Chez

Good question. I guess the £20m could be added to an existing sum the club has available, say £15m, to then give them £35m to buy a really good player. But that would then leave us short of a striker...

Little else? Blimey. Not sure what games you were watching. How about his decent hold up ball, dribbling skills, taking players on and creating openings...he's strong, fast and direct and demonstrated all of those attributes many times in passages of play that didn't end in goals. What exactly is it you were looking for that he didn't show you? I don't recall Ralph calling him out for not working hard enough. When was that?

I take that to mean a player that makes things happen on his own. I.e. not just a goal hanger or even a basic `hold up the ball well' type. Someone with pace, with some skills that can take a defender on and create chances out of nothing, cause problems. Alternatively, it could just mean someone that is a clinal goalscorer. In the end, that's the kind of difference you want made, no goals changed to a goal. I've said many times I don't think Broja will come back, but boy do we need him or someone as good...

OK, mistake. Let me rephrase the purely hypothetical scenario that I created. KWP turns a contract down next summer...

Two years left on a contract seems to be very much the crossroads for players. The club kind of needs to make a decision on players. Do they extend or cash in on a player at the point of maximum return. Che has two years left. If the choice was either to extend his contract today by an extra two years and up his wages to say £95k a week or sell for £23m. What would you do? Regarding KWP, if, for example he has turned down an extension this summer, do you sell for £43m or keep him another year and see that value go down as he enters the final year of his contract. It's easy to say keep your best players, but from a financial point of view, if KWP's value goes down by say £15m, that's the money for his replacement removed from the cashflow. If you give Che that huge contract, do you really get value for it?

Livramento ain't better than jwp, but Perraud is limited, so KWP gets picked there. Buy a top left back and KWP would start at right back this season. KWP isn't concerned about his position in the first eleven. He won't be leaving because Livramento was selected ahead of him in the first few games last season. He will leave because there are bigger club's than us offering more money, trophies and prestige.

if he was annoyed, boy did he hide it well. Spent all season season smiling. Why would he feel uncertain about his position in the first 11 this season? He seems to be first choice right AND left back.

Mid 40s myself and would never buy or where a shirt, but think the blue is right up there with the best ever. Its very marmite though.

It's green? Couldn't tell from those pics. Shirt looks alright. Have to reserve judgement on the kit as a whole until see shorts and socks. Shame there is no stylistic feature linking the three kits.

Have SFC confirmed the specific fees and add ons for each player we have signed this summer?

James ain't playing CB. Also, he's injured a fair bit. Azpilicueta played over a dozen Prem games at rb/wing back last season, so they could easily time share.

thats the one I had in my mind. Was just happy to get a ticket.

Couldn't give a monkey's about the winners and CL positions etc. All that matters is how we do and whether we survive after this first (maybe second) season of recruiting mostly young potential. I worry that we have not really strengthened the first eleven in the short term and whether we will carry over the woeful form from last season. Have we done enough to turn around a one win in 13 game stretch? I don't know, so I'll go for 15th, which personally I think would be a good end result considering the starting point (by which I mean the low confidence we might carry across from last season). I wonder what the target the owner has set? Man City Liverpool Tottenham Chelsea Arsenal United Newcastle West Ham Aston Villa Palace Wolves Leicester Brighton Brentford Everton Saints Forest Leeds Fulham Bournemouth

sort of looped up and hit him on the line didnt it? I went to the Swansea game, mentioned, still got Jack Stephens' cutout and the scarf somewhere, but don't remember the free drink. May have been driving.

yeah Santa hats at Huddersfield for a pretty warm December afternoon.

on a sightly separate note, why do we have four senior keepers? Is Lis still expected to be loaned out? What's the score there?

Brighton will be saying to themselves that if he's good enough to get into City's side, which is full of players of costing and worth £50m+, then he's also worth/costing £50m+. In addition, City sold a left back they didn't rate for £30m, so they ain't getting ours that they do rate for anywhere near the same money. How on earth are sides like us meant to compete with these CL behemoths?

I have a recollection of us getting a free a pint/drink at one away game. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me.

New training ground, covid losses and only outgoing transfer fees last summer. If they stay in the Prem, there won't be an issue as everything will be budgeted for. Go down and everything changes.

I don't like seeing Walcott given stick on here. Him signing a pro contract for us and ensuring we got £10m from Arsenal made a huge difference to our finances, and I will always respect him for that. He may well be valuable behind the scenes too, however, unless Prem players are doing it on the pitch, I don't see how we can possibly be getting value for money from them, no matter what they do off it. £75k a week can only be recouped by on field displays, not words of encouragement in the dressing room. We pay our manager and his staff to do that...and Ralph's staff get paid a shed load less than £75k a week, that's for sure.

Think they have just completed the last phase of their new £100m state-of-the-art training complex. £60m spent last year on transfers with pretty much nothing back in. King Power's turnover and profits fell like a stone during COVID.

Enjoy things like this when it happens. Might be as good as our season gets.

Isn't the club currently negotiating with Eli on a new contract?

£270m in debt and that's with all the Prem prize money, CL money and huge transfer fees for players like Maguire. Football clubs are bottomless money pits.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement from you manager after your first appearance. As you say, he has only just got here and needs time to adapt. Why then flag up his lack of work rate to the press? I guess no one is going to ask why he hasn't started on Saturday now, but was there actually going to be any great pressure from press/fans for him to be thrust straight in? No biggie. I'm sure if you spoke with Ralph for an extended period he'd be much more positive, but a single line reply can sometimes come off a little negative, as this one does.