Chez

I can't get my head around Fraser playing in the middle. He has spent his whole career going up and down the line, making runs on the shoulder of the full back and then went found, doing it simple, i.e. getting it, dribbling in straight lines and crossing it.

You don't mention Charles. Any thoughts on him so far? There have been a lot of posters on here excited at his return. Personally, I am a little sceptical of him being able to galvanise our midfield, but obviously its an area of the pitch we need to improve, big style, so will take whatever positives are on offer...

We have Archer and AA here. If we had sold Archer to Leeds in the last window, then maybe we would have been interested, but we can't keep signing players without others going out the door.

Why did he do that? Are Bree or Sugawara injured?

Likewise. That attacking midfielder/winger that we could apparently acquire without needing to sell would have solved that, but perhaps that is in the works. Beyond that, there is little we can do until players depart.

Sheff united signing Louie Barry from Villa on loan.

Why would we loan him - to get his wages off the books or because he will be a disgruntled player (or both)? I can understand him departing - presumably because of a relegation release clause, but not sure I would understand him leaving on loan.

Looks a similar player to Downs. You wonder if he was on our shortlist at some point but having signed Downs perhaps is no longer a target?

reminds me Edozie. Lots of tricks, but very lightweight build, currently.

If PL scouts don't rate him, that's great news. He's ideal for us.

Perhaps one of the 17 teams that does rate him may need a keeper this summer when they didn't last?

no he wasn't.

I think the consensus on here is, keep Ramsdale if possible, if not, get someone else in. However, we cant sign anyone until Ramsdale goes...and when he does, we will still be faced with that problem of having two extremely well paid keepers on the books that we can't shift. Can the club afford to pay a similarly large wage to a third keeper whilst in the championship...and can they attract a keeper in the championship that is going to be good enough to play at the higher level on promotion? The championship is littered with really average (to worse) keepers. If you are half decent, you are one of the three keepers each PL club has rather than in this godforsaken league.

Thanks. Interesting reading those posts. He's basically not done much for various reasons, but a £30m price tag is standard for a technically-good-enough-for-the-PL young midfielder. It's amazing that is the going rate these days...and no doubt we will be turning away offers below that for Fernandes.

Lot of talk about Jacob Ramsey to Forest or Everton, with £30m being mentioned. His destination and price, should Villa allow him to depart may directly impact any potential Fernandes move.

1. Do you even need a club captain? We pay the manager to organise and motivate the players. If you didn't have one, would the world come to an end? 2. We have been developing and playing youngsters from our youth system for decades. Young players know they can get games if they are decent. 3/4. Double. 5. Delaying giving him a new contract doesn't mean he would automatically depart. And it wouldn't go until next summer anyway. He certainly would look elsewhere for a contract offering long term security, but if we had waited until say January, Still could then see how important he is or isn't to our promotion hopes. I am sure if we offered him a deal in January, he'd of gone for that. 6. Fair point. But are his credentials all that great? Not a single PL club has tried to sign him whilst he was here. Bournemouth had him for a year on loan and passed on buying him. Experience and know how counts, but I'd chose more quality over more experience every time. 7. He had a year left on his contract. We would not be binning him. We would just not be extending his contract...yet. It's done now. I'm happy to get behind him, because he wants to be here and he is a Saint, but if things don't go well this season for him then I don't see why we can't have a good old moan at the management about giving him two more years.

Not the only thing. "...being transformed into a box-to-box midfielder under Still." It's almost like his season at Sheffield Wednesday never happened.

I'm not getting my hopes up too high. I know Sheff Wed fans thought he was good, but whenever I watched him for them, I still saw a guy that was constantly the wrong side of the ball and didn't dictate the game as the best CMs do. We need to ensure his role suits him and he has the right players alongside him.

Forest were seemingly interested long before Spurs bid for Gibbs-White, so not sure the move is reliant on that happening, but I agree, they will want to spend £25m plus add ons an we will want £40m plus add ons.

Yeah, lots of calls to ask if they can get him for £10m which obviously leads to nothing. Villa are going to be the team to look at. If Martinez goes to United, they will need a big personality to fill his shoes and Ramsdale fits the bill IMO.

Aribo played best for us as one of three central midfielders in the championship. He didn't do nearly enough in an attacking midfield role, all be it he didn't get too many opportunities in the championship.

Sounds out of their budget to me. He has ability, not too dissimilar to Edozie, but Palace are pretty astute and will know if they have a player that can make in the PL. It feels like they don't see that. That's a massive red flag for me. A loan would be fine fine, but I don't think we should be buying him for £10m.

I always thought Aribo would look for a move once his contract was up, rather than this summer. Free transfers are more attractive to suitors and ensure the wage remains high this season and then in future seasons.

Could it have been Gassama, choosing Rangers over us? Do they compete with us on wages?

it certainly needs trimming, but if enough depart, like all the main three or four we really rate and a few others like BBD, Taylor and Armstrong, then we can add to it. This attacking midfielder that could be signed with or without sales seems to be elusive too.