S-Clarke

I agree with what others are saying, he's better out of Chelsea. Dodged a bullet and got paid a tasty pay off. Chelsea 'should' be getting annihilated by FFP next year, so they could be treading into very awkward times.

People loved that, but it was the most irritating thing ever. I don't mind THB doing it as he does on the back of being good at football, but when all you can offer as a footballer is celebrating conceding a corner then it's probably time to call it a day.

I'd be surprised if AA isn't offered a new contract in either scenario. He's hit 23 goals (so far) this season and has over 30 goal contributions, he's definitely earnt another crack at the PL if we get there in my eyes - and we need to protect our investment too.

I agree, I think we will get a new keeper - but my fear is that it will be a stop gap to cover Bazunu. I really think the club need to be 'harsh' on this one and replace him with a new paid for long-term option. Bazunu can be part of the squad when he's back from injury, but we really need to use this opportunity to plan without him in whatever league we're in.

Good idea for a thread. Loans to return to us: Charly Alcaraz Armel Bella-Kotchap Paul Onuachu Romain Perraud Lyanco Mateasuz Lis Loans with obligation for parent club to buy: Duje Caleta-Carr Players out of contract: Stuart Armstrong Che Adams Alex McCarthy Loans to return to their parent club: Ryan Fraser Taylor Harwood-Bellis (£20m option to buy, only valid upon promotion) David Brooks Joe Rothwell Flynn Downes Into their final year: (potentially forced to sell if they don't re-sign, can't afford to lose any of these assets for free) Jack Stephens Jan Bednarek Adam Armstrong Kyle Walker Peters

I thought Brooks was unplayable at times against WBA, great movement off the ball and great running with it. He plays IMO.

Will be 10x harder next year, without doubt - I just don't think there will be a runaway 3 or 4 as we had this year, it will be a little more open. Ourselves, Leeds and Leicester came down last year with huge wage bills, established PL players etc - not very often that happens, you often have a 'yo yo' team back. This year we'll have the 3 promoted sides straight back down, none of them have any established PL players or huge wage bills to cater for. Sheffield United is one that I look at and I can't see them recovering to mount a serious charge, top 10 at a push for me. It won't be easy to get over the season they've had.

I've used the 'Just Park' thing in the past, where you can rent someone's space at their home. I found one local to Richmond tube station a couple of years back so I avoided ULEZ, that was a doddle to get in and out - straight off the m3 into Richmond, then straight back on again at the end of the day. I have heard some horror stories of parking in public car parks on the outskirts which is why I went for someones drive, someone I know had their cat ripped off whilst they were enjoying a day in London. Sometimes I think it's easier to train in to Waterloo for things like this though.

I do agree that the gap is just getting bigger by the year. Next season you'll have Leicester automatically on the back foot, it'll be a tough ask for them to stay up starting on -10. By Christmas I reckon their fans will have wished they'd avoided promotion. Ipswich, great story, but they're no where near the required level yet - they may spend a lot, who knows...but it could be another Luton style story. Whoever goes up out of us and Leeds is best placed to make the biggest crack of it, in my opinion. I think you'll see the likes of Brentford dragged right into it next year, they've looked really poor for a while now.

Some of their fans seem to think he's been sacked as Bloom wants a 'bigger name' - but they're living in cloud cuckoo land. What seems to have happened (according to some media over there) is that he demanded some $$ to build a bigger team and add some real quality, the club said no.. ''but see what we have when we sell x and y in the summer'' and he decided that was that. It's very similar to the way it ended with Koeman, just no compo for them.

That is this a positive slant to take for sure! This 3 are a terrible, terrible bunch. Sheffield United are going to have to start again - awful, awful team. It's the sort of season teams struggle to recover from the next year. Luton had their moment, I think they'll be in and around the playoffs but no more than that. The league will be much more open next year, no established PL teams coming down full of PL players.

They've peaked, they know it. It's only downhill from here. They seem to think that their manager had 'lost it' and is the reason they're crap, but they've just played the game of selling anyone who moves, boasting about their profits to the media and how well run they are...but totally taking their eye off of being competitive on the football field. I can see them going down in the next 1 or 2 seasons, it's the start of the inventible drop off for a club who did well...but are inevitably playing the same card as we did, one bad window whilst playing transfer charades and it's all over (and they had a terrible window last summer).

That PL season has to be one of the worst, if not the worst ever quality wise. Absolute bilge. You've got the three relegated sides not even hitting 30 points, one team finishing on 16 points, 4th place only requiring 68 points and Palace finishing top half. Everton pretty terrible most of the season, deducted 8 points and still finished 14 points clear of 18th. A truly terrible season. The only three consistent teams competed in the top 3 positions, the rest were just a much of a muchness. Pretty inventible Man City would win it again, it's all very boring now.

Yeah done deal. It was never going to be a signing we made, wasn't expecting it tbh.

Ah sorry, fair enough. Yeah I think they're slightly different type's of midfielders, Downes is your typical box to box, high energy type CM. Whereas Prowse is more of a sitting pivot type, who will just let the ball flow through him to facilitate moves. I did like JWP when he played more advanced though, I think he did possesses attacking drive, but the role he played for us (and how limited were were in CM) kind of forced us to dilute his role in open play.

I'm a big fan of Downes, but I don't think we can say that until he's played PL football for a considerable/consistent amount of time. He needs to do what he is doing at a higher level before we can be fair on any comparisons.

I've found Arsenals treatment of him a bit odd to be honest. Raya is ok, but they're pretty much the same - it's not like they've upgraded.

Not sure what the club have done wrong here. All season ticket holders have a ticket in the bag, if you want one it's yours. That's rewarding loyalty. If the argument is staggering the general sale windows to those with 10+ aways, 5+ aways, 4+aways etc etc - then we don't have the window for that, all non-general sale tickets need to be sold by Monday in order to be in the post by Tuesday. We haven't got a week to distribute tickets for next Sunday, so they've had to collapse down those sale windows.

There was never going to be a lap of honour tonight, they did that in the Stoke game. But i agree, the pitch invasion cringed the fuck out of me. Absolute tinpot, it's the sort of thing Plymouth Argyle or Rotherham would do if they reached a playoff final - but for us to do it I was pretty embarrassed.

I can see why he'd have said that. First half it was just 90% us on the ball. Second half after we scored it opened up, WBA had more of it, pushed up higher and it wasn't as relentless possession wise as it was in the first half. Ultimately it worked because the space opened up and we caught them on transition twice.

Everyone ready for VAR next Sunday?

It was such a great atmosphere, even hours before kick off the stadium and roads around were absolutley buzzing. I didn't think I'd ever see our players being greeted like that though, was a first at St Mary's. It was great, really enjoyed it. The efforts at the end have certainly put a dampener on it though, but that was a real minority.

We were in control of that from minute 1 to minute 97. The first half was pure domination. WBA played for penalties, they played a low block and closed off all the space. We did go backwards and sideways a lot in that first half, but it was because WBA were so structured and rigid - it needed a mistake or a quick break to turn the tide. I couldn't really complain about the first half though as it was generally incredibly comfortable, we were under no threat at all. In the second half what we needed happened - a giveaway/mistake by WBA when they were in transition, it caught them out of shape and we pounced. Good run by Brooks, good movement by Smallbone and a good hit - I 'think' it took a deflection, it didn't look like a straight shot from where I was...may be wrong though. The game totally changed after that goal, WBA needed to remove their shackles and non-football approach and play a bit - which they did, but ultimately that played into our hands as space opened up, there were gaps in the middle and it was food and drink for us at that point. Downes drive forward into space for the 2nd goal was class, top finish by AA too. The penalty we were given looked iffy, but it doesn't matter because they one we weren't given was the most stonewaller you'll ever see - so we got the just rewards in the end. It was so nice to be enjoying 7 mins of added time knowing it was done, no stress, no panic, no nerves...just a time to take in what's happened and where we will be next Sunday. Note for the fans at the end - load of frigging bell ends. That was one of the best atmospheres I've ever been involved in pre, and during the game - but a bunch of utter knuckle dragging morons put a real dampener on the entire atmosphere with their antics at the end. The club will likely be fined heavily for that as well, personally we should put the bill on them.

They're just too good. Norwich fluffed their lines in the first game, going into this with a slight advantage would have changed Leeds mentality - but it's done. Will be interesting to see how Norwich react next season, third year out of the prem - could be a struggle for them to compete top end.

Blame Man City, they seem to be growing these young GK's that turn out pretty poor.