Patches O Houlihan

I agree. Here's a screen shot of the post

New one on me. Back in Feb there was an article stating he was looking for a move. Poster has ~800 followers and usually posts in German...

Isn't Meghoma out of favour with the club and running his contract down? Was flavour of the month above SAA for a bit but certainly not now. Remind me what happened.

So at LWB currently that's Cornet, KWP, Taylor, Larios, Manning, Meghoma, Captain Jack. Plus Bree has played there. Meghoma & Manning look likely to go to me. Presumably the purchase of Cornet means no Wee Man?

Presumably if Cornet is on loan from West Ham any move for JWP would need to be a purchase. WH want £25m we sold him for £30. Seems a lot. Would they take £18m? Are we even interested in buying him?

Thanks Dave. So which other strikers are available? Or are we just committing to a winger ie Cornet or the Dutch/Morrocan LGBT aficionado?

Has anyone got any good info about what's happening with Yuri Alberto - whether he's any good? Whether the deal is still on? Whether he would fit our playing style?

Does he do a good Carlos Valderama impersonation?!

Or it could be that they are 5 or 6 hours behind us and there is no new news... 🤞

Interesting way to look at it. You're right, scoring 8 he might easily be top or second top scorer.

Personally I think Arma is better from the right than centrally. The PL is full of big lumps and he just gets bullied when in the middle. Plus if he's there then you can't have a big striker on the pitch to win headers, create knock downs, hold it up effectively. Whether he likes it or not in the PL he surely is an inside forward/winger

That's Tino Livramento isn't it?

If we started Big Les alongside Flynn then he could deputise for Stephens as our third big lad to deal with set pieces.

I could see the team set up like that for the end of the game, but would be surprised to see last year's on field Captain and top scorer dropped for a break out 18yo no matter how good Dibling is. Dropping Archer for Dibling would also be a big call. That's partly why I think we'll see him as a sub to start.

No they've signed Bijlow, Ings & JWP

Last night felt like special circumstances: No established captain in the squad Lots of new recruits Everyone playing for the first team in a competitive match for the first time (or first time this season) Average age of squad very low Lower pressure match Playing a second string young 11 from a team a league lower Specific instructions from RM to help coach the younger players In these circumstances having him coach the game while on the pitch - almost an Ollie Lancashire U21 type role was appropriate, and effective to close out and win in the least 30 mins. Even ABK was able to take instruction because of the precarious position of his career right now. BUT would he genuinely feel able (and be welcomed) to coach in the PL with our first team? If Jack isn't playing is he Captain or is Flynn/Arma? What about if we sign JWP? You'd imagine JWP would have plenty of respect for him, as would the majority of the squad. I really couldn't see ABK taking that kind advice in the 22-23 PL season for example.

I agree we need an attacker or two first. BUT - We're away at Palace on 29th Dec. Assuming one of Fernandes/Big Les/Flynn is injured. Who would you rather start in their place? JWP, Smallbone or Aribo

Looking at Aboukhlal's TransferMkt page it looks like he has only played 8 games since his injury, and hasn't played a full 90 minutes yet. No goals in that time. 3 goals in the 5 games he played at the start of last season before his injury in September. Is he the same player? Do we have any secret Toulouse supporters lurking here?

So to confirm you think we should be starting 18yo Dibling before starting 20yo Fernandes (Man of the Match last night) or 23yo Big Les who looks like exactly what we need in DM. I'm really pleased we have all of them, but for me Mateus starts and probably Les too alongside Flynn.

Aboukhlal had already fueled the lusts of British clubs last summer, especially Brighton, at a time when the TFC was not necessarily opposed to the idea of separating from it, a few weeks after the controversial episode of the day against homophobia. The semi-finalist of the 2022 World Cup then had a very consistent start to the season (3 goals in 5 L1 matches) before being the victim of a ruptured of a cruciate ligament in the right knee. He returned to the competition last March. Normally he is a right winger. But in the cup final that they won he played as a 10 and scored Toulouse's 5th We may have some issues with regard to misogeny and he's unlikely to play in our rainbow kit Although he plays for Morocco he was born and has lived his life in The Netherlands (Moroccan & Libyan parents) playing for the Dutch at Junior levels.

Fernandes and to a lesser extent Big Les were demonstrating the quick feet and one touch passing that is necessary to make RM's style work in the PL. JWP can turn his hand to it from time to time, but doesn't look like he's been brought up playing that way like these two do. The quicker we can play, the more effective the style is; the issue of course being that you need skilled players, or else accept that mistakes will happen. It's crucial that we have a midfielder that can get balls through to Archer/BBD/Arma/AN Other Striker/LND otherwise our game goes nowhere, like we saw against Forest. If we can afford it I would love to have JWP back. But I think a striker or tricky winger is further up the priority list.

😉

I agree the fullbacks had a good game, but we could do with Taylor getting a little closer to his winger to block crosses from coming in. Looked Ryan Manning-esque in one or two moments

He's clearly a great talent, but he and SAA looked toasted by the end last night, and their games suffered a bit on occasion. I would hate to see either of them end up injured through overplaying in their breakout seasons - like we saw with Lavia, Livramento and Broja. Too early to start them for me. But 20-30 minutes most weeks; that would be great. See how things look in Nov/Dec and then maybe some 60-70 min appearances.

Now this might be an issue. Bijlow as we saw from clips was nailed on be our specialist defensive shithouse. Now that his transfer is off, you're talking about restricting Jack to merely abusing our opponents from the touch line?! You're suggesting placing the weight of the housery responsibility on BBD's shoulders. Let's hope the core 1:1 training he received in Chile will shine through. We have also been linked with another potential deputy though, and without the weight of the Captaincy he could really focus on his wind up game.