chiknsmack

...losing it, then pressing and winning it back. We should do less of the first part and more of the second.

Not to go all MLG on you, but there are still European options (Netherlands today, Scotland/Belgium for a couple more days) plus Turkey. https://www.transfermarkt.com/statistik/transferfenster

Until next season when we don't get promoted, go looking for Prem loans, and clubs say to us "We don't trust you to give them game time, so we'll loan them elsewhere". If Peretz gets injured and Long is the replacement we're fucked. If Ramsdale is the replacement, we're fine. If Peretz stays fit and Ramsdale sits on the bench (or at home) we're fine. In an ideal world we get Ramsdale off the wage bill and bring in a roughly Peretz-level backup, but how much would one cost? Possibly more than Peretz, knowing they're not coming in to be #1 and so aren't putting themselves in the shop window. Outside of the ideal world I'm happy with the expensive insurance policy of an elite backup over fiddling about to maybe save a couple of mil and maybe have a decent chance of promotion in the worst case scenario. https://www.transfermarkt.com/statistik/transferfenster

Kayi-Sanda has a very good eye for a pass and good technical skills. Apart from still being a teenager, the problem he's had is that he's right-sided and so hasn't been able to break into the side (THB is ~PL-quality and has that spot locked down, while there's bugger all between Stephens, Wood, and Quarshie on the other side so they've all seen play). He's a perfect replacement for this aspect of THB's game. Not so much the leadership and set piece threat, but. --------- If THB goes to Villa, what are the odds of Mings heading the other way? 33 years old, in the last year of his contract, fighting for the third CB spot against two players the club has brought in this window. A loan with Villa covering a good chunk of the wages?

Marco Silva has rocked up at Benfica and already upset some of the players, including their highly-rated Ukrainian National Team keeper. If he leaves on a loan-with-obligation as he's apparently requested they'll need someone new, and if they're talking to us about one player maybe we should bring up another. (They also don't have Champions League this season, something I've seen others use in arguments for why they might be able to sign THB).

He still looked clumsy and uncoordinated. Will Lankshear: England youth player. Two seasons in the Champ. In the first he didn’t score in 346 minutes. In the second he scored 11 in 2,883 minutes, so ~260 minutes per goal. Divin Mubama: England youth player (but has played for the U21s while Lankshear hasn’t). One season in the Champ. Scored five in 1,635 minutes, ~330 minutes per goal. So Mubama is younger, less experienced, but in his first Championship loan wasn't much less effective than Lankshear was in his second. Spurs were happy to sell Lankshear, City had no interest in selling Mubama, which tells you what the clubs think of their respective players.

Not a bad shout. I'm one who thinks we don't really need a Shea replacement (Bragg is his replacement, leaving ~1,400 minutes for O'Brien-Whitmarsh, Williams, maybe Akachukwu and Sesay, and whoever else). But the cheaper option of a sweetheart deal from the sister club for Dennis to compete with Bragg for the third spot is interesting. Dennis is in the last year of his contract, so that would need ironing out. He'd definitely be more than adequate as Bragg's backup. Bit expensive for that role though, and there's no role ahead of Bragg available (unless we want to block the pathway for him and all the rest of our youth midfielders for some reason).

AM, but can play elsewhere in midfield. He popped up on the left of the attack a couple of times in preseason too. Playing Matsuki as an 8 today was an interesting idea; against inferior opposition maybe we don't need two holding mids and can play an extra central attacker? It'd be a way to use more than one of Azaz/Dobbin/Matsuki/Archer, instead of Dobbin being Azaz's competition for the 10 role, Matsuki being a backup winger (not the best fit), and Archer being a backup striker (also not the best fit since he's not in the Larin/Stewart mould we want). It didn't work with Matsuki (maybe he's too lightweight, maybe BBD incessantly dropping into left midfield instead of playing as a proper striker didn't help), it hasn't worked in the past with Azaz who wasn't mobile enough, and maybe it isn't necessary when the best name to fill the blank in "Azaz + Downes + ______" is Jander. But perhaps Akachukwu would be an option. He's got decent size about him for one thing. Last season Downes, Jander, and Charles shared around 8,800 minutes. Bragg had 1,000, then there were around 400 minutes in central midfield for a bunch of others. This season we expect Charles to leave, Bragg to get his ~2,500 minutes, leaving 1,400 minutes for the rest. Akachukwu and O'Brien-Whitmarsh have put their hand up for some of those minutes, and while I'd expect the latter has seniority and is a better fit for a more box-to-box midfield role, Akachukwu has impressed me even before today's goal.

Hopefully someone prints them out and takes them to the fan meeting.

Largely agree with the comments on yesterday's (second) game. Dobbin good, pissing about at the back bad, BBD won't fill the Stewart-shaped hole in the squad. I do want to point at that it was a much better second half, largely IMO due to Downes playing further up the pitch. Downes man-marking the oppo 6 cut off the ball into midfield and forced the opposition wide. When the ball was won, if it went back to Peretz he immediately looked to go long, partly because Downes and O'Brien-Whitmarsh weren't right in front of him giving us the numbers to play keep-away at the back.

We had the right idea but the wrong execution. Couldn't get Palmer, O'Reilly, or Bobb. Got a handful from the next tier down in 2022 (Lavia paid for Bazunu, Edozie, and Larios) but missed Rogers. 2023 got THB on loan and Charles, again missing Rogers who went to Boro. Rogers scored 4 in 5 for Citys U23s vs ours, so I don't know how easy he was to miss. He did a hammy at Bournemouth in 2021/22, was recovering at City for the first half of the next season (the sweetheart deals on Edozie and Larios in return for letting Romeu go to Girona were that September), then went to Blackpool and scored 1 in 20 in the Champ. In an alternate universe we liked what we'd seen from him at U23 level and didn't mind a punt on him coming back from injury, so took him instead of Edozie or Larios. In which case it's not "And we paid how much for Edozie and Larios?" but "We robbed City for Lavia and Morgan".

A red t-shirt with Midnite on the front? Someone's been spying on someone's training...

There's a difference between "signing better players" and "making better signings". JWP's good enough to start at the top of the Championship, but not good enough to start in the Champions League. I think someone who might develop into the latter would be a better signing than JWP, even if not a better player next season. It's Oli McBurnie all over again; do we want someone good enough for this level but not for the ones above, or do we look for a YHGTI diamond in the rough and risk ending up with a Downs? I'd rather take the risk in this case when we already have Jander/Downes/Bragg in midfield, have a couple of other academy players who could benefit from 900 minutes or so of Championship football, and have a scouting team that found Fernandes and Jander in back-to-back years so have proven they can find good young midfield prospects.

Still every chance he signs with Saints. Just because he lawyered his way out of a one-year deal on the same money he got last year doesn't mean he wouldn't sign a longer deal for the same money. He'd be a safer bet for the club than bringing in an unknown who could be anything from Larin to Downs. And we know the club wanted to sign him up using the clause, so the club doesn't actively want rid of him.

Got the result right, but otherwise this aged like milk. What a game.