I suspect that a white box would have really shown the old sponsor very clearly.

Honestly I don't have a strong opinion on totally wicked or vaping in general but by the gods I enjoyed being the club with a non controversial shirt sponsor. The recoverite logo colour coordinated and looked good with the shirt design and even though I still don't really know what recoverite actually do at least they weren't a Macau based internet casino or whatever. It was genuinely good pr for the club. This won't be.

The Saint-Gilloise forward? Seriously doubt they're sending him out on loan and we couldn't afford to buy him.

If we shift a bit so Van Hecke is on the right of the back three communications wont be an issue, might help Zeefuik hit the ground running?

Newcastle have some good wide players and seem intent to play Shelvey as a 'quarterback' type, getting a big, strong target-man type striker might not be a daft plan to be fair - they've got the setup to put a lot of balls into the box but Wilson isn't going to get on the end of most of them. If that's the way that they want to play he might be a good signing. Still reckon you could do better for £25m, but I kind of see the logic. Its a bit Sam Allardyce though, we know how that turned out last time.

The s*n has us in for Wales left back Taylor on a free, along with half the championship so pretty unlikely. Been playing for Middlesbrough on a short term deal that runs out this month. Seems like lazy paper talk, can't really see us going after a third left back when there are more pressing areas to strengthen.

North of 40 points, safe from relegation yet?

Got the Southampton game on, Armstrong starting. He looks pretty much the same as he did playing for us, ambling around looking a bit disinterested until he gets the ball when he comes alive a bit. Doesn't look like he's improved leaps and bounds, but also doesn't look out of his depth, makes you wonder if the step up isn't quite as huge as it is sometimes made out to be. Not out of reach of a few of our lads.

Go back far enough and there was an opinion from a section of this board that we (Mowbray) had wasted money on three poor strikers who couldn't get a goal between them - Armstrong, Brereton and Gallagher (alright, still not convinced by Gallagher, but he's far from the worst we've ever had). Armstrong didn't come good until Dack did his knee first time round, and it's taken Brereton two seasons and a freak international call up to do anything, but they're both going to end up sold for a profit and will play at a higher level than the championship. I'd love to be able to say that I never doubted Buckley, Armstrong, Brereton etc. but I'd be lying. I definitely thought Buckley was going to be too lightweight and reluctant in the tackle to make it in this division, that he would be a 'luxury' player that needed enforcers next to him in or else he'd get bullied - turns out his pressing game and the timing of his tackles high up the pitch are beginning to look like a real strength of his play. I called it wrong, no shame in it.

fwiw football manager has Davenport as a natural left back which means that the scout assigned to rovers and/or the coaching staff think he can/has played there as more than just a makeshift in an emergency. I don't remember actually seeing him do it though.

Well I guess I'll give that Jürgen bloke the benefit of the doubt, I'm told he can pick a player.

Honestly, does it even benefit Liverpool? Is this kid going to make the Liverpool starting 11 in his career? Edit - I will add that I'm not worried about Butterworth. Sometimes he isn't going to be great, but he needs minutes in the first team and has shown glimpses in the few he has had to suggest he's worth the effort. 45 today is plenty though.

He spent two seasons wrecking the bundesliga whilst Saka was turning out for Arsenal u23s, bad start to this season sure but he was behind Saka at the Euros.

All these creative players and no movement for them to pick out. Also really struggling to work out how Sancho is so far behind Saka in the pecking order. Did he run over southgates dog or something?

Travis has played right back before? Surely he would be a better choice than Buckley, though I guess that would leave us pretty weak in terms of someone putting the boot in centrally...

Diaz joint top goalscorer in the league (with three other blokes, but still)

I think that the top goalscorers in the championship have seven, BBD on six now is joint second with Solanke of Bournemouth and Mitrovic of Fulham.

Standard looking lineup, Gallagher back in with Dolan and BBD, be interesting to see if he's central or wide. None of the loanees in the 11.

Possibly, but honestly it shouldn't have come down to it. With 90 mins played the Italian centre halves (wonderful players though they are) had a combined age north of 70 and we had a bench full of fast, energetic, attacking players that could have come on and run at them for half an hour. We could (should) have tried to win that game. Southgate wanted the penalties (as proved by the eventual subs purely for the shootout), Southgate got the penalties, we lost. For all the credit he was rightly due to get a team to a final he should have faced a lot more questions about the decisions he made in that final, and if the Poland game shows anything it is that he hasn't learnt from the experience. I stand by what I said in my previous, if we don't learn to attack a bit more when warranted we might reach semi finals, we might reach finals but we wont win them. I think if anything the fact that this squad has so much promise and so much depth is what makes this particularly frustrating for me. Southgate is managing as though he has a very limited pool that he needs to hammer into a consistent 11 around one or two key players, it's unnecessary and stifles one of our main strengths. Goes without saying that I'd love to be proven wrong on all of this, roll on the world cup.

That's fair, I had just watched the highlights and was struck by the contrast in the moment. I hadn't really been playing very close attention to their last few games.

Controlling the game is all well and good, but it's very safe. Pass it sideways, make a triangle and pass it between the three of you a dozen or so times, drop deep to get a touch and pass it back to the guy who passed it to you... If you watch the highlights of, for example, Italy slaughtering Lithuania (very different calibre of opposition I know) and look at how much movement there is - forward runners, players willing to run with the ball, forward passes. England very rarely do it, even against weaker teams. Without belittling Poland, this England team have players that they could only dream of (Lewandowski aside) and yet with however much possession we never really created a clear chance. Kane's strike was wonderful, but it came out of nothing. If he hadn't scored with a moment of individual brilliance then there is a very real chance we lose that game to a stoppage time goal, domination or no. England need to learn to attack a bit more, or else this will become another 'golden generation' who can mix it with the best in the world but will never win a tournament.

Tired team, no subs, conceding a late goal. Very predictable.

In what TM will see as a vindication for his tactical flexibility noted 6'4" winger Gallagher, played in an unorthodox centre forward position, gets a goal and looks a threat.

Poveda reminds me a bit of Rochina, except that we used to be Leeds