Polarboy

FIFA don't have much of leg to stand on either anymore of course, given the venue and timing the of the next WC. Plus the fact that they want a WC every two years. Or at least they seem in favour of Wenger's plan.

Ian Wright won't be happy. He already thinks the footballing world at large doesn't take AFCON seriously, and maybe he has a point.

Given that Wilson's injury isn't looking as serious as first feared he may only miss a couple of games, given the postponements 😁 A couple of games we can hopefully give to whatever forward we buy in the window to allow him to bed in. I was just saying to a mate, can you imagine Trippier and Digne on the freekicks. Right foot and left foot respectively, both absolute wands. Fingers crossed on both of them obviously. Seems as if Trippier is a bit more likely than Digne given respective ages, and the fact that Trippier has worked under Howe before. Chelsea are also supposedly sniffing around Digne as cover for Chilwell, but would only want him on loan while we supposedly would pay the 25 million up front.

Ranieri is trying to stop Dennis going despite him being called up for the squad. Regardless their squad will still be significantly weakened even if Dennis doesn't go. I mean I would assume that Watford don't have the cash to cover that many absences from a January window.

So potentially we could have 18 days between the Man U game and our next fixture. Obviously Wilson could be out for another 4 to 8 weeks on top of that depending on how bad the tear is, but if we're lucky ASM could be back, and Lewis, Dummett, Ritchie and Fraser should be fully fit. A good transfer window where we move quickly and we could be in decent shape to attack the second half of the season. It might actually be an idea to set up some sort of training match if at all possible. We don't want to come back as rusty as Man U looked, albeit they've been pretty shit regardless this season.

Sky sports are saying that we're planning a move for the Zenit St. Petersburg striker Sardar Azmoun. Given that he's Iranian, and the star of their national team, it could be an interesting geopolitical move if nothing else 😂

Rumours of Ighalo and supposedly some people aren't that impressed on twitter if indeed it holds any water. Personally I think he'd be a very useful short term back up to Wilson. He was a beast at Watford, and showed a fair bit of quality at Man U when he got the chance.

With regards to Deli Ali I wouldn't say he blows hot and cold, it's that his form has fallen off a cliff since Poch left the club for whatever reason.

😂 That's definitely something they'd come up with. They'd of course dress it up as only being fair to the teams down the bottom, as opposed to carrying water once again for the "top six".

Yeah, most likely. On the other hand I'd rather take the approach that we should aim to take at least a point from every game we play from now until the end of the season, given the atrocious start we've had. Obviously if we were to make some smart signings and had a bit of time to bed them in, the chances of getting said points against the top teams goes up, if perhaps not enough in the end to matter.

I haven't seen any mention it, but surely it could on balance be a very good thing for the club if the next few matches over Christmas are called off because of omicron, regardless of how reasonable or unreasonable that is, and we enter the new year, and the transfer market, not being that far behind in the table. Perhaps and obvious thing to say, but again I haven't seen anyone mention it yet.

Well that's the catch 22 situation we find ourselves in. We need a major injection of quality, but players of that quality either won't be available in January, or won't want to come given the position in the league we'll likely be in. It's going to take some peak moneyball like signings for us to get what we need, and at the minute we don't even seem capable of hiring a DOF.

More than a little annoying that what I suggested in half jest in terms of the scoreline has come to pass. It has to be said though, that while we've been pretty poor, both Maddison, the diving cunt that he is, and Tielemans have shown why they are so highly rated.

Maddison needs a slap across the chops.

Leeds given their injuries, fixture run and general form could very easily slip down into the relegation fight, as could Southampton, and maybe even Everton if their slide continues, but they'll likely pick up when DCL is back fit. I really don't think it will just be a four horse race, there's always at least one club who slide into it from a relatively safe at the time position.

😂 What a sickener for Watford. Two late goals with a penalty in the dying minutes. I seen Carragher say we'd want a draw, but I'm more than happy with Watford losing in this fashion, especially when we could possibly move out of the bottom three should results go our way. Hopefully this loss has been psychologically damaging for Watford. Raneri was saying that needed to at least draw the game beforehand, which probably wasn't wise on his part upon reflection.

There's been a covid outbreak in the Leicester camp. Lookman, Amartey, Iheanacho, Vestergaard, Perez, Benkovic, and Daley-Campbell haven't travelled to the Napoli game. Obviously only really Lookman, Inheanacho and Vestergaard are starters, or in Iheanacho's case someone who usually plays at least 20 minutes per match so important if not a nailed on starter. Regardless it's yet more disruption to the Leicester team before the match on Sunday. Everything seems to be pointing towards us having a very decent shout at getting a positive result on Sunday, so expect us to lose 4-0 😉👍

His face still looks like he's chewing on a lemon, but I'm willing to put that to one side permanently if he keeps us up 😉👍

If we were to go for Botman I'd like to see us go for a centre half with premier league experience, and more experience in general, as well. A 40m price tag and all that pressure from being put in a team half way through a season of fighting relegation, is unlikely to see him hit the ground running. The rumours about Trippier don't seem to be fading either. It makes sense given he's played under Howe before. Then again even though he's 31 he would perhaps still expect to get a few more years of Champions League level football yet, hence the Man U links from a while back. But perhaps if the noises from the Champions League clubs in England have gone quiet, he'd take a fat late career contract, and a reunion with Eddie.

They've only kept one clean sheet all season against Wolves in the first weekend of games. A score draw at the least is possible if we approach the game in the correct manner.

Turns out he's quite likeable when he's not trolling us with his performances, and doing it to the opposition instead 😂

So this fella is trying to imply that Staveley is too fond of the limelight to hire a DOF? That sounds like absolute nonsense. It doesn't even make any logical sense. Amanda could have a spread in Hello magazine every week if she wanted, and park the DOF in the basement to get on with his actual job is if she wanted. So aye, I agree with Paddock, Emenalo has likely got a pet lip because he didn't get the job, and this journalist is facilitating his tantrum. If that is the case maybe we're better off without him, despite his very impressive CV. Emenalo himself of course seems pretty fond of publicity with his features in the Guardian about him being a social justice activist. Which of course on the face of it can be a very worthy pursuit, but the well has been poisoned somewhat by Twitter activists, celebrities etc, many of which clearly see it as a way to enhance their own profile and power above anything else.

Not sure about Lingard in some respects. He's definitely better than a lot of what we have in the squad, but there's no guarantee he'd display the same form as he showed when at West Ham. He was in the best form of his life at West Ham during that period. You could say he's been wasted at Man U in an expensively assembled squad, but he's also had a habit of going missing for long periods of the season when he's gotten a chance there in previous years. So yeah I would take him, but I wouldn't throw stupid money at him. Then again I suppose given the fight we're in it might be the case that we have to throw stupid money at players who are merely good as opposed to great. As for Howe lowering expectations I think he's trying to keep the players he has now focused, perhaps also lower the agents and clubs expectations when they try to overcharge us, and lower the expectations of the small minority of fans who think it's feasible to get superstars in January if we just throw enough money at it.

This Shelvey fella looks a decent player. Can't believe some of our fans call him Voldermort. I'd never do such a thing myself of course. That was far too tense once again, but amazing relief at the end, and hopefully this will raise the confidence of the players, who must have also been wondering where the first win was coming from. Strangely we may go into the tough run of fixtures relaxed knowing that whatever we get will be a bonus, which may result in a shock result or two against the "top six" sides. Big Joe was everywhere again this game. As a pundit was saying, who's name I can't recall, it may be that Joe would be better deployed as a Fellaini type player for us. Basically a big, disruptive battering ram for us in midfield, but who also can carry the ball forward with pace and strength.

According to Craig Hope, Howe still has a chance to be in the dugout for Arsenal. Tindall has been confirmed to be taking the pre-match press on Friday, but if Howe can pass a Covid test the same day, then he'll be cleared to take charge. Conveniently Eddie's symptoms appear to have started exactly ten days before the Arsenal game 😂 Or at least that appears to be what Hope is saying. Newcastle boss Eddie Howe will discover on Friday if he can lead the side out at Arsenal | Daily Mail Online