Dwight gayle

[Man from delmonte]

I think Stoke fans have run out of patience with O'Neill now. It wouldn't be a surprise to see him gone soon if their form doesn't pick up.

[BaggieBaggieBromBrom]

Gayle best is long behind him

[Peachy]

On the EFL highlights show, they said Gayle is on the longest goal drought of his career. Apparently has now gone 34 appearances without a goal.

When do we play them? 

[SW4Baggie]

Surely Michael O’Neil on borrowed time?

A strike force of Gayle, Brown, Campbell and Delap alone should see them competing at the top end of the division.

They also seem to be suffering from our curse of being able to see good players go down to injury, lose form and never look the same again. 

Campbell looked a hell of a player for 3 months but looks a shadow of himself since injury!

[Dreamkiller]

Surely Michael O’Neil on borrowed time?

A strike force of Gayle, Brown, Campbell and Delap alone should see them competing at the top end of the division.

They also seem to be suffering from our curse of being able to see good players go down to injury, lose form and never look the same again. 

Campbell looked a hell of a player for 3 months but looks a shadow of himself since injury!

Gayle's scored three goals which have been disallowed, two for offside and one for looking funny at the goalie. I've only seen one of the incidents live, and not seen replays of any of them, but all three decisions looked iffy from what others have said. 

He's feeding on absolute scraps at the moment, so it's hard to judge just how he's doing. I think he was rested yesterday (came on as a late-ish sub) due to a tight hamstring in the previous match.

We're currently without a number of key players through injury and as a result, there's almost literally zero link between the midfield and the forwards. We'll be able to judge Gayle better as and when those players return.

[Banbury Baggie]

Morning DK

How's it hanging?

[Dreamkiller]

Morning DK

How's it hanging?

All good Banbury, except for the footie obviously. The Premier League is now starting to feel like one of those strange dreams I once had. 

Too much cheese I reckon. 

[SW4Baggie]

Surely Michael O’Neil on borrowed time?

A strike force of Gayle, Brown, Campbell and Delap alone should see them competing at the top end of the division.

They also seem to be suffering from our curse of being able to see good players go down to injury, lose form and never look the same again. 

Campbell looked a hell of a player for 3 months but looks a shadow of himself since injury!

Gayle's scored three goals which have been disallowed, two for offside and one for looking funny at the goalie. I've only seen one of the incidents live, and not seen replays of any of them, but all three decisions looked iffy from what others have said. 

He's feeding on absolute scraps at the moment, so it's hard to judge just how he's doing. I think he was rested yesterday (came on as a late-ish sub) due to a tight hamstring in the previous match.

We're currently without a number of key players through injury and as a result, there's almost literally zero link between the midfield and the forwards. We'll be able to judge Gayle better as and when those players return.

Sounds like he still knows where the net is.

I was really reticent to bring him back as I think his best days are behind him, but there are few strikers in the division that have his eye for goal. He also started professionally pretty late so his body is likely to be 3-4 years behind most 30-something pros.

How long does O’Neill have left? Coates family are usually very patient but not sure how long he can keep blaming injuries, he’s bought his own squad twice over now, he’s been backed with decent money compared to a lot of the division and plenty of managers have done better with less..

[Dreamkiller]

Surely Michael O’Neil on borrowed time?

A strike force of Gayle, Brown, Campbell and Delap alone should see them competing at the top end of the division.

They also seem to be suffering from our curse of being able to see good players go down to injury, lose form and never look the same again. 

Campbell looked a hell of a player for 3 months but looks a shadow of himself since injury!

Gayle's scored three goals which have been disallowed, two for offside and one for looking funny at the goalie. I've only seen one of the incidents live, and not seen replays of any of them, but all three decisions looked iffy from what others have said. 

He's feeding on absolute scraps at the moment, so it's hard to judge just how he's doing. I think he was rested yesterday (came on as a late-ish sub) due to a tight hamstring in the previous match.

We're currently without a number of key players through injury and as a result, there's almost literally zero link between the midfield and the forwards. We'll be able to judge Gayle better as and when those players return.

Sounds like he still knows where the net is.

I was really reticent to bring him back as I think his best days are behind him, but there are few strikers in the division that have his eye for goal. He also started professionally pretty late so his body is likely to be 3-4 years behind most 30-something pros.

How long does O’Neill have left? Coates family are usually very patient but not sure how long he can keep blaming injuries, he’s bought his own squad twice over now, he’s been backed with decent money compared to a lot of the division and plenty of managers have done better with less..

There are so many fors and againsts with this, mate. 

Yes, he's built his own squad, but he's had to get rid of a lot of expensive, and on the surface, more talented players to do it. 

The injuries are a valid excuse because they're easily our most influential players that are missing. In the dim and murky past, towards the end of last year, I said on here that we'd be stuffed if we lost Souttar. I was saying this in the expectation of a sizeable bid for him, probably from Everton. Instead, a couple of weeks later he did his knee in and he's not really expected back fully til the new year. 

Powell and Tymon are our biggest attacking threat. They're both out for another couple of months, as is our right wing back. To be without your two wing backs when you've built a team where wing backs are the main threat is a bit shit really.

We've also lost Laurent for a couple of months, and then there's the problem that so many of the team are only just getting to know one another. These things take time.

But then, he's persisted with the wing back system instead of realising that it can't work without wing backs. That"s the main stick to beat him with really. 

I think that having let him build his own squad, the Coates' now have to give him the chance to make it work, but very few owners can completely disregard supporter opinion, and a couple more bad results will see massive supporter unrest. 

There's a fair amount of rinse and repeat going on at Stoke at the moment. Personally, I don't think we're too far off from being a damned decent side. But neither the performances or the results bear that out really, so I'm probably a bit of an outlier in thinking that.