GrahamC

Don’t hugely care but does seem ridiculous to keep on giving it to Kompany virtually every month. They have parachute payments & also sold players (Collins, Pope, McNeil, Cornet) for huge sums last summer to enable him to totally restructure their squad, though I’d accept they did a great job in doing so. Carrick has revitalised Boro after Wilder completely lost his way there, to my knowledge he’s also only brought in one player (Barlaser). Surely that’s more deserving? Blackburn have had an up & down season & actually drew their first 3 games in February, so hard not to draw the conclusion that the cup win at Leicester got them included.

Brave call. Barnsley’s next 4 games are; Plymouth, Wycombe, Sheffield Wednesday & Ipswich. If they are still “in form” after that lot then maybe, but Ipswich or Derby would be very tough in the playoffs, big clubs.

Totally & I genuinely think it would be very difficult if he was, because in his mind he’s a Prem player then & so would suddenly find playing for us a completely different experience. We need to move on when he’s inevitably sold & use what part of the fee is available to strengthen. He is, but if they are the ones who are most determined to land him I would not be too surprised if he ends up there. They don’t look relegation candidates under Lopetegui any more & he would have a very decent chance of featuring regularly.

That’s the Barton way, borrow 5 players every window, lose them to their parent clubs at the end of the season, or in one case to a side higher placed in the next window, then do exactly the same thing again next season. Our plan of developing our own players & a smarter, less scattergun approach to transfers than under Ashton is far more effective. I’ve actually enjoyed the fact that Pearson hasn’t had a single loan player & everyone who has featured is “ours”.

I think without knowing who the replacements are, it is very hard to say either way. If we decide not to offer Kalas anything & bring in 2 centre backs (as I expect) then no way will both of them be inexperienced 21-23 year olds with absolutely no Championship experience. Likewise when Massengo goes & Scott almost certainly does, I can’t see both midfield replacements being as above. The squad probably won’t be any larger than this year, but moving on Taylor Moore, Owura Edwards & with Nathan Baker also leaving the wage bill too for much sadder reasons we will have a similar number of players but more contributors, I expect.

Definitely did, typical Warnock tactic, along with Hogg repeatedly kicking Scott.

Think when Plymouth lost their senior keeper for the season (& a first choice CB for some while) in the defeat at Hillsborough that was when they might have buckled, but based on an unbelievable home record, they keep on churning out the results. Really hoping to see them back in The Championship next season now.

Would accept all of this bar James, think he’s perfectly capable of replicating this season. Naismith & Weimann will still have key roles too, Wells might morph into a squad player, Kalas potentially not here. James is basically a 35 game a season player though, so that needs to be taken into account. Pearson inherited a terrible blend of over 30s & untried youngsters, part of next season’s solution are O’Leary, Vyner, Atkinson, Sykes & Pring, all in their mid 20s & with decent experience of this level now. We are expecting at least a couple of them to move into more senior roles in the squad. The funds released by losing Kalas, Dasilva, Massengo, Baker (who is still on the payroll), Moore & a few others, like Owura Edwards allied to the Semenyo fee & probable Scott one gives us scope to reshape the squad to a greater extent than before.

Can’t see it. Atkinson, Vyner, Kalas (or a replacement), bring in another CB & Naismith as a possibility, all before Pring, who with Dasilva off is virtually certain to start as our first choice LB.

As Dave said, I don’t think it will be 4, more likely we know we already need 3 or 4 on top of what we currently have. Scott will almost certainly go, so that’s one more straight away. Then decisions on the likes of Kalas & Haikin, if they both go, at least one more, depending on Bajic.

Fair point but Wigan have won one in their last 16 (draw a lot), Blackpool just once since October. Huddersfield have a brutal next few games. It isn’t happening.

Think part of the issue is since Brownhill left we rarely get goals from centre mid. Not James’ thing but need others to chip in. Obvious Scott will be off so his replacement has to be part of the solution.

Blimey, “past his prime” at 27! He got 13 last season, unlike you I’m not writing him off based on 1 start & a few sub appearances. Luton are very good at what they do & he was a part of that.

Weimann is playing a completely different role to last season (when he is starting at all) & I doubt anyone reasonably expects he’ll get near to 22 goals in a season ever again. This is Conway’s first season as a regular starter, he’s still only 20 & I think has plenty of development to come & for me is the big hope. Wells season simply reflects his career, he’s in double figures, if he features in the majority of games then he’s usually a 13 or 14 goal a season man, at 33 this summer he’s probably going to play a similar role now as a squad player to the one he has of late. Cornick & Bell are the 2 conundrums to me, the latter is still very young & has shown in flashes with his goals that something is there. After my early comments on Semenyo I am certainly not writing him off but he will need careful management. Cornick can use this season to settle in, we clearly want him to be fitter & will use the summer for this & getting a clear idea of how he fits in. At 27 though he’s a signing for now, unlike Bell could be, not for 2 or 3 years time.

He’ll be 32 when next season starts. Be good to have Conway back, although he suffered his own goal drought earlier this season him & Wells are by far our best natural finishers. Unless we move someone on (& Cornick has only just arrived) I can’t see us adding another striker this summer with Conway, Wells, Bell, Cornick & Weimann all under contract for 23/24.

Strange how we see it differently, one poor pass aside I thought he was excellent. Won a lot in the air, always available to receive the ball & so obviously the defensive organiser in a young back line. All about opinions but James was clear MoM for me, 9/10 especially after being trodden on first half & looking to battle through it. Still underrated.

That involves all of the bottom 3 winning 7 of their last 11, or winning 6, drawing 3 & only losing two more games. If you still thinks that he knows even less than I think. Huddersfield’s run in looks brutal, their next 4 are West Brom away, Norwich home, Millwall away, Boro home. Good luck with getting 53 points after that run of games, sadly think Cardiff are going to stay up now.

Good summary. Interesting that Pearson said afterwards he didn’t expect King to last the 90 but “he had to”, which suggests to me he thought this wasn’t the right time & place to bring on Taylor-Clarke for a league debut. Going to have to use him soon, possibly on Saturday.

Reckon Sam Frost still thinks they’ll make it.

No idea. Also think tonight’s point might well be the one that made us mathematically safe when the season ends, can’t see any of the bottom three gaining 14 more points. Most important thing was they didn’t close the gap on us.

Spot on. I thought he did really well but was labouring badly by the end, look at the other subs left, none had ever started a league game for us. Did a useful job tonight when we were very short on numbers. Matty James MoM by a mile for me.

Probably doesn’t help that every time he gets the ball Hogg kicks him. Harsh on Bell, it was great movement & a split second decision.

10 is probably an underestimate. Know what you’re getting with Warnock. The ball is rarely in play, his team commits foul and foul and plays the percentages. Prehistoric shit.

I find them pathetic but their argument would be that it works. They are a pretty small club in truth but have either been in the Prem or in receipt of parachute payments in our division for many years now. Like Reading everything about them screams blandness but along with their highly dubious trading history with Udinese, they couldn’t care less how it looks from the outside.

Don’t know enough about Buse to comment but think the others are nailed on to go & believe that Morton has already effectively left anyway. Idehen is an odd one, Grimsby fans reckon it was the change of manager & their relegation to non league that did for him & he was ok. He then had a couple of sub appearances for us late last season where he let no one down, but whether it was by acting Mr Big Time or not, it’s all gone badly wrong for him since. His loan spell at Carlisle (fresh start, other end of the country) saw him dropped from the bench pretty quickly, which even if you could understand him not getting in a side going really well, is a bad sign. Just can’t see a way back for him if he isn’t involved at a time like this.