David Kelly

I'm not particularly happy mbemba has come on at fullback. Surely we need to get him set in the centre as soon as possible.

Far from a thriller this. We have improved as the half has gone on though and were in control from about the 30 minute mark. Actually managed a few efforts on target by the end. Krul had pretty much nothing to do. Colbacks set pieces were actually pretty decent too.

Surprisingly good run from obertan there. Williamson nearly scoring from a corner too

Defence already looks shite

It's spot on for me

New away strip looks a lot better than I thought it would.

Leicester agreed a fee for inler. 31 now but could be a cracking signing for them. Some Chilean bloke too.

It's on l'equipe 21 apparently if anyone is able to get that channel. Ive managed to get it on with a pretty perfect picture so I should be able to get another chance to see just how bad Williamson and Squidward are!

Brilliant turnaround from Lords. The convicts won't give up though I'm sure.

Loving the shit Johnson is getting. That over was brilliant.

I think they might be right!

Apparently Steele has turned us down to be his replacement. Simon Smith to come back apparently.

Woodgate was a prime example of a footballer who was intelligent on the pitch and thick as fuck off it. I agree that Gini seems to be an intelligent player. I hopefull he will be very useful for us.

Made a bit of a game of it at least today. We shoudln't have any problems chasing that down but a couple of early wickets would put the shits up us no doubt.

I try not to think about such things (or anything) too deeply.

So you think the coaching staff was a bigger weakness than our defence. I suppose I'd have to agree with that because I said all along I wouldn't renew my ticket if Carver was still in charge. But defence is the key weakness on the pitch and an area we haven't fully addressed transfer wise. This being a transfer thread I assumed that's what we were talking about.

It was just what came in to me head (although it came correctly spelt, my fingers obviously fucked that up). I'm not sure if one is more correct than the other. English language was never one of my strongest subjects at school.

So do you bleive that our defence has been a key weakness and if so has it been addressed?

So you believe our defence will be fine just on the basis of McClaren, Cathro and the other bloke who's name escapes me? That's a CT level of fairy tale!

Am I reading your last line there incorrectly then?

I don't think Gini really fits into that bracket. He's quite young but really he's at an age you would be happy go for. Potentially he can deliver a freekick too. Although I think the general coaching will improve us there.

I think this is something that's very wrong with our signing profile. Keegan knew the value of having experienced players which was why he turned to players like Sheedy, Kilkline, Bracewell, Venison and of course Beardsley. You can do well with kids as Man Utd proved but they had them playing with some senior players too to help them through. Colo is really our only senior pro now and his desire to fight for the cause has to be questioned.

That's all fair enough and I never expected anything better than what we've had so far (in fact I expected less) but to say we've addressed our key weaknesses isn't correct when it looks like there's a fair chance Williamson will at least be on the bench come the Southampton game, we have no proper cover for Janmaat and our leftback is much weaker than our rightback. If we had addressed all of our weaknesses this would not be the case. Of course there is still time to fix this before the window is shut. I neither expect this to happen (at least not all of it) nor will I go mental if it doesn't.

Getting rid of those clowns doesn't seem to have turned Williamson into a world beater so far and it won't stop Taylor from being made of glass and it doesn't seem to be increasing Colo's desire to be playing here either. I've no doubt it will help but you can't polish a turd!

I partially agree with the Quiff there but it would have been difficult to get someone with premier league experience withough shelling out £8m on James Chester or going for Caulker both from relegated teams with defences as bad or worse than our own. Mbemba may be young (certainly doesn't look 21 to me but I don't think he looks much older for all that) but he's been the main man in Anderlecht's defence for the last couple of seasons and the praise he's been getting is pretty much unanimous. Certainly their fans seem to love him. This isn't the sort of young player like Bramble signed on potential. Or at least it doesn't seem to be. We still need another centreback for me especially if Colo is leaving (which seems more likely by the day). And I don't buy the we've got lots of centrebacks even if they're no good argument. If an asset is not capable of doing the job it was bought for, you have to replace it. Regardless of whether you can sell the original assets or not. This is true in any business.