Sick of hearing commentators saying nothing Pears could do about that. He over-protects his near post time after time, leaving a nice wide space where he can't reach it. His positioning is poor.

Good effort Travis. Johansson always seems to play well against us.

Yeh I don't think there's been outright howlers since then, unless my memory is failing me. But there have definitely been goals he was at fault for.

Christ that was lucky. Sort of side note, but relevant there, I wish Pears wouldn't over-commit to his near post. Does it nearly every time.

When he was here everybody was giving Markanday dogs abuse and saying he wasn't even a League One player. As soon as he plays a couple of games I'm sure I'd be seeing comments saying 'not good enough, get rid as soon as possible' etc. Personally I don't mind him and think he's a useful squad player (don't think his goal contribution numbers are any better than Ty's though). But that's the problem, we have lots of useful squad players up there, but nobody who can rip up the league or be a guaranteed starter we can all be happy with, so everybody throws exaggerated insults at the players we do have, because we are over-reliant on average and below average players, so we misfire too often.

And the answer would be that they're worse than Dolan and Hedges. Except for possibly ACD, who mostly has struggled to play due to injury niggles (but for me should have had more game time when he was fit).

I wouldn't say all his performances this season. He has been reasonable for the most part in the last few games. There was definitely a point I wanted him dropped for Toth, but his current form has been acceptable. He hardly looks undroppable though, and I wouldn't say he had a good game last time out. A decent keeper is probably stopping one of those goals, Hyam spared his blushes with that clearance on the line, and the saves he did make were fairly basic. Definitely a concern if Toth isn't considered a better keeper (guess time will tell on that though).

At present, I'd certainly be recalling all three. Markanday because that level is proving beneath him as I expected, and the other two because they're simply getting nowhere near enough game time.

This post did not age well.

Which in turn leaves the door open for Mr Cockup...if we didn't apply for it in the summer, I assume we couldn't apply for it now regardless of what the terms were at the time he became eligible, as he no longer qualifies. I have to presume his numbers would be calculated at the time we applied. We know we like leaving the door open for Mr Cockup, and this would leave us with no free slots unless we shunt someone out. I feel confident, if that's the right word, that the club didn't get this permit sorted in the summer. Purely because it seems like the sort of thing that would have been announced or at least told to the LT. So hopefully the permit is assessed from the prior season not the prior 12 months, and of course, hopefully someone is competent enough to get it done.

Don't be so sure...the powers that be may very well have not applied for one! I feel like the discussion concluded we probably had one slot even without it though. Tronstadt didn't need one, he qualified anyway. Toth just replaces Wahlstedt. Did either of Ohashi or Gueye qualify without the exemption? If not then Siggy takes us to 4 slots. Hang on, wasn't there Mafoumbi too? Surely we don't have 5 slots...I feel like one of these players must have qualified for an exemption. I think youth players are subject to slightly different rules so maybe Mafoumbi got a permit. Otherwise we have Toth, Ohashi, Gueye, Siggy and Mafoumbi...so the only other explanation would be if Siggy's permit got sorted.

That's the thing, when everybody was praising the recruitment team after a few games, I felt it was premature. But at the same time inevitable we got carried away with it a bit. Likewise inevitable we feel deflated about Ohashi and Gueye lately, when they've been poor. We won't be able to render a full judgement until they've been here far longer, but of course we're going to form opinions along the way.

He cost considerably more than Telalovic, so unless he improves he is a much worse signing.

🤣 Spring chickens to me and thee, but coming into their later years as professional footballers. They won't handle 15 month seasons like a 21 year old was my point.

I see Batty got subbed after 12 minutes in a 2-1 win so must have been injured. Garrett played the full match in a 3-2 defeat to Exeter. Macclesfield won 3-2 away to Matlock to go 10 points clear at the top (12 wins, 2 draws, 0 losses, great start for them) but I can't find any proper match details to know how much Edmondson played.

Whilst I agree there may be something lined up, I don't believe he was actually announced as a signing. There were reports it was done, but no announcement from the club, which is what would make it 'announced as a signing'. At the time, I got the impression everything was in place but we didn't pull the trigger. I suspect this was either the budget didn't allow it, someone else was signed that fit the bill (can't remember who we signed after that point), or we decided we might as well have him for absolutely nothing in January instead. I notice he's not top scorer in the J League anymore, down to 3rd on 17 goals. He has just scored 2 goals in his last game (or the last one on transfermarkt anyway) after going 6 games without scoring. Looks a bit like he scores in flurries. Of his 17 goals, 4 came in one game, and he's scored 2 goals on 4 occasions. Meaning 12 of his 17 goals came in 5 games. I wonder if that suggests inconsistency. Looks like he either destroys teams or doesn't do much, purely looking at those stats of course which is incomplete. He has zero assists this season. Of course, his team are struggling as you said, 3rd from bottom which would see them relegated, and that could be a factor in the inconsistency of end product. Looks like the J League finishes on 8th December, so signing him in January would be the equivalent of signing someone very early in our summer transfer window, but expecting them to play immediately without a preseason (though we'd perhaps bring him in slowly if he'd rested first). Mind you, we'll be expecting Ohashi to have essentially played nearly 15 straight months without a break by the end of the season (J League started in Feb), when the usual is 9 months. For a club known for going into the final third of a season poorly, signing both these lads is a risk in that sense. He's also 29 (30 by end of our season), and Ohashi 28, you have to wonder how their bodies will hold up.

I think we would struggle to have a net spend of minus 5 mill at the moment. That would probably have to be about 3 players sold, maybe more. At the moment, no single player could be sold for 5 mill or more. Our most valuable asset on paper is Carter and he's just been injured for 2-3 months, so nobody will be taking big money gambits on him in January. It would take someone else setting the league on fire pretty much from Saturday onwards to warrant anything like that kind of money.

'Very' good? Surely you've got to accept that seems a stretch at present. He hasn't scored a single goal, or looked particularly like scoring one, in 11 Championship games.

I wouldn't be outraged on behalf of these rich lads even if it were true. Footballers earning thousands per week shouldn't get any sort of allowance on the coach trip regardless of the club's funds.

How many of those players have actually been playing in our u21s/u18s since their loans?

That is awfully far away from where he should be, tbf.

It's called deliberate handball last I heard, so yeh it's about purposely handballing it. I've explained why his position is natural. If you watch a match and look for it, you'll see players raise their hands like that dozens of times a match, most of them just don't have the misfortune of the ball striking them from a yard away. It's a bollocks decision. Even the Watford commentators weren't convinced.

Fair enough, realised just after I posted you might mean something in the first half, which I missed as I didn't realise it was an early kickoff 😅 The commentators only mentioned 'a chance in the first half' when summarising the game so I'd thought it wasn't one of much note. Apologies.

Bizarre take. His hand was up before the ball even reached their player so how can he be considered to be attempting to handle it before he even knew where it was going? For me his hands were up because he was trying to balance and perhaps to indicate he wasn't pushing the player in order to avoid...well, giving a penalty! It was a joke of a decision as there is zero possibility he handled it on purpose, which is the entire point of the rules.

Our big chance fell to Weimann.