Wurzel

You forgot "vision". We have others with the skill and ability to have scored that goal. Unfortunately they seem to lack the vision, or confidence - or maybe enough attitude to defy orders - to try it. Without that vision the skill and ability is just wasted.

Can someone remind me of the significance of his preference for the #44 ?

Me too. That and how awesome "The Dome" looks from inside. And what a nice chap that Wilfred Zaha seems to be.

Wondering if he was the (un-named) forward we were rumoured to be trying to sign in the last window which couldn't be completed at the time but negotiations were meant to be still ongoing. Guessing Arsenal wouldn't let him go until Sanchez's future was decided. Usually I say never go back (unless - and with hindsight - you are Channon or Ball) but in Theo's case I'd take him like a shot.

So less than 3 years after scoring 8 goals in one home PL game we have only scored in one of the last 9 home PL games. Which is a bizarre stat at any level of football Even more strange the only one we have scored in was scheduled as an away game and the fixture reversed. Didn't we have a white witch remove a curse at SMS not long after we moved in? Is it time we got her back?

Script is written. VvD heads "winner" in last minute , ...... only for Crouch to come off the bench and equalise in injury time

That's a bit high-brow isn't it? Big screens showing the History Channel

I'd love to see us give it a go. Back 5 with Romeu and Lemina in front of it isn't going to concede much, which is handy when we don't score many. As it gives the full backs license to attack down the wings even more I'd go for your back 8 then Davis /JWP central with Gabi AND Austin ahead of him. Shouldn't leave us too short in midfield, if RB goes on a run CS covers the extra midfield and vice-versa. 2 up front gives the options of target man CA and a hard to mark Gabi making intelligent runs all over the place. Tadic, Boufal, Redmond wouldn't be too happy but it seems time is right to try something fresh, and they've all had enough chances to stamp their authority on a game with infrequent success We'd either get thrashed or start looking like top 6 contenders again. Either way it would be entertaining.

I've been racking my brain trying to think of how to sum up Redmond in a single word and you've hit the nail on the read there with cowardice. Far too often he takes the easy (and usually wrong) option with his passes, his runs off the ball and once he has it his decisions when to run and not to run with it. Coupled with that his ongoing refusal to take responsibility, seemingly always looking to blame others when it goes wrong. Yesterday was a great team performance but he was the stand out individual where there was still "room for improvement". Seeing us ending with 3CBs on the pitch has me wondering if that is MPs plan for the future. Bertrand and Cedric bombing up and down the wings at will, defending when necessary with Romeu and Lemina sat in front of the back 3 looks a solid unit defensively. It would need some adjustments up front, Redmond for me would be the one to sacrifice if he wants to experiment with that.

I'm sure I recall a written interview with him once where it was mentioned he also runs a successful business in the financial sector (think it was foreign exchange dealing), which has pretty much set him up for life after football, so chasing higher (football) wages might not be so important to him as it is for others. And I wouldn't read anything into his lack of smiles, his "celebration" of his goal for England last week certainly won't go down as the most ecstatic in history.

Not what you're asking, but for comparison I still have my 76 Cup Final ticket. Junior, standing - £1.50 !

^This^ We're not talking pay day loans here. In business the best way of obtaining a loan from a bank - certainly the best way of getting favourable terms - is to show them you don't actually need to borrow it. Can't win on here, if he'd purchased us with his own cash half the posters would be worried if he was leaving himself short and might need to sell up quick if he needed it back in a hurry.

I agree that it does move the issue further down the pyramid, but at least if a higher team signs a lower division player mid season it's because that player has actually earned the right to better himself with an upward career move, he wouldn't be simply moving sideways for more money. Agree on wage cap, I'd love to see that. But I'd like to see an overall squad wages cap, not an individual one. That would make the game a bit more like Fantasy Football, with clubs having to make decisions whether to fork out big wages on 2 or 3 superstars accompanied by "nobodies" or build a decent squad of average players. Realistically that would, over time probably level out wages any way.

Get rid of the window completely. Bring in a "cup-tied" rule for the league - i.e. once a player has played for a club in a league game (and/or any European competition) that season he can't play for another team in the same league/division until next season. That would not only make for an unofficial out of season "window" but it could encourage clubs to look at players from lower leagues mid season if changes/replacements are needed.

Watched the whole game via firstrowsports in between interruptions at work. Usual game of clicking all the pop-ups to get rid of them at the start but once they're gone and I've hit full screen it was better picture than anything I watched last season and never buffered/froze once (that I noticed).

The situation is no different. That's why Managers generally leave by "mutual consent" - the club is within their right to refuse any resignation. But because there's no real transfer value in managers (although compensation deals seem to be increasing) they usually just accept the resignation and let them go.

Van Dijk saga ? Virgil? Liverpool? Les Reed? Strike? Not heard anything about this. Do you have more details?

Well he's sort of right. He can do that. It's just that he has to give 6 years notice (well, 5 and 1/2 now)

Agreed. VVD wouldn't even get a placeon the bench if we had the two gingers Wright and Svensson, with Watson and Richards as back up.

BIB: Do we know this for sure or speculating? May affect my fantasy team.

I don't think people *are* demanding all year round excitement. I think most fans need, and actually look forward to, that between seasons gap. Like the players it's that chance to mentally refresh and start all over ago in August. It's the media, who rely on maintaining viewers/readers/visitors numbers to maximise their advertising revenue that are imposing this made-up "excitement" on us. 60/1 possibly but 600/1? Not a chance

Pah. I could do all that 20 Years ago Down the park Against my daughters Seriously, the more I read about him the more I like the sound of him. Yet another foreign signing I've never heard of previous to us being linked with them, but we haven't got too many wrong so far.

Off topic slightly, probably because I was around in the 80s but as soon as that clip starts, seeing us lining up in "that" kit gives me a feeling of optimism straight away that stripes never do. Unfortunately none of the players are old enough to remember it, hopefully they are shown videos like this daily at Staplehurst

A club that's firmly established itself in the top half of the "best league in the world" ? Feel free to to keep embarrassing me with these difficult unpleasant situations. Could we have done better (i.e. finished higher) over the period referred to in the article? Probably. Couldn't every club in the league also have done better ? Almost definitely.

*We* made big profits on then because we bought them cheap and improved them. We got good prices for all 3 at the time - certainly didn't undervalue any of them. Of course they could now be sold at a profit by their current clubs. That's down transfer fees going through the roof due to the tv deals. None of them have improved since leaving us, if they were still with us now on decent length contracts we'd be making bigger profits on them too, but that doesn't mean we undervalued them then. I'd go as far as to say we have a history of getting excellent prices for players we sell - even those than want to go - and I'm talking 40 years or more dealings, not just the last couple of years. The only one I would say was considerably undervalued was Bale and his departure was down to circumstances beyond our control at the time.