Fabrice29

Exactly what I'm suggesting. The signings of Quashie and Downes appear to be long term which a view being able to contribute this season. No reason we should go away from that when it comes to permanent signings. If you want someone who can just contribute in the Championship then I'd argue thats what loans are for. Yeah, this is all common sense stuff but you can also save yourself resources and upheaval if you recruit well enough this season and sign players who you hope/think might be able to step up next year too. If you're deliberately signing players you aren't convinced by, thats more work and cost next summer.

That isn't what I said though, thanks for reading.

Fwiw, it wasn't just the convincing the player angle that made me laugh. I think it's a pretty funny strategy all round. But okay, throw some money at the player and the club and you get him in. Wonderful. Now in a years time, you've got a keeper on "much higher wages" and "a good promotion bonus (hopefully) that you now are looking to upgrade on. Is that really a strategy you endorse? We have a squad full of Championship proven players here that we don't think can step up and I'm not sure adding another player to that list is a "no brainer". Surely it makes more sense to sign players who we think might be able to go on that journey and have the potential to step up. I've no idea about this specific keeper fwiw, I've seen him twice for Rotherham and see he's not riding high on the save percentages for Championship keepers last season but I'm sure there's much better ways to judge him and I'm sure you've seen him more than I have but not convinced "we might have to replace you next summer" is the glowing endorsement you think it is and wouldn't convince me to spend quite a few million on if I was the owner for example. We signed Gunn in 2018 didn't we? Hardly right next to "them".

"Come sign for us and completely ignore our plans to bench you next summer"

Issue with MGW seems to not be "tapping up" necessarily but more the reveal of the release clause that I suspect has annoyed Forest more. If the Donley rumours are true, I imagine that would have put that move on a further delay too. Will need to wait until their tour is over as I imagine he's now going on that.

I see all the people who insist they don't like Martin or his football are checking in on how he's doing Perfectly normal behaviour. Not the only ex Saint out there though so maybe they are all checking in on the Panathinaikos lad.

It's funny seeing people have a dig at this considering Ramsdale had a transfer last summer and ended up at a promoted team. Not sure why anyone suddenly thinks he's going to be anywhere near the top of any of the other exact same 17 teams shopping list when he wasn't a year ago.

So as it happens the idea the squad would be some sort of cull was a bit overblown then.

Became a Chilean international in May 2021, then went onto have his two most prolific seasons scoring 22 and 14 goals at the Championship level he's done nothing at supposedly. But apart from that, top posting.

Seemed to play quite a bit without wingers and when he did they would play close to the striker from the minimal information I can find. Anyway, given adaptability is the big buzz word around Still right now, I would be slightly surprised if he didn't highlight our best crossers of the ball are our full backs/wing backs and set up accordingly. Dibling/Robinson or whoever should be playing inside and close to the striker/s and full backs pushed on. Midfield should be anchored by Downes and Charles and Fernandes should be the all action heart beat. Don't think we'll be playing with "classic wingers" given we barely have any.

Is that true?

It's posts like this that really get me excited for this season. 3rd top scorers in the league, club record unbeaten run and a 4th place finish followed by a play off win all in spite of this prick means this season can only be really special right?

Real David Moyes vibes from this

They signed him when they were in the PL to be fair.

We have a whole squad of these ffs 😂 The desire for us to sign someone now that you’ll be concluding isn’t good enough for the PL and needs replacing if we go up is off the charts on here.

Appeared to be playing centrally at one point based on those highlights today. His best position going forward for me.

Obviously ffs That's the point I'm making. You don't need "seasoned professionals" you need people to be good at identify translatable skills into the league you are in.

Make your mind up on the math. But no, I named the 7 players that came with PL experience and performances that satisfied some, including you, when signed. You can disagree if you like. Point I was making stands imho. "Seasoned professionals" isn't something we've ignored and isn't the magic bullet to success.

You seemed reasonably satisfied with BBD experience when we signed him Which is kind of the point I'm making. We've signed so called quality as well and sometimes they also don't work out. Think we need to just get better at recruitment overall, rather than think the answer is in proven quality/season professionals which can also struggle to translate to good performances in a bad team. There is risks either way.

Well you didn't say premier league quality firstly but Ramsdale, Lallana, Fraser, Cornet, BBD, Archer, Taylor all had at the very least respectable PL seasons behind them.

I reckon at least 7 of our signings last summer could be considered "seasoned professionals" so not sure we've ignored them tbh.

All this does/would do is leave you over paying players who haven't played or under paying players who have played and played well. Which isn't a culture thats going to attract good talents. Other than that, top idea.

Will Smallbone could be the fittest player in the club and league for all I know. He could be able to replicate his top skills consistently more than anyone over a longer period of time. That's fitness to me. He undoubtedly isn't the strongest or quickest though which would be physicality to me. I never thought anyone apart from Onuachu and Fernandes occasionally looked like they were out on their feet last season, so I had no issues with fitness. Did I see the majority of the squad get bullied physically? Yep, 100%. I think that lies in recruiting more physical players, not boosting players fitness.

I dont think fitness and conditioning are the same as "quality, physicality or intensity" fwiw.

The idea that we were unfit last time we were in the Championship considering our record in the final parts of the game stands up pretty well that season is about as on point with the idea that we didn't attack teams in that season too.