thunderball

For me Kozak has to start on Tuesday night. Thats giving due consideration to Gabby and what he can bring to a derby, but with him on the bench it may be incentive for both players to step up their game.

There is enough quality in our squad to be comfortably mid table. We need to settle - late last season Benteke's goals settled us, and Grealish coming in helped too. We just need that spark to kick us off. For me Tim has to grow a pair and drop Guzan, Gabby and possibly Westwood. Veretout and Ayew aren't going to get up to speed by not playing. Gana and Sachez should boss the midfield, and without Westwood we could afford Grealish/Sinclair, Gil and Adama in a midfield with whoever Grabs the opportunity upfront. Sherwood will sort them out. His sound bites show he is already feeling the pressure, but surely based on Lambert, he will last until Feb even if we lose every game?!

Just watched "extended highlights" and didn't think it was dreadful, but it was disappointing. On on the plus side, we still have injuries so a few to come back, and we have been competitive in every match so far this season and it's only early. Defence looks more reassuring and Ghana will come back soon, as will Adama. negatives - still struggling for goals and Ayew isn't going to score from sitting on the bench, from there he won't acclimatise either. Probably are still short of another winger. Sherwood keeps subbing our highest goal scorer, and persists with Gabby the lost cause. finally, how long until Sherwood discovers our best goal scorer is Kozak!

I blame Ayew, just by sitting on the bench the way he did all game today completely threw the match away. What a waste of £9m, we signed the wrong brother and should've signed his father.

To think I was looking forward to this season.....

How we doing??

How's gabby getting on?

I seem to be coming across as an Ayew fan, I am not in any way, but the premature, scapegoating opinion on this thread is embarrassing? The lads only played a handful of games, and today the play just didn't get to him. I think only a Maradonna one man team performance would kept our sharks at a bay today. We are all pissed off at losing from 2 up but it's just notAyews fault!

Knee jerk reaction to a loss. He wasn't to blame for anything today, brought on when Leicesters tails were up. Cuss Sanchez or Sherwood, or rue Geye's absence by all means today, but not Ayew

Needs game time but with 1 up front it's a difficult conundrum whether we can invest the time while not winning. I am sure he has the making of a decent player, the long contract suggests the management do too. Difficult days for all new players. Benteke started slowly too.

Big blow, just when he was really getting into his stride too. The silver lining is we will hopefully see Veretout or more so, Gil. Sanchez is the rock, Gana is the drive, at least we have Sanchez.

Cool. Which one was he?

Danny, are you Whispers_listen?

As good a window as we could have hoped for, in fact better than we could have hoped for. Fox and his team acted swiftly and professionally and have acquired good quality, value players. We now have strength in depth and room for improvement through players developing. We have a competitive first team squad that doesn't pick itself. Really cannot believe some opinion on this board for unrealistic expectation given the massive task required? Very optimistic, very pleased. 9 out of 10 from me. [Newcastle signed well]

Surely Hutton is in because Gil is not fit enough for 90 minutes, otherwise Bacuna would have been playing RB instead of Hutton? Bacuna is a cheap RH utility player, he is average but a decent squad player. We can't replace an entire squad in one window.

Getting better every game, with players coming back from injury. An experienced CB coming in, not missing Delph or Cleverly and scoring goals. We didn't lose. All positive for me.

Interesting our clamour for another striker when we have a goal getter under the radar already here. I just don't know how we are going to fit all the promising players in especially when Grealish, Adama and Gil are match fit - nice to have options. Would still like Adebayor or Austin as well though, that Ljajic is just pointless though.

Why are Roma looking to offload? He looks a decent player, still young, good scoring ratio last season and hasn't cost them too much??

If we signed a thirty year old from the Scottish First Division I genuinely think I would cry. He speaks the same language as Hutton, he could keep him company.

He's got to go. Where was Kozak?

Same as last season but without the world class striker keeping us afloat. Time to buy some nailed on prem players Lerner, start spending the cash or we are going down.

Same as last season but without the world class striker keeping us afloat. Time to buy some nailed on prem players Lerner, start spending the cash or we are going down.

But only in relative terms and no more so than Clarke/Okore/Baker/Guzan/Agbonlahor/Kozak/Hutton. Better than Lowton (I know he has gone but that's the point). There's no way we are going to spend another £10m on a Amavi style RB at this point. I like him, can be good or average but rarely catastrophic.

Doubt we will see Austin, problem is there is only one upside - he may score the goals he is expected to. The down side is at 26 there is no resale value, a 5 yr deal brings the risk of one season (prem) wonder. He could blow up injury wise. With Keita he is relatively cheap but with age on his side and CL experience, a £7m punt could be £30m in two years time. With Afobe, £15m is nailed on value, the boy is the next big thing.

Yeh, no follow ups since. Shame