Charlie Wayman

Two things caught up with us today; Our settled team were knackered after all the efforts since Christmas - Bertrand, JWP & Ings were nowhere near the pace today The subs have not had enough game time to be anywhere near up to speed - Boufal, Djenepo & Adams are good players but they need to play enough minutes to stay match fit and sharp Ralph needs to use his resources more wisely, of course do not change a winning team but at least give the subs a good run out week-to week to remain effective

Oh!dear and it was all going so well. Onwards and upwards as they say.

I used to drive to London and back every day in my fifties. Cobham to Soton and back for a 30 year old in a supercar would be part of a great day out for him. Anyway he probably stops off on the way to check out his property portfolio.

That's how I see it at the moment but he can't go on forever. He seems very settled and very happy right now in fact more so than in a very long time.

The age thing is certainly a worry especially with Ralph's high energy style of play. Doubt Bertrand could keep up in a year or two.

Leicester City have lined up Ryan Bertrand as replacement for Ben Chilwell, if Chilwell is snatched away by Chelsea this summer. According to Mail reports Bertrand has 18 months left on his current contract at Southampton. It is claimed that Chelsea could be interested in him as well. Bertie is 30 so the question is would we offer him a new contract in the summer for 2 years or let his current contract run down and give him a free at the end of next season? With no sign yet of an adequate back-up let alone a protege ready to step in in the summer it would be a supreme folly to even contemplate letting him go. Even if we were offered £8m for Bertrand it would cost us far more to bring in a decent prospect to replace him.

We're talking ourselves out of Match Threads as there is nothing to dicussmost weeks.

Yes indeedee. Absolutely loved him. Second best winger ever to Stanley Matthews

Good player for us. I remember his goal at the Dell against Reading, I was just behind the goal and in the Echo photo. Lot younger 'though!

With more skill he would have!

I hope Villa don't fall at the first hurdle. Too much history and success. There is still a place for romance in footie. Fingers crossed Burnley will drop with Bournemouth & Norwich.

...but teams above us are not, it's going to be a long haul to move much further up the table

The only concern for me about this is that he was brought in as a goalscorer NOT to assist others. We have plenty of more gifted players than Adams sitting on the bench who can do the assisting

VAR is fine as long as the referee makes the final call on the pitch, not a "fifth" official sitting in front of a screen. The offside rule needs to be reviewed and if necessary changed. Personally I'm all for having no offside. Tactics would soon adapt.

Partly that, partly his sudden U turn on relying on young, fast but hopelessly inexperienced kids and partly reverting to 4-4-2 from the disastrous 3-4-3. Once Ralph swallowed his stubborn beliefs about younger players and recalled Cedric, McCarthy, Bertrand and even Long things have been on the up.

Neither Adams nor Djenepo made much of an impact today. Not really surprising in such a high intensity game they were only given a few minutes.

Not just us though is it?

Season of two halves. They might be looking quite ordinary by March.

None went our way today so we are still stuck in 12th. Need to beat Wolves on Saturday and keep plugging away.

Well done to every player. What a team we have, now second best in the PL on current form.

From Build-up thread: "There is no reason for Ralph to change anything, we're buzzing along nicely. Keep the settled team and play our way. Bugger the 0-9, this will be a new day and a new game. The past is the past, stay focused on the present. Don't be surprised if we beat them 2-1" There you go chaps don't usually call it right but never say never aye?mI was not surprised at all, we should have scored five!

Ralph's valuation of Danny Ings seems optimistic to me.

All of what you say may be true and I hope you are right. There has been a change of leadership at the academy at all levels and the new coaches may see things quite differently to their predecessors, who let's face were not very successful in recruiting and nurturing young players to PL standards. There is also the need not to cause a log jam at the U23 level so players have to be moved on in one way or another after a season or two. Of course it is not easy for the club to make the right calls every time - who to keep or who to move on. I've watched Klarer quite a few times, he seems mostly solid and steady but makes mistakes and shows few signs of becoming a super star. Will he be any better than what we have here already remain a mute point?

Loved Ralph's very thinly veiled criticism of senior management by re-affirming that how much every detail counts in the development of the club even the behind the scenes, details that irritate fans so much for example. In effect he was implying that some of the board members just aren't doing their jobs professionally enough. You get the impression that he values the importance of fans to the club far more than the bloody bean-counters who just see £ signs on seats in the stadium. Good for him! As fans 'though we really need to get our acts together at these forums. Forgetting what your own question is rather dismisses the whole process as a shambolic charade. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail! (Ralph) As for the "host", lose this waster and get Adam back.

He said he wasn't going to sell Ings for £80m. That more or less marks the club's price for the player.