I think the club needs to take the approach of only signing World class/ promising young players.

Signings like Drinkwater and Zappacosta are the ones we should be avoiding - are they any better than what we've got in our youth system? I'd argue not. Is Barkley better than Musonda/Hudson-Odoi as a fourth choice attacker? Time will tell on that one I guess.

Very impressed by our younger players today, they showed hunger and drive which I didn't see from Drinkwater and Barkley.

comment by Charlag (U1717)
posted 12 minutes ago
I think the club needs to take the approach of only signing World class/ promising young players.

Signings like Drinkwater and Zappacosta are the ones we should be avoiding - are they any better than what we've got in our youth system? I'd argue not. Is Barkley better than Musonda/Hudson-Odoi as a fourth choice attacker? Time will tell on that one I guess.

Very impressed by our younger players today, they showed hunger and drive which I didn't see from Drinkwater and Barkley.
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^ Spot on!

Barkley wasn't that bad today, looks good on the ball.

Ampadu and Hudson-Odoi were brilliant I thought.

I agree with Charlag in that instead of buying five 2nd/3rd choice targets why not just get 1 or 2 of his top targets while bringing through young lads?

Good article. Barkley was good against arsenal and seemed ok yesterday. At the cost he was worth the risk. Bakayoko and drink water were near 80 million though and someone’s head needs checking. Would be happy for ampadu to play alongside Kante at the moment at least he can pass and defend.

Ampadu and Hudson-Odoi were brilliant I thought.
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Is so funny how happy we are that two players came on and were progressive and could actually play football.

Does make me wonder what people think in training when they do simple drills with bakayoko and he can't do them.

can anyone think of a reason why Hudson Odoi shouldnt just be thrown in,
he came on and i thought in that time he was brilliant,

Confident on the ball, making runs in behind

i am so excited about this kid id rather use him than sign someone like Leon Bailly ( however if haz goes then Bailly would be a good replacement )

I would not say he was brilliant, as impressive as he was.

He came on against a newcastle team who did not want to be there who were 3-0 down.

For those reason we shouldn't just throw him in

We should definitely be gradually increasing his time on the pitch though Nick!

all for that brummie, hopefully a nice draw tonight and we will see him next round.

I'm up for anything to stop bakayoko's time on the pitch

The trouble is Nick, that he's not really in competition with Bakayoko for a position, he's more in competition with Willy and Pedders - oh and of course Eden!

Pick your best players, and suit the formation round them. Rather than the other way around.

Or chuck ampadu in CDM and let kante roam.

I've always been an advocate of that Nick, it's never been more prevalent today were we do not have the players to play two in a central midfield, let alone three!

Perhaps I should have said, 'Players of sufficient quality'!

Well Haz will be off in the summer for sure,
knowing our transfer committee we will prob want to replace him with matt jarvis or someone

so the best course of action is to contiunue to get odoi in the team

How do you know haz will be off for sure? spoke to him?

We will get a new manager in and make some good signings.

comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 4 minutes ago
How do you know haz will be off for sure? spoke to him?

We will get a new manager in and make some good signings.
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cuz sanchez is earning 500k City or Real will be after him in the summer and we cant match that sort of money.

both he and TBO will be off i reckon

i just dont trust the board to do the right thing, i have made peace with this though our days of challenging for major honours are pretty much done and we cannot expect to win anything signing dross like Barkley drinkwater and bakayoko, all of those players kep RLC out of the team who is better than all of them but we seem obsessed with just selling these players rather than developing them

it wil be the cause of our downfall

just dont trust the board to do the right thing, i have made peace with this though our days of challenging for major honours are pretty much done...

Can't help but agree...Whose league champions again?

Not for much longer Nick

true. But Brummie we finished 10th 2 years ago mate. We've been in worse spots.

The way I look at it, is that all those years following them round places like Hereford, York, Carlisle and Oldham I never expected to see us win anything, so whatever happens now, I can go to my grave happy!

Talking of trophies, I ovrrflew the Allianz Arena about an hour ago!

Did a tear fall down your cheek brum?

Straight into my Lufthansa coffee!

We weren't great yesterday. Too slow to get going again but thankfully we never needed to get out of second gear. Newcastle started brightly enough and brought one save out of Willy but other than injury time at the end of the first half they did little else all match.

Ampadu and Hudson-Odoi both looked composed yesterday but it was at the end of a match already won.

As for Drinkwater, he's not played enough to get consistency. He did OK. He lost the ball a few times and his shooting was woeful in general but he did OK. I think he's a decent player tbh.

Cahill made the odd mistake but so did Christensen and Rudiger. It was that sort of match, no intensity to get the players going. Not like a cup tie at all.

Alonso's goal was a beauty though and we did the job so I was happy enough.