Wes

Don't think Sherwood will shy away from having young talent brought in to the club. I think he probably thrives at being able to mould them how he wants - he's probably most comfortable with doing just that in fact as it is not too dissimilar to his youth coaching days. Not to say he doesn't value experience where needed. Think that can be seen by bringing in Richards. Interesting thing for me now is who me might bring in as a Striker. I won't say as a Benteke replacement because you can't replace a £30m striker straight away and I wouldn't want to place that kind of pressure on someone just joining. Have no idea what kind of player Sherwood wants up front. Just because he's had Adebayor and Benteke firing doesn't mean that's necessarily mean that's the type of player he wants. It's very interesting to me.

The photo could've been from the original medical. It could be someone else. It could be doctored. The photo can largely be forgotten about now. The MEN reporter would have tried to corroborate the story with his sources at Club before publishing an article (you would think). This all smells like a website revenue churner to me (people making profit from people clicking links, shortening odds mean people make money that way too). Things will clear about by 10:30/11 tonight when the larger, more reputable papers and journalists get involved for their back page articles. That all said, they were all wrong last time. This kind of U turn would be incredibly rare. Until there's confirmation either way by either club I'll go with what we last heard for now - Delph is our captain for another year. I would think most of us have better things to do than join the Twitter banter mill for the rest of the day about this (for-now) rumour.

O Captain, My Captain

In all fairness it's not meant to be inspiring. It's a transfer intended to do a job - fill out our 2nd or 3rd string keeper position. It does that adequately whilst removing 40k p/w from the payroll allocation currently set aside for goalkeepers (assuming Given does indeed leave like it appears). That's over 2 million pounds saved a year. So whilst not inspiring in an immediate sense, these small but none-the-less wise moves when combined together may just be the things that allow us to make the more impactful moves (subsidising away fans ticket prices ala Swansea perhaps?)

Shows how much time I have these dayside actually follow the news - didn't even know Jenkinson had signed for another season long loan. Whoops.

I'd rather not take a punt on Johnson or Giudetti. Not saying they aren't necessarily bad players who could do a job for us but this summer more than any other of recent memory I actually feel like the hierarchy has a transfer strategy in place. I'd rather they stick with that focus, rather than chance it on players they didn't highlight as part of their strategy. I think Johnson would still ask for a highest wage. If West Ham can't agree another deal for Jenkinson with Arsenal I can see that making some sense. Probably why the media is running with it.

Backup option. Good that this is being taken care of. I personally like the fact we didn't hear about it until very recently and that it's already done. (ie. Stop panicking so much about the other transfers VTers.)

Guardian and Telegraph.

I wanted us to go after him two years ago.

Clark has grown a knack for having some fine timing lately.

Fran Escribá. The Elche manager...

Whole team played excellently. Brilliantly disciplined performance. Gave MoM to Baker because he blocked a cross for a certain goal but whole team played great. I think we're going to cause serious problems when Benteke or Kozak are back. Only thing we were missing was an outlet to hold up the ball from Guzan's long balls when he couldn't give it to the full backs. Agbonlahor tried but couldn't compete aerially but still did his job dilligently. Keane is the signing of the summer. He and Lambert working well together.

They just interviewed Lambert on Five Live. Was quizzed about Cleverley. He wouldn't be drawn in to comment on the United player specifically. He did say the club were looking at a few players but if they didn't happen, they didn't happen. A very non-specific set of answers.

Back to back clean sheets. This is progress.

With the news that Ranieri is going to be replaced by Jorge Jesus at Monaco I like the idea of him taking over if Lambert was to leave.

We're all looking for a well respected man to take over from Lerner if he's not going to invest any more money himself. Frankly, this discussion is going on all day and all of the night too. I'm trying not to worry about it too much today, it's going to be a sunny afternoon.

Sweet relief!

Just came to the realisation that if we had held on to a draw against Fulham a few weeks ago we would probably be safe now considering remaining fixtures.

Worrying now is Sunderland's goal difference. They could pile it on now and catch us up.

Norwich are 2-0 down at United as I post this so if they don't pick up anything there... If we don't get any more points, and assuming out goal difference doesn't drop by 10, two of the following things would have to occur for us to go down: Norwich need a win and a draw from Chelsea (A) and Arsenal (H). Fulham need two wins against Stoke (A) and Crystal Palace (H). Cardiff need two wins from Sunderland (A), Newcastle (A) and Chelsea (H). Sunderland need two wins (and possibly a draw depending on GD compared to us) from Cardiff (H), Manchester United (A), West Brom (H), Swansea (H).

Unbelievable.

That was a lovely worked goal. All came from Westwood's desire to win ball back in midfield and quick outlay to the right. (At least I think it was Westwood. May have been Delph as it was on the left side. So much rain)

If I've got this correct, which is no certain thing... It would take one of Cardiff or Fulham to win 2 of their final 3 games to leapfrog us now. (A win and 2 draws wouldn't be enough due to goal difference) Cardiff have: Sunderland away - relegation rival Newcastle away - awful form Chelsea home - might still be fighting for the title Fulham have: Hull home - focus drifting to FA Cup Final? Stoke away - safe Crystal Palace home - safe, but in great form Sunderland would have to win 3 (and likely draw 1 too because of GD) to do the same. They have: Chelsea away - challenging for the title Cardiff home - relegation rival Man United away West Brom home - relegation rival Swansea home - possible relegation rival, although they're likely safe. There's West Brom and Norwich to consider too. It's going to be edgy as both Fulham and Cardiff are capable of it.

Robinson coming on.