What makes you think that Burke will give us extra quality compared to what we have?

Selling Tarkowski to Newcastle would be absolutely mindless, beyond us selling Lenihan/Rothwell/Nyambe to say Bournemouth. May as well accept relegation at that point. Newcastle are in a situation whereby even players like Trippier etc (Ramsey is reported to be on 400k at Juventus) will have to sign with potential reduction clauses if they go down, is it worth the risk for them? It would be great to see Newcastle go down.

I thought the Buckley one was probably a yellow card with them looking to attack and to be honest I could see it coming. It isn't the first time that he has picked up a needless yellow card for a foul like that.

Does Brereton do loads of defensive work? Not really. Was Armstrong particularly lazy? Not really, in fact the other day he put in an incredible selfless shift for his team who were a man down v Spurs which I watched. Obviously he won't be coming back but was just an example, but as is usually the case, I haven't a clue specifically who we could get that is available, Armstrong was just an example of a familiar player who ticks the boxes, quick, scores goals, can drift wide if necessary. Like you, I have never seen Healey play and certainly won't be making conclusions based on YouTube compilations. Maja I have seen for Sunderland and also for Fulham, maybe he could be the man as he seems to have an ability to sniff out goals, I remember him v Everton scoring 2 for Fulham. But his career has been stop start plus he has injury questions so maybe not. My view on Burke is that he has been poor every time I have seen him for Sheffield United, Scotland and West Brom. Quick but no end product, any initial promise he may have shown years ago has fizzled out. He has pace ergo "fits the style" but thats no good if he has no quality, signing Usain Bolt would "fit the style" in the same way! Of course. When a team has a goalscorer like we have both this season and last, it naturally makes other players goal contributions seem more meagre in comparison. If Brereton had 10/12, Gallagher on 5, Dolan on 4 and Khadra on 3 would not seem as distant in comparison. I just think that another goalscorer (well 2 if you factor in Dack) would really give us another string to our bow. Burke is crap, every time I have seen him he has been poor, just quick and I don't see what he would offer that those other 3 players would.

It might suit our "counter attacking style" but its no good if the player isnt very good and doesnt have any end product. What is he offering that Dolan, Gallagher and Khadra all don't, all of whom have pace, directness and chip in with goals but not particularly many each? Depends what you mean by natural strikers, someone like Armstrong would be ideal next to Brereton, it doesn't have to be a 6 foot 6 lump, someone who can give us pace but an actual regular goal threat as we are very reliant on Brereton to score as the goalscoring charts proves.

Any news on the Pickering injury? Like everyone he wasn't at his best today and was no better going forward than Nyambe, but any absence would be a blow as he has proved a very dependable addition to our team.

Of course there is always a chance that a player will never return to their full pre-injury form. But let's take hope from the fact that last time, there certainly did not appear to be any fear from Dack regarding collisions and he was really hitting form prior to the second injury, back to his old self.

Burke doesn't offer a goal threat and for me wouldn't offer anything that Khadra, Dolan and Gallagher already don't. We need a striker, not a winger that is neither here nor there.

We don't know the money that he is supposedly seeking. He was blunt going forward today but no one from an attacking sense had a good game, and Nyambe has made a critical impact to our 6 game winning run.

I have never said otherwise. You seem to take me wondering where he fits in and getting excited as me saying "lets rush him back with urgency, not taking the due care that he needs post injury" and then arguing back against that fictional argument.

I never said you are lying. Maybe you have heard what you define as abuse, presumably by individuals seeing as I have never heard it in the same ground. Anything on a messageboard isn't abuse, this is a place to discuss and if necessary vent. Up until an average season last season, for the 2 prior, he was crap, call a spade a spade, the questions were justified. In the ground, I have only ever seen support personally. What specifically have you all heard that I haven't? Individuals, collective? Spontaneous groans, chants against him? What? Unsure if things like spontaneous moans and groans count as your definition of abuse perhaps, they don't for me, the kind we saw even today when a pass is frustratingly put out of play etc, its unrealistic for things like that not to spill out. Conversely, I remember the reaction when Brereton scored his first goal, pure relief/joy. There seems to be an obsession with some to revert back to slagging off other fans for a perceived "lack of support" years ago, I do question why this is the case.

A lot of the conversation and focus as is typical with football fans is focused on the referee, I don't think he was very good but we didn't win today because aside from the first 10/15 minutes we didn't play very well and never looked like scoring, we don't need the scapegoat of the referee. Got over the line v Barnsley but the same 11 repeatedly has correctly been played but seems to be tiring and will benefit from a week or even two off. I thought when I saw the Brereton "foul" at the ground that he was fouled on the edge of the box, never regained his balance and then there was no second foul, more a case of him never regaining his balance and trying to buy a foul in the box, having seen it back I haven't seen much to change that opinion. The foul on Dolan was a red card but it wasn't really a game changing moment, nor was the Van Hecke clear second yellow. We should have scored early through Khadra, brilliant pass by Buckley although his inability/unwillingness to shoot cost him (and us) at times, letting attacks fizzle out. Lenihan was man of the match for me, brilliant again. Also agree with others, don't see the point at all in the disruptive secondary match thread.

Ah yes, back to slagging the fans off. He didnt look up to much for 2 years and was average in the third. People commented as such on an internet messageboard. Throw in a line about "audible gasps" and we have the argument about those pesky fans. Brereton has always been well supported in the stadium. End of.

Do you really think if 25m was offered that Venkys would be able to resist? I dont think anyone will bid that amount but if they do, Venkys wont care where we are in the league.

The gap is so big, even Mitrovic struggles every time he makes the step up. Toney has been pretty quiet aside from a few penalties. It is such a risk. Burke is shit, hopefully Nixon is characteristically wrong. We are reliant on Brereton for goals at the moment, the likes of Khadra, Gallagher and Dolan bring other things and will chip in, but any new signing needs to be able to give us extra goal power. What does Burke give us that those 3 don't? Nothing.

Of course there is a question mark after his injury, so obviously I assume that he returns close to if not exactly as the player he once was. He did last time, just prior to the second injury, he was really hitting his stride, he had started to score goals in trademark fashion. I don't doubt that we will need to be extra careful, once he has played a few games for the kids, even then it will be cameos at first. But WHEN he is properly fit, and there is no reason why that can't be this season, he will invariably be in our best 11, he is one of the best players in the league. He gives us a goal threat that aside from irregular contributions, that only Brereton offers, as well as technical ability and flair that no one else offers. As above, I don't doubt that he will need to be eased back, that we will need to take precautions, build him up in the But let's be bloody excited about it, he is one of the best players in the league and he will be a massive player again for us IF he recovers properly. If he is fully fit, the question is how best to fit him in, not whether he will play.

Initially of course it makes sense for Dack to build his way up as he wont be able to play 90 minutes initially but id like to think that we dont have to merely assign him a cameo role for the entire season. Easy to forget how good he is.

We wouldnt be where we are without our 20 goal striker. We shouldnt sell any first teamers though.

Gallagher cant play with his back to goal, therefore he is incomparable to Graham and that wouldnt work. Sell Brereton and weve thrown in the towel for promotion anyway.

Such a tough one. When fully fit, Dack is a class above, and would suit being behind the front 2 in the way that we currently play, giving us a goal threat we lack from that position. Travis has to play for balance, ideally Dack could replace Khadra but he wouldnt suit that position as much so would have to probably be Buckley.

I do think that Brereton's game is developing all the time and it certainly wasnt a dig at him, and he certainly is more rounded than Gallagher even before considering goal tallies. I just think that Brereton and Armstrong are not in different leagues when it comes to their all round game as some would have you believe, even though they are slightly different. Brereton is growing into his body all the time and is becoming stronger, and he also can win fouls. Both are fast but Armstrong was slightly faster and also technically better than Brereton who can be (effectively) cumbersome at times, take his winner the other night which came after a poor initial touch. Armstrong actually had a few assists last year (last time I checked Brereton had one) and could bring others in to play, I remember the goal away at Boro last season, a goal he set up for Gallagher v Huddersfield and one against Barnsley in which he squared it for Dack to tap in. Work rate. Armstrong persona The thing is invariably you find that once you add more than one serious goal threat, anyones goal threat will be maximised if they are the main man and there was so much talk about how we were geared to Armstrong last season, we have the same with Brereton this whereby he carries the majority of our goal threat with everyone else well behind. To have any striker scoring so much is a massive asset and for most teams, their main goalscorer would have far less than Brereton/Armstrong therefore it wouldnt look as bad. I also have never had a serious issue with either Brereton nor Armstrongs work rate, I think one of their main difference is their persona. Brereton is a sensation and comes across really aloof, whereas Armstrong had a more quiet and serious character from the outside, coupled with his best form coming with no fans I think people struggled to warm to him as much. Southampton fans were loving Armstrongs selfless work rate v Spurs. How good would it be if we had Brereton, Armstrong and Dack in behind, yes there may be an element of them all slightly being reduced as there would be 3 main men but theres a trio that would fire us to promotion!

My point is that simply that "Brereton did it" is not a constructive reason to give other players new deals with an expectation that the same thing will repeatedly happen. Different players, different situations, different ages. I dont think that Breretons general game is incredible by any means, its just that he has gone from a really poor striker of the ball to a really clinical finisher, chucking in tap ins and penalties to get the numbers to incredible levels.

I have never really got from where such a prediction has come from, that Gallagher could get 20 goals if played central. I actually think that some of his better games this season have come from wide where there is less dependance on him to bring others into play etc. I dont ever see him being prolific however.

A covid passport does not prove that you havent currently got covid. I just thought it seemed strange that fans have specificaly been told not to interact with players yet the club are promoting a video doing exactly that. Seems an unnecessary risk at a time where games are being called off left right and centre.

Not the main point to your post but we didnt limp to promotion in League 1, we finished 9 points clear.