David Kelly

Don't think I've ever been more certain of a resounding twatting in my life.

We are missing a lot of key players in this series (Broad, Archer, Stokes) but really we just don't have the batting quality. At the moment there's only Root and Stokes who would get into the teams of any of the other top test sides.

I think the support has been rendered apathetic more than fractured. The vast majority are desperate to see the back of Ashley and co. but feel there's fuck all they can do about it. The fact that he's actively appearing to try and sell the club to people who could actually take us forward, but is getting blocked by the premier league and the so called big clubs who don't want to see their share of the pie decreased, only makes people feel more helpless in trying to change anything. Would not buying tickets actually help now? I suppose you could take the view that if the revenue kept decreasing, Ashley might be forced to accept a lower amount for the club and therefore bring other prospective buyers into play. But imo that will just see him further restrict spending and resulting in our relegation and possible fall down the league like the inbread down the road. You can argue that we would eventually do a Leeds etc but that's taking a big risk and asking people to look ten years or more into the future before returning. How do you ask young kids to do that? Unfortunately very sad is the only way to describe the situation.

I've never spoken to a single supporter who thinks Ashley has saved us from anything mind. Certainly not in the last five years or so. I'm sure there are some but don't for a second believe they number in their thousands.

True, I've never played at a very high standand but I know how much harder it is to play in goal behind a defence that is all at sea. It can seriously effect your own confidence and from personal experience, when that happens it's things like comanding your box that becomes the most difficult. But it's difficult to be impressed with much that he's done so far too. He's certainly shown nothing to suggest that he could be getting a game ahead of Dubravka or Darlow at this stage.

With what I've seen of Woodman so far I wouldn't be in a hurry to sell any of our other keepers. I've seen vampires who are less afraid of crosses.

It's a shame Foakes injured himself or I think there'd be a strong posibility he'd be in the team now. He's about the only batsman who's come in to the team in the last five years who actually looks like a test player.

I read an article yesterday from earlier in the summer saying they thought Malan would get in and that Ed Smith's thinking all along was that he might be better suited on the hard Australian pitches than he is to English pitches. The way he gets out here is in areas that thay they won't bowl over there. The other side is of course that he's been playing well and dealing with the pressure of international cricket in white ball matches. Of course it's difficult to see how he could do worse than Crawley has since Pakistan last year.

No its not ideal preparation but at least he's been making hundreds in the one day cup. Of course the quality of opostion he will have been facing is far weaker but he's doing pretty much all he can.

Durham have been superb in the competition this year helped by losing non of their batsmen to the hundred and Rushworth getting more of a run out than he has in recent years with Carse, Potts & Raine all at the Northern team. Hopefully they have Beddingham tied down to a long term contract because he's been unreal in all formats. South Africa must surely be looking at him. Some talk of a possibility for Lee's to come into one of England's troublesome top order positions too. He's averaged well over 40 since moving to Durham.

I thought they only had that keeper on loan last season so were back to the T Rex this year? I totally get Polarboy's point about Everton. Their spending and alledged targets have been so far very modest (even if they haven't been poor signings). After recent seasons, even taking Covid into account, I can't see their fans being happy. If they get off to a poor start Rafa could certainly be feeling the heat.

I forgot about him as a striker long before that.

Lejeune and Muto were out on loan all last season, Atsu was only available for half the season (but didn't play) as he didn't get a squad place for the first half and on the odd ocasion that Carroll was fit, bagpuss still wouldn't play him even when Wilson was out. So if we do get Willock we're not really down on last season. Technically we still have Woodman and Watts available to so you could argue we are up. It's still not near enough when you see the amount Hendrick and Gayle have had to play in preseason mind.

We could do with an upgrade in every position in the playing, managerial & coaching and administration staff but we absolutely need reinforcements in midfield and up front.

I still can't work out why we want another centreback. We have Lascelles, Schar, Fernandez, Clark and Dummett or Hayden who could easily fill in before we had to resort to Krafth or Watts. How many do we need? Whereas when Wilson inevitably picks up an injury we're now down to Joelinton and Gayle who keep proving they're not up to this level. The need for midfielder is obvious but so is the need for extra up front yet our glorious leaders still can't grasp this. Absolutely staggering.

Vauhagn has been pretty scathing about Sibley and Lawrence not being test standard and it's hard to argue with him. The thing is, I'm not sure which of the players, other than Root, Stokes, Broad and Anderson, and probably Woakes, are. The young players just aren't improving and the likes of Bairstow, Buttler and Ali keep looking like they are just white ball specialists. The ECB's focus on white ball competitions definitely isn't helping. The Ashes is a frightening prospect currently.

Now that I'd happily watch.

As bad as we have been, and it looks like we will be worse this season, it has to be better than Love Island.

Jesus that’s awful. Hopefully they got to him quick enough.

Yeah they seem to be going though everyones social media content now retrospectively but if they are going to police what people say on social media they really need to be a lot more proactive about it.

I think what they've anounced in terms of his suspension is probably a bit over the top. A better wording may have just been that he's been took out of the spotlight until it's thoroughly investigated. They only needed to do it for the next match and then Stokes, Woakes & Curran should all be available for the India series so they can easily excuse him not playing on the basis that while he did very well in the match he played, those players are currently ahead of him in the queue anyway. That gives them plenty of time to investigate and impose a reasonable sanction/punishment. I do feel though that they've went down the route they have so as to be seen to taking it incredibly seriously. They've had criticism for stopping taking the knee then they made a big thing about the moment of inclusion or whatever before the game. Added to that the case of the two umpires and that of Azeem Rafiq, I think they will have just thought we have to be seen to be doing something serious.

I also think he should be used to go around teaching children and other young players what he's learned.

Yeah but that needs to be investigated and confirmed. Him just saying it because he's been caught out isn't really going to carry much weight.

There's a massive difference between making a shit joke or just saying something offensive that you didn't mean to and being an EDL member looking for a fight with minorities. People can certainly be educated out of the former but it's a lot more difficult to expect pricks like Tommy Robison to change.