qwertyell

Man City put buy back clauses in loads of their transfers, but how many of those players do they ever end up buying back? Off the top of my head, I can only think of Angelino, who they bought back from PSV only to send out on loan six months later and sell again the following summer. They won't be buying back Lavia (or Bazunu or Charles or Edozie or Larios; and the Gunn option ended when he left us). They let players leave that they don't want anymore. If they rated Lavia that highly, they wouldn't have blocked his pathway into the team by signing Kalvin Phillips to sit on the bench. The buy back clause is just a bit of a safety net for City on the off chance that they let a player go and he suddenly turns into a world beater.

You're right - Mara scored 4 against Middlesbrough u21s in, I think, about the only time he's appeared for them. Those goals were largely dismissed on here as irrelevant, because it's already been decided that he's hopeless and will never improve. Ballard's obviously doing well and seems to be progressing in the right direction - but you're always a better player when you're out of the side.

U21s lost 5-3 to Newcastle. Ballard scored a hat trick. Defending optional in the Martin "playbook"?

Just like Swansea were defensively miserly with him? Load of bollocks. Downes is a much needed extra warm body, but not the aerially and physically dominant midfielder we're crying out for.

Well it was certainly interesting. Can't get promoted being so fundamentally easy to play through and incapable of defending in the air. I'll go on record early doors as stating Russell Martin will turn out to be a Poundland Brendan Rodgers. But it was a good old laugh. Which is something - replacing the weekly doom and gloom with slapstick.

Beginning to see why Martin teams concede for fun. They're an absolute shambles out of possession. But, hey, as long as everyone buys into the "philosophy", everything will be great, right? This time will be different to the other midtable mediocrities he's overseen, right? 3 games, 4 goals conceded from set pieces. It's basic stuff: we only have at best one player in the XI who can win a header. Lots of little tippy tappy fuckers, though - which is no help at all when the ball is in the air. The side is fundamentally imbalanced. Not a water carrier in sight. In a very physical league. It's rank negligence. Man City are the tippy tappy benchmark in English football, but even Pep has conceded an XI of lightweights gets you nowhere - they're now one of the biggest teams around: five or six players 6ft+ in most line ups.

Presser: mostly Ward-Prowse platitudes; a player is expected to come on loan as part of the deal. Stephens new captain. For the game, sounds like no new injuries. Bella-Kotchap is still a few weeks away from match fitness - albeit ill at the moment. Hope to organise a game for him or an u21 match soon. No formal bids for him as yet, but obviously some interest. Sulemana still rehabbing a muscle injury. Has been away from the club for a few days getting specialist treatment. Tactically, for Norwich, in terms of Prowse replacements, Martin said Smallbone can go further forward if Charles plays - and somewhat surprisingly named Adam Armstrong as a potential option in a deeper role. Not sure about that, but he reckoned it was successful in some of the preseason friendlies and I didn't see many of them. Isn't sure about loaning out the best of the u21 crop at the moment. Thinks they'll be better off staying at the club and learning the system. Maybe have a rethink in January. Might change their minds if the "right" club comes along, that plays the same way and is promising lots of game time. Anyway, that's about that. Edit: oh yeah, he said Lavia's training really well - some days better than others - and generally keeping his head, considering all the noise around such a young man. But he doesn't think he'll be calling on him to start games. May or may not be in the match squad - late decision on that.

Can he play in goal, or are his hands still fucked?

He had to go now or risk being stuck in the Championship for the rest of his career. If he were to stay and we fail to get promoted at the first attempt (which is probably more likely than not), no-one's coming along next summer with a big cheque to sign a 30 year old from a mid table Championship club. Good luck to him. I wasn't his biggest fan and think he's wildly overrated around these parts simply because he's a home grown player that has stuck around while his peers all left (because no-one wanted him), but in our current state we'll obviously miss him.

He'd be an improvement on what we'll have after Lavia and Prowse have gone, but I don't think he's the player we need. At least not on his own. The midfield (and first XI) is extremely lightweight and, aside from the centre backs, weak in the air (and Stephens is pretty ordinary at that). For me, we need more height and power in the team. It's all very well having a philosophy manager who wants to only play tippy tappy football, but we're not in the Testimonial League. The Championship is physical and direct more often than not. And if we can't cope with that (which I don't believe we can at present) we won't earn the right to get on the ball and play a more refined style.

It was an accident waiting to happen against Wednesday, but for some reason they didn't recognise that if they went long, direct and physical we only had - at best - one player on the pitch who can win a header (Bednarek).

Have to assume Charles is in midfield, as there's no other natural CMs really. I'm guessing at a back five - Djenepo, Bree, Lyanco, Meghoma, Perraud. Charles, Armstrong in the midfield with, perhaps, A-A in the 10. Adams and Mara up front. 5-3-2. Doesn't look ideally balanced, but there we go. Edit: I forgot Martin is supposed to favour 3-4-2-1. So: Bree, Lyanco, Meghoma (he's taller than Perraud) as the back three? Midfield four of Djenepo, Charles, Armstrong, Perraud. Amo-Amayew and Mara in a two. Then Adams. Something like that. Maybe.

Watch as Spurs go lower.

Bella-Kotchap and Larios were back on the pitch training with the first team in the build up to Sheffied Wednesday. Perraud has been back longer. Ballard picked up a knock early in pre season but is fit again and has had a couple of run outs in U21 matches. Mara was a fitness doubt who only returned to training a day or two before Friday's game. Sulemana was ruled out in advance, with the manager saying: “I’ve not seen him on the training pitch very much, unfortunately. He went away with Ghana in the summer, played a bit of football so came back a little bit later, and he’s picked up a small injury. “It’s not a major one, but it would be madness to rush him back for the first game and compromise anything else. “He’s a young man with huge potential, and hopefully he’ll be involved very soon. He’s probably a week or two behind the others in terms of what his injury is.”

We were linked to Million Manhoef of Vitesse the other day. Left footed right winger. Leicester are also supposedly looking at him. Bit of a Marcus Edwards clone - low centre of gravity, pacy dribbler. No idea how many of our links are total bollocks, but his age, style and likely price feels like there could be something in it.

Would like us to turn all that possession into a second goal. Wednesday haven't offered anything yet, but if they go direct and physical I think they'll have some success against this lightweight line up. Apart from perhaps Bednarek, everyone else will get bullied. Played nicely so far, though. Look like a premier league team against a league one side, for some reason.

He was in the training photos on the OS on Tuesday.

But that's about how much we'll pocket after Chelsea have taken their enormous cut.

Million Manhoef. Left footed right winger. Vitesse. Son of an MMA guy - whatever that is. Less glittery wrestling.

Think he'll regret it more if he gets stuck in the Championship for the remainder of his career. If we don't go straight back up, who's coming in next summer with a big cheque for a 30 year old midfielder from a mediocre Championship side? It's probably now or never for him to move.

36 players have squad numbers. And although half a dozen are u21 players, you would expect the likes of Amo-Ameyaw, Doyle, Ballard, Dibling and Meghoma to see game time this season. I'm sure Saints want to bring in 3 or 4 new faces, but the squad is absolutely massive as it is. 7 or 8 or even more need to leave to get it down to a manageable number. Until there's more significant movement out, I wouldn't expect to see much in the way of incomings. We've got a whole month to address things. Frankly, it might take the January window as well to get to grips with the mess last season's incompetent squad building has left us with. Lavia and Salisu will go in the next few days. Livramento soon after. We're actively trying to get rid of Lyanco. Perraud doesn't look like he has a future here now Manning has arrived. Burnley will probably get Tella eventually. Ward-Prowse will find a suitor eventually. Onuachu is surplus to requirements. Adams has a year on his contract and isn't t signing an extension. And it'd be a surprise if no-one came in for Walker-Peters or Bella-Kotchap. That's 11 realistic outgoings. After a slow start, the final month of the window could be a real churn.

Swansea about to sign a big centre forward, Mykola Kukharevich. (Also a keeper and right back incoming). Perhaps the start of some movement one way or another? Whether it's relative to us is anyone's guess, but it'd be a surprise if Martin wasn't at least a little bit interested in a few former players.

Hamstring injury (tear?) at the end of last season at Forest. (Or "bottled it", if you're that way inclined). Was shown at the club before pre season even started, presumably rehabbing the injury, and featured in training pictures on the website during squad gym sessions once everyone was back. Hasn't been seen out on the pitch.

But would you take last season's Max Aarons over KWP? Because Norwich fans think he's been bang average for a long time and hasn't developed into anything like the player he was hyped up to become. I wouldn't disparage Walker-Peters' worth for not "lighting up" the PL for one season in which everyone was poor (having previously been one of our leading lights), in comparison to someone who didn't light up the Championship and has never done well in the PL.

The quality of the managers isn't relevent to anything. Do you - presumably an actual grown up - genuinely believe that Chris Hughton called up Salisu for an important international game, trained with him for a few days when he travelled all the way out to Ghana to join the squad, decided along with the national team's medical department that Salisu, his starting centre back, was fit as fiddle, but then elected to send him home anyway and concoct a lie to tell the media about him being injured? Why would he do that? Have there been "internet rumours" about the integrity of one of the most respected individuals in the English game?