David Kelly

Woakes hasn't really been at his best this series so if Jimmy's fit then he would be the obvious candidate to miss out. Yes it theoretically lengthens the tail but given that the Aussies seem to know how to get Woakes out fairly easily, it probably doesn't make much difference. And the key thing will be getting Smith (and possibly Labuschagne) out so we need to give ourselves the best opportunity to do that. Id be seriously considering dropping Roy too. He's not looking close to being up to opening at test level so far. God know who you'd replace him with though. There has been some talk of moving Denly up to open again and bringing in Pope at 4. Not really sure that's much of an answer though.

I lost my wallet at the weekend so I had to go up to the ground today to get a new season ticket. The lass in the ticket office told some old fella that they were expecting it to be about 20k tonight.

I certainly think there's no one else in our team that has the ability to play in both those ways. Root can defend and then move up through the gears but he couldn't get up to the six hitting point that Stokes reached. Buttler or Bairstow could twat the ball all over bur would never have been able to start off the way he did. There's very few in world cricket who could even contemplate pulling that off.

Two days later and I still can't believe this happened. Stokes just seemed to bend the match to his will. They should find a spot for him in the new Matrix film.

I've no doubt whatsoever that if he can get and stay fit he'll do well. But that's a massive if with him, he's only managed over 20 league games in 3 or 4 seasons in his career. But if Joelinton get's injured there's now at least a possibility we have another striker who's of premier league standard to cover.

Say what you want about his fitness record or the fact both his exit and return are down to the horrendous problems caused by our current owner, but personally I love that and would love it if he can get back on the pitch and contribute.

Same as always, keep the wages down as much as possible until the season is just about to start. It makes no difference to them that bringing in players at the last minute who aren't yet match fit means it takes much longer for the team to get going. Things like this are the real reasons Rafa has left rather not being given enough money to spend. He was just sick of them fucking him about so he's took the opportunity to earn a shit load more.

He could but it wouldn't surprise me if Talksport have some sort of contract which allows them access to premier league players as part of their package with the league. Anyone Sky/Talksport/Papers are all going to ask our players similar questions and none of them are going to say what we'd like them to say about the fat cunt who owns the club. If he was a bit more intelligent he might have been able to come up with something that didn't piss our fans off as well as not pissing off his bosses. But he's a footballer and no one has every accused them of being intelligent.

I think anyone who expects a current player to say anything particularly different is kidding themselves.

I'm already sick of hearing about the Athletic. Not so sure their predictions are wrong though.

I'd have Foakes in for Denly and move Stokes to four and have Bairstow five, Butler six and Foakes 7 seven. And then bring Archer and Leach in for Anderson and Ali. I'd love to have Curran in but it's difficult to see where to really have him unless you stuck with Bairstow or Butler as keeper and played Stokes as just a batsman and used Broad, Woakes, Archer and Curran as the seamers.

It's some young French defender for the reserves. Just what we need!

As much as I've slagged him off in the past, the standard that Dummett is at now is good enough for us. If he's as good as Dummet (providing he's better at attacking) I'd be happy with that.

I agree with the point you're making but we haven't spent that much really have we. You have to consider that we got £30m in for Perez. If it wasn't for Ashley and it was Rafa making these signings I'm sure everyone would be licking their lips. Lets face it, there wasn't a massive excitement around bringing Rondon in last season and before the last two or three months of the season there was a healthy portion of the support who's had more than enough of Perez. As things stand though, I know pretty much nothing about Joelinton or ASM. The former seems to be highly rated but the later looks a lot like Adama Traore to me. Hopefully not though.

Great start from Broad.

Yeah judging by twitter there seems to be a swing of reactions from the way it's been received on here, to excitement that isn't warranted on the players form so far and that I certainly can't get to because of what has happened in the last few months. Seems to be a lack of balance from both sides. I suppose I can understand both reaction because of what's happened during Ashley's reign.

Not sure why anyone would bother posting that.

I've been making this argument for years. When we were doing the thing with the French players it was obvious what the problem with our strategy was. Ashley still has no clue about football after a decade of owning us.

Well players move on after a couple of seasons all the time. That's no reason to be upset at a signing.

Certainly. It's a ridiculous situation. Personally I hate Ashley, Charnley and Bruce, and I think this signing is nowhere near enough to pacify me, but I'm not upset about making this signing. Yes his goals per game hasn't been superb so far but he's a young lad and regarded as a big prospect so I'm quite happy to see him come in. He just needs to be followed by another four and I doubt we have the time to do that.

It's interesting to see what Ashley has done to everyone. To be as pissed off as some are that he's actually done what we've been crying out for is really quite an achievement.

We walked it last time. Wasn't too far.

The bars next to the station were all fine to drink in last time we were there. That part of the town is quite reasonable. There was some club that looked like it had been petrol bombed a bit further down the street though.