Tomo

We never here about Costa, Kante, Silva, Hazard etc being board signings do we? Enough said

I love how you are at pains to mention how we were lucky to beat Brentford but fail to mention that Burnley would have been a cricket score if it wasn't for Pope.

Eventually I will get to the point of turning off when Lukaku is playing.

Dare i say Saul is looking something resembling a footballer at LWB.

Every players a board signing once they start struggling.

It may not be FIFA but there's nothing stopping us relegating him to a squad role price tag or no price tag. Grealish (£100m) is in and out of the City team and often subbed off when he does start while Pepe (£72m) is now firmly a squad player at Arsenal. There's nothing to stop us doing likewise for Lukaku if it benefits the team, to which point he will hopefully have his trademark sulk and force his way out, if he doesn't okay we have a different option in the squad all be it an expensive different option. Maybe there is an element of trying to convince myself a bit because ,frankly, the thought of this teams potential being squandered because Lukaku is untouchable makes me want to throw up.

Zenit are probably going to rotate/not go full pelt in this themselves now they've got nothing to play for (EL for them regardless of the result). Like with the Seville game last year we need to take some calculated gambles, top vs second isn't the deal breaker it use to be, ever since the new system of putting league/EL/UCL winners into pot A the winners and runners up list for the RO16 has been a lot closer in quality.

I'd like to think so but after Torres and too an extent Kepa i ain't underestimating just what sort of strange power expensive underperforming players can have on a section of our fanbase. You just know that stadium tour when he was a teenager will be rolled out as emotional blackmail.

Remember when there was that debate over whether we should have kept young Lukaku instead of bringing in a 32 year old Eto'o? I'd take our version of Eto'o over this Rom let alone the raw version.

Whoever sanctioned this are the most to blame, it's not like we can claim hindsight like we maybe can with Saul, it was so so obvious Rom wasn't fitting this system. I didn't want him in 2017 either but back then I understood the logic as he would have been a decent fit for Conte, getting him now however was beyond stupid and has the potential to ruin all the great work Tuchel has done to this point.

In most fanbases expectations tend to line up with the price tag (hence CR7 and Bale getting booed when they had the slightest drop off at Real). With us it seems to be the opposite, the more they cost the more chances they get and the more extreme the excuses are.

Yep, and he will rightly be put on any future PK shootouts even if he fails to save any next time round just like Edou is rightly number 1 in regulation play and one poor game won't change that.

I'm not saying Rom's better but I think the out and out number 9 is becoming outdated not just with us but in general. It's no coincidence our best displays under TT come playing false 9. Also it has to be noted despite his unreal personal stats Dortmund have actually regressed while he's been there.

Tuchel's system doesn't even suit an out and out striker, I have doubts even Haaland would fit properly into it. That's what makes this all the more infuriating. I never wanted Rom but I could understand the reasoning to go for him in 2017, but getting him for this team was instanity.

Prime Kane yes but this version is too risky. He has been poor for months and looks finished.

Was there ever any debate to drop Cech for Turnbull when he had a poor game or two? We wouldn't have beaten Watford less than four days ago if it wasn't for him.

Nothing's happened to him, he's always been like this. People did a deal with the devil because they thought he'd guarantee goals.

It's been seven minutes and it's already evident how much more static and weaker we are in the press now.

I'm not a huge fan of Ruben but the biggest culprit to that first half at Watford was by far Saul.

I gave the benefit of the doubt on Wednesday that he was being rested, with the form Callum is in resting for one match should be a stretch let alone two. It seems to be that he gets held to higher standards than the rest of the squad. Pulisic, Mount, Havertz and Ziyech won untouchable starting slots for months when they had similar bursts of form.

Really annoyed CHO has been seemingly punished for one so so game after a month of being spectacular.

I read the ACON players maybe leaving after boxing day so Edou will miss Liverpool, although ofcourse that means so will Mane and Salah.

While ofcourse those windows in itself didn't help (understatement) I think on both occasions things ran deeper than that. 2010 may have made it worse but it was actually 2008 where we badly fucked up. That summer we should have identified young hungry players (like Luka Modric) to gradually succeed the old guard over the following 2-3 years, the fact we tried to sign Modric 3 years later says everything. And while ofcourse Torres wasn't the only problem, imagine how easier things would have been had we had a prime Falcao, Aguero or RVP? This time it was the double whammy of 2017 and needing to move on with the times style wise else we'd have become the club version of Jose. It was always going to take time to effectively change to a modern style, espeically when you're trying to chase down Pep.

After we signed players for multi millions of pounds to try and help get the best out of him and gave him full 90s unconditionally for months on end. Sign Jermaine Beckford and mollycoddle him the same way he'd have wound up with a similar tally. And that's before we mention all the vastly superior strikers we lost while he was here (Drogba, Sturridge, Ba, Eto'o) and quite possibly missed out on thanks to him (prime Falcao, Aguero, Cavani). He held us back for years on so many levels.

As shit as Bakayoko was he did give us the early run and some performances in big games including a cup final. I dread to think what would happen if Saul plays against top calibre opposition.