David Kelly

Thought he said something about him telling not to play with his back to goal so much when he first arrived. I'm sure that would have changed a bit later when he brought in all the pace around him.

I'm not arguing at all, I say play him. I'm just pointing out what others seem to be saying.

Which young players do you have in mind? There's none that I'm aware of that aren't already out on loan or cup tied that seem to be anywhere near ready.

If they continue to splash the money they've started spending the time might come when they start spending it on the best players rather than average players like Cisse and Pelle and it's more than just African and South Americans that go there (of course most of the best players in the world are South American at the minute). If they take all of the best players then English teams might chose to invest in more homegrown players rather than spending that money on more average foreign players. It's all big if's and but's but it is possible. I think it's highly unlikely English clubs would do that though and if they're capping the number for foreign players in China further, there's not that many players they can sign (I'm guessing there's not that many teams and not all of them are mega rich). I like the idea behind the question (I think I saw Fish replying to a something similar on twitter yesterday) but unfortunately I can't see it making any difference to the average football supporter in this country and I can't see anything benefiting the attempts to bring through more young English players unless a similar cap is put on foreign players in this country too.

I think the thinking is that we've lost so many players recently, we can't afford to lose our key player again in a cup game. My feeling is that after a few weeks out we need to get him back up to match readiness as soon as possible so unless there's something in the conditions that make it more likely he'll get injured on Wednesday, just play him.

I think he's said he spoke to him more about getting back to what he'd done well in the past. I don't doubt Robson had a very positive influence on him, I just feel it was only needed because of what Gullit had done wrong. That's not knocking Robson in any way just saying it shouldn't have been needed.

Aye but given that average (at best) managers still managed to get something out of an ageing Shearer after Sir Bobby went, it probably says more about how bad Gullit was. At least he had the decency to resign instead of taking us for millions like some others did.

That's my feelings too. But I've seen talking in the local press and online with people saying save him for Rotherham (which sounds utterly ridiculous to me).

Distinct lack of options for us on Wednesday. People talking about not risking Shelvey and Murphy but what are the other options? I suppose we could play Clark in midfield and bring in Hanley at the back. And then Gouffran up front and Lazaar on the wing. Looks like we'll have to draft in some kids from the reserves since even Sammy, Vukic and Sterry can't play.

At the time he was playing under Gullit I must admit I thought he was finished. Just goes to show how bad a manager Gullit was.

I think whatever the truth is in this story (and I don't buy for a second that it's just some made up bullshit), it's looking more and more likely we that we don't have the money to spend this window that many were expecting. We may not have used the Sissoko money or dipped into the parachute payment for the signings we made in the summer, but I certainly don't think they translate to available funds this window and possibly not in the next. Personally I don't think there's ever been much change to the transfer policy and certainly any major purchases will have always been restricted to players who can be here for an extended period or be sold for a profit should it come to that (there never has seemed to have been any pressure to sell anyone). Whether or not players like Gamez or Murphy would be sanctioned going forward (Ashley could certainly argue that they've not been great value so far) may be where there is a change of attitude.

Just got the last one to go and aye it definitely gets dark. Really enjoyed it though.

I really liked Sherlock, much better than the last couple.

Morgan needs to do more with the bat to justify his place in the team now. He's done a fantastic job changing the attitude of the one day team but with the bat he's certainly not doing enough to justify his place ahead of the likes of Bairstow and Billings.

Desperately need to break this partnership. It's nice that Kohli can take a drinks break whenever he feels like it.

Seems like Perez had a better game which is good because he's been awful recently. The ball for Murphy was sublime. For all John Anderson's bleating on about two blatant pens for them, there was nothing shown on the highlights so I can only assume they weren't anywhere near as blatant as he thought. You might say we should be showing a big superiority against a club the size of Brentford but apart from the fact that football doesn't always work like that, by the end of the game we were 8 players down from our usual match day squad with five of them being of our main attacking force. That's going to effect the ability of any team to play good football so I'm more than happy with the way it worked out. That said, I still think it's clear we need more attacking options.

Hadn't realised it was back on til I saw this. Absolutely superb first episode and the second was very good too.

Hales spoiled a very good start with a bit of dozy running there. Superb fielding though tbf.

Don't think I ever bothered watching that. There are some times when you can just take everyone else's word that a film is awful.

Live By Night. Easy watching but comfortably Afflecks worst directorial effort. Although he does spend a lot of time on shots of Zoe Saldana's arse which is nice.

He did well with the bat today. Unfortunately the rest of his teammates struggled.

The dream team

Took them to win today. Hopefully I'll stiffen them.

Aye that's the best we can do whist Shelvey is suspended and Diame is away.

Anita is just as shit in midfield as colback. We don't have anyone else to play there at the minute.