Condimentalist

Agree - best game for a long time, well done Emi

What an absolute banger. Total legend.

I think that's unfair. He definitely contributed in his time here. But selling is looking increasingly like it was the smart move for sure.

Great game from him

I'm fine with keeping Bailey for the squad. Imagine one of Duran or Archer will be loaned (maybe even to Vitoria) and the other kept as Watkins' back up. I'm happy with that and would prefer us to just go all out and get the best player we can to play alongside Watkins in the first XI - a Nico Williams type - and agree that it's the key signing. I think we can manage with just one defensive signing, who can play both RB and CB - e.g. Foyth. Then in midfield again, someone who can play deep but also further forward - e.g. Guendouzi. Three quality signings is all that's needed - anything above that is a bonus, although I agree that ideally we'd have a better back up GK than Olsen too.

Selling Watkins for Abraham would be a travesty.

Can't see it. Digne isn't going anywhere on his contract so there's two good options there and I think we'll focus one defensive signing on the CB/RB role.

I think we'll sign a CB who can play RB. Emery likes tactical flexibility and that option will be appealing, though Konsa could also potentially do it. Mings is clearly a starter and Carlos may play alongside him - though Carlos can also play left sided and we'll have to see how he is after his injury. I don't see us selling Cash and I still expect him to start plenty of games for us next season.

We are already top 6 under Emery with Bailey as a starter. I am sure we can challenge top 6 with him as a bench option. It's unlikely someone will come in with £20m+ to buy him so I think that is what we will see, as I am sure we will sign a key player for that role during the summer.

Bailey will be OK as a squad player I feel. He's not consistent enough to be a regular starter but he does offer something and has a role to play next season.

Haha. Ominous wouldn't be too bad. I would definitely take Mount but I suspect he'll go higher up the league.

Totally. Club legend.

Tend to agree - this squad is too small to be ready for Europe, I'd like a top 10 finish, 3-4 excellent signings, and then we can try to get into the more prestigious and lucrative Europa League.

Wesley was not Prem standard. His stats looked OK but his all round game was really poor. I don't know how much we ended up paying, maybe not the full 24m, but a ridiculous amount given his ability/track record. Should have been a Benteke-esque 7m punt. We overpaid for Digne in both fee and wages but at least he is a decent Premier League player, if nothing special.

Wesley by a country mile

I thought it could have been worse to be honest. Can't come back soon enough.

I don't know where to start with this. Are you seriously asking me to list wingers who frequently outperform Leon Bailey?

Sorry but it's not just the position. Quality players are more consistent. There are plenty of consistent wingers in the league - doesn't mean they play well every game but they produce a lot more regularly than Bailey.

Agree, I've seen enough at this point to know he's not good enough to start every week. Way too inconsistent and when he is bad he is often shocking. Equally, he seems to have a decent attitude and does have some ability so he's OK as a squad option. If someone offered £15m for him I'd probably take it but I don't think they will and I think he can still offer something to the club.

Agree with this, and it goes back beyond the NWSE regime, even though things were amazing under Smith. The home support needs to have a look at itself IMO - booing the team at half time, getting on the players backs for playing how the manager wants - this being the most credentialed manager we've ever had. Unfortunately we've never had a manager have success doing anything other than counter attacking so people aren't used to it and panic. I think there's a bit of a PR job to do from the club to educate some elements of the fan base that this is a deliberate way of playing to help maintain control and draw the opposition, and not just taking needless risks.

Mings is quality and is consistently under-rated. He's a fast, strong, tall, aggressive defender who can also play, as well as being a leader (and a top man). He does make errors but he brings so much. If he didn't make any errors he'd be an elite, title-winning international.

Agreed, Konsa has been a good servant and I'm very happy to have him as a squad player but it's definitely an area we can improve the first XI. Hopefully Carlos can come back strong and be the answer.

He'd been 'on the scene' for a while - though he first hit real goalscoring form under Gerrard it's true. But if Gerrard wasn't Murphy's mate he wouldn't have said it. As to hating Gerrard, hate is perhaps strong but I can totally see why he is disliked. He played terrible football, misused our best players, talked down the club, signed ageing players on high wages which we are now stuck with, was on the way to getting us relegated, and to top it all off he picked a fight with one of our best players and club ambassadors Tyrone Mings, all the while coming across as aloof and arrogant despite having zero coaching ability. To put it another way, what more could he have done to make the fans dislike him?

Ings will score goals for them I am sure. He's a good player. But he'll never offer a team what Watkins does overall so he was always likely to play second fiddle here. Given the FFP ramifications, I can see why we sold, we've certainly weakened our squad in the very short term, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the summer because we have given ourselves some headroom to attack the window.

Delighted - love the guy