Keener window-cleaner

The Egyptian Cafu!

This must be the most Brucey of Steve Bruce's signings. He will probably do a decent job and I will cheer him on, but god damn what an uninspiring signing. After having watched our midfield the last 6 months, we are now buying a 33 year old midfielder from Stoke who will provide grit.

I thought we had moved on from this according to whoscored.com he played RB 17 times, RWB 8 times and RW 3 times last season, so you may well call him a right back. You may also call him a right wing back or a right midfielder, because he can obviously play in all these positions. Welcome to the club Elmo! I hope you and Bree compete for the RB/RWB position. For the RW position I prefer a proper winger.

I think our style of play is rather like this cat

So they can pass it sideways to the full backs placed as wingers.

I liked the glimpses of Hayes though, looks as if he can pass the ball and take up a new position!

I thought the point of playing pre season friendlies was to work on playing style, tactics, pattern of play, just something. Whats the point of if we just stand still and do nothing, like we have been doing the last 10 months. Would be better off if we used the time to just do some pre season running.

Steve Bruce is Alex McLeish 2.0

It was fun to see the trucks and cars pass by on the high way in the background, makes you realise that we really are playing a small team away.

I love the way Lansbury made himself avaialble all the time and spread the passes early on, can see that he is a really good player. Sadly he just faded as the half went by. Not sure what Hourihane contributes with except set pieces.

No matter what competition, what kind of match, formation or players, still looks the same. Dull. No movement and the players don't seem to know what to do except in defence, waiting for a 50/50 chance to score at some time of the game. Bruce better grind out results and get us promoted with this style of play this season...

According to my unscientific research from the BBC reports from last season it seems as if he started the season as a RB and then towards the end played RM, also playing as a RWB during the season. Hull City Tigers has him as a defender, Hull Daily Mail as a full back, Sky Sports and BBC as a midfielder, Transfermarkt main position RW, other position RB etc etc, (if I'm supposed to add links here I'm sorry mods!). Whoscored.com has him as a RB in 17 apps, RM 3 apps, RWB 8 apps (https://www.whoscored.com/Players/34876/Show/Ahmed-Elmohamady). I guess this makes him a ...ehm... RM/RWB/RB (just tell me if you want statistics about other players positions)

Seems to fit well into Bruce's tactics of playing full backs as wingers then. At £1M and if he's not on too high wages he's worth taking imo. I like the idea of managers buying their ex players, it's often good buys.

If Sunderland want Elphick, perhaps we can do a buy one, get one deal and offer them Micah. Who knows, perhaps they need an ex body builder in their squad.

Ok, I hope he likes it, buys a house nearby, opens a gym, tattoo studio or something like that and really enjoys his life over there.

Ah thanks, now I remember, the Englishman with Turkish partens and with a Swedish name that we managed to get under the nose of Man U!

Bacuna not even on the bench today?

Hmm who is this Borg?

But then you also miss all your booty calls?

McCormack is the player I most of all want to succeed next season. I thought he looked by far the best and most intelligent player we had when he played last season and he seemed to be giving 100% on the pitch. If he had personal problems, he should first and foremost have been given support and help. I hope he gets a good reception by the fans when he plays next season.

Well at least all this positivity around the club because of this coup to sign JT must be something good.

The positives for me is that we are sponsored by a Swedish founded company and that it reminded me of my old Unibet account that I haven't used in 15 years and that I still should have around 100SEK on. It's also a good thing that they have changed the colour of the logo from green to white. The negatives are that I'm not very found of having betting companies as sponsors and that the logo is quite ugly, would have been slightly nicer if they at least would have tilted the letters in some kind of logic way. On the whole it could have been much worse (was that Palace shirt for real?) and I'll def consider buying it.

But Trabzonspor, yes please!

I'm starting to get worried about the reports of all these promotion bonuses. How much more was it that Tony would have to pay Lerner if we were promoted the second season? If the reports are true, John Terry would get a good chunk if get promoted, and we will probably not be able to use him in the PL. I guess other players have promotion bonuses as well. As I see it, we only have a handful of players who are good enough for the PL, Chester, Taylor, Grealish, Kodjia, perhaps Lansbury and McCormack as well. Nevertheless we would need to buy half a new team to avoid another relegation battle. Considering an average player cost around £10m we are in for a hefty outlay, I hope we have money left!

I think it would also be to have him as a poster boy and because Tony wants to beat Birmingham to the signing.