Strike

One of the decisions that has taken us a step back this summer. Why are we going through the process again after doing it with Madueke for 2 years?

Where was this intensity for an hour ?

Not the worst result but hopefully Maresca doesn’t play Neto and Gittens together again

What was Gusto thinking ?

Can we get Eden on for Neto?

Andrey needs to come on here

Early subs has to be the play.

Estevao and Delap should be the first subs in

Ref stopping a good counter there

Wharton is having a great half vs Caicedo/Enzo

Palace is a good team. And we haven't had a pre-season.

Gittens looks out of his depth.

Was not called foul but Guehi is close to the wall or something

Never seen anything like it but what a wake up call

Deepest squad in the league. Look at the bench without Colwill Badiashile Tosin Lavia Nico

Acheampong is ahead of Hato and will likely start tomorrow

think he now stays due to Colwill injury

Not confident about a title challenge this season. We are more of a player trading vehicle than a serious coaching/tactical project. Too many raw players in the first team - Gittens, CBs We will be thereabouts because we've upgraded in attack but fear Arsenal/Liverpool are gonna be tough to catch

Lazy dismissal of Noni's time here. It is not a surprise a team that finished above us spent 50m on him. He was second only to Doku in progressive ball carries last season and is a useful weapon vs low blocks even if his finishing was iffy. Also, the point is trading Madueke out and bringing Gittens in makes the squad weaker. Madueke is far ahead in his development. It made more sense to sign an elite winger and have Madueke as competition than what we have now - Gittens in a starting role

Doubt we get a good bid for him this late in the summer. Maresca has been asking for a CB - the board can do a lot worse than call up Veiga

Should consider keeping Veiga and loaning out Anselmino I'd be much happier if we can avoid extended gametime for Tosin/Chalobah

Long-term, Liverpool makes more sense. They have just VVD and Konate as senior CB options after selling Quansah. Konate is running down his contract too. He'll get plenty of mins even if he's rotated. At Chelsea, he competes with so many CBs and has Fofana and Colwill coming back into the squad at some point too.

Wonder why they took the effort to sign Trafford

Doubt it. Konate plays as a right sided CB. We'll certainly be looking at CBs who play on the left side

We did explore a cheap deal for Maignan so we are not totally against the idea of a keeper joining. But I can see Donnarumma throwing up red flags for our data-heavy directors. He does have weaknesses playing out and collecting crosses into the box. Not to mention the wages.