Backlash Predictions

Hello! It's the first of the now twice a month Predictions posts! Everybody contain your excitement. I know I'm looking forward to losing even more sleep than I am already. We'll probably have to rely on Meltzer for this, but I'm really curious to see how the split-brand PPV's do viewership wise. Specifically how the Smackdown specific PPV's do, because as much as I'm sure most of us have enjoyed the weekly Smackdown show- it can't shake off the stigma of it being the "B Show" in less than 2 Months. I bring this up because of the reports of them giving away tickets for free and the general low attendance expected tonight. Especially for tonight's PPV that was going to be a House Show up until the PPV was announced approximately two and a half months ago. So basically, it's going to take time for Smackdown to be viewed at the same level that RAW is.

I suppose the notable thing right off the bat is that at the time of writing this is there's only 6 announced matches on the card, and one Tag Team is going to be in two of them! To put that into context for you, Takeover: Brooklyn had 6 matches as well, three of which went for close to or more than 20 minutes. That was a two hour show. So basically, my first prediction tonight is whether it will in fact be a 6 match card or if we get some other matches to fill the card out. I can't see a scenario where it is actually a 6 match card. I just can't. Even if the AJ Styles/Dean Ambrose match goes really long. So my first prediction is who will be in said card-filling out matches.

I've got a weird feeling that Jason Jordan's going to be in a Singles Match. It might just be because I remember something Alvarez said around the Draft time about them thinking about calling Jordan up on his own. I'm probably wrong, but I thought I'd just throw that one out there. I think the more likely candidates are us getting an Apollo Crews match against someone (would've said Curt Hawkins if he weren't billed for Tuesday), and then either Kane/Baron Corbin- or if they want to build that match up a bit Kane against Tyler Breeze, Fandango or both. I was also expecting some sort of Kalisto match, and while I don't think it's confirmed- I read on Reddit that he's injured. I might have missed that one while I was in New York.

Either way, those two matches would take us up to an 8 match card which would be able to fill 3 hours pretty comfortably given how long I'm expecting the AJ/Dean and the Women's match to go. On the subject of the card, let's get into some predictions! That's what you're here for right?

The Usos v The Hype Bros
I feel like it's worth repeating the point I made about this match in my Smackdown Review. Within kayfabe, why would Bryan and Shane reward The Usos for causing the situation that meant this match had to be made in the first place? The Usos shouldn't have been rewarded for injuring Gable, they should've been suspended! By the way, I still won't believe Gable wasn't suspended until he's back in less than 4 weeks. I just think with all of the Ryan Lochte stuff, given the fact Gable's a former olympian they decided to keep a lid on it. As I said it's all speculation, and if he's back in less than 4 weeks I'm obviously wrong- but that's just my opinion on it at this moment in time.

I think this outcome is fairly obvious. They can't have The Usos lose to the Hype Bros after just turning them. As a result, The Usos will win. Ideally with shenanigans, just because the Smackdown Tag Division is so weak- The Hype Bros have to be kept looking relatively strong because there will be a time in the not too distant future where they'll be going for the Titles.
Winner: The Usos

Heath Slater & Rhyno v The Usos- Smackdown Tag Title Match
I'm in two minds about the finish of this match. If they hadn't done the injury angle with Gable the picture was quite clear to me. It would've been Heath & Rhyno v American Alpha, and The Usos cost Alpha the win- and then Heath gets his contract. However, now that angle's been taken off the table- and The Usos have already turned I'm not really sure. Especially with how over Heath's got, I could see them wanting to stretch out (read: milking dry) this angle with Heath's quest for a contract for a little while longer. That's a definite possibility, but I think we've reached the natural conclusion of the Slater angle tonight- and Heath will be bringing a contract home to his 7,000 kids. To me, the most likely scenario is a Jason Jordan run-in costing The Usos- followed by a few weeks of The Usos killing him before Gable makes his triumphant return with a run-in to build up No Mercy.

Actually, if they do a celebration either tonight or Tuesday (if Heath wins) where all of his kids come down to the ring to celebrate and there's like 100 ginger kids coming down the ramp I'll forgive everything the WWE has ever done. I know they did that dark segment at Smackdown where he introduced his "family", but it wasn't on TV- and therefore to me it's not canon.
Winner: Heath Slater & Rhyno

Dolph Ziggler v The Miz- IC Title Match
At least to me, there's some legs to this feud- so the only "right" outcome at this stage is for Miz to retain. He won't necessarily "win", but I think- or rather hope that he retains. It'll be really interesting if he doesn't, because that may indicate that his promo on Talking Smack a few weeks ago has meant a bump up the card for him. It may sound weird, and the feud with Orton probably isn't a one-off- but I've always really wanted a proper Bray/Miz feud. I just think it'll give Bray a lot of stuff to talk about in his promos and the clash of worlds so to speak would be quite good. That's one for a bit down the line though. In short, if Miz does lose the Title tonight he's going up the card not down.

I also think this outcome could be directly linked to the outcome of the AJ/Ambrose match- in the sense that they may not want two babyface/heel champions on the show. So in short, I have absolutely no clue what's going to happen in this match. I'll go for Dolph, just because as I've repeatedly said I want AJ to win the Title and this would prolong that hope for a little while longer as the PPV progresses in my mind.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler

Bray Wyatt v Randy Orton
For those of you who've been paying attention on Twitter, you'll know what my prediction for this match is already. I can't see this being a "one and done" feud, and as a result- and with the way WWE does things it's a pretty safe bet that Bray wins in my opinion. Unless they seemingly change their minds, put the Brock/Orton rematch on the Network and use it to build Bray/Brock for Survivor Series.

The question really becomes how does Bray win, and with a certain Luke Harper seemingly ready to return- to me it's almost too perfect. So my prediction is basically exactly what happened at I think Battleground last year where Harper returned, superkicked Roman and allowed Bray to pick up the win. They might throw us a "curveball" with the outcome of this, and if they do I'd actually be in favour of it because it'd mean Bray has a better chance of "winning" the feud- but personally I can't see it.
Winner: Bray Wyatt

BONUS SECTION- Randy Orton possibly injured/not able to wrestle tonight? 
I've seen a few reports about this, and given what I've already said about this being a pretty bare card- I thought it was worth updating these Predictions. Basically, I don't think Randy's "injured injured" in the sense that he's going to be missing much- if any TV. From the way it's been reported it looks as though it's just an injury he hasn't fully gotten over yet. The question basically becomes, what do they do now?

They don't really have to deviate too much from what I've already predicted to happen. From the way it's been reported, it doesn't sound like Randy's too hurt to sell provided he protects whatever injury he's got. So to me, the best option is to film Randy getting ambushed backstage by Bray, Randy gets the upper hand briefly before Harper Superkicks him from off camera outta nowhere and Randy goes down, Bray does his "arms out" pose and they carry him off to the Wyatt Compound. That'll allow them to keep the feud relevant on TV with some vignettes while Randy gets over whatever injury he's got. Or they could just leave him there and Randy can act all pissed off on Tuesday and beyond about it. The point being, there's clear options on how to work this potential bad thing into a good one.

The only real worry is that for tonight, this was probably going to go around about 20 Minutes. That's even more time missing that needs to be filled. If the PPV does go a bit under (anywhere from 1-15 Minutes) I'd say that's fine- but any more than that and it's bad in my opinion. Although I will value the extra sleep it will give me.

Becky Lynch v Alexa Bliss v Nikki Bella v Naomi v Natalya v Carmella- Smackdown Women's Title 6-Pack Elimination Match
I just don't want Nikki to win. I think Alvarez said something similar, Nikki still has the "stink" of the "Divas" on her- because she pretty much summed up the Divas and the Divas Division. I don't hate Nikki, and comparatively to some people I like her. But she just doesn't really "fit" being the first Smackdown Women's Champion in my opinion. I realise it's somewhat hypocritical of me to say that given the fact before she was suspended I expected and wanted Eva to win the Title here- but it would've fit the Eva angle. Nikki just doesn't fit in the Title picture in my opinion. Becky Lynch is just a much better babyface than Nikki- that's a fact. Therefore my view is the best babyface (or best heel: Eva) should be the first Women's Champion.

I thought I'd predict the elimination order, and who does the eliminating as well just for a bit of fun. So here we go;
1. Carmella eliminated by Nikki Bella
I'm expecting this one to be quick. I mean first minute of the match quick. Ideally, they'd do a similar thing to when Zayn hit Owens with the Helluva Kick in that IC Title 4-Way a few months back- where Carmella just runs into a big forearm from Nikki and gets pinned.

2. Natalya eliminated by Naomi
I'd give Naomi one of the pins in this match, just to keep her competitive relative to the rest of the field so to speak. Natalya's the most expendable of all of the Women in-terms of long-term planning, so she should be the first elimination that's just an elimination and won't play into any angle/storyline.

3. Naomi eliminated by Nikki Bella
Even if she doesn't win, Nikki still needs to be kept looking strong- so as a result I'm expecting her to get the most eliminations tonight- and to be the only woman to get more than one elimination in the match. Which I think is the best way to go on the whole, because despite the nature of the match- all of the Women need to be kept looking alright just because of how thin the division is.

4. Nikki Bella eliminated by Alexa Bliss
This is where the early Carmella elimination comes into play. Nikki will be sizing up Alexa for her forearm, when Carmella will come back into the ring, hit some sort of big move on her- which will allow Bliss to go up for the Sparkle Splash and take Nikki out of the equation.

5. Alexa Bliss eliminated by Becky Lynch
You may be wondering why Becky hasn't got an elimination prior to this, and it's for the simple reason that Becky is the perfect underdog. She'll have taken a lot of offence in this match, and just generally be selling a lot. But she'll eventually get the Disarm-Her on Bliss and make her tap to become the new Champion.

This is the ideal scenario to me. You've got the Nikki/Carmella feud- which at this stage looks to be the most viable option for a secondary Women's feud and then you've got Becky as Champion and finally getting the Title. To me, most Babyfaces work better chasing than being chased- but I think just with the way Becky's been booked since she was called up her being chased would work really well.
Winner: Becky Lynch

AJ Styles v Dean Ambrose- WWE Title
I really hope I'm right with this prediction, because in my opinion the WWE and Smackdown needs AJ Styles as Champion. If for no other reason than the fact AJ Styles is literally the best wrestler Smackdown, and in my opinion WWE has at this moment in time. The simple fact of the matter is that both in a wrestling and character sense, AJ is miles ahead of Ambrose at the moment. Especially coming off the back of beating Cena clean, AJ should take the Title and run with it in my opinion until Cena comes back from filming- and then we can get what I thought the first feud would've been for the Smackdown World Title before Ambrose retained and brought the WWE Title over to Smackdown in AJ/Cena. As much as some may not want to admit it, the AJ/Cena feud is far from over and chances are Cena gets his win back when he returns.

I do like Ambrose, but the simple fact is that AJ's better in every conceivable way- and as such should be Champion. It really is that simple to me.
Winner: AJ Styles

I'm actually really looking forward to tonight. I've already said this a few times, but I'm expecting/hoping for a really good show tonight- and crucially some big angles to really get some buzz going with Smackdown as we head into a run of weeks where Smackdown has an actual chance of beating RAW in the ratings between the NFL and a Presidential Debate. Either way, depending on how well booked and how clusterfucky the women's match gets (because it could) I can't see a bad match on the announced card- and there's some proper potential in a few of them.

Thanks for reading as always, hopefully you'll be tagging along on Twitter tonight, and then come back for the Backlash Review tomorrow where hopefully I'll be full of praise and ushering in the new phenomenal era of Smackdown. Thanks again for reading, and once again remember- in a way we're all Heath's Kids.

Fulham v Birmingham Review: A Bad Day At The Office

Well, if you were being positive about this- you'd say that today was most definitely a wake-up call both for Jokanovic and the players. I'll start this off with two big things. I don't think we were nearly as bad as some people have been saying. It wasn't a good performance, I'm not saying it was- however the fact we managed to keep it to 1-0 and still looked a bit of a threat on the break means we're already ahead of where we were in certain games last season. The most direct comparison I can think of is the Wolves Home game from last season where Cairney got sent off- and we completely fell apart in that game.

To be blunt, I think we just overthought pretty much everything today. Going into the game there was all of this talk about how Birmingham were a good counter-attacking team and how we'd have to be wary of them on the break. So we pretty much played presumably how we prepared where we weren't expecting much pressure on Madl, Kalas and Button to play out from the back and try and play the "tiki-taka" style of play. I honestly lost count of the number of mistakes and times we lost the ball in our own half today, and the main casualty of all of it was of course Michael Madl.

Speaking of Michael Madl, this brings me on to my second big point to start things off. The Ref was pretty good on the whole today. Both Penalties were Penalties from my point of view, the second one especially was entirely our fault for once again trying to pass it out from the back. Both Madl Yellow Cards were deserving, and on the whole I thought the Ref did pretty well. The Ref wasn't perfect, I'm not saying he was- but to suggest the Ref has somehow cost us the game is moronic. Yes, there was the odd foul, advantage etc. that the Ref should have done better with- but he got all of the key decisions spot on.

There's not really much to say about the Goals section of this Review. The penalty was a penalty, and Donaldson didn't make the same mistake he did for Birmingham's first penalty of the day and put it in.

One of the few positives today was David Button. The obvious thing he did was save the first penalty, and on the whole I thought he did pretty well. When you go down to 10 Men you expect the Keeper to be busy, and for the most part I thought he did well. He did have a few moments with the ball at his feet that were a bit scary, so that's something we have to think about if we want to keep playing the way we did today and hope it's more effective.

While I've missed a couple of games, the general feeling from me in the games I've seen and the general consensus I've seen is that the Madl and Kalas pairing's performed quite well in the first month of the season. So, I can only conclude that this was by far and a way the worst performance for both of them in a Fulham shirt so far.

I initially thought Kalas had been away with the Czech Republic and that was why he was a bit off the pace, but he wasn't- so I'm not really sure what the excuse can be for him. He just looked "off", with the most costly of the mistakes he made being when he under-hit a pass to Madl which allowed Donaldson to run onto it and cause Madl to make the foul for his second yellow. Speaking of Madl, he was unlucky to be Red Carded in the sense that he shouldn't have been put in the position of having to get the second yellow. However, he wasn't really there as well today even before he gave away the Penalty and got sent off. In short, it'll interesting to see how Sigurdsson plays on Tuesday- because after today the starting position is there for the taking.

Scott Malone played alright today, he's definitely at the higher end of performances today- although that's not really saying much. If I had to really criticise one thing from Malone today it's the fact that I'm pretty sure he didn't reach a Fulham player with a single cross today- and he put in quite a few. There was also the weird moment late on when a cross reached him and he sort of half went for goal, half tried to knock it down for Martin which blew the chance. However, those are small critiques- and on the whole he did do alright.

I was already talking about my concerns with Denis Odoi from a defensive standpoint before I went to New York and missed a few reviews. However, we were winning- so I think a few people almost overlooked how suspect he looked at certain times. Now we've lost, the spotlight's a bit more on him- and he hasn't come out looking good. He was pretty ineffective going forward, as everyone was today- and then positionally he was a bit all over the place. I still think it's too early to judge Odoi, which is why I'm not being as harsh as I perhaps could be- and once Odoi's gone to Left-Back and had a run there I think it'll be a lot more of an accurate reflection on him.

In Jokanovic's Post-Match interview he said he "lost Scott Parker at the last moment" for today, and wow did we miss him. Kevin McDonald's been great for the most part since he's come in, and that was with either Tunnicliffe or Parker next to him. They gave him a bit of a safety net so to speak, and that in turn gave him a bit more confidence to go forward with the ball. Having Johansen and then Jozabed next to him, who are more attack-minded than McDonald meant he didn't have that today- and it showed in his performance in the 1st Half. Basically, today we've learned that McDonald can't be the "anchor" in our Midfield which lets the other Midfielders press high up the pitch. He did alright at Centre-Back all things considered- but let's hope he doesn't have to play there again in a hurry and that Parker's back ASAP so he can get back to his best.

I wasn't surprised by the lack of Martin, Sigurdsson and Kebano in the Starting XI- because with the depth in our squad we could afford to not play them when they weren't really 100% after their respective International games. I can only assume Johansen wasn't actually going to start until we "lost Scott Parker at the last moment" because he just didn't look up to it at all today. I'm not going to write him off after a 30 Minute performance surrounded by a generally underperforming team when he's just come back from Norway 4 or 5 days ago- but it's safe to say it wasn't the debut he would've hoped for.

Tom Cairney's set a very high bar for performances in August, and he never really came anywhere close to it today. He had the one run in the second half where he took on 2 or 3 players and got a shot away- but in general he was pretty ineffective today. We can only hope for a better performance on Tuesday, and I don't have any doubt he can turn it around quickly. His and Ayité's ineffective games was what really cost us today in my opinion. A consistent feature of us in August has been our ability to attack with pace and stretch defences- and neither Cairney on the right or Ayité on the left and then in the middle got anywhere close to even worrying the Birmingham defence for the vast majority of the game.

Sone Aluko was just completely out of the game today. I think we switched Aluko and Ayité in the 1st Half to try and get Aluko on the ball a bit more- but then the Madl Red Card happened not soon after and blew that plan out of the water. Then 2nd Half when he was played up-front he was completely ineffective, which is perhaps understandable before he went back out to the right when Martin came on to be completely ineffective. Notice the theme here? For Burton I personally want to see Cairney played in the #10 role, with Kebano and Ayité on the wings. That's not to say I've given up on Aluko already, but we've got the options- so we might as well try some different combinations.

As I've already said, I had a feeling our International players would be rested- meaning Chris Martin would have to wait for his first start. So, it wasn't a surprise to me that Matt Smith did start the game. However, the fact we had a game plan of passing it out from the back and generally trying to play "good" Football meant we were pretty much playing with 10 men today. I can only hope Smith's days of starting in the league are now pretty much over barring an injury to Martin. With all that said, I wouldn't have taken him off at Half-Time. Considering we were down to 10 Men having Smith up-front who can at least hold the ball up and give Button and the defenders someone to aim at would've been the smart thing to do in my opinion. Instead we had Aluko in that position which was baffling to me, and Jokanovic has to take the blame for it.

Jozabed gave a pretty good account of himself today all things considered. It was far from a perfect performance, but I thought he did pretty well in the Midfield considering the circumstances and given how ineffective Aluko was- if we keep Cairney on the right then Jozabed has to be right in consideration for playing in the #10 role. Kebano looked really lively when he came on, and from an attacking sense he was probably our best player today. That's not really saying much, but he does look like a really good signing for us. Getting subbed on with 15 minutes to go, when the team's down to 10 men, 1-0 down and not really looking up to much isn't an ideal way to make your debut as a Striker which was the case with Chris Martin. In short, you can't really make a judgement of Martin from today.

Our unbeaten run is officially over, but the good thing in a way is that we can't mourn the loss of it- because before we know it we'll be back at the Cottage for Burton where we can hopefully put in a better performance and get a better result as well. The fact is, even the absolute best teams have off days- and we're not one of the "absolute best teams". Expect more performances like the one day throughout the season to be blunt, but hopefully they'll be as limited as humanly possible. We now have to quickly move on to Tuesday, where hopefully the Review will be a lot more positive than this one has been.

Thanks for reading as always. The Reviews are officially back as of today, so hopefully you'll be coming back after the game on Tuesday and beyond for them. I was expecting days like today this season, and today doesn't completely write off the month of games we've had before it. In my Newcastle Preview I said I wanted 12 or 13 points from our first 10 games- and we're well on course to beat that goal. Thanks again for reading, hopefully you have a good week- and let's just hope we can bounce back quickly. I definitely have more faith in our ability to bounce back under Jokanovic than any of our recent managers.

Smackdown Live Review: 6th September

Hello! Yep, it's another Review- and we're back on the blue side of the divide this time around. I'll say right now, Smackdown to the surprise of absolutely nobody did in fact "beat" RAW this week. With that said, Smackdown last night wasn't exactly an amazing show- which you could perhaps expect given the fact they've got Backlash on Sunday. However, I still expected more than what we ended up getting. Anyway, there's quite a few things to talk about from last night's show- so I'm just going to get started.

Daniel Bryan, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Naomi, Nikki Bella Opening Segment
I won't say this segment was bad, but it wasn't good. The initial part of the segment where it was just Becky Lynch and Daniel Bryan was fine, Becky's great, and unlike Sasha she seems comfortable in the role they've got her in when it comes to mic work. Then it all fell apart when Natalya's music hit. Apart from maybe Great Khali, I can't think of someone who's less of a natural on the mic that Natalya in the last 5 years. Natalya has genuine "change the channel" heat with me when she talks, the problem being that it was approximately 1:10am when she was talking and there was fuck all else to change the channel to.

Then this segment got really weird, I don't know if they were short on time or what- but they just abandoned playing entrance themes for the rest of the segment. Bliss and Carmella in particular came out from completely "outta nowhere", and I genuinely thought they were just hiding under the ring at one point it was just so weird. The segment did its job, given said job was to set up the 6 Woman Tag later on in the night- so I can't really fault it. But it wasn't the blow away start I was hoping we'd get just to highlight how bad RAW was the night before.

Dean Ambrose Backstage Skit
I have literally no idea what the point of this was. While the lines may have been blurred with the Ambrose/Ziggler feud, Ambrose is without a doubt the babyface in this feud with AJ. So why they showed him being a complete dick to a backstage guy and putting a ridiculous amount of sugar in said backstage guy's coffee is beyond me.

The Miz v Apollo Crews
Even though he lost, this match was by far the best Apollo Crews has looked probably since he joined WWE in my opinion. He actually came out to a pretty good crowd reaction which caught me off guard and he was really "on" last night. The one thing I will say is that I think Apollo needs a gimmick for this entrance. It does fit him I will say, but his entrance is just so bland. Just give him pyro or even just a jacket or really just anything to make his entrance stand out a bit. Especially when he's contrasted with The Miz it's night and day.

The actual match was pretty good. I was surprised Apollo lost actually, because with Dolph being on commentary I thought they could give him a distraction win to start getting some momentum going- but it wasn't to be.

The stuff with Maryse getting the Title back after the match was great, after having a whole angle with Bryan and how he's not a coward he then goes on to get his wife to get the Title back last night. Because Miz is an actual heel. He wants to be booed.

AJ Styles Backstage Interview
AJ did his best with what he actually had to work with the previous week, which was the angle with AJ crotching the ropes- but it was a pretty shit angle to base it all on wasn't it? I said as much last week.

Bray Wyatt Promo
I actually thought this was a really good promo from Bray. Because of how Bray's been booked, I think quite a few people just tune out Bray's promos- but if you actually listened to this one especially it was really good. It was Bray doing Bray, but in his own unique way he actually did a really good job of building the match on Sunday.

Carmella, Natalya & Alexa Bliss v Nikki Bella, Naomi & Becky Lynch
This was pretty much what you'd expect from a 6 Woman Tag. It was about as good as it really could've been in my opinion. The one problem I had with this match was the finish, more specifically what the finish means for Sunday's finish. Especially when they announced it was an Elimination Match in the opening segment, I thought that was their "out" for not putting the Title on Nikki this Sunday.

What I thought would happen is Nikki eliminates Carmella quite early on, and then Carmella would come back later on and cost Nikki the Title and have someone like Bliss eliminate her. Instead, Carmella made Nikki tap tonight, which to me makes Nikki winning the Title an almost certainty. I hope I'm wrong, and I'll talk about the options in my Predictions on Sunday- but after last night Nikki winning is all but a guarantee to me.

American Alpha v The Usos- Tag Tournament Semi-Final
This match was exactly what I want(ed) from one of the Cesaro/Sheamus matches. Just something really quick, mainly to keep the fans on their toes when they were watching the matches. This was over before it began and American Alpha had progressed to the Final. Or so we thought.

Imagine predicting even a couple of months ago that The Usos would have turned before Roman. I'll say right now I'm a fan of The Usos turning. It's the same reason people want(ed) Cena to turn, and the same reason people want Roman to turn- they were just so fucking stale as babyfaces there really wasn't much to lose for The Usos by turning heel. Especially once New Day stole all of the kids and the merch money that comes with the kids by turning babyface.

It was announced on Talking Smack that Gable was out for "2-4 weeks", which to me is pretty suspect. As of writing this there's not been an announcement of any kind on if Gable has a wellness violation, and they may not announce it given the potential mainstream bad publicity because Gable's an olympian. But if Gable's back after four weeks rather than two, then I think he may have had a violation. It's pure speculation on my part, but openly stating Gable's out for potentially 4 weeks is pretty suspect to me. Plus, I can't fathom why they wouldn't want American Alpha on the first Smackdown PPV.

In the absence of Gable, they're doing an Usos/Hype Bros match to set up who faces Heath and Rhyno for the Titles. To that I say, within kayfabe why would Bryan and Shane want to reward The Usos for causing the Gable injury? What logic is there in rewarding The Usos for injuring Gable and causing them to have the decision to make over what to do in the first place? It's a small thing, but it annoyed me nonetheless.

Randy Orton Backstage Promo
I quite liked this promo. Without a doubt, Randy looked like he was reading off a script the other side of the camera- and I wouldn't even be surprised if Randy had worked with Bray to script it. However, the way Randy read said script almost made it better to me. His delivery was really good in-terms of how it fit the feud- and it just generally carries on a feud between Randy and Bray where they mesh really well. I'll give you my prediction for the finish and how it comes about on Sunday, but I hope this turns into a proper feud between Randy and Bray- because they could really get the best out of each other if done right.

Fandango & Kane Segment
I have absolutely no clue what the point of this was. The stuff with Fandango trying to get that woman to dance was just odd. When the Woman started talking about how her hips were "the truth" I thought Golden Truth would be coming out, but then I remembered they were on RAW. Then I remembered that Kane was getting built up just as his pyro hit. It was a fine segment for what it was, and while it's not saying much- it was miles better than "that" New Day segment the night before.

I thought they would've built the Kane/Baron Corbin match up a bit (which I'm assuming is where they're going) but it would seem as though they're holding off on it until No Mercy in October.

AJ Styles Backstage Skit
See, I liked this segment with AJ being a dick BECAUSE HE'S THE HEEL! It fits with his character.

Curt Hawkins Vignette
I've ignored these vignettes in the Reviews, but seeing as he's showing up next week I thought I'd talk about it. The fact Hawkins has got vignettes suggests to me that he may get a few wins under his belt before he ends up as the Smackdown equivalent of Jinder Mahal jobbing on Main Event- but that's the only way I see this Hawkins return going. I suppose they could do something with Hawkins, Ryder and Mojo as well.

Rhyno & Heath Slater v The Hype Bros- Tag Tournament Semi-Final
The match wasn't really much. Heath and Rhyno won, and then Heath celebrated with his kids who took up the entire front row on one side of the arena. I love Heath Slater. It finally dawned on me what this angle reminded me of as well. The ECW Dudleys. Not just Bubba and D-Von, but when there was like 20 Dudleys. Heath's Kids are the new Dudleys. If/When Heath gets his contract I would love it if we got a "Heath's Kids" faction.

Dean Ambrose & AJ Styles Promo Segment
This is the second week in a row where they've done some wacky comedy in the segment to build the WWE Title match- which is coming up this Sunday. Last week it was the ropes stuff, and this week Ambrose gave him a Bowling Participation Trophy, which was a joke- because he probably didn't actually win it and even if he did he clearly didn't give a fuck about it. So when the segment broke down and AJ stood tall over Ambrose, why he felt the need to break the Trophy I don't know.

I did like the segment on the whole though. AJ's just phenomenal, and I hope to god he gets the Title on Sunday- because he's on a completely different level to where Ambrose is at the moment. Plus, to properly build Smackdown up in my opinion they need to have a Heel Champion like AJ who can properly carry a show, make everything he gets given work who will also put on good matches and elevate whomever he gets into the ring with.

It wasn't hard to beat RAW this week, the Gallows & Anderson/New Day segment saw to that. However, I still think the show was pretty solid on the whole- which headed into Backlash is good enough. That's really what this Smackdown was "good enough", especially when it just had to follow the RAW we had the previous night. I'm personally hoping there's a few big angles on Sunday, because next week is as good a chance as any for Smackdown to beat RAW in the ratings- but to do that they need to have a lot of genuine interest headed into Tuesday's show.

Thanks for reading as always, as I've made reference to a few times the Backlash Predictions will be up on Sunday- so keep an eye out for that. I'm actually quite looking forward to Backlash and I hope you are to. Before that we've got NXT and the CWC tonight, so hopefully you'll be tagging along with me on Twitter for that. Thanks again for reading, hopefully you have a good week- and remember, we are all Heath's Kids.

RAW Review: 5th September

Hello! That's right, we've officially hit the two weeks in a row status for the Reviews! For those of you who watched RAW in its entirety last night, you'll know what's coming in this Review. I know it's the time of year where people are going back to school and all that stuff, so if you haven't watched RAW or just watched some of the highlights- I feel like pointing out that everything I discuss actually happened. I'm writing this sentence approximately 11 Hours after RAW ended, and I still can't get my head around the 3rd Hour of RAW last night. Anyway, I'll get there in this Review- but for now I'll start at the start. That's how these things work, right?

Stephanie McMahon & Mick Foley Backstage Segment
I don't know if it was just how I was feeling last night, because I felt really tired- but this segment did absolutely nothing for me. I've seen some people praising it, and to me it wasn't a bad segment by any means. However, Steph's acting did nothing for me and the segment made Mick look like a complete idiot. I don't know what Mick's character is anymore, it must be that of a complete idiot. While I don't think the angle will be Steph and Triple H were in on it together, how can Mick genuinely take Steph at her word? That really bothered me, but it's not worth getting worked up about. I stopped caring about the McMahon's god knows how long ago.

It does have to be said that this was infinitely better than the Stephanie/Heyman segment from last week. Upon reflection, I'm pretty certain they did this angle because of Heyman's contract stuff- so as a result of Heyman presumably wanting a better deal they decided to "punish" him by having to put over Stephanie.

Kevin Owens' Title Celebration
I really liked this segment on the whole. However, the one thing that annoyed me straight away was Kevin Owens wearing a suit. I get that Owens is the champion now, but to me it just looked so unnatural and phoney. Why the fuck was Kevin Owens wearing a suit?! I couldn't think of something less fitting of Kevin Owens than on his first RAW as champion he comes out wearing a suit.

Taking that out of the equation, as I've already said I liked this segment. Owens is great, I don't think that's a surprise to anyone. The stuff with Rollins was interesting to me, just because I was curious about how quickly they'd make him a full on babyface. I liked Seth's promo without loving it. He did a good job conveying the angle, and basically making it so the divide between Seth and Steph was evident. The thing with Seth is he's been so heel-ish, and such a good heel that they can't just fully turn him overnight. So overall this was a pretty good segment.

One thing I thought was worth pointing out, especially after floating my theory on how Finn Balor would've been booked last week was one specific part of Seth's promo. Seth said something to the effect of "Kevin Owens has been Triple H's guy since he showed up in NXT". That promo could be as much, if not more applicable to Finn Balor. I'm still 100% convinced that had Balor not been hurt, we'd have got a faction of Triple H, Finn, Gallows & Anderson probably starting at Clash of the Champions.

The backstage segment that followed with Mick & Steph where Steph threatened to fire Mick just annoyed me. But then Jericho showed up and made the whole segment better and mellowed me out. Which was a good thing given what we still had to come.

Bayley v Charlotte
Firstly, I have to ask, what happened to Dana's Clipboard? It just vanished. Given what happened with Sasha later on, I'm not sure where Bayley stands after this match. I could be wrong, but I was fairly certain they'd already booked Bayley/Charlotte for Clash of the Champions prior to last night. Which made the fact they had this match last night weird to me. I can only assume that they hadn't in fact booked it and this was their way of getting to that point. Ideally it'll be a Triple Threat where Bayley pins Charlotte, so the next night Sasha can turn on Bayley and say how she stole her Title etc. because Sasha needs to be a heel at this point. Just to allow Bayley to be the complete, undisputed top babyface of the division.

The actual match was pretty good I thought. It also really pleased me that they didn't do anything crazy, and simply went with a proper story to tell with the match. I think that Sasha/Charlotte match would've been a message to all of the women, to basically not do a load of crazy shit unnecessarily. Bayley got the win after a miscommunication with Charlotte, and the Dana/Charlotte split angle continues. It's amazing they've not dropped the angle considering they started it literally like a week after Dana aligned with Charlotte and nobody has cared about it at any point.

Bo Dallas v Kyle Roberts
This just seemed weird to me. I like Bo, I'll start by saying that. Had his heel run in NXT been on the Network I think he'd be looked at as one of the guys where everyone says "they need to do more with this guy". With that said, given how long he's been getting completely buried- I just couldn't take him seriously in this new "aggressive" role he's playing. It wasn't helped by the fact he's still wearing his Social Outcasts singlet and his whole look is that of a Mid-90s jobber. I'll see how this plays out, that's as far as I'm going to go at this stage. I do Bolieve in Bo though.

Seth Rollins v Chris Jericho
As is the case with the vast majority of these types of pairings, would it surprise anyone when I say that this match was good? You've got Chris Jericho who's having one of, if not the best run of his career and Seth Rollins who's pretty close to his peak at the moment from an in-ring perspective. Had this been anything other than a good match it would've been noteworthy. Seth won to the surprise of nobody and we moved on.

The one thing I will say, I was expecting Triple H to do a run-in at various points in the match- or to at least come out. I realise there's basically 3 weeks until Clash of the Champions and probably just over 2 months or so until they do Seth/Triple H at Survivor Series- but Seth hitting the Pedigree in-front of Triple H would've really helped the angle along after last week. With that said, WHERE THE FUCK WAS TRIPLE H LAST NIGHT?! They've just done an angle where Triple H effectively gave the Championship of the Universe to Kevin Owens, and then he doesn't even show up the following week. The stupidity of that is mind-blowing.

Sheamus v Cesaro- Match 3 of the Best of 7 Series
I really liked this, just because it was a bit different to the first two matches- in that they went out for probably at most 6 Minutes and they did well in that timeframe telling what is in effect the story of the series. The Cesaro injury angle is interesting to me, just because I'm not sure what they can do with it now to be honest. The next match is tomorrow, and in the space of less than 2 days and a transatlantic flight in the meantime we're supposed to believe that Cesaro can now beat Sheamus. Unless they just have Sheamus beat Cesaro in England tomorrow which would be fucking hilarious.

I can only assume Cesaro gets a "fluke" win tomorrow and then builds from there.

The Shining Stars v Enzo & Cass
I realise they have to build feuds for Clash of the Champions, and they need a Pre-Show match which is what this will end up being I'm pretty sure. However, The Shining Stars now have a victory over Enzo & Cass. The Shining Stars now have a victory over Enzo & Cass. Let that sink in. With that said, Enzo & Cass deserved to lose after their promo before the match. I hated it. Byron also had a good line here when Graves said something along the lines of "I don't know why the fans are so upset about getting an invitation to Puerto Rico" and Saxton said "I don't have any vacation days". Byron was the best part of this segment.

Nia Jax v Ann Esposito
This is when RAW started to go off the rails. It didn't completely fall off at this segment, but this started it on its way. It was just the standard Nia Jax squash, although they did give us a bit of story behind this one at least with the jobber being Alicia Fox's friend. More later.

Gallows & Anderson, New Day & The Old Day "thing"
I was there live for the Titus O'Neil promo the other week, so that may play into what I'm about to say. This wasn't the worst segment of the year to me, for the simple fact that there was coherent sentences. However, god this segment was awful. Like, genuinely awful. I can't do justice to just how awful this segment was, and I can't in good conscience tell you to watch it to see how bad it is. So basically, I'll just let this segment die and be forgotten until The Sammy's in December.

Gallows & Anderson were up there in-terms of the most anticipated/hyped debuts when they came in last April. In the space of around 4-5 months they're doing bad comedy segments in front of a completely dead crowd. They might be having some fun doing it, but it's genuinely painful to watch.

Also, when the "Old Day" came out I thought they'd hired a dance troupe so New Day could make them young again through the Power of Positivity and/or Booty O's. I say that because I thought they were like 14 or 15 years old. That obviously wasn't the case given the fact New Day killed them, but still- it caught me off guard a bit.

Darren Young v Jinder Mahal
After that completely horrendous segment, we went to Darren Young vs Jinder Mahal. Darren Young vs Jinder Mahal. I'll let you fill the gaps in when it comes to my thoughts on the match. Titus tried to help Jinder win, he failed, and then after the match we had another Titus/Darren brawl. This one wasn't a complete waste, just because I'm pretty sure Titus accidentally tripped over himself in the middle of the brawl which I found hilarious.

Nia Jax & Alicia Fox Backstage Segment
This RAW had completely gone off the rails at this point, but there's a moment in this segment that may be the funniest thing I've ever seen. Alicia's crazy again, and she starts being crazy in front of Nia and throwing stuff around, she grabs a box, swings her arm around and hits Nia right in the face with said box. It was absolutely comedy gold, topped off by Alicia being on the verge of apologising for a split second after said box made contact with Nia. This was just absolutely amazing.

Braun Strowman v Sin Cara
Sin Cara's going to be one of the "established" guys in the Cruiserweight Division I'm pretty sure, but he's still Sin Cara. Why they decided that Sin Cara couldn't take a pin last night is beyond me. But they didn't, Braun won via count-out and we moved on with our lives. At least there was an explanation of sorts for this match after Braun ripped the mask off of Americo last week.

Sasha Banks delivers "bad news"
I always look through Reddit and Twitter before I do these Reviews, just to sort of see if I've missed something or there's a subtle thing I've missed because I'm watching form 1-4am every week. Most of the comments I saw on Reddit were basically "We got worked by Sasha in this segment". Did you really?

I watched this segment, and at no point did I ever believe Sasha was actually going to retire. Firstly, if she was going to retire they'd have milked the fuck out of it. There would've been a specific hashtag, she'd have been either the last segment or the 2nd/3rd hour lead-in and generally it would've been treated as a much bigger deal. Plus, it's Sasha fucking Banks. She's cried more times than I can remember- if she were actually retiring you'd have known like a minute into this segment. On top of that, the first bit of Sasha's promo (I know Meltzer's said this as well) was the most disingenuous and generally fake promo I think I've ever heard. Plus, the fact she brought up Moolah in the context of there being a women's revolution made me feel a bit sick.

Basically, I wasn't "worked" by this segment at any point- and to be blunt Sasha just isn't that good on the mic in this current role. I called the "it's bad news for Charlotte" line before she said it, she killed Dana Brooke and apparently she's got her Title rematch at Clash of the Champions from outta nowhere. I've already given my booking idea for Sasha/Charlotte/Bayley so I won't repeat it, and that's all that can really be said. If you were genuinely worked by this promo and not trying to get imaginary internet points like I suspect a few were on Reddit get in contact with me either in the comments or on Twitter. I genuinely want to understand how/why you were.

Kevin Owens v Sami Zayn
As with the Rollins/Jericho match, but maxed out because it's Owens and Zayn- of course it was going to be a good match. It annoyed me that they actually did this match, but I was so beyond caring by this point of the show I couldn't get worked up by it. The match was fine, aside from Triple H getting involved we had the predictable finish of Sami's leg costing him the match. Owens won and everything was fine.

Then Roman Reigns (and Mick Foley) came out. I'll say right now that I don't think Roman's going to be in the Title match at Clash of the Champions. To me, it's basically the same as the angle they did with Dolph on Smackdown a few weeks ago where he wrestled AJ in that they're basically killing a week. I know Rusev did that tweet where he said he was on Honeymoon for 23 days, but to me that's probably a red herring. Basically, for the first RAW specific PPV I can't imagine them having Roman as one of their biggest stars in the same match as Rollins and Owens. Also, if Rusev is on honeymoon for 23 days in kinda kills the whole "every title will be defended" gimmick for Clash of the Champions doesn't it?

If you take out the 30-40 minute period with the Nia Jax, Darren Young and Braun Strowman matches plus the New Day stuff this was actually a decent RAW. However, you can't, and as a result I would like to declare Smackdown the winner of this week. I think this is the last RAW before Monday Night Football comes back as well, so god help RAW next week. They might step their game up in-terms of the product- but if anyone was debating whether to watch RAW live next week or not that period of the show will have killed any chance there was of them choosing RAW. Especially coming off the back of Backlash on Sunday, Smackdown has a genuine chance of beating RAW in the ratings next week in my opinion.

Speaking of Backlash, the Backlash Predictions and Review will be up over the weekend on top of the Smackdown Review tomorrow so keep an eye out for all of those. Thanks for reading as always, let's just hope Smackdown is better than RAW tonight- because if it's not the Review tomorrow will be something else.

Fulham Transfer Window Review: Summer 16/17

Yep, the Fulham posts are officially back. I was close to doing a Deadline Day Live Blog that I've done a few times before, but between already having a Review out on Wednesday combined with the fact I knew we'd only get 1 or 2 players in at the most meant I decided against it. Instead, this is what you've got- a full Review of our summer dealings. We've absolutely smashed it. Review done. I said either on Twitter or in my last Fulham Review before I left for New York that it's getting harder to not get excited and Deadline Day and the signing of Chris Martin has pretty much made it impossible not to get excited from a Fulham perspective. Add on to the fact we're still unbeaten and currently 2nd, for the first time in a long time it's actually good to be a Fulham fan.

I realise I did something similar in my Season Preview, but I can talk about the vast majority of our signings having actually seen them in a Fulham shirt now- plus the ones that have come in over the last two weeks or so. I'll go in reverse order with the incoming signings, just because I think it's better to discuss the more recent signings first. Anyway, this will be a long one to bring the Fulham posts back with- so I'll just get started.

Ins
Chris Martin (Derby- Loan)
While we obviously have to see how we perform out on the pitch, on paper Chris Martin's the last piece of the puzzle- and the incomplete puzzle was still getting pretty good results in August. The obviously noteworthy thing is the fact the Martin deal's a loan and not a permanent transfer like I'm sure most people would've expected. If I had to guess, we'd worked out how much we could spend once the last of the McCormack money went on Johansen and decided to use said money on a big Loan Fee rather than sign a Striker who in this market wouldn't have been up to the same level. That's why a similar loan fee was quoted when we were linked with Asamoah Gyan. So in short, I think the primary motive of the loan is purely from a finances perspective and avoiding any sort of FFP breach.

The fact we have loaned Martin does leave us in pretty much a win-win situation. Martin will score goals, I don't have any doubt about that. The thing is, with the number of options we've got in-terms of a goal threat his hold-up play for the likes of Aluko, Kebano, Cairney and more who can benefit from good hold-up play is almost as important as his individual goal threat. So basically, Martin even off form is still going to be good enough to merit a starting place, and even if he's not getting the goals himself he'll be contributing in other ways.

The thing is, we don't need Chris Martin to have a 20+ Goal season. If Martin can get anywhere between 10 and 15 himself and carry on his form of creating I believe the second most chances in the Championship behind McCormack (over the last 4 seasons) we'll be getting goals from elsewhere as well. Middlesbrough went up with their Top Scorer in the League scoring 8 Goals. The reason they went up is because they got goals from everywhere and they always had someone popping up with a goal at the important time like Cairney did at Blackburn. With the number of options we've got, I think we'll be on a similar path in-terms of the source of our goals. Whether or not we go up, or even get Top 6 is another matter.

Hopefully Martin can keep us in or around the Top 6- and then depending on how he performs he'll either be deemed worth the Transfer Fee or we can send him back having basically spent 2.5 Million on Martin for a season- which would probably be better than the permanent options for that price given the way the market's gone this summer.

In short, I'm just absolutely over the moon with this signing. I just can't wait to see him in action against Birmingham now. Watch him get injured for Scotland.

Lucas Piazon (Chelsea- Loan)
While Martin had been speculated about for pretty much all of Deadline Day, and about a week or so before Deadline Day- this one came completely out of left-field. The best thing to say about this deal is that he's another option, with us seemingly going for as many options as we possibly could for the 3 Midfielders behind the Striker. For those of you who don't know, Piazon can pretty much play anywhere across that three- but in the very immediate term I'd expect Piazon to start on the Left against Birmingham (if he's going to) with Ayité injured.

Stefan Johansen (Celtic)
Johansen's a really interesting one, because he came in with shall we say "mixed" reviews from Celtic fans. The general consensus seemingly being that he had his bright spots in a Celtic shirt, but especially toward the end of his career at Celtic Park he wasn't all that. I don't really have a problem with the signing, I'm just interested to see how Slavisa fits everyone in to be blunt. You can't say we don't have options/depth can you? Especially in the Midfield areas.

Neeskens Kebano (Genk)
Another of those options, and by all accounts coming off a pretty good debut up at Ewood Park is Neeskens Kebano. You'll know if you read these posts regularly that I don't try and bullshit my way through supposedly knowing a player if I don't, and with that in mind I'll freely admit I had no idea who Kebano was before he signed. I wasn't at Ewood Park either, but apparently Kebano was quite impressive especially with his hectic week in mind- so it looks like we've got another good one on our hands. With the number of options we have, I'm not expecting Kebano to start against Birmingham given the fact he's had to travel to DR Congo for his International game- but I look forward to seeing him when I do.

Ragnar Sigurdsson (Krasnodar)
Given what I've just said about Kebano, and really the fact I've got no reason to lie- I hope you believe me when I say I knew about Sigurdsson even before he scored against England. The reason for that being right back in May when I was planning my Summer Window Preview we were linked with Bastos from Rostov, and as a result of said link I thought I'd look at some of the other Russian League Centre-Backs and Sigurdsson was one of the ones that stood out.

I'm really interested to see how Sigurdsson performs in the Championship, because at least on paper I don't have a doubt in my mind that Sigurdsson's of a high enough quality to start for us and potentially even be good enough to start for some Premier League clubs. But with that said, I'd be interested to see if Slavisa disrupts the pairing of Madl & Kalas that's worked a treat for the most part in August. It's really one to keep an eye on, but I'll say this right now- Sigurdsson is an absolutely top draw signing for us.

Jozabed (Rayo Vallecano)
This signing was an interesting one, just because it was seemingly dragged out for absolutely ages. I didn't get to see Jozabed in the Cup game against Boro, but from those who I asked on Twitter he apparently did quite well- which is again good because we've got another quality option in Midfield. I can actually see Jozabed eventually settling into a slightly deeper role than the one he played for the majority of his time at Rayo and partnering with Kevin McDonald when he's starting. I could be wrong, but I just think our #10 area is a bit too congested and he can play deeper which is why I think that's where he'll play.

Kevin McDonald (Wolves)
Speaking of Kevin McDonald, at this early stage of the season he's looking like being the best signing of the window from a Fulham perspective to me. He's just the type of player we've missed in Midfield for absolutely ages, and now that he's come in it became even more blatantly obvious than it already was that we missed it. With the number of Midfield options we've got, the fact McDonald and Cairney are the only two I can't see being rotated says a lot for how good McDonald's been. While it's still too early to say any signing has been a success, McDonald's definitely on course to be one of the best signings not just for Fulham but in the context of the whole Championship in my opinion.

David Button (Brentford)
Button's had some iffy moments I think it's safe to say. While I wasn't at Elland Road, it sounded like he wasn't doing much in the way of keeping who was calm and I do think he should've saved Chris Wood's bicycle kick. However, on the whole he's done pretty well in the games that I've seen him in- and it's an indisputable fact that he's already got more Clean Sheets than Bettinelli did last season and we've only just left August. While that's not necessarily a criticism of Bettinelli and more an indictment of our defence last season, to not give Button any credit for that would simply be wrong- and the save he made up at Blackburn to deny Graham (I think) was absolutely phenomenal.

Button's exactly the player we thought we were buying. He's a very solid, experienced Championship Keeper who we needed just to keep everything calm at the back and be good when called upon.

Scott Malone (Cardiff)
I didn't have high expectations with Malone, so I can safely say that so far my expectations have been exceeded. Although given how much Cardiff fans were slagging him off I think my expectations were set just above "has two legs". I was impressed for the most part in the games I saw live, and then from what I've read on Twitter he didn't do much wrong in any of the games I missed- and particularly against Boro he had quite a good game. So basically, for what the deal cost us- which was the service of Jazz Richards this deal's looking like amazing value for us.

Denis Odoi (Lokeren)
I said something to the effect of "if Odoi comes out of the Newcastle game looking good then we're onto a winner" and well, we all know what happened. From what I've seen of Odoi I still have some doubts over his actual defensive ability, but I think it's pretty safe to say he's been impressive nonetheless. Especially when you consider Odoi was most likely signed to play Left-Back and he's ended up at Right-Back for the first month of his time in a Fulham shirt. With Sigurdsson signing, I'm expecting him to go to Left-Back and Kalas to Right-Back where we should hopefully see him become even better in his "preferred" position.

Tomas Kalas (Chelsea- Loan)
Our other Chelsea loanee, and I've been really impressed with Kalas from what I've seen of him. As with Malone, the bar for a Fulham defender has been set so low over the last few years- the fact we've had two Centre-Backs that can be described as even "competent" makes Kalas & Madl even more impressive. The good thing with Kalas as the season progresses is that as I've already said he has the ability to play Right-Back as well, which given the make up of our squad and the way we've seemingly set up to emphasise rotation said ability will be crucial for us.

Sone Aluko (Free Agent)
I wasn't really expecting much from Aluko. I thought we were just getting someone with a bit of much needed pace and not much else. What we've ended up with is someone who at this early stage has become a pretty key part to how we set-up and play. So in that respect he's been another pleasant surprise of a signing. You could almost get used to them couldn't you? I've said a few times in my game reviews that we don't need Aluko to have a massive goal return given how key he is to how we play, especially now we've got Martin I'd like to emphasise that- but I still expect Aluko to get between 8 and 10 for easily this season.

Floyd Ayité (Bastia)
It's pretty much a common theme of all of these different player paragraphs to say I've been impressed with them since they've come in, but I'm not going to complain about that- and Ayité's not an exception. It's just a shame that he got injured against Cardiff, because he was without a doubt looking like one of our best players in August. In short, I can't wait for Ayité to get back fit and hopefully he does so ASAP as we try to keep our unbeaten run going for as long as possible.

Michael Madl (Sturm Graz)
There's not really much to say about Madl that's not already been said either last season or in posts I've done this season. I'll just say I hope he keeps his current form up, because he'll be a key player for us if we end up in a serious promotion race this season. I will also say, Michael, I know you've just joined Twitter, if you see this it's ok to fix that shirt contest you're running to let me win. Nobody will ever know.

That's that as far as incomings. It's pretty decent when you look at it all isn't it? If there was one thing I wish we would've done is to get another Striker in. However, just because we haven't already doesn't mean we won't get a Free Agent in. So basically, whether you wanted him or you didn't- Adebayor's not completely out of the picture just yet. I know some people were talking about Cyriac as well, but I didn't really "get" why some people were so hung up on him because I'll confidently say nobody who was tweeting about wanting him has actually seen him play.

Aside from that, I'd genuinely say this has been a perfect window from an incomings perspective. You can not like how we do our business and the role of Kline at the club, but frankly if we keep having windows like this one I don't care who's making the signings.

Outs
I'm not going to talk about all of the outgoings again because I covered most of them in my Season Preview and unlike the incomings I've not been in a position where I can see the outgoings and how they've done since they left. With that in mind, let's look at the outgoings we've had since my Season Preview- and I'll again work backwards from the most recent departure.

Jack Grimmer (Shrewsbury- Loan)
Of the ones we loaned out on Deadline Day, Grimmer was actually the one I was most disappointed about. Grimmer's loan basically confirms that he's leaving on a Free next summer. I mean, it basically already was considering I don't even think Grimmer had a squad number initially- but this has absolutely guaranteed it. I actually do rate Grimmer. Not necessarily to the level we want to be at (yet), but I do think he could have eventually got there. I suppose we'll just have to sit back and see what happens with Grimmer, and I hope we don't end up regretting his departure.

Larnell Cole (Inverness Cally Thistle- Loan)
HE'S ALIVE! Larnell Cole's probably one of the weirdest signings we've ever had. I'm pretty sure he hasn't actually made an appearance for us since he came on at Old Trafford in that 2-2 game. I believe he's another in the last year of his contract, and it's pretty safe to say he's not going to be renewed- so I'm just going to be interested to see if he can put the pieces of his career back together.

Richard Stearman (Wolves- Loan)
I said in my Season Preview that I couldn't see Stearman going, but crucially that was before we bought Sigurdsson. I'm not the biggest fan of Tim Ream, but he provides something Stearman doesn't- simply by virtue of his preferred foot. If we split the defence in half, on the right-hand side we've got Kalas, Madl, Sigurdsson as Right-Footed Centre-Backs and Kalas, Odoi and Fredericks for Right-Back. We don't actually have a Left-Footed Centre-Back that's not Ream, and Left-Back looks pretty bare in comparison to Right-Back. In short, I can see why Ream stayed and we shipped Stearman out.

I'd actually said last year that of the Centre-Backs we were linked with that I'd prefer Mancienne to Stearman. While I didn't think he'd end up doing as badly as he did, I wasn't the biggest fan of Stearman coming in. If you're being nice, you'd say he was a casualty of the wider issues we had in the defence last season. I don't think Stearman became a bad Centre-Back overnight, so I'm interested to see how he gets on back at Molineux. I suppose if he does end up playing well again, it'll put his transfer value up a bit and he can't even play against us.

Nikolay Bodurov (Released)
I don't think many people were surprised by this one. I don't think he's signed for a new club yet, but I will say I wish him the best. While he wasn't really good enough, to say he didn't have any good performances in a Fulham shirt would be a lie.

Sakari Mattila (SønderjyskE)
I'd like to point out I didn't copy & paste that club name. Mattila's someone who I was quite interested by last season, because until Rohan Ince came in he was the closest we had to a proper holding-mid which was a role we needed to fill. But it just wasn't meant to be, and I don't think anyone will be mourning the loss of him.

Ross McCormack (Aston Villa)
I think it's only fitting that I end this Transfer Window Review with the biggest transfer of the window, both in-terms of significance and value from a Fulham perspective. I'd also like to say right off the bat that I'm a big fan of Villa's transfer strategy this summer which hints at them going for the obscure 2-4-4 formation.

Especially with the way we've been playing, which we simply couldn't do with McCormack in the team- I'd say this deal has ended up being a win-win. Villa got their man, with their strategy seemingly being to try and win games 6-5- and McCormack will get them 15-20 goals easily and we got £12 Million potentially rising to £14 Million for a 30 Year Old Striker and reinvested that money into Sigurdsson, Jozabed, Kebano and Johansen. So basically, everyone's happy. I don't have any ill will toward Ross for wanting the move. I said as much in my Season Preview. I wish him all the best, as long as that best is below Fulham in the Table.

I despise any sort of review where a score for a player/event is given out of 10. To me, it's just lazy- because the way we are as humans means the vast majority will just look at the scores. That's why I never give marks out of 10 or 5 or whatever- because those of you reading this actually have to ready my positions and at least attempt to understand the point I'm making before you agree or disagree on said point. With that said, if I were to be giving a score to this transfer window it would have to be at least a 9 or 9.5/10. The only thing we didn't do is get another Striker in, and that may become a non-issue depending on if we go in for a Free Agent. On the whole though, this Transfer Window has genuinely been close to perfect.

Thanks for reading as always. With no games this weekend, the Reviews will be back next weekend for the Birmingham game where hopefully we can keep our unbeaten run going and with Chris Martin in we can become a lot more clinical with the number of chances we're creating. That's for next weekend though, so for now I'll just say I hope you have a good week. Thanks again for reading, this whole "being positive" thing isn't half bad is it?