Dman

Mock this up with the red bits white and the white bits red - it'll look 10 times better i'm sure... I've always thought we should have a 'white base' rather than red..

The CoT only deal in FACTS, not speculation. Make of that what you will.

Other than being pretty quick (which he never seems to actually make the most of) - I don't think i've seen any attributes from him to suggest he will succeed.

He's also been trying to get out for the past 2/3 summers.

I tend to agree, although my fear is 'the upgrade on Mara' will be somoene like Ings. Basically, if we go into next season with Che being our first choice focal point, we'll be in trouble. Stewart is too unreliable.

The fact we're trying to keep hold of Che, to me would suggest that we've not factored in the budget for a decent number 9. Worrying. I was really hopeful we'd say thanks and good bye. Fingers crossed he forces our hand.

That's a bit of a myth. Bloom took over in 2009 and these are the managers since then; Roberto De Zerbi 20 Sep, 2022 Present Graham Potter 20 May, 2019 07 Sep, 2022 Chris Hughton 31 Dec, 2014 13 May, 2019 Nathan Jones 22 Dec, 2014 31 Dec, 2014 Sami Hyypia 07 Jun, 2014 22 Dec, 2014 Oscar Garcia 26 Jun, 2013 12 May, 2014 Gus Poyet 10 Nov, 2009 24 Jun, 2013 So 'pretty fucking impressive' means Potter & De Zerbi. Also, lets also not ignore the fact that they've lost all of the key people who'd have been making those decisions over the past few years..

Aribo isn't good enough if we want to be a serious PL side. A good second half to the championship season might mean we actually a half decent fee for him. Basically, now is the time to sell before his value depreciates again. The same to be said for a few others (Janny B, Adam Armstrong etc.)

Genuniely, we should be playing him up top as a 'false 9' or an old school 10, just behind a number 9. Get him in the final 3rd and tell him not to worry about tracking back.

Other than he actually plays football, he might be....

Won't wash with the football hipsters on here, but wouldn't be against us looking at Chris Wood on a freebie, should / when Che leaves. No frills but low risk, big, strong, knows the leauge and scored 14 goals last season.

If the actual Stu Armstrong couldn't shape Alcaraz into being a 'young stu armstrong' over 18 months, what hope has Adam Lallana... Ironically, alcaraz is probably more akin to AL than he is SA

Yeah, kinda how I'm seeing it. If they can replicate this turn over on the pitch, we'll be in good shape next season. That being said, from a pure strategic poisiton (and obviously replicating that sucess will be harder if the decision makers are also moving on), you do want / need consistency at the top...

Downes and JWP are both different players. JWP is and never has been a holding midfielder, he's always been a 'box to box' '8' or a '10'. JWP would be in to replace Smallbone or Aribo, not downes.

I dont think its strange at all personally. He's a hard working, tidy, risk free player. Perfect for someone like Moyes, not someone from the continent who wants to play something a bit more flamboyant.

It was always the challenge to find the balance - Ironically, they would have probably all been much better suited to a modern team. For me, Carrick was the missing peice. Had we been able to accomodate him with Lampard / Gerrard / Scholes, we'd have seen much more success.

Would you even take him back if he was? There's an arguement hes better than Smallbone (pretty storng arguement tbf), but massivley average, overrated player.

I have it on very good authority that Leicester were made to stand and watch the staff play golf on the course which they have at thier training ground.

His Missus makes Mara's mum look like Susan Boyle. She's top quality, him not so much.

Ings still lives in Winchester. Nothing to see here.

Hope the conference went well Turks - Did "you know who" tell about any progress on a certain number 9? Rest up, turn your phone off and try and enjoy a well earned break

I actually think Stewart was a good signing, in terms of ability - espeically at that level. Had he been fit, I think we'd have had a good crack at winning the leauge. I guess you can't odds him getting a second long term injury in the same season.

I'd offer him a short term deal to see if he can come back from injury and have an impact as Martin clearly likes him and he does add much needed experience, but truth be told, his days here are numbered.

Whilst I agree that everything else doesn't make sense, if you read reports, SR acknowledge that lack of 'experience' killed us last time round, so I'm not surprised by the links to 'older players'. That being said, if we're going to go for 'experience', I'd rather it was PL experience..

especially given we don't really play with a number 10.