murphy

I have to disagree with you there. If he develops into the player that many at the club have predicted he will become for years, then by failing to tie him down we will lose him for peanuts. We don't need to wait and see with Jakub. Someone needs to sit down with Rudkin and explain to him slowly that when handing out contracts we just need to differentiate between the gems and the rubbish.

Can't believe the faint praise on show here. This guy is going to be a great keeper. It's long, expensive contracts for rubbish that has been our downfall. I hope we don't 'learn our lesson' and then fail to tie down the ones that are proper assets.

I think people's heads were turned by this. Ritchie De Laet helped us win The Premier League. It doesn't make him a world beater. I remember asking people who were getting very excited by this transfer, what kind of midfielder is he? Is he a defensive midfielder? No, not defensive. I mean he doesn't tackle and it turns out he has zero awareness too. Is he a playmaker with an eye for a pass? No, not that kind of midfielder. Then he must be a creative, goal scoring midfielder? Well, no, not one of those either, he has only ever scored one goal and that was more than six years ago and he doesn't trouble himself with assists. So what does he do? Apparently he's quite good at 'progressing the ball' up the pitch. We have seen little evidence of this, but anyway, this is not NFL. We don't measure players in yards and anyway the best and quickest way to 'progress the ball' up the pitch is with a pass in my view. Even now, he has his apologists, 'pace of the league....blah, blah blah'. Before that 'homesickness' was the reason that he was incapable of tracking a runner.

I think we've got more chance of a refund by going down the trades description route

Quite right. We can kill it all by ourselves.

Don't worry, I can burst that bubble for you: 60 million Minus 40+ million purchase price Minus 25% of the profit to St. Etienne - sell on fee Minus 15 million wasted on Jannick Vestergaard. Emergency signing when Fofana was injured Minus 15million approx for Wout Faes when Fofana forced his move to Chelsea and it had become apparent that his first replacement was not up to the job. It's the Leicester way. You're welcome.

Perfect summary.

Carrick? Limited experience in management, not really achieved anything, good ex-Man Utd player... We've already got one of those.

Not only that, I am yet to be convinced that he gives a toss. I get the impression that after the losses piled up, he was simply going through the motions. As it stands, I think there might be some brinkmanship going on. The board want rid of Ruud but don't want to pay him off. Ruud wants to leave but he won't walk because he wants his pay off. I wouldn't be surprised if we offered Ruud the job in the hope that he would turn it down and run a mile.

And just to labour the point. If you hired a taxi to take you from Oadby to Great Glen, but you ended up in Glasgow, do you then say "silly me. That was clearly my fault"?

I'm not saying that the person that hired the plumber was faultless. This hypothetical plumber was far too expensive and I agree that when it became apparent that he was the worst plumber in The Premier League, he should have been taken off the job, but he wasn't. All I am saying, that this particular plumber, when called upon, should have been able to plumb to the required standard and not be a total clown plumber. His incompetence is his fault alone.

The plumber obvs. False advertising. If you hire a plumber who doesn't know his ball cocks from his u bends, then you have been duped. Even if your plumber was an actual plumber who had been to plumbing school and got all his plumbing qualifications, yet when he went to fix your boiler, he was negligent and accidentally got you relegated instead, that would be the plumbers fault too.

There was a time when Wilf was one of my favourite players and I believe his singing saved us from relegation in 2017, but it's time we turned the page on the chapter. I want everyone gone bar the kids and start again.

Of course you can blame him. He was totally incompetent.

Not quite. 'Least crappiest' would be progress. We can only dream of 'least crappiest'', but this club seems to be hell-bent on appointing the only manager that has proven himself to be even crapper than those we have already had.

I think you're being unfair in your belief that Vestergaard is singled out for 'irrational hate'. Speaking personally, I hate all our players equally.

I think Faes is our most disliked player since Dennis Wise.

Can't believe you mention Fuchs and Albrighton but not Kante and Mahrez

Mind you, when we had all these very players we still moaned like stuck pigs.

I wonder what it is about proponents of this death by passing football that makes them so wedded to it? Other managers seem to have a degree of flexibility in their approach, but not these Pep disciples. Enzo was the same. The minute anyone has any doubts about my idea I will leave I remember him petulantly saying, before sodding off anyway. Martin is the same, proudly clinging to his belief like he's discovered a football cheat code. Tightening his grip after every beating. I think it's the intransigence that irritates me even more than the dull football. How arrogant to ignore reality and plough on regardless. Martin is the King Canute of football.

Well, if the club make out that we need to sell him for some psr related nonsense when we have just set fire to several million paying a loan fee and extortionate wages for a non-playing striker and several more million for an unnecessary non-playing full back and I haven't even got to Oliver bloody Skipp yet, then I really will be, quite frankly, disappointed. Keep the player and take the hit. We've already failed anyway haven't we?

If we sell someone like Nelson, someone that his loan club manager has tipped to play for England, someone that could grow into a very valuable player and asset, now, at the very start of his career when he is at his least valuable and just give away all of that potential... I shall be..... Well......I shall be quite cross!

That's the thing with potential. It requires patience. I'm not saying he has had a great season, his was the wrong signing (again) as we needed a ready made centre back, not a kid, but he was highly rated, tipped for the Italian team and represented them through the age groups. At 23, he is nowhere near his ceiling. I would expect him to improve and his value to increase. It would be myopic to sell him now unless we got a really good offer.

Justin can cover. Let's keep what budget we have for a striker, some creativity and overhaul of the midfield.

Palace are the new Southampton.