bluebruce

I can't imagine there's any possibility of that. I'm more finding myself hoping there's no January recall clause...

Appreciate his commitment, but I'm not sure why he was kept on for 87 minutes given the scoreline and the fact he'd had to take painkillers. Not somebody we can afford to be injured.

I don't see it as beneficial to sell him for any less than 8 million, and even then I'm not sure it would be the best idea in practice. I don't care what his value is in the market. We'd be lucky to have enough left after the Venkys budget shortfall and usual running costs black hole to buy a fairly reasonable replacement (who would still probably be worse).

I think it matters in the sense that getting pasted every week isn't going to be good for the development of our young players (which is the lifeblood of the club lately). Add that to the lack of competitiveness due to no relegation, I can see our conveyer belt slowing down. Rory Finneran sounds like he's going to be a star (not that he's playing for the U21s yet as he's only 15), but I'm not hearing much fresh excitement about the approaching crop. Obviously we have the usual suspects who have pretty much broken into the squad, and the likes of Atcheson and Gamble who seem to be on the fringes (although I think that's more due to necessity than great promise). Looking at the lads who played today, there's probably only Weston who I've heard any buzz about at any point. And tbf it's going to be hard for any to shine and impress the gaffer or others if we get turned over every week.

At least Telalovic notched a hat trick, should help his confidence should he get another chance in the first team. Shocker of a result though, Stoke are no great shakes, looks like they were bottom of the 26 team league before today...now it's us. They shouldn't have been turning us over like that at home. I see they lost 10-1 to Man U back in August. Like you say, good thing for us relegation has been scrapped. Drawing on players for the first team (and having some out on loan) is making it tough for the youngsters...doubt all these pastings are going to help their growth regardless.

Surely Atcheson is next in line? He's made the bench for the last 4 league games. Gamble only for one of those (4 games ago) and the cup game (generally where players further down the pecking order get brought in). The fact Atcheson didn't come on today when we were down to one recognised CB could be telling though, especially since we were 3 up. Suspect we're more likely to see Pickering come inside and Brittain at LB with JRC at RB, if Hill is our only fit CB against Preston.

That's not what you've seen though, it's an exaggeration. He has been disappointing so far, but he has made some good saves also. If anything that goes near him looked like resulting in a goal, he wouldn't have made any good saves, or kept any clean sheets.

Don't torture yourself. If you're thinking we're getting a new keeper in January, when we have two senior keepers that I believe we've spent a combined 1.2 million on (700k of that very recently), with our pathetic budget, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment. If we get any money together in January (big if) it will go on a forward first and foremost. Selling Kaminski was a huge mistake, albeit inevitable after foolishly keeping him benched when he came back from injury and Pears was wobbling.

U-21s getting bummed again. Was 3-0 to Stoke (we're at home too) after about 23 minutes I think it was. Currently 3-1, Telalovic scored.

That's a major stretch.

Couldn't watch, so I was going off what I've seen and heard this season so far. Good, he can play a lot better than he has been doing.

He's not been pulling up trees on the same level he was last season tbh, so I expect a bid will either fail to transpire or it will be a lowball.

If they pay us, and then we pay Buckley, would that not result in tax being charged twice?

This does make your predictions fairly pointless though. You might as well not make any, we already know you'd only say we'll win.

🤣🤣 I'm not watching but that tickled me

Although just seen Hyam isn't ready yet and Szmodics won't play, so it's not gonna happen tonight.

Depends what figures some of our signings really cost, but looks like it. Brittain - I heard it was about 1 mill or just under. Hyam - 1.5 mill (transfermarkt, converted from Euros) Szmodics - heard everything from 1.8 mill to 3 mill (although best guess from what I've read is 1.8 up front, rising to 2.5 with add ons) Wahlstedt - 700k (though transfermarkt gives a fee of 1 mill in Euros, or about 850k in quid) Ignoring any possible loan fees, I think those are the only players who cost any money who could play without Gally fit. Well, there's Hedges (200k) and Pears (about 400k), but both are injured. So anything from about just under 5 mill, to 6.5 mill, from those 4 players. Oh actually no, there's Markanday too, who I think was reported as about 500k. So yes, we could field one over 5 mill without Gally. Chelsea will have a ton of players who cost more individually than our entire squad (fit or unfit) though.

Would they? Tons of lower English league players fail when they step up, probably the majority in fact. The only difference would be that they'd played in an English semi-pro league instead of a German one. Which only counts for a little. The German leagues are also similar in style to the English leagues. Never said it was the norm. My point was very simple, the profile of the player does not disqualify him from success. While we're on it, if Vardy took a year to settle, I'm sure we can give Telalovic a few more months before people start writing him off (not talking about you).

Obviously we expect Wharton to be sold on, but why is it you think Gilsenan won't be here? You don't think he is good enough to make it? Personally I think he has a chance.

4-0 after just 43 mins. U21s don't seem to be up to much this year. Probably doesn't help that so many are being used in first team squads due to us being light though.

In May 2012, Leicester - then in the Championship - signed a striker from Fleetwood with the name Jamie Vardy. The highest level he had played until then was the Conference (which seems to be a similar level to the German Regionalliga that Telalovic played). He was 25 years old. Now, I'm not saying Telalovic is going to be as good as Vardy, he almost certainly won't be. But the above shows that his previous playing experience at his age is no barrier to him succeeding at this level, if Vardy could jump up a similar distance to this level at a more advanced age, and in fact be good enough to spank the level above this one too. We only need him to turn into a fairly decent Championship striker for the gamble to pay off.

Not for Swansea.

Tbf I think Ainsworth did praise us after we drubbed them. I don't think he said we were the best they'd played but he was fairly complimentary. Millwall's interim boss mentioned we have 'very, very good players' too, I think was the phrasing. Although he bizarrely claimed they definitely deserved to win, even though we had twice as many shots on target and they barely troubled our keeper (even the one goal they did score was very generous from Leo).

Everyone is welcome to their opinion. But I've seen dozens of worse pieces of goalkeeping, a few at Rovers, and Pears' ludicrous own goal against Wigan is definitely one of them.