cowl

I'm sorry, but I'm sick to my back teeth of this bloke. He's thick. And it's scary just how thick he is. Just flipping sell someone. How flipping hard is it to just do that without making a flipping song and dance about it?!

Seems like an excessive reaction but if he's going to Huddersfield then it probably makes more sense, although I'd say he'd still be better off staying with Leeds given Town's likely relegation.

Saturday he was poor - but pretty much everyone was. Before that game though he'd been much improved in the last 4 or 5 games. I hope we strengthen in the full back positions because I think we really need to, but I don't really care who plays and so if Fox can raise his game to keep the competition for his place out, then that can only be a good thing.

I'd be very happy to take £10 million for him. Even if for no other reason than I want us (or, rather, DC) to get in the habit of being willing to sell our most prized assets because it's what clubs at this level do. Reach chips in with goals and creates more than his fair share, so he'd need replacing well, but it's the only real way forward for us to start cashing in on players when their stock is high. Any number of marketing initiatives in order to get more bums on seats pales in comparison to the cash injection of the sale of a high-value player.

Why aren't the players playing to impress?

Matias was playing much closer to the striker under Bullen though. Fletcher has looked very isolated these last two games.

New management team (mostly) in, and we play like today and as we did against Luton? You'd think the players would be out to impress.

You'd looked. You're too thorough, or at least try to be. After all, you know he's getting rave reviews on MOTD most weeks and yet suspect he's made merely only a couple of starts this season? Why draw that conclusion from a player you claim is getting rave reviews most weeks? He's made only one, by the way, but you know that already because you looked that up just as I did. That Everton would consider loaning out Lookman for the rest of the season absolutely isn't outlandish, it is however that they'd consider loaning him out to a mid-table Championship side. Top end, if anything - but I suspect they'd much rather look at lower placed Premiership sides because after having loaned him out to a top-end Bundesliga side there's very little to learn from loaning him to the Championship at all, other than just to ensure that he gets plenty of games.

If Everton are willing to subsidise this heavily then I could come to understand this more from the financial point of view, but if they're going to loan him out to the Championship at all, I'd expect them to be looking at the top-end teams only. Genuinely expect this to be just the rumour-monger types on the internet assuming that because we've brought Bruce in we must have cash and so therefore we're about it start splashing it all over the place. I just still don't see it.

That Everton are willing to loan him out doesn't surprise me, but that we could possibly be in for him absolutely would. I'd be delighted to be shocked that this could be true, but I can't see how given everything that's been said about how close to the line we are in terms of the permitted profit and loss margins. In fact, if we're gambling our financial stability on such signings then I'm beyond disturbed by this.

Well, you probably don't get to as many games as what I do.

Four start in 10 days though for a player with Hutchinson's injury record and who hasn't started for months does seem like playing with fire though. It's hardly a case of being wise after the event with Hutchinson when we've been in this situation with him so many times now. And I'd hope they're going on more than just whether Hutchinson says he's alright before picking him. Still, it's hopefully not so bad, and just a precaution as has been mentioned.

Hardly a myth. Had he come here with such a reputation but never shown any evidence of that then fine, but he did show evidence of it in his first month with us. But sadly that was it. I also remember a very nice ball-carrying escapade up the pitch against Cardiff away which I think resulted in a goal. The confidence just seemed to drain from him after the Pigs games though.

Way down the pecking order and after spending most of the last 12 months (but for pre-season training and the first three games of this season) injured, he needs games, so if he's not going to get them here then a loan move back to a league that's more familiar to him at least seems sensible. Then perhaps this summer the coaching staff can take it from there. Needless to say though, there'd need to be a major improvement in many aspects of his defending, and I suspect that ultimately he's not really going to be up to the Championship even with some better coaching. Nice passer of the ball, mind. At least initially anyway, but the confidence just seemed to evaporate after the first 3 games or so. Always thought it was so odd that when we signed van Aken and Venâncio, CC said that Venâncio was Championship ready but that van Aken will need a little time to settle - and then just proceeds to give van Aken his debut within days of him signing, and Venâncio didn't make his debut until CC's last game in charge about 4 months later.

It's a more than acceptable reason - of course it is. And I've no problem with DC being accommodating to such a request, as it's the human and compassionate thing to do. In any case, I don't think it matters that much that he starts the job only in February. It's a personal issue too, but I think it's better that the reason be outed. I think it would be awkward for Bruce to have to explicitly give this reason, so it being back-channelled like this is understandable, though not ideal either because it won't entirely quash rumours of it being something else.