Ex Lion Tamer

Unlike man city, we play with two strikers so there isn't really room for a classic playmaker. Creativity needs to come from the wings or the second striker - Adams is actually pretty good at picking a pass although not exactly a de bruyne type

I agree but cling to the fact that there a lot of smoke and mirrors at the moment. Remember when we were "backing away" from Armstrong?

KWP JWP Salisu Simeu Romeu

I didn't realise how prolific he was at Coventry and some England youth levels

He's actually not dissimilar to our other Armstrong - not fast but a strong runner. Also seems to take up wide positions a fair bit on the clips I saw, I can see him playing on the wing

Have to say he doesn't look that quick on the YouTube vids I watched. Very skillful though

Not sure about that, but anyway, maybe we did speak to his agent early and didn't get any encouragement. Maybe he didn't want to move down south. Hard to know what happened really

Would he have chosen us over Leicester?

There's no knowing how he'll adapt but his goal record last season is better than Adams had and he looks better on the obligatory YouTube video IMO

Do you think every year you won't be getting any Christmas presents until suddenly on the day you do get some?

Feeling more positive now?

Obviously we don't know how well Armstrong will step up but if he bags some goals and doesn't get injured all the time then he could end up being an upgrade on Ings

Dodd, Le Saux, lundekvaam were well past their best by that point and probably not premier League quality. Beattie left halfway through the season and his head was already out the door in the first half. Delap was always awful

I rated Fernandes. Keeping hold of the ball is a useful attribute and he was very good at it

It's easy to forget that our younger players will be improving each season so we're not necessarily the same team that we were last year

The problem with Venkys is they're so incompetent they may reject a bid that they ought to accept. But hopefully we've made a decent offer now and they'll take it

Why be negative about our current situation when we know we are going to bring players in?

Perraud, Tella, Salisu and yes, Adams, are all way too good for the championship. Then you've got the replacement for Ings who hopefully will be, and maybe another signing

Perhaps I've misrepresented the thread a bit there, but Sheffield United isn't a good comparison. They were team of championship level players who massively overachieved for one season and bought a striker who failed. We have a squad which needs some reinforcements but in essence it is a Premier League quality squad

If this thread is about predicting how we'll do next season, why would you base your prediction on our current squad?

So we're all agreed then that we won't sign any more players this window? Honestly the predictions in this thread are ridiculous. We'll get some players in and finish 12th to 16th

I find it surprising that a supposed historian is so unable to judge the validity of evidence that they are willing to take every half-arsed transfer rumour as fact. Let's see where we are at the end of the window

If Berge and Sorloth both have the same agent and we've been linked to both, I'd suggest it could be agent talk

You've never heard of a club having an owner who can't put in their own money so it has to be self-sustaining? 🤷 In fact you could argue we have spent above our means because we've taken out that loan to get us through covid. Your thing about Gao not being engaged is a red herring. He just doesn't speak to the public. It's in his interest as much as ours that the club doesn't get relegated, there's no way he's just ignoring us. What he has done is delegated a lot of decision making to people he trusts