The Hawk

Not sure if you’re trolling as always but perspective and attitude are different things. You can have a positive attitude and still be realistic.

We can agree on the fact that that is too many goals to be conceding. But of all of the 20 premier league clubs, if I had to guess which club/s would be conceding a lot of goals, I’d guessing the lowest ranked newly promoted side with a completely new look defence and a manager that favours attacking football. Perspective.

Brilliantly concise? No thanks. ”Smith needs to pick a team that can play” - wow, great advice ”poor team run by a poor manager” - very insightful ”I expected us to at least show that we can compete on our day” - we have on many occasions mixed it with the best and just fallen short ”the constant formation changing and rotating of players” - that’s called flexibility and squad management. “Smith got lucky last season” - Ahhh I see, so the most consistent winning streak in our history was “luck” but if things go awry he’s a shocking manager and not “unlucky” That entire post reeks of someone who has no appreciation for the massive turnaround since Smith joined nor for the incredibly competitive league we are in nor for the massive overhaul Smith was left to do in the summer and the difficulties that come with that.

Sander Berge to Sheffield United is such a missed opportunity for us.

Efficiency is the result that comes from having positive traits, it isn’t a trait in itself. Would also love to know what your basis is for saying McGinn has inferior concentration.

Maybe 35k in the championship but there’s no way he’d have signed for 35k for five years without a release clause or pay rise should we get promoted! What are the sources?

35k for Grealish??? Maybe on his previous contract!

I certainly see your point and have no doubt he’s good enough to expect that. I wouldn’t be so quick to rule out a move to Utd as much as I hate to say it. They still play in the biggest stadium, have one of (if not the) biggest fan bases in the world and would pay him as much as anybody. I’m sure the appeal of being the one to return them to their former glories is also a nice prospect. People will say that he can do that here, but the reality is that United are 5th and we’re 16th. I don’t like to pay too much attention to stuff like this but there’s also a few other indicators with the Instagram-post like and the “respectful” celebration when he scored there. Just because he could start for Liverpool/Man City doesn’t guarantee that he will go there.

Best game so far for us IMO

What a 45 minutes, WHO IS THIS GUY!?!

And you say that because? He definitely wasn’t 100% fit at the time so it would have been silly to make his debut under such circumstances, but he was in awesome form at that point and deserved a spot. I think everyone could see it, even Southgate.

I’ll honestly eat my hat if Jack isn’t in the next England squad. I think the only reason he missed the last squad was that he was under an injury cloud. Only a complete and utter fool would overlook him at this point and even if Southgate is an arrogant and stubborn pr*ck I don’t think he’s stupid.

Yeah we should have just bought one of those players that doesn’t make mistakes

You could question his commitment at that point but not his loyalty.

You love to see it, but not as much as you hate to see him suspended for it

He’s been putrid!

Must be four times as good as Jack then

Elmo’s not THAT good

It’s more than likely that the board has a ‘last resort’ striker deal all but done should we reach the end of the window and not get a better deal done. Someone like Benteke or Assombalonga who admittedly would be concerning, but I’m confident we won’t go through the window without signing at least one striker. In the meantime, tomav84 is right that there’s a lot of stars that need to align to get deals done, particularly in January. It’s a game of cat and mouse right up until the last day then the dominos fall. I’m sure we are out there actively trying to get the right deals done but are doing so in a sensible manner from a financial standpoint - every single club will be holding us at ransom due to our current desperation. The question should be whether it’s worth getting fleeced at this point in the window in order to get a striker in for the games up until the window closes. I personally am sitting on the fence, but I bet the majority who say yes will be the same ones saying six months from now “I can’t believe the board wasted 40 million on that loser” if it doesn’t yield the results they’re expecting.

Obviously. Every man and his dog will be after him and even with all that demand he still won’t go for 100m in the championship. Even Ronaldo in his prime wouldn’t have, simply for the facts that he would want out + FFP would force our hand and we would lose a lot of bargaining power. In the premier league, completely different story and I’d be disappointed if we sold Jack for less than 100.

*Villa get relegated* Spurs: “how much for Grealish?” Villa: “100m” Spurs: “what!? youve got a player who doesn’t want to play in the championship and FFP to abide by but you’re asking for roughly 6x the championship transfer record!?” Villa: “Put it this way, once he’s in your top club his value is going to increase even further, we did the hard work with him, that was done by us.” Spurs: “........... Can I speak to whoever is in charge please?”

These figures are seriously optimistic... particularly Grealish and Heaton. 100 million for a championship transfer is bonkers and we bought Heaton for 8, how could we possibly ask 10-15 after being relegated + him being another year older + coming off a serious injury. If we stay in the prem however, I can see Jack potentially going for 100.

It was the same formation that got us results the past few weeks, except we were up against a totally dominant Man City that had us completely pegged back all game which made it look a shambles. Smith can’t win on here, if he plays 4-3-3 I don’t think the result changes and it’s still “what a shocking formation choice, why not play 3 5 2 that’s been working so well”. We were utterly outclassed against Man City and I don’t think there’s a lot that could have been done here at a managerial level that would change that.

Nope. Movement creates space, happy for him to show for it and give an option, but unless he’s got eyes in the back of his head it should be the responsibility of the passer to see whether it’s “on” or not.

I thought this as well until I saw deans quote “Ezri Konsa has had a complete brain fade”, so I presume there were strict instructions not to play the pass in that area unless the player has time to clearly turn. Would explain why Luiz was so casual and caught out as a result.