Chez

the keeper gives me kittens. I'd like to see a video showing the times it went awry.

Ings went for £25m plus add ons. He had one year left on his contract, was 28 years old and scored 41 prem goals in 91 games. Che also has a year left, is 26 and has scored 25 goals in 123 Prem games. Not sure we'll get £25-30m for him.

Possibly, but wage reductions are there for a reason - the Prem TV/prize money was about £115m for a bottom three or four side and that will drop to £44m. I know the owners have talked about backing a promotion bid, but they also have talked about sustainability and books still have to be balanced. Che will likely be off. He will have suitors. He didn't sign a new contract last summer as we failed to match his requirements (£100k a week perhaps?), so 40% of what he is on now is not going to work. We will also not want him walking on a free.

he couldn't have done much worse than Jones and Selles. I don't blame the board for sacking him though, as we were shite for a long time under him. Just wish they'd appointed a better replacement.

He obviously hasn't got a move set up yet.

that is what a manager is there for.

Bloody great news, if true. A £70m wage bill in the championship is still huge, but manageable.

Rather than saying players were not training hard or giving their all, I interpret that as quality has gone down and we fucked up the season leading to relegation.

Messi captained Argentina to world cup victory. He doesn't say boo to a goose on the field. You need guys that lead by example on and off the field. A club captain sort, off the field. You need some vocal players, but the captain doesn't organise or change anything on the pitch. We have the ring master managers doing that these days.

That's all very well, but firstly, we have to be able to work the ball up the pitch to get in positions to cross the ball - that's not been easy for us. We have numerous players who cant cross the ball. And if his only participation is to hang around the six yard box, it means we are effectively playing with ten for most of the game.

Tapping in unmissable chances from 5 yards? Maybe, one day we'll create one.

First game I haven't watched all season as was playing cricket. We lost. I got a duck. Great days. So, can anyone tell me how Onuachu played? Is there a 20 goal championship striker in there?

our defence really is terrible. However, perhaps there just aren't as many tackles in top flight games as you might imagine. Interceptions and misplaced passes will outnumber tackles.

Baz's positional play is poor. Perhaps his worse aspect. He often gets his starting point and angles wrong and he isn't where the ball is nearly enough. I think he is pretty agile and has decent reflexes. He's made some good saves, but he's also allowed stuff to go through him. He somehow makes himself smaller not bigger. He looks like a kid playing a man's game at times. He lacks the presence of a top keeper (even a young one) and doesn't give off an air of confidence, yet. That said, he's brave and he does come for things, which should be applauded. I'd say his sweeping is his strong point. His decision making about when to come out has been very good. I really don't know if he will look a decent championship keeper next year at the lower level. If his positional sense can improve, I think the answer is yes, but is that likely to happen over the summer? I think McCarthy will depart, so I guess there is not much point discussing whether he will look the part at that level.

I've seen JWP linked to Newcastle, Salisu to Everton, ABK to Frankfurt, Lavia to Liverpool...so the vultures are circling...or at least we are providing good transfer gossip.

We effectively were saying `prove you are good enough for a long term deal by keeping us up'. He obviously didn't back himself to do it, which may have been a very wise move considering how shit we are.

I thought you were going to say "...and Quasie to show those wanting a move how to stand around on the half way line, with hands on hips, not giving a fuck and contemplating life at WBA as your opponent scores."

We are almost certainly going to need to sign a defensive CM, so Hjulmand might be an option. I'd of thought we'd pay more wages even in the Championship, but maybe not by much.

Forrest (6 loanees) and now Burnley (five loanees) have both used the loan system extensively to help both get promoted. Sheff United had three Man City players on loan too. Worth noting that Boro had 6 loanees, Luton 3, Coventry 5 and Sunderland 3. Loannes Mason Mount and Harry Wilson pretty much took Derby County into the play off final in 2019 on their own. The Championship is full of rank average players. The Prem takes every single quality youngster these days, so you have little choice but to go to that well for affordable talent. Obviously apart from Burnley, none of those sides I mentioned had just been relegated and none had just spent a few bob buying youngsters from Chelsea/City like we did, but I don't see any harm in us loaning players, if they are quality.

Unless his wages are cut in half on relegation, I should imagine we will be keen to get him off our wage bill.

Fair question. If proven Prem players come at a premium, then buying the equivalent player from Denmark, Japan or Argentina etc. is the only option. It then comes down to the quality of your scouting. A window where we signed four Man City youngsters (and we perhaps tried to buy Delap too) doesn't really suggest we searched the world top to bottom to unearth that proven talent at prices we can afford. I'd have several scouts in Argentina, as they have lots of talent, but there is no money for wages. Obviously now we are going down, things change, but if we had another shot at the summer, then I'd of looked at the side below and seen where we were weak and attacked those areas first with senior players from abroad. McCArthyKWP Bednarek, Salisu, PerraudRomeu, JWPS Armstrong DjenepoAdams A Armstrong We did add some senior players in the summer, but were Lis, DCC, AMN and Aribo really ever going improve us? (and were they meant to be starters from day 1 or squad players?) I guess with hindsight it's easy to say `no' (and maybe you could argue ABK was an upgrade), but all had squad player written all over them. I can't get my head around us on the one hand trying to get Gakpo in, one of the best players in the Dutch league at the time, which would have been an excellent move, while also bringing in Aribo (not even the best attacker/winger at Rangers) or AMN (a player that had one decent Prem game for WBA, and that was against us). I have no issue with us buying future stars from Man City or Chelsea (so long as they really are prospects) to slowly integrate into the side (quickly if they are of Lavia's ability). That plan makes perfect sense to me.

if we want £40m, then he won't be going anywhere.

out scouting system struggles to recognise decent footballing traits, never mind character.

Only if we offload loads (which we may well do). We have a 35+ man squad currently.

Do you really think we will get those amounts? There is just a year left on Salisu's contract and he has hardly set the world on fire this season, for example. I wonder how we will get £25m for Orsic, DCC, Lyanco, Diallo and Onuachu. I'd be surprised if we got much, if anything for them, simply because they are on Prem wages now, so clubs will have to pay them more, so will then have less for transfer fees. I might be wrong, but I can see it being more like Lavia £40m, JWP £30m, KWP £20m, Salisu £10m and the others maybe £5m. Maybe I am being too pessamistic.