Nabby

Trez has 6 goals and cost 8 mil thats not a bad return Konsa ,so now he is playing well a Smith Signing but Targett also from the UK market is a Suso signing ? Engles wanted by Brentford under Smith so who takes credit for his signing ?On Targett poor delivery ...really ? I''ll except his defending can be poor but delivery wise only the 2 full backs at Liverpool have created more chances. Guilbert has been solid most of the season he has more good performance's then poor ones Luiz showed he had talent before the lockdown , he just needed more fitness. Who every was responsible for him did a good job signing him

Oh come on we need another 2 hour media wankfest about Liverpool winning the league with Jamie Carragher jizzing his pants over the commentary 30 years of hurt you know ....

There has only been a few on for free I have BT Sports through EE so can stream on Xbox so I am not too bothered other than at times the stream quality goes down and its buffered so will be about 30 seconds plus behind the other games on Sky

Should start next game , will help against the pace of Antonio who drifts out wide.

West Ham winning doesn't move them anyway they have literally nothing to play for , after weeks of pressure to stay up I can't see them maintaining the same levels they have been at. Their best result from the restart was the Chelsea win. Norwich was a walk over and Watford didn't show up in the first half. They did well enough last night sitting back and hitting United on the Counter and Antonio is in great form. We need to go for the win , against Arsenal even 1 up we pressed high up the pitch and tried to score another .We need to get on the front foot early , we don't want to start slowly hear Watford are winning and chase the game.

My take is the Arsenal /City game set the stage for what followed. City losing meant Pep gave them a rocket and they came out much better against Watford , Arsenal on other hand put alot into the game to win and had a bit of a lull. Helped by Arteta taking inspiration from Paul Lambert and stick all his forwards on and no midfield which upset their balance completely ..I can't see him allowing them to perform like that again. Watford in defence are pretty ropy as well and the CM is very average with Cleverly and Hughes in there.There one star player is Sarr who has done nothing since the restart after his 2 goals against Liverpool pre covid. Bournemouth tough game at Everton who will want to end season on high so players stay in Ancelotti's plans also as we saw they haven't lost at home under Carlo and will want to maintain that.Had off game against Wolves but been better since For us we need to concentrate on ourselves but lets see how West Ham now safe perform tonight , I suspect some levels will drop off now they are safe.

If he stays and Terry and Suso go and we are still not performing who do we lay the blame on then ? They may well be part of the problem I just don't buy into them going makes us better.I'll say again why when the coaching is questioned its town to Terry not Smith (who is hands on) and Richard O'Kelly ? On signings Smith is on record as saying Mapauy for him was too expensive so we looked elsewhere.Suso's experience is from time in Spanish football brings in Targett / Konsa and Drinkwater ? Engels was close to signing for Brentford was Suso scouting him then as well https://tbrfootball.com/incoming-brentford-star-bjorn-engels-rejected-arsenal-2016/ The only player we brought in with link to Spanish football is Luiz who was on loan then and has turned out to be the best of the signings So then of the other signings who weren't on loan previously we have Nakamba ,Wesley,Guilbert ,Samatta ,Trez and Heaton .Heaton we know Smith wanted and was a good signing.Wes struggled but had 5 goals and I think would have gotten at least to double figures if he stayed fit but we should have gotten another exp striker I think that much is clear and though more exp Samatta has clearly struggled with the step up in league.Nakama started off well but has gone backwards as the season as gone on.Trez though underwhelming is still our 2 nd highest scorer .For comparison he has 5 goals and cost about 9 mil .Pepe at Arsenal cost 72 mil and has 5 goals.. There is clear issues with coaching ( defending in general and at corners ) and with the signing Smith is as much to blame as anyone else for this IMO. In some ways this reminds me of when Lamberts back room staff were sacked and there was this idea they were the big issue and Lambert with them gone would improve ..he didn't

Nope they changed it , if Chelsea / United win the final the place goes to the next highest place league team so ro Qualify Arsenal need to win it or finish 7th

They took 6 points off us despite being shit all season thats the only stat that concerns me with them.

Del Perio stayed and they were promoted that season , Jack has done 3 years in the championship with us already. Also Del Perio stayed with a club that he had won titles with and staying with them didn't effect him being picked for Italy

As far as I have read it wasn't the wages that were an issue it was that we would only offer a 1 year deal.I'm all for long term thinking but to me it seems we took our eye off the ball in terms of the short term strategy - staying in the PL Now we go down and face a rebuild and readjustment Simply put staying in PL and adding to Grealish ,McGinn is an easier job than going down possibly selling those 2 and Mings and having to buy a whole new Spine to the side .Newcastle are often mentioned as a team that bounced back as if it was a relatively simply process.It started that they had Rafa who came in late as they were relegated which gave him the summer to rebuild , and it was a big rebuild they sold all majority of their best players.Yes they won league and were easily promoted but they won by a point over a Brighton team who spent nothing and lost 10 games along the way.

If Grealish wants to play for England in the rescheduled euro's then, if we go down he has to leave as Southgate has said he won't pick players not playing at the highest level. Comparison with Le Tissier and Totti is unfair as to the best of my knowledge both those players clubs never played outside of the topflight.

For comparison Fulham currently in the Play off's only had 4 players start today who played in PL Newcastle's 2016/17 promotion team was built on 87mil worth of sales and 57mil of purchases. As you say people who think we will be playing in championship with virtually the same team are well off.It's going to be yet another rebuild which will inc players good enough to get us up but not good enough to play in PL

I think whats happened is Luiz improvment and McGinn returning allows us to play Connor in a role that suits is skill set.For example we have played him as the holding player in Luiz role and he as been awful.

So its fairly complex then and reality of getting it up and running for a new season starting in 6 weeks or so seems impossible On loss's , due to covid there is talk of less money to spend for clubs so if I understand it correctly if someone wanted Mings but said Covid as wiped us out we can only afford 15mil .That would mean a loss on him and effect FFP so we would be better off not selling him .Jack on other hand as homegrown player even taking 5mil would be profit as there was no outlay to stat with.

You make the decision not to get exp in summer then in Winter you go and get Reina and Drinkwater in for their exp !! On Cahill , we brought in 4 cbs all of them little to no exp in PL.How does no one in this descion making look at the options and thinks well if we get 3 young guys and 1 exp in Cahill thats the best option.3 young guys to learn off a player who in an ex International player with numerous titles to his name.

Perhaps a gut reaction to recent matches but if you look at Arsenal under Arteta there is a clear improvement and certainly they are more resilient with their defending.I really don't see any improvement with us like this under Smith.

Probably not alot , in our favour Birmingham are getting a big wad of cash for Jude Bellingham so they may have some spare.Overall with no fans I suspect the whole EFL is going to be spending very little on transfers

It's jealousy as they belive clubs going down have an unfair advantage ...tell that to the likes of Stoke , Birmingham , Boro etc all recent PL clubs all struggling.It's short sighted as well as they themselves could be promoted , then relegated and find themselves having to massively cut wages.Also how would it even work if you have players contracted and you can't sell them what are you supposed to do to get within the wage budget.

I saw we paid little in agent fee's compared to others which on face of it looks a positive but perhaps if we had paid agents more we may have sourced better players at better prices ..case in point Wolves recruitment Other is is one of having known rich owners , whilst we spent alot we also turned down numerous deals as they wanted too much ..ie Maupay. Mings took a large amount of budget as Bournouth knew we wanted him for continuity and set a high price we ended up paying. The purchasing of players is a 10-15 year issue at this point.I'm sure other clubs have made mistakes but we seem top of the pile in poor purchasing.The current concept of young players only needs to be torn up completely.The idea that a player over 29 or so is waste of money as he has no re-sale is ludicrous.You can't base every signing on how much the player can be sold for.Case in point Luiz at Arsenal 33 years old and given a new deal was an absolute rock against City.Sometimes you need exp and you need a mix. Story goes we could of had Cahill if we had gone for a 2 year deal .Yes he is old and yes costly on wages but 100% with him in team we concede less goals and his exp makes Mings a better CB.

Current championship clubs meeting to discuss a 18mil a year wage cap to be implemented from next season That will certainly stuff us if we go down..

Would agree on that , another who is solid at Championship level.

Would be fairly cheap and would score goals to get us promoted , you supplement him with a younger long term striker.

I'm glad we extended his deal really helped in these last few games having some exp in the team/subs bench/squad / sat at home

At best he has missed 2 chances with headers that were hardly open goals. Not sure we have what could be described as a 20 goal a season striker in all 3 of the main guys but for the most part we create very little for them and they spend more time outside the box than in it. Wes goal against Everton is I belive the only goal a striker has scored when we have put them through in on goal. He looks a player to me lacking confidence and struggling in being used as a targett man to hold up the ball rather than being an off the shoulder striker.