Quite right, just because it appears the keepers are at fault doesn’t mean that's the case. Isidor doesn’t ’Tommy Watson’ the ball into the far corner, he really fires it in with huge topspin. Once a ball hits the turf it whips off at differing speeds and angle depending on a variety of things. Besides, whether the keeper is ‘at fault’ or not it takes nothing away from the finish … … as you say, we know Isidor will score that goal again.
I thought it was a great finish by Wilson. Caught the keeper out a bit as wasn’t expecting that shot so early but I wouldn’t call that horrific goalkeeping.
I make it 17 including the bomb squad. However it’s not as comfortable as you’re suggesting. At least it isn’t if we move on all the players that fans often talk about wanting to move on. I reckon we’ve only got four stick-on homegrown outfield players for next season. O’Nien, Ballard, Rigg and Mundle. If we get rid of all the ones I mentioned previously - who constitute the most usable of the homegrown players on the fringes - we’ll be left making the numbers up either with players like matete or Poveda or the likes of Zack Johnson. The problem becomes way more difficult next season when we can no longer hide a few of the foreign lads as u21 and need those squad spaces. Plus you’d have to assume many of the fringe homegrown players move on. We probably will be fine in the end this season, due to a failure to move players on. And I hope the club isn’t as keen to move all of them as the fans. But we can’t lose the Huggins, Neil, Roberts and Cirkins of the world without having to compromise.
As we're now into the season I'm becoming more interested in the football than the window tbh. I've come to appreciate that the club have things under control as much as possible. I don't believe the club will keep players who are doomed to be injured so, if they choose to keep Alese, Hjelde, Huggins, etc, I'll be fine with it. Ballard and Hume were supposed to be 'PL liabilities' but made big contributions and were praised by West Ham fans ... although they didn't seem to know who they were. The depth of planning seems to run so deep I believe they've different scenarios in mind, from AFCON to the FA Cup. Players, who've had three totally different injuries, aren't necessarily injury prone and may never have a serious injury again. I remember how many supporters had written off Niall Quinn before he even signed, due to previous injuries, and completely after he'd suffered a subsequent knee injury while at Sunderland ... ... he scored goals, contributed to some great football and became a true legend. It was age that eventually stopped him at 35 years old, not bad for a crock.
As soon as Wilson got the ball I expected him to put it in the far corner, didn’t need a beach ball to fool the goalie. I was lucky enough to see that Eli’s header was going in and the goalie was not going to get there, had the same with Romaine’s goal v Preston. Its great when you have a view directly in line with the shot.
Really interesting this, and echoes something that we seem to do; which is to attempt to benefit when other clubs are in financial difficulty. Mayenda from Sochaux when they were going bust Attempted Mikautadze from Lyon when they were in financial trouble earlier in the window Now Getafe's best centre-back so they can register players Part of our scouting must be to determine the financial health of the selling club to work out if we can potentially angle a signing which would otherwise be unobtainable - it's really smart and quite ruthless.
I would say theres zero chance we’re after harry winks https://www.ontheminute.com/exclusi...ktj3YsQ5NdNLcSnMso_aem_ejspCi79J1mQKfr86_QSdQ
Hopefully it works out a bit better than when we did the same with Michael Turner! Hopefully karma isn't a thing
I'm only keen to move players on that I don't think will contribute and need to move on permanently or on loan to help their own careers If we don't get the likes of Huggins and Alese a move of some kind I worry what another season of no senior football could do to them
fully convinced we can get maximum points from our next 2 games and be almost at that 11+ with 7 games spare!
If you don’t shoot then you’ll never score. I’d rather see players with his ability try that than hold on to the ball, give the defence time to get back in position and end up passing the ball around.
Not for me, very very different role. He is best attacking from deep rather than receiving the ball higher up the pitch imo Cirkin can become a PL LB with the right development so really hope he stays with us
Just gonna take each game as it comes, we’ll take some beatings somewhere along the line this season but I’ve got confidence that this lot have a plan they can execute successfully. they trust the plan and the process, hard for us as fans to trust it as much as they do as we, rightly and understandably get carried away at times. I really hope it works for them after the work they’ve put in to turn the club round and have it in its current state of health.
Yeah, we've seen Cirkin can very effectively carry the ball forward from deep but he starts flapping as soon as the box comes into view.
Our next 9 games are 2 Sat 8/23/25 Burnley 3 Sat 8/30/25 Brentford 4 Sat 9/13/25 Crystal Palace 5 Sat 9/20/25 Aston Villa 6 Sat 9/27/25 Forest 7 Sat 10/4/25 Man Utd 8 Sat 10/18/25 Wolves 9 Sat 10/25/25 Chelsea 10 Sat 11/1/25 Everton Looking at them, Burnley and Brentford give us a hell of chance to build on the 3 points Saturday, would take 4 points but would love 6
