Reddish-Blue

That would be the best news of the whole transfer window! I doubt Juventus take him...

He was also way out of his league trying to manage Chelsea. Similar to Moyes at United, sometimes it is a step too far.

If he's not a United player in the summer, that would be a massive shock.

It's just a shame, we really need a CB to help out Colwill.

Romano just posted that City has agreed personal terms with Reis. They're hoping to get it done before other clubs come in at that price point.

Seemed like Maresca bringing one of his Leicester boys along for the ride...then he realised a few months in that KDH is actually a mid-table player at best 😄

Its a shame about Reece, really thought he'd be our starting RB week in week out by now. Then you see the other fullback who was coming through our academy around the same time (Livramento) and it hurts to see him do well at Newcastle.

How many years since Conte & Diego Costa had that fight? 😆 Now we're onto young Jackson, Guiu and a 60% fit Nkunku

Nkunku hasn't been switched on since moving to Chelsea and getting that injury in pre-season. If he was fit and in-form like his Leipzig days, he would be the #1 option without question. Ask yourself this, would Jackson be leading the line for our top 4 competitors this season? Probably not. He's similar to Duran at Villa, not enough experience to be #1 option yet but enough skill to be playing regularly and chipping in with goals. (Just waiting for the Jackson fans to come and defend him with xG and "link up play" stats 😁)

I doubt Branthwaite would be stupid enough to move from Everton and then receive death threats from supporters (similar to how Gerrard received death threats when he was close to leaving Liverpool).

Salah would be a huge loss, hard to replace that level of player, similar to how we've struggled to replace Hazard over the years. TAA can be replaced, just depends how Slot wants his tactical setup to look like next season.

I do wonder if the club is looking at getting a midfielder in just to help out Caicedo/Enzo and give them a breather? KDH, Carney, Chilwell were all supposed to be moved on in January.

I don't disagree with that but the point is, Newcastle were still able to keep it together with Isak not in form and now they are reaping the rewards of getting some players back from suspension/injury. Same can be said for City. We had a chance to pull away and keep a gap by not dropping points in consecutive games but now we're stuck in the top 5 race.

We have midfield depth and someone to compete with Jackson (Lavia, Nkunku) but they are always unavailable when the team needs it 😆 That would be a very interesting watch as Enzo is intent on playing his way and it's going to cost us more points this season. That's why I said in the other thread that Newcastle are starting to put it together and they have a clinical striker up front. Unfortunately we don't have that. Bournemouth, Wolves, City, West Ham and Brighton as the next 5 fixtures. I'd be surprised if we won 3 of those games.

Scoring 1 goal won't win you many games. As we saw against Fulham and now Palace, teams tend to give a bit more energy in the final 10-15 minutes, especially when they are only 1-0 down. Hopefully for Maresca's sake, he fixes it up as Newcastle have closed the gap to 4th and City have started to win again. It's not looking good for our side as they have Isak and Haaland where as we have Jackson up front.

I didn't understand the KDH transfer when it happened as we don't need his skill set, seemed more like a transfer for Ange at Spurs where it's attack first mentality. No point saying Lavia is levels above Gallagher when one of them is out of action 90% of the time and the other is known for having strong fitness levels. Its like comparing Reece to the other top quality RB's, it's just not possible anymore as Reece is unfortunately made of glass, won't be too long before he has to retire early and become a coach.

I still don't get why we had to sign Kellyman from Aston Villa...there were other offers for Maatsen. I was expecting the club to at least get a decent squad player from Aston Villa, not a youngster that will likely play zero minutes for us. KDH was a Maresca signing, I don't think it's Maresca not trusting him, he just looks off the pace.

To be fair, with the way the PSR rules work, selling academy graduates is such an easy loophole. With Chalobah, what was the actual strategy in loaning him out....he's not a 20 year defender that will develop at Palace, he's already a squad player You either sell or keep him around as squad depth (unless Maresca wasn't a fan and wanted him out).

This has 1-1 or 1-0 to palace written all over it.

That's what happens when players aren't available in midfield or defense. Not saying its an excuse but we looked much better when Fofana/Badi were available at CB and Lavia was available in midfield. With the upcoming games, I get the feeling that the gap will only widen between us and the top PL teams. Maresca showed that he didn't have a plan B against Ipswich...every other team just has to follow the same game plan (1. mark Palmer and keep him near the center circle and 2. press our defense, especially Disaster at RB).

You forgot to add James (perma-crocked) and Chilwell (disappeared after that 1 appearance and part of permanent moving away squad). Put it this way, defense is the reason why we're likely to miss top 4 this season. Liverpool/Arsenal are well ahead of us, City will get it together.

I would think lack of quality in defense is more of a concern than our attack being a bit off-form. If Maresca continues to play Disasi in that RB/CB type role, we will continue to drop points. No point having young talent like Josh on the bench if he's not going to play, let him get some minutes on loan and develop for next season.

@Vesper what's your prediction for Gyokeres next move? Premier League or somewhere else as he's too good to be playing in Portuguese league.

He would have a choice of many clubs (rumors are that both Arsenal and City want him), there's like a 0.00001% chance of him moving to Chelsea. Felix is the definition of "wasted talent", maybe Mendes can help us out and offer him to Wolves? They seem to do better with Portuguese/Brazilian players.

We also had a relatively fit squad and players looking to prove a point earlier in the season... Will be interesting to see if Maresca can coach his way out of this slump