Spiller86

I'd prefer we signed Nowan Atal. He's available for 40m and has had cracking season in Serie A.

Yeah wouldn't bother me if Bats left. I think the only risk is that preferably you want strikers who can play together. That's our challenge at the moment. Ideally we need to find a modern Anelka or Gudjohnsen who can play around Tammy as the man leading the line. Sadly no one comes to mind!

Well Tammy proves that just because you're playing in the Championship doesn't mean you can't score a hatful in the PL.

It's not a great area to parry into. That said Cuadrado is ball watching and should never have let Zielinski go past him. Hard to believe he has had such a successful career after the dross he served up here.

A few links from Italian journos to Piatek from Milan these last few hours. These might just be links to drive the price higher for Spurs I'm not sure. He could be worth a look. Had a cracker of a year last seasom but has struggled in a stale Milan team this term. He isn't perfect but there are two things that I really like about him: 1. He runs his socks off without the ball. Presses hard and runs hard to make space for others. 2. He scores most of his goals surrounded by defenders. He isn't one of these guys that relies on the ball being in behind the defensive line. He scores plenty of headers and seems to have a nack of making space for himself in the box. That suggests he could do okay against the deep defences we tend to face. Again we may just be being used to get better fee/contract from Spurs. But if we're actually in the market he is better Michy and Dembele. Sounds like he would be achievable as well. Hell I'd be happy to sign him just to piss off Spurs who want him to replace Kane

Conte making it tight that's for sure. Hard to see Juve losing it with their riches, but Inter have done well in the market so who knows.

Sarri losing on his return to the San Paulo. Napoli haven't won at home in about 6 months.

Imagine if we were bloody these youngsters even in Conte's first season with JT and Costa still around.

Oh it was a bad game. If we thought we aren't creating chances. Morata sulking around doing nothing up front you can see why they want Cavani. I feel bad for Saúl. Superb player, but everytime they made a sub he ended up playing a different position. Team should be built around him. Not have him shuffled around to fit in various players who don't have half the talent he does.

Lordy. Atletico are playing Leganes. The Leganes keeper was just sent off with 30 seconds to go for time wasting. Pretty much then refused to leave the pitch. 5 minutes of pushing and shoving. Leganes are last and desperately trying to hang on for a 0-0 draw. Atletico are terrible. Serves them right for paying for Morata (who did nothing btw)

I thought Pedro was pretty good for a guy who has barely played. He has a very useful nack of finding space in the box. Shame it didn't quite click for him yesterday. The sight of him haring back at full pace chasing a Hull counter after Barkley gave it away and then jogged said to me he is still committed and could be important on the run in. Particularly if we don't get an goal scorer in.

Someone posted it in here one day. It's close to 300m without improving the squad. I mean it's not as bad as Utd but its the wasted opportunities after Jose and Conte won the league that grind my gears. We're struggling to be top four and we could have built on those years and forged great teams that competed every year.

It's ever been thus in the 10 years I've been reading and posting on here. I also think Frank is doing a good job and I don't think anyone is calling for him to get the arse. We're certainly doing better than I expected without Hazard. I also agree that we tend to have this mid winter drop off in form and then come home strong. That said, we've got some pretty clear challenges. No issues in pointing those out in my view (without hyperventilating of course)

As always it's a little column A and a little column B. That said. If you watch Frank after the game last night he didn't sound happy with the situation at all and he is the one who'll carry the can if we miss out on European football. For me it's the long term struggles in the market that are concerning. It's not this window it's the awful recruitment for 3 seasons despite spending huge sums of money that bothers me.

This is the issue isn't it. We're like the kid that does nothing until the night before the assignment is due. Occasionally we might fluke a good one but mostly we get what we deserve. It's even worse doing this in January. No one wants to lose a good player at the last minute and then have a hole in their squad for the second half of the season. What's more amusing is that we appealed and paid however much in legal fees to have the opportunity to buy in this window and we'll end up serving our full punishment.