West London Bear

Sorry, I’ve reached page 3 and have a question that may well have been asked. Surely we know the banner content before it’s allowed in? Or am I being dense?

I know this will get shot down, but our best 11 beats their best 11 all day long right now. Our problem is that our best 11 is literally all we have, whereas they have a good core of 16 or more that have an argument about being in the best 11. We need a few more that challenge our 11. But more importantly, we need to beat the rest of the shite. Beating the filth is nice, but I’d accept the occasional slip up against them for more shiny things.

I think the answer to that needs to be overlayed with the clubs longer term plans. If FFP or just general finances means we’re going to have a few lean years then we do need someone who can just fire up a dressing room and there was little doubt that as skipper, he did that. If however the club has a broader plan that involves an element of player investment, then we need someone who can lead that as that would not be something you’d want an inexperienced manager leading. But one thing is for sure, wee Barry should have a role on the coaching team going forward.

Not all Northern Irish Catholics supported the IRA. That’s the same logic.

Look, if we were better in other areas we’d love big Dessers, he gets blamed for the entire teams failings. We see in cameos what he can do and those cameos always occur when we have an all round good game. Boyd was not even in the same postcode as Dessers and I loved big Boydy.

It’s around €2.5m for just being there, then you have home gate receipts, TV money, advertising and sponsor stuff. It’s nice and it’s unexpected. I’ll take a punt and say that the QF is worth €4m to us.

Pumping those barstewards in their rat infested midden would be even better than last Thursday.

I doubt either will play but the call up and the chance for them to train with guys they will revere can only be a huge plus. Well done to both of them.

I can only call what I saw and we’ve been asking for a CB who puts his body on the line. I think Big Leon does that for 6 weeks then needs a 4 week holiday, but Souttar was immense.

We’re in the QF of a Euro trophy. It was the second half of a game where we were 3-1 up. That is the way to process it.

You could have a point there mate. We did mop up a lot of second balls last week, but last night we looked hurried and they looked like they had time. It was totally different to last week, but it’s not an isolated situation I have seen it before and at this level it can kill you.

I’m overseas (again) at the minute and watched tonight on my iPad, mirrored to a TV with a few colleagues. One of them made a point early on that got me thinking as I watched the match. The point was that most every second ball whether from us winning a dual or them winning a dual fell to a Fenerbahce player. Invariably he was unmarked and had space and time to think. The fact we’re through is a god send but is this second ball thingy just a player quality issue or can our players be a lot smarter out of possession?

I know that they divide opinion but for what it's worth I do like them, I wish they would not keep shooting themselves in the foot, but I'd rather they were there than not.

I think a little bit like GvB we probably pulled the trigger too early, but it is done and we have to move on.

I recall on the Man City Netflix thingy, Guardiola was asked about his input to transfers and he said that the way it had always worked with him was that he would describe a characteristic based on maybe a key injury or perhaps just an area he felt that they were light and that he would be given different options from the Football Department. That doesn't seem wrong as clearly he is delivering the agreed style (which I accept will not be just him), but he will be the one to know if its not something that they have in the squad.

I’d actually put most of that on Gerrard, and I’m not sure all of them were of an age that would have gotten us good prices. Alfie and Kent could have gotten us a combined of about £26m if we’d sold them after 55. As I recall Gerrard stopped that and neither player actually kicked on, in fact Morelos was injured for a hunk of the next season. I didn’t word the bit in my post about the new manager thinking of players. I agree that managers are not best at transfers, but they should have a series of characteristics and styles that they know fit both their own style and the demands of the league and that is what I truly hope is happening right now.

The reality is though that we are not in a position of strength in any transfer dealings these days. We will have to make certain concessions to both clubs and players to get much if any interest. Let’s look back at players that we have lost these last few years, McGregor, Barasic, Lundstram, Goldson, Jack, Morelos, Kent and I’ll even throw in Roofe. Whilst they were at the end of their time with us, did we actually bring in any player as a replacement who was an upgrade? We can have another clear out and we can bring in another batch, but they might be even worse. We need to stop “rebuilding”. I think young players like Nsialla, Jefte, Dio, Fernandez, Igamane even Cortes could come good, they are all at the starts of their careers. The club has been a bin fire this season. I’m hoping the new manager has already been identified and that he is thinking about this because in spite of their free hit this season, the filth are hardly the world beaters the press would have them as and I truly don’t think the gap is as big as some feel.

My wife is Anglo Indian (but a Yank). Her old man is 91, still runs his engineering business, but because we spend all our time between Atlanta and London, this was the only time I could find to visit, she had been there for a month before I got there. I'm in Delhi now, flying back in about 8 hours. Then off on a work trip, then off on a birthday holiday for the big 60

If we play well and lose, we're shite. If we play shite and win, we're shite. If we play well and draw we're shite. If we play shite and draw we're shite. Maybe the rules have changed, but the team that has the most goals wins the last time I looked. I'd take 38 shite wins all day long.

I'm currently in Mussoorie in the Himalayan Foothills and watched the game in a wee boozer called the Garrison. I have watched matches in some strange places, but this topped it. Any other crazy ones?

Pre Contract announced. Nice.

As a wee man in Kilwinning. We did plenty of Burns. That was the 70’s, maybe times have changed.

I was driving back from Belgium, so listening to the game on the radio. At half time we brought on Rice, but why not Nsio and Curtis and Fernandez, the game was won. All County wanted was a low score. We need to know if these boys are for keeping. Today was the day for a few experiments. What did we learn bringing on Lawrence and Bajrami? Maybe I missed something in not seeing it live.

I'm not Dessers biggest fan but there can be no doubting that playing him in a set up where he is not the lone striker has actually improved his contribution. My criticism last night would be the decision to play Bajrami as the 10 and not Igamane. Igamane looked a little lost in the wide role. Sort of reminded me of when we used to do that to Hagi a few seasons back and wonder why he was ineffective. Dessers and Igamane playing closer together would be interesting to see.

I'm thinking more around whether or not we use any advisors to word our appeal, or even construct it. We should not have to field on single penny.