Magic Monkey

It's the almost plausibility of them that makes this an artform.

Yeah, just said the same on P&B. It's the simplest explanation for a frankly baffling selection.

As always, agree with all of that. TBF, I think that Dennis, while he's not that fast, offers cleverness of movement that is unrivalled in our squad. Just a shame he doesn't also have cleverness of not needlessly elbowing your opponent in the mush.

Yup. If you're a decent, pacey wide player who happens to be available and within our budget, are you joining a team to either sit on the bench or be made to play wingback? f**k that.

Same here. I was already preparing my 'f**k off Jack Ross' response. Lovely story; what a gent.

To be fair to the big lump, he will absolutely tear up the Championship.

I certainly can't see us pushing the boat out for a winger given that we don't play with them.

Dunne is left sided and very quick. Can play left CH in a three or LB in a four. No idea really but with his pace maybe left wingback too? Dunno. Option at least. Ah, ok, wasn't aware he was pacey. Can't honestly recall seeing him play. That's potentially a solution if we're in a pinch, though.

If we go with a back 3 we might need 1 more that could play both CB and CDM. As CDM it be along side Power in a more disciplined role? Ethan is still learning and not as solid for the formation I feel Good win wants to play. Agree with this. I guess the only question is whether this leaves us with adequate cover for the wingbacks. Tait and Fraser can cover the right, but we'd struggle down the left if Tanser was injured. I guess a back 4 with Tait at LB would be an option again.

The club has tightened right up in terms of leaks of transfer targets. This is definitely a good thing, even if it does make the windows a little less fun. I personally enjoy the (informed) speculation and the near-misses.

Mines is different, precious.

Narrator's voice: "It hasn't."

2025 his contract runs to; I think a loan could be on the cards, potentially. Bit they'd maybe want to send him overseas somewhere. Might depend what's going on in the world at that point. I saw a few Raith games this season and he was indeed a standout. I'd be fairly confident he could make the step up. He's out of contract at the end of the month so there will be a lot of competition for him.

That's the rumour that's never going away, isn't it? He only played ten games for them this season. Sort of player I'd love to see us sign and absolutely fits Jim's model.

If he can get a full pre-season in over the summer I reckon he could surprise a LOT of people next season.

Stitched up by the journo there. Easy to imagine how it could happen: "You've improved, Jake... reckon you could you get into the Villa side now?" "Haha, no, I'm not sure about that."

Aye, he's been tendon not to score many goals.

And Flynn.

I think the media is becoming worse than ever for blowing hot and cold with teams/managers. Same in England, if not worse: the likes of Arteta and Lampard have been variously hailed as the next big thing/slammed depending on their last result. Same with Solskjaer - obviously they're doing ok at the minute but he's been great then shit then great then shit and now great again. A couple months back and I'd read Mourinho was bringing the title to Spurs finally. The guy at Southampton whose name I can't spell was the latest in the Southampton manager factory line, but now they can't buy a win and got horsed 9-0 for the second time in two years. As you say, it's important to judge actual success over a season.

What a comeback. What a performance. What a run. What an assist. What an example. What a player.

Yeah, Foley was quite Hodson-eque in terms of the range of positions he could cover. At least Flynn is back, and the CM area doesn't look quite so light when we're playing 4-4-2. Agree on the other two, too.

It was 100% true. Sadly, it was an article from November 2019.

Eight years, FFS. Where does the time go?

Was about to say that if someone comes in at CH then I think Foley will almost certainly be away. Understandable that we'd hang onto him until a replacement is in the door.

IIRC did Morias not come in at a point at the start of last season when we were clearly panicking a bit about signings? Happy to be corrected, but I'm sure there was a point when we were behind the curve and we may have briefly lowered our standards to fill the squad. See also: Oan Djorkaeff.