GrahamC

Apologies, I assumed it was Bajic.

As opposed to who? We’ve loaned Lewis Thomas to Bromley (not exactly sure what’s going on there) & the rest of our keepers are kids. Be amazed if we don’t sign a far more experienced back up keeper this summer.

100%. It will be very instructive when the full released list is published. There seems an acceptance that the 21s group includes very few who will make it at Championship level. Knight-Lebel, Palmer-Houlden & possibly Tommy Backwell are highly likely to be the only ones from that group even given a chance to do so.

Agree. Think the argument they’ll be looking to keep him appears to be based on the first half of the season at Hull where he did pretty well. As an aside I don’t think Hull particularly wanted him to go in January but the injection of funds then that enabled them to sign Carvalho, Zaroury & Giles meant he wasn’t going to be a regular. The reason I don’t get Kasey Palmer vibes if he signs is because basically as I expect our business to be on a small scale, a 10, a striker, a reserve keeper & then only further deals if the likes of Conway or Cornick move on. This means he (or the 10 we sign if he doesn’t join) wouldn’t be in a Szmodics, Paterson log jam for a place, we’d be effectively betting the farm on them. My view is if Manning wants him (my hunch is he does) we make an offer & if Burnley want anything like what’s been quoted, we move on & look elsewhere.

Fair enough, respect your opinion too. This is going to sound like I’m sitting on the fence but personally I’m not sure of that (bar the Tinnion bit). At present, Weimann aside, we don’t know who’s leaving this summer & won’t know who is arriving for some while. January was odd, Bird looks like a decent signing on paper, Mebude however is totally baffling & Twine certainly has the pedigree but has been 6/10 so far, no guarantee that he’ll be here by then, of course. Murphy is still only 19 so even if he was fit (which he’s clearly not) I doubt he’d be much more than a sub, Stokes is very similar. If James does leave I’ll be disappointed, though would accept that if that’s his decision then it’s a slightly different story.

Clearly there will be a “transfer fee” Burnley paid £4m for him, they aren’t giving him away. I think he’s done ok but certainly wouldn’t pay anything like the amount that’s being quoted. Let’s see how the summer unfolds, my guess is he’ll start next season as our player, time will tell.

I’ll also add that today’s game was massive for them. Reckon if we’d faced already relegated Rotherham today Knight-Lebel would have started.

Bit odd really. Firstly we had Wells & Mehmeti stripped off to come on at the same time but then decided at the last minute only to bring on Nakhi, meaning we used 2 of our 3 sub opportunities when Anis came on a few minutes later. Next Bajic spent virtually the whole of the second half in the tunnel area stripped off & warming up. It was weird that as time ticked away we didn’t make that 3rd change. Worked out ok in the end but was baffling.

Spot on. They also thought it was smart to make a time wasting sub in injury time after that bloke spent about 90 seconds down “injured”. Only seen it once & looked a handball but as you say, we wouldn’t have been playing then if they hadn’t wasted time repeatedly.

To be fair loads of them had to get back to the Home Counties.

Mixed bag, pathetic dive to try & win a penalty but it stuck to him, he certainly looked to pass to a team mate if they were in a better position (TC didn’t) & whilst he wasn’t a massive goal threat, as I said to you this morning, he’s the type we need. Like Koroma too, who often scores against us. These are low budget options & unlike say a punt on a lad from Ligue 2 or Belgium, at least they have experience of the league.

Fair enough. How often are you going to post saying this? I didn’t want Pearson sacked & definitely don’t think Manning is the second coming, but he certainly deserves a summer to bring in a couple of his own players.

Certainly no Liam Rosenior..

Yes.

Forest Green’s spending is ridiculous.

Certainly been impressive in the last few games & I keep forgetting that he’s still only 21, so as you say he’s certainly got a bright future. Beyond Dickie it is actually harder to pick 5 than it should be. Max’s form & his 100% availability (at a time when we have no senior cover) puts him in it, Knight has also played in every game & has Weimann like fitness levels, Tanner, Vyner, Pring & James all have made decent contributions & Sykes too has done ok (though arguably not quite as well as his first season), Williams has greatly improved his availability & had decent spells. It is striking how bar Sykes all of these players are either defenders or more defensively minded midfielders & clearly shows where we all know we’re badly lacking as a squad.

Not at his best night, but for a squad that basically relies on the same 17 players to play in all the games, he’s been a decent contributor this season. Certainly should have scored from Twine’s sublime pass, but if he was going to pick a game to miss a sitter then one we win 5-0 is a decent choice.

Struggled to pick that up, seeing as he has such a strong Scottish accent..

Think that’s right.

So he’s of an age where he’s been working for over 20 years & he’s on his own… Can’t possibly think why. I assumed it was a teenager’s bedroom.

One calm interception to a ball over Vyner & certainly stopped their giant number 9 from scoring from a wicked cross. We would certainly have noticed if he hadn’t played..

Which was excellent. He thought about it & made the right decision, loads jump in & give it straight away & are wrong (Ipswich away).

Spot on. Didn’t he leave the game & come back down the leagues after some disciplinary issue? Clearly a class above & is an actual Prem ref, not like some who are.

Based on the QPR game I’d prefer it if he did.. Let’s face it, if you don’t come on when we’re 4 up with 5 minutes to play, you’re not coming on at all. Completely off topic but delighted Knight-Lebel got those minutes instead & convinced that might have been done to give Andy King a last few minutes at the Gate too.

Wish I could say that was the case. Remember Junior Bent getting racially abused on his debut for us in 1990 at Preston from so called City fans. Absolutely not an isolated incident, comments about West Brom being “the pride of Pakistan” a recent example. Cue someone saying “that’s not racist, it’s banter”..