filbertway

I know Spurs' defence is bad atm but this is shocking preparation What is the point?

I'm even more surprised we've not moved heaven and earth to get this guy on a 5 year contract after reading those reviews Exactly the kind of player you don't want at your club.

Got some examples of this? Seems like massively undermining the manager to me. I remember Dave Basset coming in to "help" while Micky Adams was in charge but that was over 20 years ago now

No issues with this, seems like exactly the type of signing we should be making. My only concern is that this club only seems to be able to work on one deal at a time and this is not the most pressing bit of business. Maybe it's an admission of accepting we're going down and getting the ground work in.

If Top's genuinely keen to open the cheque book. Make the signings and take the 2-4 point hit next season. It's either that or we slide into the champ and likely continue to slide into League one within 3 seasons. The positive is that if we do keep sliding, we'll eventually find Top and Rudkins natural level.

Cooper was a Kalvin Phillips brain fart from losing 5 on the trot with his next 2 being a resurgent West Ham and Brighton... he wasn't a million miles away.

I genuinely think Cooper would be sticking with Ward as well. #PremierLeagueExperience

If they get a good offer I imagine they will do. Buy cheap, sell for profit. Reinvest. Keep the cycle going.

I don't see the point in signing Coulibaly if we're not planning to bring in other players. Why waste money on even one player if you're happy to accept we're going down.

We've already got Kasey McAteer, we don't need another league one/two player with fight. We really need genuine quality.

This is insane - I genuinely though you had made this in paint as a p*ss take Bet Rudders spent ages on them.

I just hope he knocked before walking in

We've already had Nick DeMarco argue successfully that this isn't the case

It has been for about 10-12 years hasn't it and he only started in July 2024. Not sure that gives him a tremendous amount of time to sort out his recruitment staff

@Rudkin 4.5 year contact and 30k a week could secure him!

Rudkin likes to do as little work as possible in January as well to be fair.

Done. I've not changed my mind. Soumare literally starts falling as soon as they come into contact, he knows exactly what he's doing I do agree it would likely have been given outside the box. That's not to say I think it's a foul, I just know how rubbish refs are.

Never a pen, Soumare went down trying to con the ref.

I'd agree with this, if 7 defeats in a row isn't enough to convince you that maybe the system needs changing to adapt to the available players then I don't know what will. Repeating the same thing with the same players will yield the same results. Switching things up would be an acknowledgement of that and a step forward in my opinion. That's not to say we have to switch to Cooper 11 men in our own box mode. But clearly we need a more stable defensive structure and we need to find a way to get 4 players involved in attacks. Because atm, we're leaky and we look toothless in attack, despite having more of the ball. I'll always maintain that possession is pointless if you have no intention of trying to score goals with it. No matter how many sexy bald managers insist that it's the only way to play football regardless of players available. It's up to Ruud to find that combination that will work for the players available. Clearly, the current setup is not the optimal one.

Spurs are there to be got at atm. Defence is ravaged and with people like Werner and Maddison in the squad with no backbone, they can be got at. No doubt we'll be the perfect antidote to give them a massive confidence boost like we were with Man City though

That's the benchmark set for next weekend then

Bringing off one of his best attacking players for a league two player. Not rotating his aging striker. Sticking to one system which means playing a midfield 2 that offers almost no protection to the defence. They're a few examples of what I'm talking about. I'm assuming you think he's got everything spot on so far then if you don't think he's made any errors of judgement yet?

I think you make a fair point with regards to the squad, but RVN is doing himself no favours. It appears to most that he's weakening an already weak hand with his decision making. It's far too early and too much of a cluster **** to be able to fairly judge Ruud in my opinion, but he's making some very questionable choices atm. Seems like he's gonna get next to no backing from Rudkin to improve the squad. It's all very flat atm and any shoots of hope seem to be getting squashed with every passing match.

Oh wow that's promising. If he's able to get back out and finish the season strongly at Oxford that'd be massive.

Have you seen the state of reading?