verlaine1979

Ah, that popped up out of nowhere. Wouldn't be surprised to see the same happen for Sulemana before the end of the evening.

Bednarek is one of those we already know isn't good enough for the prem. Don't need him for us to succeed at this level, and don't want him if we reach the level above. Would love to see the back of him.

One of McCartney's best non-Beatles songs. Are we signing Martin Luther or Auntie Gin?

Cannon looks a better finisher than Stewart based on that admittedly small sample (I see he was only at Preston for half a season).

Stewart scores goals with both feet, which would be an immediate upgrade on Che. Based on that video, he's not that great one-on-one, as he hit the keeper on both occasions.

Surprised Burnley didn't have a look at Che.

I was saying he's already far too good for the championship. Edit: And a few hours later he's linked with a 45m move to Chelsea, proving my point...

Unfortunately, it's completely misleading, as anyone who has watched Bednarek during our seasons in the PL knows he's dire under the ball as soon as he's put under any sort of pressure. Just shows the utter gulf between the two leagues.

Replacing Sulemana is definitely less pressing - much less likely to be make or break for promotion than either CB or striker. But saying that, with Tella gone it would leave us with Fraser as the only wide attacking option that isn't a kid or Djenepo, so pretty light in a position that appears to be more effective in the championship than in the PL.

New CB and new striker (if Che goes) both need to be in the 10m bracket, considering the money we've brought in and our stated aim of being serious promotion contenders. Likewise, if Sulemana leaves I'd expect us to be spending at least 10m on his replacement. Not unreasonable to bank half, spend half on these key like-for-like replacements now.

Wonder if the club are thinking of Tella as a winger or a striker when it comes to replacing him?

Palmer?? Do you want to try and get Foden too?

Tella money hopefully pays for the Swansea CB and one of those Aberdeen strikers. Can then use the Che money for a gamble from the European leagues on the wing. Then SR get to keep all the other money to plug the hole in our finances made by last season's shitty transfers.

We'll be competitive I'm sure, but the team that starts tomorrow isn't so overwhelmingly good that we can assume promotion. We could win the league, we could finish 7th. I wouldn't say either was more likely on the basis of how we've defended so far.

Wasn't the talk when we went down that the club would invest for immediate promotion? Regardless of how you feel about the individual quality of Downes, Fraser et al, there's no way you could argue that we've laid down any sort of marker as far as building a promotion-worthy squad goes. With the quality we've got in attack and defense, we're in the mix as it stands - but that's all.

Lol remember when we were allegedly choosing between Sulemana and Doku in Jan?

If we're rating them on confidence, I suggest we wait until Che has a chance in which he needs to do more than just whack it hard in a straight line. The lad is not exactly known for the calm poise of his finishing.

Curious that Adams and Armstrong have pretty much identical minutes per goal/assist in the Championship (about 1 ever 160 mins), but only Che is "guaranteed to get goals" at this level?

Plymouth was too early in the morning for California. But like I said, I'm not disputing that he can score at this level. He's just a shit finisher and I'm tired of seeing him in a Saints shirt. Time for a change.

Can't wait to be rid of him. I'm sure he's a lovely guy, but he's been stinking up our front line for years now, and NOT missing a chance from two yards on Saturday isn't enough to erase the pain of all the other golden chances he's muffed. Also, if I was advising him, I'd tell him to take the Everton money every time. At the moment he's a temporarily embarrassed premier league striker waiting to be rescued from relegation, as most of them eventually are. A full season with us and he's a championship player once more, hoping that someone will take a punt.

This is the bit we never really managed, even during the "black box" era. It was still always one in, one out, which is a model with a lot of inherent fragility. And it's why Brighton now seem a lot more resilient to sales than we ever did, as they've managed to do their succession planning before selling any of their gems.

Is Archer a realistic prospect either for sale or loan? A nice variety of very crisp finishes in Boro highlight reel.

To clarify - that's more a general aspirational point than an observation about our signings to date. At the moment we have 3 shit CBs and 1 potentially good one that doesn't want to play for us. If we allow the "trim the bloated squad" argument to dominate in the last two weeks, we're going to end up with a squad that's, well, shit. Same with our attackers.

We had a bloated squad because a lot of them were shit. Replacing shit players with useful players isn't squad bloat, it's squad depth.

ABK and Sulemana both seem like players that can be replaced before being sold, assuming those reading the runes about them not wanting to play second tier football are true (and they probably are). Both will be snapped up if we set their prices to sell. If you're restructuring a squad you can either try to reduce bloat or you can try to maximise profit. You can't do both.