James

Think you can scratch Burnley off that list. Brighton have already spent big on a CB this summer so think they are unlikely. Palace would be a good fit team wise but they have barely spent any cash this summer, doubt they suddenly drop £30m on a CB from the Championship. Fulham I guess possible.

No inside information, I just can’t see a team that is going to spend £30m on him (if that’s indeed what we are asking). I can’t see us selling him to West Ham, even if they did put up the cash. That would be a pretty bad look amongst fans given Solak’s comments after the Spygate debacle about having a team gunning for autos.

I am reasonably confident THB is going to stay.

We didn’t just have one player who can play AM. Matsuki can and has played there for a start. We’ve stood still in terms of numbers in the striker position with Mubama a very inexperienced (albeit high potential) replacement for Stewart. We’ve known Charles was going all summer so plenty of time to have a replacement signed up. Agree on CB, bad game from Stephens but he will be OK. Any other season I’d be pretty relaxed but we need to win 2 games to even break into positive points, we need a fast start and could yet lose our manager to a ban. We are in a league with two extremely strong teams and really need to go back up this season to avoid, IMHO, a Stoke or Swansea style extended stay in this league.

Isn’t the point about Dobbin slightly different though? Writing him off as not a good player for us is insane, it’s been one league game and he’s scored in pre season. I think it is fair to ask whether the £9-10m we spent on him could have been used on a player in a more necessary position. We have players we can move around the front 3, we are very short in CM and arguably up front if Larin were to get injured.

Jealous of that, good signing and would have been a great one for us. Wolves and WHU are loaded this season.

Good signing for them. Wouldn’t have minded us going for him.

The league has two teams in it this year that are quite a bit stronger than last year. We do seem underpowered compared to West Ham, for example. Bowen, Castellanos and now Piroe is a serious strike force for the Championship so clearly they aren’t hanging around. Mubama has a lot of promise and has looked great in pre season but huge gamble to have him as the Stewart replacement. I wonder whether we can’t really spend much this year, especially given we are trying to keep the team together until at least January. It does make spending £9-10m on Dobbin a bit perplexing. Looks a decent player but not someone we needed, certainly not ahead of a CM to replace Charles who it was clear was going.

Given how much was made of how much fitter Larin supposedly is, it’s pretty annoying we still felt the need to sub him.

Calling for Tonda to go after the first game is plainly ridiculous but let’s be honest, he has very limited room for error this season. Let’s be realistic though, if we have a rough start, the fan base will turn quickly given what’s gone down.

It’s very early but unfortunately we are starting 4 points behind and it’s pretty imperative we go back up this season to avoid becoming Swansea/Stoke.

We always do this and the squad will get turned over in the last two weeks. We won’t sniff autos, too little room for error.

Not ideal to be throwing points away.

Not complaining about the yellows for Watford. To give Bree a yellow was very harsh.

Bree was an incredibly harsh yellow. That happens multiple times a game every game.

Because at this rate every fucking player on the pitch will have a yellow.

We have the same number of yellows as Watford and they are been flying in.

Ref has lost control.

They are absolute filth. Flying in at every opportunity.

what the fuck was that? Moronic.

I like the players we’ve brought in, although I think we should have pushed the boat out for Lankshear. It seems finances are a bit tight, hence selling Charles and talk of needing to sell others, which does beg the question why we spent almost £10m on Dobbin. Not because he isn’t a good player, just that we do have the ability to cover Azaz by moving the players we have got around. Seems an odd allocation of resources.

Plus the fact they could be “bedding in” at a time when the manager is banned…

If we sell THB, Jander and Scienza before the end of the window then we aren’t really serious about getting promoted any time soon. It’s not really the sales that annoy me, we are a championship club with players other clubs want and so we are always going to be in a seller position if other clubs meet our valuation. BUT, this season we are starting on a points deduction and face a very real possibility of our manager being banned during the international break. I also wonder if we are struggling to convince certain players to sign given the Tonda uncertainty.

We are going to regret not signing him if we had the chance to.

100% it’s very “in” to say Boro will finish at least 2nd and that we will finish below 8th. Genuinely can’t wait for Boro to be average and for crying Kim to be sacked.