David Kelly

Edgbaston is his home ground so he's definitely worth sticking with for the next test. I'd move Root up to 3 so Bell's coming in after him and possibly bring in Rashid as a second spinner in place of Ballance and bring Ali further up the order.

Of course. On pointless last week they had a question on the top 40 best selling songs by female artists in this country and BWitched was fucking in there man!

Was listening to Graceland in the car this morning. I only heard it for the first time last year I think but it's an amazing album.

I love JCGE, I think the 80's were great for that type of music making odd appearences in the charts.

Aye some absolute classics in that lot Chez. I think it was more 80's chart music that was being attacked. I know a lot of this bands had big hits (certainly Talking Heads, Talk Talk, Prince, The Cure) but they are probably more known for alumbs or cult following.

That was fucking brutal yesterday. I'd be scared of them getting to bat first in the next test regardless of where it is. We didn't have anything near the bottle to deal with chasing down a massive total (or even battling out a draw). For all of the positives there have been in English cricket in the last few months, there's big issues with the top order. Only Cook and Root look good enough (we know Bell was but his form is as bad or worse than Cooks had been). I can't see that there's many obvious replacements out there unless we move Root further up (which seems like the sensible thing to do given that it's usually been down to him to try and rescue us when we're 3 for 30) and bring Bairstow or Rshid in further back (and possibly move Moeen up too). Think we have to stick with Lythe though. He's only in his second test series (should have been his third but for the stupidity in the West Indies) so he needs to be given a chance.

There's still a load of 80's chart music I like tbf. Adam Ant, The Housemartins, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys etc. I mean I've moved on massively with what music I would actually put on to listen to but if Happy Hour, Goody Two Shoes or even a bit Cuddly Toy comes on in the pub I'm more than happy to hear it. Don't even mind a lot of the SA&W stuff but I suppose that's more in an ironic way.

Just watched the last 25 minutes or so of the game and it was all us even though we were down to 10 men. Perez should have scored after some great work by Aarons and possibly Sissoko should have got on the end of a good set piece from Colback. Gini looks to have decent strength and seems more than happy to use either feet. Looks like he'll look to get forward and support the attack (something our midfield has lacked in massively during Pardew's reign) and play more progressive passing than Colback, Anita or Tiote would. There's no point commenting on how bad Williamson looks because we've all said it a million times. This transfer window would be a failure for us even if we signed Messi if Williamson was still here at the end of it.

Well I think that would work if it is the case. Let's hope so!

I'm just going off the difficulties Colo and Mbiwa had playing together. Colo seems to need a big physical centre half to play with (like a Williamson with ability). He's more like a sweeper and I'd be dubious about putting him alongside another player like that. The article does mention that this kid/pensioner is more physical so maybe I'm just reading it the wrong way and they could form a partnership. I've not seem him play at all so I'm only going off what I'm reading.

I notice the full article that Parky is going off suggests he's similar (albeit a bit more physical) to Colo. Whilst I'm delighted to see us signing a centreback, if we only sign one he needs to be one who can play alongside our only decent current defender and one who can play immediately. That article seems to be suggesting neither of those things would be the case with this lad.

Fair enough. Bring him in then!

I read yesterday that he'd had some sort of bone marrow test by fifa to confirm his age. Which it apparently did confirm as 20. Not sure how true or medically possible this is like.

Which side does Thauvin play on? I have it in my mind he plays on the left. I know Aarons is very unproven but at least he's showing potential. I think I'd rather see us looking for someone on the right unless they are thinking Sissoko is going to play there. He's never really convinced me when playing wide even though he does it for France.

From what I've seen of Aarons I think he can get crosses in, if (and given the limited playing time he's had so far, it's a big if) he can be fit and prove himself good enough. And Janmaat certainly will but an 18 winger and a rightback certainly isn't enough. Obertan and Gouffran need moving on so we need another wide man for me. Unless we go with Fish's wingless wonders formation.

Is that sarcasm?

87% I'm disgusted I got less than you Fish!

Aye thinking about it I'd like to see something like that. As long as we can get the two fullbacks providing enough width.

Just google live cricket streaming and there's a few about. If you can't find it I can pm you the stream I've got on.

So a sort of 4-1-2-2-1? Maybe. Of course I'm used to having Pardew and Carver to try and set us up so I'm still doubtful we could make anything so complicated work. Maybe McClaren will be able to handle it.

At least we've had a couple of appeals this morning already. Pretty much more than we got in the whole of yesterday.

I'm not sure if we could fit Cabella and SDJ in a formation together like that.

Tiote/Colback as the defensive, Gini & Sissoko as the box to box and then what ahead of them?

The new Destroyer and Tame Impala albums. Both are good so far.

No I'll see what I can do about that later.