David Kelly

They were saying that one of their main guys (maybe McGrath) said it was the best series he played in.

Was listening to peoples memories of that on TMS yesterday afternoon. It was before my interest in Cricket started. Think I missed out there.

Might not get to use your ticket here Gloomy!

Massive wicket there.

Ali is struggling with Lyon like.

Last night's result isn't of any concern at all given the team that was put out. I suppose you could be worried about Lascelles but playing in that defence he's not going to be at his best. The real concern for me is that we've never managed to put out close to what we would think of as a proper team in any game so far, particularly at the back. The best defences we've managed to put out have all contained Williamson. Yes that's Mike (the worst centreback ever to play more than ten games for us) Williamson. It shows what an absolute shambles this preseason has been. I'm certainly not going get carried away with the results or the fact that our new striker who's had one training session so far didn't manage to score, but the complete lack of organisation at the club continues to alarm. The games that have been arranged have been a joke and the fact that we're still waiting for defensive recruitments and having to play Williamson (and may well have to play him against Southampton) is nothing short of pathetic.

Takes a lot of pressure off the batsmen when we're not chasing a massive total. Hopefully that will work for Bell and Lythe. Coook should be the ideal player here.

This is getting very enjoyable!

This. My reservation with with going for Matip now would be the prospect of both him and Mbemba going to the African Nations. I don't think there is one this season but it could be a problem the year after.

Boycott's craic is great at the minute like.

He wasn't far off going there.

Nice to see a top order collapse that doesn't involve Bell and Ballance for a change!

I think he'd massively improve our defense. Agree he'd be over priced like but that wouldn't bother me in the slightest if we signed him.

Apparently Villa, Palace, Hull, Sheff Wed and Leeds are all interested in Williamson. Lets hope one of them is stupid enough to take him.

I think the bigger issue is that we have greater needs at the back. Personally I'd really like to see Austin here too but if it comes to it I'd rather spend the money on a quality centreback and keep Cisse.

When you say "extreme optimism" I'm assuming you mean the same type of optimism that CT has?

We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one then

Thought he had a couple of decent games before he got injured but then came back and looked poor. Admittedly he came back into a team massively lacking in cofidence and missing several key players. I'm not saying he's definitely not good enough but I've certainly not seen anything in him so far that suggests he's worth a game ahead of Colback, Anita, Sissoko, Tiote, or Gini.

Why wouldn't I be serious?

I'm not sure about that. I think Colback and Anita both have decent passing, especially if they have someone actual movement ahead of them, although I still have doubts about Anita's physicallity. Tiote clearly isn't the most brilliant passer of the ball but again with more quality with him he seems to settle himself down and play the easy ball (which is potentially enough if he has movement in front and either side and Gini who looks like he can pick a pass). Abeid I'm afraid I don't really rate at all. I'm pretty sure that if we can we'll sell him too.

The likes of Aarons, Cabella, Perez and SDJ could all work well in that sort of formation. But the fullbacks having confidence in the players next to them is essential I think. Colo back to his best alongside Mbemba would work but I have serious doubts over whether he'll every get back near his best or whether he'll be here.

I'm still not sure we'll go for a winger. It really is a dying position at the moment with most teams getting their width from their fullbacks. In Janmaat and Haidara we have two players who are set up very well to do that but Janmaat in particular seems to not want to push on too much so far in preseason. Whether that's to do with fitness, a lack of confidence in our defending or a bit of both I don't know but I suspect it's the latter. To me this makes another defensive signing even more important. If we do play without wingers it does raise a concern about backup for both fullback positions. Dummett isn't anywhere near as good as Haidara going forward and for Janmaat we'd be either playing a centreback or a central midfielder there if he's out. That could be a big problem potentially.

Yeah I mean in addition to Mbemba. I think Janmaat would be quite a good captain but I agree I'd like to see a real leader there. Our transfer policy makes that unlikely though. It's difficult to have a ready made leader at the back who's under 25.

Aye I've seen the Mail is the other paper that's reporting the same thing. That Craig Hope seems to have been quite sharp latley with stuff about us.

Aye that's why I'd always be worried about signing players from teams like that. We're never going to sign their best players and there's always the worry that the others are being made to look much better by the players around them.