David Kelly

Just goes to show you should never get a mackem to talk about football.

It might be actually worse than what we've done previously. In the past we signed players who had played quite a bit of top flight football in a decent league (mainly France). Cabaye, Debuchy, Sissoko, Remy, Cisse, Ba, they were all internationals before they got here with at least a couple of years top flight experience. The three signings so far have just over 60 top flight (in a decent league so I'm discounting portugal) between them. I don't want to knock any of them, particularly the two we've not yet seen, but it's a massive risk. I think we still need at least another two that we know will go straight into the team and have the experience to do that.

That is a horrendous side. Waddle is the only one who would get near our best team and by the time he went there he was finished and played less than ten games for them. He has Rose down as a legend despite him only spending one season on loan there before he'd really developed as a player. Just shows what shite they've had to watch over the years.

Gamez has looked a lot better than Manquillo every time I've seen him. Apparently Manquillo did quite well at Marseilles mind.

Aye he's not being given the proper chance. What's the point in playing him out of position and fucking him up. It's like Pardew is running the England team.

I suspect the Yorkshire connection with Root was a big factor in his latest comeback. He has been in superb form for Yorkshire this season mind.

And when you've typed it we still have no idea what it is.

I just assumed she'd leave them but they'd get off'd by someone else.

Uninspiring is generous. He was shite every time I watched the mackems last season.

Have a look at Harry Kane's loan spells before he broke into the Spurs team, they're no more inspiring. Not saying he is or will ever been close to Kane's standard but if he's rated at the club then there's plenty of time for him to come good.

Whilst I'm happy we're getting a player that Rafa wants (and a one that has looked full of promise in the few occasions I've seen him) I'm still concerned that we aren't really improving our starting eleven. We've signed three players (not wanting to jinx this as it's not been completed yet) and I'm not sure that any of them go straight into the starting line up. Atsu obviously wasn't first choice for most of last season, Lejeune (whilst being likely to come in as first choice) is someone who has only had just over one season of top flight football and none of us had heard of him until he was linked, and Murphy is someone who Norwich fans are saying has only had half a good season and plays mainly in the same position as arguably our best player, who had a better season than him last time around. I'm confident the squad is improving and I recognise that is needed, but we need to make bigger strides with the starting team. Most of the players we are being linked with now seem to be along the same lines as these three. I realise there's still plenty of time for this to change and my bed is still nice and dry but at the minute I'm not thrilled with the way our business seems to be heading.

Aye I expect they all will.

Ballance just keeps doing exactly the same things and hopes for a different result. His technique is fine for county level but is now exposed at test level. There's no point in playing him. Jennings form is worrying but there's plenty of time for him to put that right. With Ballance it's obvious nothing will change now.

Aye but it was fine when it was Sigur Ros, they're not usless ginger cunts. I actually quite liked the scene that he was in. You only ever see soldiers as vile rapists or whatever but it was good to see them as just ordinary people doing a job and wanting to just go home to their families. I suppose it didn't really do anything to move the plot on though.

Inevitable I reckon.

Each transfer fee has been bigger than the last this summer so far. Just saying.

Apparently we've only scored over 200 in the 4th innings 4 times under Baylis. We've improved massively with the white ball under him but our test form isn't great at all. I don't think we'll see much if any changes for the next test. They're saying Wood might not be up to three in a row (nothing was happening for him this match) so he might be replaced with Ball.

I'd completely erased the turd that was the second Garfield film from my mind. It takes some doing to be worse than the Venom one but that was in Batman and Robin territory.

The team selection was ridiculous for this match. Two spinners couldn't have been less needed. Stoneman should have been given a chance (should have been years ago really), play Jennings at 3 and Ballance at 5 where he's been doing well. That said, I think Ballance has ran out of chances now. He doesn't look like he's trying to learn from the problems he's been having at test level. Shocker for Bairstow there. Not that it matters much, we'll lose this today no doubt.

I've been absolutely loving it. When you give Lynch complete control you're going to get surreal.

If the best bits are in the trailer I'll give it a miss. The trailer is fucking awful. Shame as I really liked the first two spiderman films. The last two were pretty wank particularly the venom one.

Was a shame we had to suffer Ed Sheeran singing in the new episode mind.

I started reading the novels about three seasons into the show. Since then I've preferred the novels but I think they've done an excellent job with the show even if with some characters (Tyrion and Stannis leap to mind) they've changed them more than I think they should.

Watched the replay of the game yesterday while hungover and the first half was actually one of the more entertaining friendlies I've seen. SDJ looked very good whenever he got the ball. He would have been a really good asset for us last season and possibly could this. If he can actually stay fit and if his lack of pace isn't exposed in a competitive premier league setting. Second half was unsurprisingly much poorer but I though Lejeune looked pretty good and Gamez and Saivet surprised with pretty decent performances. It would be really nice to see these players actually come through and contribute this season but I won't get carried away with how they've done in a friendly against a mid table Scottish team. Still I'll take a win over a team much further on with their fitness than we will be at this stage. I'll be worried if Mbemba has to play rightback at all for us going off his first half performance.