ant

Take Walker-Peters & Fernandes out of these predicted lineups and you're looking at a bang-average Championship side. Yet another Summer of rebuilding. Yet another Summer trying (and failing) to clear the dead wood... Fun, this.

I'm not ITK, but it doesn't seem unrealistic that he had a clause in his initial contract which was triggered upon promotion. If that's not the case then yes - the decision was reckless at best.

Especially bizarre given Celtic had a far superior chant that we could've wholesale nicked, as we usually do. As Turkish said, somebody made the link. RE: the Onuachu chant, this stuff has been going on for years. Always about black strikers (Lukaku, Toney, Gnonto at Leeds, Diallo at Sunderland, and more before them). Plus it's a shit chant anyway.

Rob Stiles is from Waterlooville and lives in Denmead - or at least did around the time my brother was dating his daughter! But I suspect that means he's more likely to be blue than red...

Just realised this comes exactly a decade after we faced them in the same round of the League Cup at their place. Pelle's no-look top-bins goal from 25 yards... Long's first Saints goal... Crouch going mental and getting sent off. What a night. Bloody miss Koeman's squad.

Yeah, it absolutely was. And there was another edge to it with the unbridled hostility any time West Brom dared touch the ball. Goosebumps thinking about it. Suspect the suits thought it was something they could recreate on the regular. But an atmosphere like that is driven by the occasion; the stakes. You can't fake it.

According to this article, Wade Elliott - the very same that was a 'dead cert' to sign for us at one point - now scouts for Sport Republic. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ckg23yj959ro

I was going to facetiously say Aaron Martin. Googled him, found he's retired and (being two years his senior) I just feel sad now.

Ooh baby, Do you know what he's worth? Ross Stewart is allergic to turf.

You can say all you want about concentrating on the league, but they've got until Saturday before we play next. Given the number of new players in our league starting lineup, wouldn't it make more sense to put out a team closer to that, in order to give them bonus time to gel? This seems the worst of both worlds, i.e. the likes of SAA are missing valuable game time whilst we're not learning anything of tangible value for the rest of the season.

He played for Andy Crosby at Port Vale, which is a nice little link to our past.

Sort of. Brewed by the Asahi-owned Fuller's. So no, really.

Probably a good deal for all parties where Meghoma is concerned. No clear pathway for him here. A lot of money for us for a player with under a year left on their contract. Minimal risk for Brentford (relatively, in terms of modern fees). How we got to the point where £10m is 'minimal risk' is another issue entirely...

I've been in the same spot in Block 42 for a dozen years, so feel reasonably qualified to comment. The talk about following the away fans was definitely just talk. All the old faces were in situ. Half-expected some movement to the other Northam blocks given they were open for business - but I guess folks are set in their ways. The atmosphere was decent until kickoff-ish. Some looked pretty confused about the flag going up over us. 😆 But yeah, once we got going it was more or less the same as it ever was. Louder when the players were doing something and quieter when under the cosh. The way the safe standing bars are put in makes it harder to pass any (ahem) larger guys - or for them to get past you. It was strange looking over to Block 43 (and what I could make out of 44) and seeing fans standing but silent. The fanzone is what it is. Not for me but seemed popular. Was pretty bloody annoying that people were still filtering back from it on the hour mark, mind. From what I saw the fanzone had a similar effect to designated away pubs. That 'loud in the Spoons, quiet in the stands' dynamic where the gobby fans blow their loads too soon. Getting away at the end was unnecessarily annoying, as there's less room behind the stand and we all have to leave at the breaks in the perimeter. It's early days but ultimately most changes appear for little tangible benefit.

Keeping the Northam fan zone open until 9pm is optimism beyond belief. And even if it does work, as somebody that runs an independent pub (sourcing & serving the best local & national brews) I question why the club deserves yet another slice of the pie. Especially when only serving macro slop. If it were building upon last season's guest bar setup (predominantly provided by Dancing Man) then fair enough - that'd be some welcome support towards local commerce. But it's all so transparently 'stack 'em high; sell 'em not so cheap'. Sticking a couple of bands and DJs on doesn't change the fact that the club clearly sees you as a walking wallet.

Depends how serviceable the existing debt is and how bad the repayments have got on our loan(s). The £10m net isn't yet the correct figure because it relies 'if' of shifting those players. Current net spend is circa £75m. And even if we DO clear those at end of contracts/wantaways/dead wood, we probably need to spend further dosh if we've any realistic hope of staving off relegation. Transfer business is clearly not done. Brings home the current futility of trying to compete in the Prem, IMO.

Implies we started with the accounts anywhere near in the black. Hint: we didn't.

Had a sobering moment just now realising what we've already spent this window and how far the squad realistically is from where it needs to be. INS: Harwood-Bellis: £20m Downes: £18m Archer: £15m Fernandes(?): £13m+? Brereton Diaz: £7m Sugawara: £5.9m Wood: £3m Edwards: £3m Taylor: Free Lallana: Free Total: £84.9m OUTS: Lyanco: £4m Caleta-Car: £3m Perraud: £3m Adams: Released Armstrong: Released TOTAL: £10m POSSIBLE OUTS: £10m for Mara(!) £7m for Onuachu(?) £13m for ABK (based on Hoffenheim?) £15m for KWP(?) £12m for Alcaraz(?) ??? (£5m?) for Aribo TOTAL: ~£62m Even IF we can get this we've probably spent money we don't have (and what will it cost to plug the most obvious gaps?) Hmm.

With the continued chatter about it, might be worth the club putting out a release? I understand the above comments are just Silvestri replying to fans via his personal Twitter. If it's playing fine that's the main thing. But they're gonna keep getting scrutiny.

The "I wish we were..." comments get funnier every year. Remember when Norwich 'won' the transfer window in 13-14 after signing the likes of Hooper and van Wolfswinkel? 😅

Gendered colours are a relatively modern construct. Seems barmy to me that one area of the colour spectrum would essentially be 'out of bounds' for men. It's a crap kit because - like all of the Puma kits thus far - it's simply poorly designed. Nothing more complex.

Agree on Fraser. Very thankful for his loan contributions - and he proved a great team player, contrary to the expectations of many. From his side, I hope we provided a good platform to show he deserves another crack at it. Just not with us. Not in the Prem.

As somebody still in love with the passé 4-2-3-1, I'd be all over it. And even if we only played with one CDM there'd probably still be plenty of game time for both. Wasted taps of the keyboard to so much as dream, of course. This one ain't happening.

The ticket site defaults to Mx if no gender is assigned to that customer number. Absolute non-issue.

Schmeichel has completed a medical at Celtic, so that's not gonna be a thing. I was banging the drum for Mat Ryan, who was also a free agent. But he's just joined Roma (so you'd imagine was looking higher than us from the get-go). That pool of 'cheap' experience is getting ever-smaller.