also genuinely injured—'match fitness' won't come into it.

True, but I just don't think we'll go for Martin. He's severely damaged goods now and I don't think Top will want to take that kind of risk. Plus, we clearly need somebody who will strengthen our defence and make us hard to beat, and there's nothing in Martin's CV to suggest he's the man for that job. Top's recent comments about trying to reclaim our fighting spirit and underdog mentality suggested he's moved on from his obsession with getting us to play like Man City, so I think Martin's time as a viable candidate for us has passed.

If we wanted Martin he’d be taking training at Seagrave right now.

Praise the Lord!

If it ends up actually being Dean Smith after we’ve fallen into the bottom three I will have to salute the board’s commitment to its craft.

Nelson is currently our only fit centre half and he’s still very raw. We don’t have the luxury of easing Lascelles in—he’ll play. I’m not sure where Aribo would play given Skipp’s return from concussion.

Why so certain? Last week King had Ayew and Daka to choose from. Since then we’ve bought two young attackers who can play up front. Marti would very likely have stuck with Ayew, but I’m not sure we know enough about King yet to say the same. Lascelles will also very likely start alongside Nelson.