MrBlack

More importantly I want to know how much they pay for someone to do this?

Had a strange dream that we'd signed him. Only when I realised it was a dream, and how disappointed I was that it wasn't true did I start thinking this needs to happen. Any links? Can't see us attracting anyone better than current championship players or premier league has beens, and this guy is the best choice of those for me. An untried international signing that may not settle in England is a gamble we can't afford alone. Need someone likely to settle quick, and Benrahma's affiliation with Dean is about as close as we'll get.

Like the look of that lineup. Still expect it to be a near impossible task but that's exactly the team I wanted to see against the best opposition. Let's see how it turns out... hopefully the tired man city turn up today

The worst thing about that is that it screams "we're in the top league and we don't want anyone else to join it". FFP needs totally scrapping as it doesn't serve the purpose for which it was created (see Bury for the most recent example), and in fact ensures teams cannot break the monopoly

Just gives grounds to my previous comments that we are VERY lucky to have the owners we do. Hope we don't do anything to dissuade them that this club is the best one for them, and that they deliver the great expectations that they've set! Exciting times!

Tactical as in Dean knew we would lose, and that dropping the guys that got us promoted after a defeat is much fairer? Also knowing that throwing new signings into a probable defeat isn't great for building morale/ confidence? How dare you imply our Dean would do such a thing?

Anyone know why he wasn't on the bench at spurs? Not fancied, unfit, or injured?

Can't see any major reason to change the starting line up against Bournemouth. Those that came on looked poor, although the situation they were thrown into would have been difficult for the best in the world to do anything about. Changes need to happen earlier against Bournemouth, even if we're winning I think or we risk finding ourselves falling flat at 70 mins again. But as for the starting 11: I don't rate Taylor or Elmo, but they performed acceptably well against spurs and keep their places for me. Luiz looked extremely unfit so unless he can get match fit in a week he stays on the bench. Nakamba may earn a call up if he is fit. Grealish had a mare of a game, but think he'll have got the wake up he needed. Kodjia looked woeful and Wesley needs time to get settled, but Wesley looked comfortably the better of the two. Only possible thing to change I think will be on the wings, but they didn't really get much chance to show themselves in the opposing half. I'd go with trez and Jota (even though I love aeg), as I think el Ghazi would offer the biggest threat against tired legs and might benefit from the confidence a good late cameo will offer. Heaton Elmo Engels Mings Taylor Hourihane McGinn Grealish Jota Wesley Trez

Jota and Luiz looked very off the pace, although possibly to be expected coming on to that amount of pressure against a CL finalist in your first ever premier league game. Hopefully couple more weeks will see them settle but impossible to judge them on that opportunity. Everyone else should have got the wake up call we needed to step up this season, hopefully none more so than Jack. You don't get that much time in the Premier League. Promising performances across the back 4 and Heston. until the last 25 minutes they looked great, then they looked horribly exposed thanks to everyone else being on their arses. Looking forward to seeing us against lesser opposition (of which there is plenty) and when everyone is up to speed and have a few games of understanding under our belts. Didn't agree with trez coming off, should have been AEG. Luiz did nothing although by then the game was lost. Kodjia looked shocking, so poor substitutions all around. Referee was atrocious (both real and virtual).

Spurs fans deriding a decision go our way... bless them

I worry about bringing a more defensive minded player on for hourihane. With the ref the way he is luiz would just get booked and give the ref an excuse to award a penalty. Not sure why trez was taken off over el ghazi

That hook away by Engels was phenomenal

Commentators also biased. I miss the championship.... Surely the defender ran into McGinn and made contact with his legs. How is that not a penalty?

Not helping ourselves with the ref, but he is severely biased based on the display so far

Was happening on both wifi and 4g connections using stock android internet browser. Re installing stock android internet app made no difference. Seems to be working fine on chrome browser app Edit: happening on chrome too. Seems to only be on certain pages and after the ads finish loading so suspect it is ad related. Cheers

Having an issue when accessing the forum on my phone. Periodically I'll be automatically redirected to a spam website with pop ups. The site is something like lpserverdomain stating a "reward is waiting". Have browsed the web looking for clues but found nothing and only seems to be happening on this website. Anyone having similar issues?

Maybe... On the topic of sales, if we don't need the money and we aren't getting good value in return then I don't see much benefit in selling the reserves. Tish probably an exception... Get as many out on loan with recall options Never know what disaster injuries might strike, what reserve players may turn a corner and what a good season might do to the value of our fringe players. That said, if balancing the books is needed then get whatever we can and cut loose now. Most have had their chance to prove themselves and unlikely they'll improve at this stage

Someone else said this will be the first deadline day when we're not desperately in need of last minute signing to make or break our season. It actually is perfect. We buy no-one - no big deal. But, we're still being linked to players and even our manager has said things are being worked on. All the excitement, none of the pain.

Assuming that isn't a sly dig based on spelling, check out the derby goals against huddersfield yesterday.

The should be an independent body looking into the move to ensure it is genuinely in the players interests and not just the buying clubs. (This applies as much to 14 year olds we sign from anywhere as it does to those poached from us). If we let him go then fair enough. Edit: in retrospect this sounds like nanny state controlling free movement, Does the ability of larger clubs to suck up all the best 12-16 year old talent give the best return for those players? Any supporting evidence? How about national team performance based on youth academy setups across European leagues?

Random pondering from me... Maybe a sweetener for the supposed Augustin deal was us playing a friendly against them using our full strength team, and agreeing to accept their 100% effort in attempting to cripple our team (I.e. let them play a proper match the way they want to without fear of repercussions from us)? The second match using our b team also supports this link up between the clubs. Maybe our owners have links to each other?

I disagree with this to an extent. On the ball he's acceptable in most scenarios and very good in others. It's only off the ball where he's a liability. It's whether his on the ball goal creating/ scoring abilities create more goals than his off the ball antics concede that make it a decision to be made. He's come up though the leagues from league 2 to the premier league in a fairly short space of time, so he may need some time to get used to the pace and pressure applied in one of the best leagues in the world. If he can do that with proper coaching (and he's shown signs of improving a lot under Dean already) then I think he has the natural ability to be a great player for us. However, we can't afford to lose even quarter of a season waiting if he doesn't pick it up very quickly.

A sad but true reflection. Looking at the investments made on our squad in this window you can't argue about the intention, vision or ambition of our owners. The squad needed a massive overhaul and risk comes with that, but the targeted signings, apparent value for money, and the seemingly positive attitude shown by the players during the friendlies tells me they've gone about it in entirely the right way. There's only so much the owner(s) can do, but they've absolutely done all they can within the realms of FFP. Now we want the planning and hard work to pay off at the first attempt, but I really hope the owners aren't targeted if it doesn't; we're very lucky to have the owners we do.

Quality footballer (opinion), but as many people have said he is not a dm (fact). Maybe DS is going for the score more than we concede and entertain Newcastle of the 90s approach. If we can beat those dirty s##ts from Leipzig with him playing there maybe it'll work. Probably not consistently but stranger things have happened.

Someone was ITK. Welcome Marvelous!