S-Clarke

In case anyone was wondering if this fella was going to be joining us:

Marquee signings is a bit of a floated term nowadays, what does it mean in reality? Is it a case of just spending a massively inflated fee on a player who is in demand? There is still value to be had without spending silly money. Judging the 'coup' level of a signing shouldn't be based upon the transfer fee alone, but it feels like modern football has gone that way sadly.

P&O cruises and ferries are distinctly different companies. What P&O Ferries did to their staff has no connection what so ever with P&O cruises, as they are separately owned companies without any connection to one an other. P&O Cruises is thoroughly embedded into Carnival as their overall owner. It's kinda like kicking up a fuss if Microsoft took us over, because you didn't like what Apple had done. P&O Cruises are the proper boats which leave Southampton and go all over Europe and the world, P&O ferries are the noddy lot who base themselves out of skatesville.

I think it's the right strategy for clubs like ourselves, enough of the focus on tippy tappy players, more of a focus on genuine power, strength and pace. That's what will get us success longer term, it shouldn't be about focusing on having a higher average possession percentage. I'll always stand by that! I'm much more comfortable with this profile of player as they've already got a bigger chance of being able to succeed at PL level due to their physical profiles.

Juric was the only manager who kinda put 100% in him, playing him every week, and he still didn't really do anything for us. I guess he looks at a player like him as a great 'get out' option for how he approaches the game, at the end of the day his teams are built on defensive stability in low blocks and fast breaks. What we got for him $$ wise is a great deal, funds Downs with change to spare.

In the old days, maybe, but £6m is relatively loose change in the modern world of football. I think you have to be able to spend those levels to even be competitive in the Championship nowadays. We're in a time where Birmingham City put down £18m for Jay Stansfield as a League 1 club.

To counter that, I'd say that if Armstrong, BBD and Archer were Championship players last season and we were targeting them on the back of goal-scoring campaigns, that would fill that void you state. They'd certainly be valued at that as well. Last season BBD looked like a carthorse, but he can and has scored goals at this level. Ditto Armstrong, and ditto Archer. On paper we have 'Championship proven goal scorers' in the door already, so we somewhat have a risk free move available for an 'up and coming' sort. If we sell BBD/Armstrong/Archer then it's a different story however.

Reads like a massive guess-work article to me.

Yes, that's quite scary. Let's hope he's nowhere near involved come August!

I think that's a very fair assessment. I don't have a problem with Solak personally, more so the morons he put to run the show and then the subsequent show they spun up. I guess the proof will be in the pudding now though, we need to see an uplift now he's fully involved. He could have been a worse owner, that's for sure. At least our players are paid.

This one is clearly a Spors driven signing, him and Quarshie have both been targeted and moved on pretty quickly by Spors and the new Chief Scout. Our new Chief Scout has obviously got some knowledge of both of these, especially Quarshie as he was at Hoffenheim Yep, they're young, somewhat unknown and we've all been here before so I get the apprehension. I think we'll still target some more proven players though, we'd be nuts not to. The problem comes when your strategy is based on just young and up and coming, as we've all seen.

I'm with you, I think Brooks is a very classy player. Technically gifted, similar in ways to Dibling in his playing style. Not particularly quick, but a good brain and close control. I felt we should have got more out of him when we had him, I saw it as a huge coup when we got him on loan. I didn't think our rigid retain the ball approach helped him, he's more of a maverick - much in the same way as Charly was, you need to let them express themselves and not tie them int a rigid ''keep the ball at all costs, and pass backwards'' approach. Whoever gets him in the Championship will undeniably be getting one of the most technically gifted players in the league.

We've done well to get over 50% of our money back on this one, the guy never did it for us - either Champ or Prem. Lots of pace, undeniable attribute, but he never seemed to know what to do with it. Lots of blind ally's run into. To get £15m+ for him is a fantastic start and provides us with a bit of a bonus income, that we probably didn't expect to generate. This is the sort of transfer I expected to rumble on and turn into a loan, ditto Onuachu, so it's good to get these two done nice and early. I wonder if we'll get any takers for ABK? That would be another bonus, even £5m at this point.

Where is the proof that the club confirmed it to the Echo? Have you seen the official OS release stating our interest? Until that point it's a rumour. #MLGMode (sorry, couldn't resist)

I've not seen any links to this guy, this is the first one. I've always thought he's out of our range, and even after that post...I'm probably still inclined to believe he's out of our range. He's being talked about at upwards of £15-20m, clearly a really good player but destined for better than us. The club already have Bree and Suguwara at RB, so we don't have a gap to fill as it stands. (which feels weird to say as we've just lost KWP). I'd hope Suguwara will be top at Championship level.