KeithLambsFaxMachine

Personally, I quite enjoyed it. Scotland played fantastically well, but then they would. I’d liken it to when a lower league team draws a premier side in the cup. If they come for their big day out and they stick to the game plan, anything can happen. Always the same when there’s a gulf in class (though Scotland have some good players here and there these days). If anything England got off quite lightly.

Harsh. 😪

It’s not necessarily about signings we would make, it’s more that the available talent pool is much smaller. Clubs can either buy British (possibly Irish too), or can buy a decent foreign internationals. As a club, we probably can’t stretch to the latter at the moment, and there are a lot of clubs wanting to take relatively few of the former. Even before the B word, this has been coming for a few years, the FA’s Elite Player Performance Plan certainly started the process, but it’s a definite acceleration over the past few years. Just as well we have a good crop coming up from the

An awful lot of contracts are up on the 30th June, might make announcing things a little more tricky.

I can see the Sky Sports breaking news story, "Boro in talks to bring back Pulis"

Me too, though he obviously has a good agent. It's an interesting change since certain newspapers have taken against his politics, though. Whereas he used to be described as, "England legend Gary Lineker", these days he's been demoted to, "Overpaid Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker". Both are true, obviously, but the difference in perception is pretty clear.

Aw come on, Transfermarkt only has him down as being worth €17m!

Some quick stats: Dael Fry missed (or missed part of) 18 games this season, we won 4, Drew 4 and lost 10. Anfernee Dijksteel missed 18 games also, we won 5, drew 3 and lost 10. We 100% need better cover at CB, and probably at right back too (though I do like Fisher).

Nine or ten (if Bolasie stays): Hall, Fry, McNair, Djikesteel, Bola, Tav, Morsy, Howson, Watmore, Bolasie. We lack depth after that, IMO, and strikers. It's a particular shame that we've been without a lot of these players over the season also. If football is about the weakest link in a team, injuries, a decent keeper and strikers are what's kept us from doing well.

This I can agree with. Some players just fit better in the systems of some managers. In a Warnock system, Djed’s lapses in concentration make him a weak link, in a Woodgate system, he flourished with the freedom. Since Warnock is the manager for the foreseeable, if he’s not showing signs of learning and improving and we get an acceptable offer, there’s no point in having him stagnate here.

I think the thing I like most about Bolasie is that while he can be mentioned as a similar player to all of those, he seems very positive, professional and, from how things seem on social media, very popular amongst the squad. Would love it if we can keep him next year.

The bit in yesterday's press conference which struck me was when he was talking about Mourinho being sacked. He said something along the lines of, "They're listening to the players, which is absolutely ridiculous... some owners listen all the time and some have got a little more common sense." I wonder if that's actually directed at us also.

If Spence works hard, listens and actually does develop then I agree. However, given some of Warnock's comments regarding how he may end up at the top clubs or end up in non-league, I imagine there's a good chance he's not showing enough of a propensity towards doing any of these things. Did we ever find out why Fulham let him go?

Unless I am mistaken, didn't something like this happen in the States years ago. A split from FIFA and an all-for money kind of league with weird rule-changes. They bought up loads of top players from around the world too. The problem was, that though those players were payed very well, they weren't allowed to play in FIFA competitions, so no World Cup, etc. All very well if you're a player who decides to join, I guess, but if you play for a team and they decide to split from FIFA/UEFA, then I'd imagine you would be suing for breach of contract.

I would imagine it would say that Spence would be leaving. Warnock's always saying how he needs to know what players are going to do, and I don't think Djed quite fits the bill.