HolteExile

Taking the knee itself was a compromise by Kaepernick as outlined here:

In my experience, it's not the finer points of Marxism that worries White Van Man and the others who see Tommy Robinson as some wise sage. They see white men taking the knee as somehow subjugating themselves to the black race. Domnic Raab summed up the views of Middle England/Middle Earth pretty well last year. But you'd expect that sort of awareness from a person who didn't realize how important GB's most important port may be to trade. It's odd to see it that way when it was Colin Kaepernick (mixed race) taking the knee during the US national anthem circa 2016/17 that inspired sportsmen of all races to do similar after Minneapolis last year. There's a conversation to be had about its effectiveness on its own (which is sort of what Zaha was getting at). But actually booing it shows those 'fans' up for the primitives they are. It's sad that the headlines now associate us with behaviour you'd expect from Millwall fans. We don't need that sort of profile, ta very much.

In a nutshell.

There's the rub. We've given out about the moves of the Wanky 6 this week being greed driven and immoral (which they were). But we'll be scoping the French and Spanish market for bargains owing to Covid and their lack of bloated TV deals.

McGinn is plenty good enough for where we are and where we want to go. There was a reason why Brendan Rodgers et al were sniffing around when it looked like we might drop. Total radical idea, but lets add to the quality we have rather than pile in on a good player going through a period of indifferent form.

Wonder if it's a Stan Collymore scenario - minus the extreme summer 98 meltdown. The talent is undoubtedly there. Based on his early success at Everton, his England career in a position with plenty of competition and his subsequent move to Chelsea. He looked like just what we needed for the first part of this season. But on recent performances it's as if there is no fuel in the tank. Whatever is causing that. Long Covid, shite attitude after being subbed/ dropped or whatever. A real shame. We need a player like the one who combined so effectively with Jack in Oct/Nov. I know it's almost compulsory to ridicule him now., but personally I'm glad for that early blast of form. It tipped the balance for us that early part of the season and means we weren't going down the home straight looking over our shoulder desperately trying to chisel out 37+ points. The counter to that is him maintaining form and Jack not being injured = we'd prob be roughly where West Ham are in this oddest of seasons. Which is where most of the frustration comes from I guess.

If they're talking about renovating rather than rebuilding at this stage, one thing they could possibly look at is removing the boxes at the North Stand and increasing the seating capacity from the lower North beyond there. Whilst also going a bit higher in that corner between the Trinity and North Stand. Not sure how much extra capacity that would give us, 3-4000 at a push maybe. But it might be seen as a reasonable short term option until even higher demand/costs etc are justified. Yes, we'd lose the commercial revenue from that end. But that stand was built at the time when we had very little corporate facilities at VP. Since then, we've had the Witton Lane stand renovated, executive boxes across the length of the Trinity and the super box in the corner of the Holte and Trinity. With those two stands alone we still have more corporates than most grounds in the UK. That sort of renovation shouldn't impact on the structural integrity or goal post structure of the North Stand either.

That's prob more like the sort of deal we'll do for a back up striker.

I don't see us signing 5-7 first team quality players at those prices this summer. Too much churn again. To need do that would be admission of failure in our current dealings. I'd be made up with 2-3 TBH (and a few promising younger players). Second striker, genuine centre half competition for Mings and a unit of a defensive mid or wide attacker. Ofc that can all change if we have a significant departure or two.

Another way to look at it is - as a manager (or head coach) under pressure - he may be looking to switch attention away from his own shortcomings. Get the support base talking about this supposed low fee, rather than him. 'Poor AVB/what can he do when the board sell his best players from under him on the cheap' etc.

Agreed. Nyland made the supporters nervous, so you can imagine what he did to the back four in front of him. The game in the top flight is hard enough without having to guess what phuckeries an erratic keeper may come up with this afternoon.

You'd like to think so based on current form. But he's a Blue (the Bluescouse version, thankfully) so if he gets a chance to go back there I have a strong suspicion he'll take it. As it stands though, a midfield of Luiz, McGinn, Barkley and Grealish (sort of) is as good as anything outside the top 5-7 clubs. Keep them fit and firing and we could be on for a great season.

If, for the sake of argument, he completes a season injury free with us bags 10 goals and near as many assists, no way will Chelsea let him go for anything less than £45-50 million. There will be plenty of other clubs queuing up willing to pay it n'all. Everton forked out £40 million plus for a plodder like Sigurdsson back in 2017, let's not forget. The market in England hasn't become more reasonable since then.

Still need a centre half IMO.

Indeed.

Even aside from the regular brainfarts you mentioned he just doesn't convince, as far as I'm concerned. The cup games against Leicester look like an anomaly when you view the rest of his time with us. I was nervous about him in goal in the championship. I'd want him nowhere near the first team in the Premier League personally. Even when he manages to save one he somehow looks unconvincing. Someone once described him to me as having crisp packet hands and I'd concur. There can't be too many 26/27 year old gems hiding away in the German second division either. It's not as if we signed a youngster with plenty of scope for development. Gollini I always felt could do well either back home or in the top flight in say Portugal, Spain etc even though he struggled with us. At a standard of football where crosses/physical forwards are not so much a way of life. I'll safely predict Nyland's shot stopping won't be gracing the Champions League or any other reasonable standard of top flight football anytime soon. He's mince.

Might just be the agent texting his mates in the press. And possibly hoping for late offers from elsewhere.

Indeed. Seeing as he nearly joined AC Milan in January it's not as if he's been under the radar. For us I think we need more proven quality in most areas of the pitch this season. But with the quality we already have at right back, it's one position where a new arrival doesn't have to come in and hit the ground running. Wonder if he might be able to do a Luke Young and play at left back as well. Apparently he played right and left midfield at Forest.

We don't have to accept that at all. London maybe, but players sign for Citeh or Yanited despite Manchester, not because of it. Mancs shout a bit louder than most but Birmingham is the second city in more than name only.

Focused on Bremen. Right up until the moment he leaves. Nowt wrong with that. You'd want that from every professional.

If London is such a huge pull for him he could always get a country pile in Oxford or somewhere close and be equidistant between London and Bodymoor Heath. What is it, about an hour either way? And buy a gaff in London as well. Should hardly be a deal breaker. Terry seemed to be able to commute between Surrey and BH easy enough as both a player and a coach.

I wouldn't be completely stunned if Abraham becomes available on loan towards the end of the window. Chelsea might not want to sell outright (at this stage anyway) and the player himself might not be keen to burn his bridges completely with his hometown club. But if he's struggling to make the bench even in the early part of the campaign, a loan stint at a top flight club might be better for his development. A lot can change in football in 12 months. Who knows, a year from now Fat Fwank might not be there and a forward who has had another season bagging circa 20 goals solves one area for the new Chelsea manager. Conversely, if Lampard stays and Tammy has had another successful loan period (with us, ideally) he might be convinced we're the best long term option. If there are deals to be done with Edouard and even Watkins I'd still do them. A loan move wouldn't be instead of that. Watkins (and even Tammy himself) can play as a wide forward as and when required.

Really don't see how you're struggling with this one. Celtic tried to lowball Hibs and only put in a suitable bid when we did. McGinn had has his head turned/ seen sense when we came in and the rest is history. The players hold all the power now. When we signed Dion Dublin as far back as 98 Blackburn offered more money to Cov but he wanted to come to us. So they ultimately accepted our lower valuation. Similar scenarios will have played out many times since. If McGinn was dead set on going to Celtic he could have waited until the last knockings of that window or wound his contract down to force the issue.

The market hasn't really got going yet. Watkins - like Rashica - is probably the best player at his club and as such those deals will never be straightforward. We can't wait indefinitely, but the spin from the papers early on was he was keen to come. Players involved in the Championship Play offs/ latter stages of European competition might still be on extended breaks (genuinely not sure if that applies to Watkins. He might be back already). To my mind we need three quality editions who can come straight into the first team. I'll be happy if we have at least one of them by the start of the season and the other two are in by the end of the window.