qwertyell

We're always one injury away from being much weaker. Most sides are. It's not realistic to expect us to have a squad of 22 starters. Better to have 11 absolute belters and mediocre back up than a squad that is more quantity than quality. A "first name on the team sheet" striker, with Armstrong, Mara, perhaps a late loan, as understudy could work. What did we used to have in reserve when Lambert, Lallana and Rodriguez were going gangbusters? Fuck all.

Playing devil's advocate, perhaps the Adams money goes towards an absolute howitzer of a striker in the pipeline who costs a bit more than our usual range, and the plan is to play one up. For Adams' qualities as a hard worker, he's not good enough to play as a lone striker. Doesn't score enough, no pace to get in behind, can't head. Armstrong isn't good enough either, for that matter. But maybe this fictional goalscoring behemoth I'm imagining bursting forth through the hallowed Staplewood gates, two parts shock to three parts awe, will be the talismanic line leader we've been crying out for. And Chesus is the sacrifice that must be made for our sins. It's a big maybe, granted.

Not really bothered about his distribution, but a couple of Spurs' goals were concerning for me. Gunny didn't really make lots of mistakes - his problem was that he was simply too easy to score past. He never saved anything; like having a hologram in goal. Bazunu couldn't do much about Sessegnon's point blank header or Salisu's donkey defending, but Dier's header wasn't in the corner and he got nowhere near it. No spring in his dive, just flopped to the floor. And Kulusevski's side footed finish wasn't in the corner either. Again Bazunu's dive didn't get within a yard of it. He's not the tallest keeper, and if he hasn't got the spring to cover the ground, I think he's going to have problems. It's only one game, of course, but he looked very easy to score against - the saves he did make were straight at him - and gave me a few Gunny flashbacks.

Bit tragic that we've reached our first "must win" game one week into the season, but here we are. If we don't manage to pull off a result, our next best chance won't be until halfway through September. Lot of pressure on the manager. Or there should be. Absolute busted flush.

There are other websites.

The "give him 10 games of the season before judging him" brigade are off to a bad start. 9 games of this shite left.

No pace. Probably the slowest front four in the league. I think you'd have to play Adam Armstrong instead of Adams just to give the attack something in behind.

Starting the season with Valery, Djenepo, Elyounoussi, and no recognised striker wouldn't be a great endorsement of our transfer window.

Historically, that should be the game you're most pessimistic about - we've only won once on day one in about a decade.

Understandable. Although these pre-season prediction articles are by and large only good for a laugh at their superficial knowledge of what's going on at any club outside of the top six. In the Telegraph yesterday, their Southampton expert (from the Ugly Inside no less) predicted Thierry Small would be our breakthrough player this term. He's on loan for the season at Port Vale...

I don't think a striker is the last part of the jigsaw, though. I hope it isn't viewed that way, in any case. Who's creating the quality chances for them? We've still got the same rubbish, plus some guy from Scotland with worse goals-and-assists per game numbers up there than Elyounoussi managed - and he's shite. How have we solved a calamitous defence that shipped 135 goals in the last two seasons? And what's going on at full back? We've added bulk to the squad, for sure, but have been operating in the transfer market like a club established in the top 8 trying to build an exciting team for the future to take us to the next level, when we're actually a side on a relegation path that desperately needed big improvements to the first XI that haven't happened. Yet.

Bottom 5.

He started in midweek against Monaco. So that's 55 minutes under his belt after three months out.

Just want us to get through it with no serious injuries. Villarreal are a dirty lot. Even in friendlies - as Wesley Fofana and his broken leg can attest.

Needs to sign a new contract. But he certainly looks a more rounded player than, say, Tella - good technique on him.

Roma.

IIRC Man City took Max Alleyne from us last summer for the same amount: £1.5m.

Wouldn't be the first footballer to be a bit dim.

Interesting...

He scored 8 goals for Middlesbrough in the Championship across 36 games. (Sam Gallagher scored 9 last season, in 37 games.) Might not be "fucking shit", but he's of no use to us.

11 points for DDB, according to an online WP calculator. Need 15 points to qualify. 11-14 range makes you eligible for an appeal to the "Exceptions Panel". 10 and below is a fail. Think Mara got 12 points, and we seem to be pushing ahead with that deal, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility. Hypothetically speaking - no idea who this bloke is.

Seems a bit of a desperation stations after-thought if we're only moving on him now. Leverkusen have been all over him since June. Surely, if we were really keen, we wouldn't have left it so late. If true, of course.

When his broken leg has healed. It's taken longer than expected. Someone on here said he rejoined training last week, so if that's the start of his pre-season prep, I wouldn't expect him to be available for the first couple of weeks - if all goes to plan.

12 points (if that's the actual number - big if) puts Mara in a bracket (10-14) where we can appeal to an Exceptions Panel. The outcome of that could go either way, I suppose We definitely announced him before we were ready to - Bordeaux jumped the gun and we had to follow.

Perhaps the Mara deal isn't as cut and dried as it appears. Doesn't look to me like he meets the WP requirements - only 12 points of the needed 15, according to those websites that calculate these things.