John

We won't be selling to Arsenal. Firstly they can't afford him, secondly he's happy where he is and thirdly why would we sell to strengthen a direct competitor for the PL title?

Let's not jump to conclusions folks. It's Instagram after all. I'm expecting a smiling face on his next post and Tyrone saying that he aims to be back in training, so that he's available for the title run-in and for Athens. I wouldn't want to bet against him!

Always worth having around at Christmas too.....

Called him up, following a clamour for him to do so, but left him watching that garbage on the bench. Ezri's the new Jack! He plays his favourites despite them stinking the place out and rushes kids like Lewis and Palmer into the team, because of who they play for. How many tournaments will he lose with this latest so called "golden generation" before the FA show him the door? Fully merits the boos he gets at Villa Park.

Yes, they were full of themselves, I think some of them think it's still the late 70s and even if it was we weren't a team to be easily dismissed then either.

Some interesting comments on "The Fighting Cock" fan site and one that really isn't: - "We went behind against Brentford and came back to get a point, We went behind against Burnley and went and scored 5. We went behind against Sheffield United and went and won 2-1. We went behind against Woolwich and drew that game too. Villa have gone behind in 5 games this season and won just 1 of them (drawing the other and losing the other 3). Emery is a fantastic manager and what he's doing at Aston Villa is miraculous. No team has had more points than Villa at this stage of a season and not been in the top four - this isn't an easy game. They are basically full strength. We're missing four of our best and most important players." - "Without Maddison, Bissouma, Romero and Van De Van I just don’t see what there is for Villa to worry about. Of course Son is still there but who is going to get the ball to him in goal scoring areas? Who is going to keep Watkins under control? Who is going to bring the ball out from the back?" - "Villa are a decent side, and will provide a real threat, especially with our injury crisis." - "If Dier plays we lose this." - "I worry playing such a high line with Dier at the heart of our defence. I don't worry about Villa, though. Villa can f*** off." - "I’ve a bad feeling about this. One positive is that they play a high line too so Son and johnson should be able to get in behind as much as Watkins will with Dier and Davies." Link: https://thefightingcock.co.uk/forum/threads/spurs-v-villa-sunday-26-nov-2pm.48751/ I would take a point and I would also take three....

Not at present, but they were competing for the same England spot, not that long ago. Duran is one for the future, if he wants to be. Tammy would not be a signing for this window in any case though.

We were reported to have been interested before his injury and I could see us going in for him, once he has proved his fitness. Whether he would be happy to join us again without being guaranteed a starting place is a bigger question, as would be Watkins reaction to real competition for his jersey again. I think they would also probably want treble that.

I anticipate that Emi will be between the sticks for all our remaining games, other than our final group game (if we've won our next one by two goals) and perhaps an FA Cup game. Other than that, we would be looking for cover in case of injury (surely we have already had our fair share of those). Finding someone who like Olsen, would be prepared to sign in those circumstances would be difficult, perhaps we know of someone in Spain? Back up for Cash would be the next target unless UE is content to use Konsa there for the odd game. I'm sure there would be full backs in the EFL or abroad that would jump at the opportunity to have a place in our squad. The same applies to the striker we need, should Watkins need a rest or have an enforced one, do we loan out Duran or can we rely on using him for anything other than the odd game/few minutes? Who knows we may pull a rabbit out of the hat again. There may be a player that we had wanted in the summer that now becomes available and we have to sign. For once, we are building from a position of strength. We are not desperate and a lot of players will see us as a very desirable destination. It will be an interesting window, particularly if we are still in/within touch of the top five in January.

Alan Shearer and Ian Wright had some very flattering things to say about us on MOTD2 last weekend as well.

They never are. I think a lot of us live very near to Birmingham, but qualify as West Mids, others have left Birmingham, but will never leave their club. Others including the Prince of Wales, have become supporters of our club for various other reasons and are most welcome. For some reason very few people outside of Birmingham are easily persuaded to be in any way associated with Tom Ross, Jasper Carrot or any of those other sad Noses.

Very little chance of that. I doubt reading and percentages, comes easy to the average knuckle-dragger.

Many happy returns Mike, what a nice 6th Birthday present the team gave you that day!

We will never know what Izzet might have done for us. He might not have picked up any injury with us either. JG wasn't backed by HDE when we were sitting on the top of the table and he wanted to increase our chances of staying there by adding a couple of players.

We will have to ask Wayne, if we can borrow his one from the dark side of the city then... I know what you mean though. I seem to remember him embarrassingly failing to do so, in front of the Holte End once. Bit like the 70s/80s last night when the AZ fans were marched into the stadium from Witton Station by the police last night, or any game against the knuckle draggers.

The club have confirmed that there will be tributes to Charlie before and during tonight's game.

Not me....

Try finding one in your ginger one! Now I'd settle for finding a ginger one in my grey one.

Me too, either at this one (most likely) or on Sunday. I like the 3 minute idea, I guess they will arrange something that doesn't clash with the pre-match Remembrance silence, it would be nice if a couple of his old teammates could attend either game to pay their tribute, as was the case with Bobby Charlton. Match wise, we need to go very near to full strength, as 2 more home wins would put us in a good place to win the group.

Answering my own question, some comments from LFC Reds below: "As you say there are so many variables which can decide the outcome in any football match. Contrary to some reports, I don't think Luton played well....I don't think Luton are capable of playing well....actually Luton didn't even need to be able to play well. The result stems from a pre- match mindset of thinking it was a guaranteed win. The chances missed early in the game were shrugged off with an attitude of well score later on....there was a malaise right across the team right from the start. As for loving the underdog....I still feel sick now thinking back to leaving Wembley after the cup defeat to Wimbledon." "Agree. No excuses for that yesterday. The main issue I had was the attitude . It wasn't right. We had a number of games like this last season where the attitude wasn't right and the tactics were wrong. We can't afford any more . We played well at spurs and were robbed. Brighton we got a fair point in the end. Yesterday is the first time this season I've been scathing of their performance. Any more of those will undermine our CL aspirations. I hope Jürgen read the riot act and I hope he considers using mac further up." "The problem today was the players approached the game with the same mindset as you..."Ah Luton, they must be sh*te....etc.." First time, and hopefully the last time we've seen that this season." "Can't win em all. One of those days, nobody played that well." "Now that I’m a bit calmer….. it’s crazy what a leveller this game is. Like even after all these years of watching football, I just look at this game and assume we’ll win. Ahh Luton, they must be sh*te. We’re boss. We’ll turn up and roll them. Just doesn’t work like that. Last year forest. And Bournemouth. I’ll never learn. Next year will probably be Ipswich. Or West Brom ffs. It’s just further proof that away games are never gonna be easy." "Surprise, surprise, a setback and out come all the doom mongers again. Players being slaughtered, towels being thrown in. 3 points behind shitty despite a summer rebuild, still a work in progress. One of early chances go in and we win comfortably." Link: https://www.lfcreds.com/reds/index.php/topic,53638.391.html

Our result yesterday was not quite as bad as Liverpool's draw at Luton relatively speaking, I wonder how they are reacting to that. Sunday was very disappointing, we need to make up for that in the coming weeks, as we did after our previous defeats. We go again.

They all were once, sometimes they can take to first team football like a duck to water, I was thinking he might get a few minutes coming off the bench, if Duran remains unavailable.

It used to be said "If he's good enough, he's old enough", is he perhaps worth an occasional place on our bench, given our current lack of striking options?

Not a very happy birthday for UE. We could have gone into the top 4 with a win today and you have to win games like these in those circumstances. We couldn't turn our possession into goals and we conceded goals at the start of each half to give them a boost and to deflate ourselves. We will play better between now and the end of the season, I doubt that they will. Watkins had a great opportunity to get us back into the game, but he mistimed his jump, that's two without scoring, I do hope this isn't the start of a barren spell, because we haven't many forward options to bring off the bench currently. We need to get back on track with two home wins after this.

As has been said, I think it's a done deal. Unlike London clubs that were in a similar situation in the past we haven't got a local Wembley stadium to fall back on for the big games. Hopefully, we would be in the same situation the following years as well (qualifying as winners). I wouldn't have delayed getting started on the work for a concert though.