Chez

Not sure some of those are near certain departures. We may stick to our Gus on valuations like we did last summer with Onuachu, pricing them out if moves. Wages are relatively high, so teams may wait until they are available on frees. Perhaps we will loan out some players. It's not a given Sulemana departs for example.

THB is too slow. I said so during his first season. Not sure he makes up for that by reading the game brilliantly. Still learning though, so not giving up hope. What I do expect from a 'slower' CB is tremendous strength and aerial ability. He doesn't offer that. What we have is a defender with average traits that's pretty decent with the ball. ABK is the opposite. He doesn't look comfortable with the ball at all. And that's before the long lay off. He has looked even more limited since coming back. He's strong, but certainly not dominant. He doesn't read the game well and he's not quick either.

They got it cheaper because it had a £80m debt which they had to take on. They didn't have any obligation to pay the debt off immediately at the moment of purchase. It's like buying a car valued at £10k with £4k still left to pay on the finance (that you take on) for £6k. You spend £6k up front then maybe £1k a year for four and a bit years. the new owner doesn't have to pay it off at all, because it's a company, and the company can gradually pay the debt using the income it makes each year. Except they haven't even done that. The debt is similar in size to when they bought the club (I think).

Nope. The company owns the debt. Solak wont be paying the debt down out of his coffers.

never rated him, but sadly we have looked worse when he hasn't played (amazing I know), so I don't have massive confidence in the others either.

contracted until 2026, so wont be going anywhere unless we allow it. The daily Mail story suggested there was interest from Turkey, but we have seen with Onuachu how little money there is available, so I wouldn't put money on that move happening. Much more likely he sees out his contract and goes on a free next year.

if only 1 out of 5 signings will be good, how many good players will we have if we sign two? GCSE maths revision right there.

He has a £25m buy out clause according to one of the dodgy football rumour websites. From what I've seen of him this year, he's worth every penny of that.

They paid a decent chunk of the loan off last year to get the total down to about £69m, but then took out another £11m loan, so it's now back up to £80m. The loan cost us £11m to service (interest accrued on the loan) in 2023, and cost us £9m to service in 2024. So, you'd think this year (and next) we will be spending similar amounts just on interest payments. Not ideal, but pretty much the norm these days.

he cant play in the most advanced role imo. he doesn't offer anything much there. he played well sat next to Downes, playing in a three man midfield, collecting and distributing the ball and pushing on now and then. he passes the ball well. touch is ok. that's it. he's perfect for Martin's approach. in fact we struggled sometimes without him, beyond that though, meh.

Wilcox wasn't even at Saints when Edozie, Larios and Bazunu signed for us. Shields will have made a recommendation, not that everyone involved in scouting would have been well aware of all three players.

can't get my head around Taylor signing. we didn't need an other cb and he was never suited to our passing game. can someone explain how Wood, a guy that was poor at Swansea for two seasons, was ever going to make the step up in class? likewise, how does Fraser, a guy that couldn't get in our championship side, be seen as god enough for the PL? the others i can understand to a degree, even if i didnt like some of them, but those three above baffle me.

i wonder if foreign players like those two, perhaps pretty well known outside of the uk, will get top flight gigs abroad rather than have to drop down a division?

of course no PL regular is joining us in the championship, but if we can get another Brooks on loan that would be ideal. There are lots of talented youngsters that can't get a game in the PL. We should know all of them pretty well. Getting them is not easy.

if they do go up they will try to buy him.

for those worried about us signing more championship level players that offer nothing on promotion, loaning in PL players again makes the most sense. Rak-Sakyi has been decent at Sheff United. It will be interesting if he can get a place at Palace, another PL gig or is sent out to the championship again.

dare I say it, Colby Bishop scored 20+ goals two seasons in a row for the skates in league 1 and then 10 this season after coming back from a heart surgery.

BBD has 4 goals in 16 appearances, 2 in 13 for Armstrong. I keep reading on here how we have lots of players that are great at this level, strikers with great championship goalscoring records, but goals seem hard to come by for all of our forwards.

Is 6 goals in 36 games for one of the top scorers in the league all that? I like your description there of him being a bit more aware. That might be true, but I didn't see a huge improvement. His game still needed a lot refining. It's hard to judge too as opponents were much worse, and we had a total domination of possession - so that made his life easier in terms of not needing to run towards his won goal all day. For me he's just too lightweight for player that doesn't have blistering pace. He's got skills, and he can beat a man, which is brilliant, but if he hasn't beaten a man all ends up he get brushed off the ball. It's a shame he has had injury problems while out on loan. I fear he will come back pretty much the same guy.

What's it about then?

What improvements did you see? To be honest, I saw the exact same player as the season before, but facing far less quality of opponent. There were again lots of tricks, reasonable but not extreme speed, combined with being lightweight.

Lambert 27, Guly 10, Sharpe 9, Connolly 6 Lallana scored 11 and Hooiveld 7

bbc south have come to their senses?

it's going to take a manager that is able to inspire a huge turnaround. I never warmed to Martin, but respected fully how he turned the sinking ship around. \whoever is next will need to be able to sell a 'project' (yes I know how that sounds) and get players pulling in the same direction. It can be done. wont be easy though.

sigh. I haven't got any energy left to moan. Villa are a good side and throwing men forward would have been folly, but defending deep and doing little with the ball isnt fun to watch. At least Leicester scored, so we wont be the ones that get them out of that funk.