Tomaszk

What's Smith thinking telling Heaton to bring down a striker and telling Luiz to try stepovers just before opposition score from a deflection FFS. That's life. I assure you they didn't play like this against us. We gave them two goals for nothing in the home match. We could have got back into that if Billing had been sent off after 25 mins like he should have been. Away they were great first half. We swamped them second half but didn't play well overall, once again couldn't take advantage v 10. Luck goes that way sometimes. Grealish had an incredible effort some how not go in from a narrow angle that would have put us 1-0 up away. They had one spin off a defender and go in off the post at our place. Tonight is the worst I've ever seen them play in the Premier League. Even we would have beaten them playing like this... I think.

This is worst I've seen Bournemouth play in five years. Lovely.

Bournemouth look pissed. No Fraser and no Wilson they look flat as I can ever remember.

It really is all or nothing!

Myth? How have you come to that conclusion? Because you disagree? Are you saying this to try and reaffirm criticism of Smith out of interest? Just wondering. Outgoings on transfers for Brentford: 2016/17 £4.63m 2017/18 £5.4m 2018/19 £5.9m 2019/20 Over £31.5m Not a myth I'm afraid. Very much fact. This is the year they've gone for it. They didn't buy gems who could develop, the bought gems ready to go right into the team. Want to know when they signed their seven most expensive players ever? The summer of 2019.

This is what we should be doing if we really want to crack on. Lille owners are buying 51% of top-flight Portugese side Boavista to set up a link between the two. Any good youth players can go there and get first team football, plus you have many people on the ground in Portugal identifying players. This is why City will probably be winning 15 of the next 25 available trophies, they've got sides everywhere. We need to act early and not be left too far behind before football eats itself and collapses

They know what they're doing everywhere yes. This year was however the first time ever they've decided to spend some serious money. They deserve success. Their signings of Jansson, Pinnock and Norgaard, has formed their new core of CB CB and DM. They were 28, 26 and 25. EDIT: Just to say as well, if we didn't go up we needed these three positions. What are the chances we'd have ended up with three players this good for £12m? Absolutely **** zero with Suso at the helm.

Because he was 33, had a year left on his deal and he wasn't going to play much as they have a guy 10 years younger of similar ability. Tom Heaton is a Burnley legend and a brilliant player. For 8m was possibly buy of the summer.

No problem. Bottom three.

Oops. His time at Huddserfield was very positive then.

They were helped by some silly purchases from them. Coutinho who went to Barca for a fat sum and never played and Bournemouth buying half their youth team for about 50x their value. But yes, well done them. That's what happens when you have a good recruitment team. Success is easy. Buy good players. Don't buy bad ones.

Huge game for Bournemouth, no better chance to pick up points than Newcastle If you don't beat Newcastle you deserve to go down...wait a minute

What is the **** point? I thought he might have done some running in mini pre-season, but he hasn't stepped on the pitch. He's been worse than Lansbury in his brief appearances.

I think he's good but doesn't have the physicality to be fighting off CBs from punts forward. Good movement, good touch, awareness of what's around him.

Webber at Norwich would be a great appointment. He's the reason they signed Maddison a year earlier than anyone else, he's the reason they've signed Sam McCallum a year before anyone else.

Made a lot of mistakes, been a huge disappointment after early months when it looked like things were working. Given no chance IMO due to the players being so bad. I'd have no complaints about replacing him if there's a good option around, but I wouldn't sack him for not being able to turn these lot into Premier League players. Gerhard Struber is a name I'm keeping an eye on.

Let's see how Brentford get on if they get promoted!

Yessss. Eff off Suso.

I'll be devastated if we only get £50m. Anywhere. Disagree. He's top. Opens teams up for fun as soon as he has any movement ahead of him. He will be flavour of the month as soon as he moves. "Oh wow, Grealish has improved". Nope, he's always been this good.

Klopp didn't sign them. The analysts who sign all their players did.

MAKE VILLA GREAT AGAIN

What does that make Wes.

Nah.

He takes plenty of criticism from me certainly. I've been disappointed with his lack of tactical flexibility, something that had niggled me since the Championship. I'm disappointed with his team selections. Many times he's started Hourihane in games you knew he'd get flattened etc. His subs on 60 mins of Trez/El Ghazi for either El Ghazi or Trez have started to grate. However! I don't know what he's meant to do with the players he has. They're pony. Different formations is the obvious one, and he hasn't tried that bar a 343 be didn't like himself that left us so light in midfield teams walked through us at will. If Suso couldn't find a left back better than Targett for 14m rising to 17m that should be him out the door right away. Same for Trez, same for Marv. If Suso couldn't find a striker better than Wes for £20m, he's in the wrong job and should go and be a farmer or something.

You start well here but I think you're talking yourself into doubting these methods because you want to. Cloughy would no doubt hate these methods because he wanted to go out, see the players himself and bring them in. But how could he possibly watch the French second division and the polish premier league enough to judge if he liked players? It's not possible, there's not enough hours in the day. Where the hell would be we if Martin O'Neill had let a team like Liverpool's bring in his signings in 2007/8/9? I can assure you we'd have had at least two seasons in the Champions League to enjoy. When all the club's have a department like Liverpool, yes, their influence will waver. We're a long long way from than. Six months ago City were rushing out a job ad for a physicist to try and start a team. That's City. Unlimited resources, reigning champs and (distant) closest challengers. I really really hope our US owners have a decent starting point to work from with this. Departments like this are far more common and accepted in American sports.