I know Dean. He isn’t one to make stuff up and has very good contacts in the game. Also hosts a fantastic football podcast called Ranks FC
Are we actively trying to sell anyone, currently? This talk of sell to buy, before the transfer window closes, assumes that anyone we actually consider to be surplus to requirements will be snapped up by another club, and I suspect that if we don't want them, few other (top) clubs will want them, either. We could probably offload a few to some Southern League teams, but I've heard their transfer kittys don't extend much beyond the price of a new set of shirts.
This actually makes Ralph’s decision making worse for me if it’s true. If he’s a key player why the hell didn’t he play?
I'm sure he speaks highly of you. I've no idea which of the two is more accurate, or, given the number of tweets plus posts other social media disgraces who amongst the many rumourists has the best record.
If the Che ‘fall out’ and potential sale isn’t true, then why on earth was he not playing on Saturday? I wouldn’t have because I don’t think he’s ever going to be good enough, but sure, reward AArmstrong for preseason if you want, but then why didn’t Che come on second half? I don’t see any reason for Che being snubbed other than tactically inept management or he actually is likely to leave. I hope someone brings that up tonight. I’d also like someone to ask that with our defence being so bad, and Ralph not trusting them so having to change how we play and consequently stifle our attacking play and yet making us no more solid defensively, why on earth have we started a new season with exactly the same personnel and problems given we actually have had money to spend this summer?
Only answer if Che hasnt fallen out with the manager is that he had a knock and couldn’t come on, but no hint of that anywhere
Then why was he on the bench? Honestly the one thing that makes sense is that we are looking to sell/he is forcing a move. So we were keeping him fresh on the bench.
Nobody else? Not sure who was left out instead of him. Or possibly got a knock during the warm up? Im just speculating the only possible reason he isn’t unhappy and didn’t come on was because he wasn’t fit. Or Ralph has decided to go Pep and not play strikers
It’s very obvious on here, general consensus is that we desperately need an experienced CB preferably with leadership qualities. I’m sure (think?) Saints are looking but season has started & we already failing massively in that area. I just cant understand why we haven’t sorted already. Similar for the forward position but I appreciate that’s probably much harder to solve. Get your finger out Saints or there’s going to be a massive fallout, on & off pitch.
The three promoted teams all look pretty weak to me, the 2 teams who finished below us last year have both lost their best player(s), and one has even less forward options than us with DCL injured, Brentford don’t look particularly good. We haven’t lost anyone of any real note (Broja the only one in my view and wouldn’t call him key or irreplaceable). The only real concern for me at this moment is playing the formation we are trying. I have no doubt that we will survive if we played the 4-2-2-2 every game even if we made no more signings (cheers Tom). It is too early to really know whether this 3 at the back was being developed because we have a very hard start so wanted to try and be more defensively solid, obviously it failed against Spurs
