Mhsc

That is a big let down. Got to sort out himself out on that, otherwise fantastic player.

Interesting how the forwards are rotating. Looks like they're all playing every position quite fluidly.

Sanchez+Tosin painful to watch

Nkunku :( what happened to you man

Goalie should have got a yellow for time wasting to delay that Great save after tbf.

Is Cole playing up top?

The only basics he is doing is at passing the ball - where he does things very well. When it comes to shot stopping or positioning he simply does not look like a professional goalkeeper. Its embarrassing and basically forfeiting a game to put him out there, except against the lowest quality opposition where we can make sure they simply can't shoot.

But he HAS played, and from what we've seen, he's even worse. There is no reason to believe that if he played more he would miraculously be able to do the basics of goalkeeping well.

Agreed @YorkshireBlue. I feel like people were so hopeful Jorgensen was going to save us from the Sanchez situation they're giving him an unbelievable break on how poor he has been for us. I can't think of a worst goalkeeper from the first team going back a long long time - even going back before Roman where if memory serves we had Cudicini and Ed de Goey who were both way better than anything we have in the squad now. Genuinely possible Jorgensen is the worst goalkeeper we've had in my adult life.

When it is a competition to be the least bad, you don't have to impress, you just have to be the lesser clown

In more positive news, thrilled Wes is back and Lavia on the bench Not clear who is playing where, I guess Wes might be playing RB Chalobah recalled from loan and only considered good enough for the bench... Interesting.

Said it for some weeks now and i'll say it again, bringing Sanchez back in absolutely the right call, would have honestly started to question Maresca's intelligence if he did not reverse that decision Sanchez is bad, maybe a GK for a bottom half club at best, but Jorgensen is not fit to play in the premier league. He cannot make basic saves. He cannot position himself properly. He looks like an outfield player filling in for a goalie. Awkward and painful to watch him try. Sanchez will probably make some howlers today and it will still be the right decision to play him. Directors fucked us on that.

I am feeling recklessly confident we will get top 5 and have a good chance to get top 4 Expecting to see Cole get back to his old self at some point soon and possibility of a Fofana + Lavia return for a while Its the hope that kills you but right now I'm feeling positive, sue me

They refused to negotiate below £35m, played hard ball with us (gave a better deal to another club afterwards). Still, £35m was a reasonable price for him, with the benefit of hindsight now that we see how well he's handled Portugal so far And you were dead against Samu, you were actually extremely outraged they were even considering him... So it is not like it was a total no brainer to buy him. On this one, you should probably give them a break. Agreed tho on the refusal to pick up some good experienced pros hurting us.

Personally I think they were approached about Felix as an alternative in the Gallagher swap deal, and preferred that + going for Osimhen who they thought they would land but instead bottled as they were sure he would agree to something sensible on salary but it turned out he was an insanely greedy prick and they ended up with Felix and a big gap where Samu could have been. The deal we were offered was also a lot more than 23.5 as we were not talking about split ownership (which you can't even do in PL and tbh should be banned everywhere), so we would have been paying full whack not this weird 'discount' rate where you get to play him but part own him and give up the fee in future on transfer etc.

Seems like he's playing pretty badly in Italy too and they don't look likely to want to buy him in summer We can probably trick someone else into buying him if we take an L on him and just move him on quickly in summer for £35m or something

Now someone roll Cole the ball for a tap in so we can get our boy back pls Thank god we had Southampton. These are the kind of games you need when you're missing key players and really struggling!

Good save by Jorg Didn't know he had it in him, maybe I was wrong about the guy

As always, thank you for your service to your club and country

I can see the argument to keep trying with Nkunku, if he finds form and we get anything resembling the player we spent all that money on, it might save the season. And there's really no one beating down the door behind him to take that spot instead. And he basically can't damage his resale value any further than he already has. He is also a natural / instinctive finisher if we find him in the box in space, something you can't say for our other players.

This has potential to be a painful night. Feel less sick seeing Jorg in goal vs this lot just because they're so much less dangerous, maybe it is the rare game where his skill with his feet makes it worth playing a guy that can't make saves even at the standard of a championship goalkeeper The best thing about the game is that Southampton are terrible so even at our worst like this XI we might be able to do something

How can they? We run at a huge loss every year, there is no profit being made here for anyone. They've invested a tonne of money badly and wont get that back either. Its probably the worst investment of any of their careers - it will be a miracle if they break even

Yeah, even if they were all fit constantly it would be very debatable whether they are worth that kind of money. Enzo for £100m+ really seems like silly business to me at this point, he is just not a player that you can see intuitively slotting in to the PL, its been a long journey trying to figure out how to get value out of him and we still haven't figured it out really. His best performances for us were probably ages ago when he played deep, but he's so limited physically and defensively we were super exposed whenever he played there. Caicedo should have been the only big money signing of the three imo - overall I'm glad we spent the money on him, even if it was stupidly high - genuinely think he is a special talent and our 2nd best player after Cole. Would have broken into virtually any of our teams going backwards, in some position or another, some way or another, imo. If I could go back in time I'd pass on both Enzo and Lavia though, unless we're slashing their prices in half at least.

It is extremely hard to see a future in which they make any money on this project Huge cost to buy it Sunk insane money into players, most of whom they'll lose money on At best they might get the club to be year to year profitable so that it can sustainably buy players without further cash injections, but unless we dominate world football for 10 years they'll surely be in massive losses during their entire ownership Only hope for them is a Saudi buyer wants to pay stupid money to take the project off of their hands