Ian

So reading between the lines, what you're saying is that we comfortably won an away game without being any where near our best? Sign of a top team, and delighted you agree.

Thought McLean pressed and cleaned up quite well in the centre alongside Skipp. I don't think anyone looked particularly amazing going forward in terms of sharpness, we should really have won that by several goals in the end. That said, a bit of rustiness and nerves are to be expected, so getting a clean sheet and a win is a really good result. Just sad the first thing some fans can do after a winning start is slag off McLean. Special shout out to the ref, who I thought missed the most blatant pen against Aarons you will see all season. Onwards and upwards, OTBC.

Sad.

I missed the first half, reading these comments though it sounds like we've had an absolute shocker.

Really?!

Are you seriously trying to make the point that we won the league impressively, despite McLean playing? You are aware that football is a team game, and it is, at best, naive to judge a players' assists and goals in isolation given that it doesn't take a genius to realise Vrancic was not able to achieve those figures without other midfielders in the team facilitating him. You can quote all the statistics you like if you believe it gives your opinion more insight than any other fan's, or Farke's, but ultimately, the last time we won the league Kenny played pretty much every game from January onwards. IMHO that makes a nonsense of your suggestion that you can't win the Championship with players like him, because we already have.

I don't really understand this point considering when we last won the league Kenny was pretty much a mainstay in the second half of the season?

Not at all dodgy or anything.

Wow. Any sort of coverage of this one?

Obviously had a massive impact.

Perhaps. I suspect they weren't quite as naive as you are implying though.

Not really. These are high-profile multi-millionaires we are talking about, not small businesses trying to offset tax to keep themselves above water. I assume at any point their accountants could have verified it with their relevant tax authority.

Wow, he took them both shopping at the same time?!? Brave man our Ben...

Agreed, one of the few players who, if they did leave, IMO would be extremely difficult to replace.

Agreed. @NeymarSmith needs to learn the way of the Pinkun (double down, use lots of CAPITALS, then completely disappear when proven wrong).

Unless he is want away and we get an excellent offer, I would say there is absolutely no chance we should try and move him on. I find it absolutely bizarre people are not too bothered about him moving on, given he is precisely the sort of player we would be looking to sign in the Championship and probably with a reasonably high fee too.

Whilst I have pretty limited knowledge and understanding of this country's laws, this seems pretty ludicrous to me. I suppose that if Hawkeye are contractually obliged to offer 100% accuracy and no failure of technology, and the contract is with the EPL (of which Bournemouth are presumably still a shareholder) there could be some grounds, but surely there is no way that a company would make those promises and leave themselves open to legal action?? Given that other cameras and VAR were also available to the refereeing team enabling them to make the correct decision my mind just boggles as to how the blame could be placed squarely on the shoulders of Hawkeye.

No, I absolutely do respect your right to your viewpoint - hence why I was very keen to see and understand your actual argument. I understand why the more insecure fans with short memories would find this season embarrassing, but I personally don't feel that way as it was always going to be a ridiculously hard task given the transformation that was undertaken the previous season. I also have very short shrift for pundits and managers who don't do their research about us and instead just focus on the usual tropes. What I don't respect is your attempt to belittle those with a different view by describing them as "dumplings". The fact you have doubled down on that by throwing out yet more ad-hominem terms such as "snowflake" probably says a lot less about my apparent wokeness than it does about your inability to have a debate in good-faith without a narcissistic edge to your posts.

Ha ha, he was good for a soundbite that's sure!

Is that 7 million a direct quote though? I always thought he was talking about salary rather than directly about fees. It's one thing to be able to afford the transfer fees, and other to be able to match the salary the other club was offering. If Webber was purely talking about transfer fees I would say he's being pretty disingenuous, as there's no doubt the club could afford this if it really wanted. That said, I always think he plays the media a little bit anyway to make his job look just a little bit harder...

Couldn't, or wouldn't? I suspect it is more that they not think that 7 mil was good value for that player and weren't prepared to take the risk.

I think Webber and Farke are are a decent team, and that's why I believe we probably just weren't able to attract those sorts of players at that price point and salary. I know the media love to simplify everything in terms of transfer fees = quality, but we know the importance of recruiting the right sort of player too. Whilst I certainly believe Farke/Webber will have made mistakes in hindsight with certain transfers, I don't believe that between them they would have just decided to "go with what we've got" without making sure there weren't alternatives. I think we are pretty much on the same page with this anyway?

Not really, I'm suggesting that "Crafty" should put up a valid argument rather than slagging fellow supporters off, and that if he chooses to do so in such a condescending manner he should probably have some credentials. This is probably the opposite of what the delightful Roeder had in mind.

Great post, and one that reinforces my disdain for the average supporter who believes we are a "laughing stock". On that point, did you actually have an argument relevant to this thread, or are you just going to continue with your endless list of ad-hominems? You are clearly so vastly superior to other posters on this thread I am surprised you're not in the position of running a professional football club yourself.

My understanding was that the reason our VAR implementation was so delayed is that other leagues' implementations would be used to determine what worked well and what didn't. I think the implementation this season has been nothing short of a disaster, and absolutely incompetent. I don't believe that it's a case of "first-season syndrome", because it is so absolutely flawed that these are not simply teething errors but should probably amount to misconduct (particularly when IFAB themselves say it is being used against their guidance). Don't get me wrong, I would like nothing more than to see someone sue over it, and watch the fireworks in the courts, but I just don't see it happening because it seems almost impossible to prove that a single decision can be directly responsible for a team's relegation.