Luke SkyWalker-Peters

I don't understand the Fellows move. He is the same age as Edozie, but scored less goals and the same amount of assists last season in the Championship. Edozie has been deemed not good enough for the starting XI, due to his lack of end product, so why would we bring in a player that was even less productive last season? I know he has 3 assists in 3 games to start the year, but who knows what Edozie would have in the Championship right now if we hadn't have got promotion. He's a good player but seems a complete waste of resources when we are looking for an improvement. He doesn't have the pace we would like in a wide player at this level. It's not like we are short of right-footed wingers at the moment either. He just isn't the player we need. I don't understand it.

Youssoufa Moukoko's deal to Real Betis is off. https://x.com/berger_pj/status/1826305942725464399 We were mentioned as one of the clubs interested. He broke all sorts of youth scoring records at Dortmund and is the youngest player to ever score in the Bundesliga. He's as close to a goal machine as we could get for our money. He's got loads of experience having made his debut the day after he turned 16. Obviously the majority as a sub, but he has played in 99 games for Dortmund. He's leaving due to wanting more 1st team minutes at 19 years old. He only played 613 minutes last season in the Bundelsiga (equivalent to just under 7 full matches) and scored 5 goals. 5 in 7 is a very good return, but obviously he will have a much tougher time in the Premier League in a low table team. He had a nasty ankle sprain the season before (nothing needing surgery or anything) and hasn't got back into the team since. Left footed and about 5'11, he is a pacey striker with a great shot on him. But I'd probably have him play RW for us, where we haven't found a solution since Tella left. Cutting in on his left foot I'm sure he would be very dangerous. I'm intrigued. He wants to move out of Germany and he wants 1st team football. If we sell Charly, Tall Paul and ABK then I could see us making a move for him. Berger reported the fee was only €13m - €14m. I would classify this in the "insane signing" category, if it were pulled off. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/youssoufa-moukoko/profil/spieler/467720

They've spent the same amount as us now. I'll be honest, it looks like they have beaten us to a few players: We must have had interest in Muric, we still don't have a GK. I think we clearly wanted Delap, then signed Archer after he went to them. It seems like we were interested in Clarke, but went for the much cheaper option of BBD instead (possibly in part due to Sulemana's injury). I suspect as they have many players on very cheap contracts having been in League One two years ago, that they have been able to offer very good salaries to their incomings compared to us and Leicester. The Kalvin Phillips loan supports that too, they must have room under the wage bill. I really fancy Ipswich to stay up this year. McKenna is an extremely good manager and I think they have bought really well this window. Right now I'd fancy them to beat us on the pitch (not a surprise perhaps with the results last season), but their depth does worry me over the season. Many teams have gone down due to a lack of depth. On us, I like all the business we've done. I think that we have added good quality to the squad that suit Martin's (and Sport Republic's) style of play. If we do go down we should be in a good position to come back up again. However, we have just not quite had the few marquee signings that I would have liked. O'Riley, Carvalho or Moukoko... someone with real quality that would scare the opposition. As I said, I like every player signed and every deal made, but our team just lacks that 1 or 2 players that are going to keep the opposition up at night. I do think Bijlow could somewhat fit the bill as a player that is far better than our level (when fit), but I'd like us to have a goalscoring threat too.

Why are you so desperate to keep a player that couldn't get in the starting XI in the Championship? Simply put, Charlie is worth far more to other teams than he is to us as he just can't play well in Martin's system. He can press and he can score a goal, but he just loses the ball far too frequently to work for Martin. We are getting a younger player, who fits the system more and by all accounts isn't a "cast-off", Wolves tried to sign him for £20m last summer and got rejected. This is likely a situation where both clubs feel they are getting the "better" player for their needs. We will likely bag some cash as well to help improve other areas. I'd rather have a player that is more likely to break into the starting XI under our current manager, than a player that was on the bench in the Championship. It just makes no sense to keep Charlie at all. By all accounts, we are going to get a good fee for Charlie considering he was not a consistent starter for us or Juventus last season.

If we are selling and buying two players for the same amount, we are making a profit this year under FFP, because the full value of the sale goes onto the books this season whereas the purchase is spread over the length of the new players contract. e.g. Sell Alcaraz for £20m and buy Hugo for £20m on a 5 year contract. That would be 20-(20/5) = 20-4 = £16m of profit this year. Hugo might well be a downgrade overall on Charlie, but he is likely a better system fit. Charlie is not good enough with the ball to play CM for Martin. Presumably Hugo is. Charlie has other strengths that made him an effective goalscoring CM for us when he arrived, but it is better to have players that fit the system. I'm not sure why you have forgotten Ugochukwu and Fernandes. Both are an improvement on Smallbone, Aribo and Alcaraz in Martin's system. Yes, Ugochukwu is a more natural DM, but he has all the tools to play as a box to box 8 for Martin - athletic but surprisingly good with the ball given his size. He didn't get loaned here to sit on the bench behind Downes - he could have done that at Chelsea. He's here to start. Fernandes isn't going to be sitting behind those others for long either. He is too talented. You are using Alcaraz's time before Martin to justify keeping him. I don't think anyone is suggesting Charlie is a bad footballer, but he is not suited to the extreme possession style of football that Martin is trying to play. It is better for the club and for Charlie if we sell him and reinvest that money on a player that suits our system more and he goes to a club that plays to his strengths more. He wasn't a regular starter for Martin in the Championship, he would just sit on the bench for most of this season in the Premier League.

Not sure what the benefit of looking at the lad's academy highlights from 3 years ago is. He's been playing first team football for a while now.

Or he might have another major knee injury, spend the season out of the squad, but Ipswich stay up anyway because they have a decent squad plus a great manager... and then they are having to fork out £30m for an injured player that didn't help anyway. Leeds had a similar situation with Jean-Kevin Augustin, whom they had to sign on their promotion despite him being injured the whole campaign.

I'm really excited by him. He looks like he has everything you could want in a CM. Scans frequently, has high technical ability, is two-footed, very athletic and aggressive defensively. Out of everyone we have signed, in my opinion, he is the first that could be bought by a super club within a couple of years. His ability to receive the ball and dribble past pressing defenders is something our midfield lacks currently. Very Lavia-esque in that regard. After a bit of bedding in, he's ahead of Alcaraz, Smallbone and Aribo for me. Looks like an excellent fit for the system.

The reason a DM is referred to as a "6" in the modern football vernacular is very simple: It's because that was the number worn by players playing DM outside of the UK. Coaches use the numbers associated with positions to most easily convey where they want a player to play in midfield. As a consequence of so many foreign managers and coaches coming to English football, in time the coaches and players here stopped referring to a DM as a "4" and instead as a "6". Pep has been the biggest driver of this change in the last 10 years or so as he regularly talks about the importance of the "6" in his system. However, the traditionalists among you will be pleased to know that the England national team has made a concerted effort to keep the traditional English numbers going. You will have seen at the Euros Rice at DM wearing the no.4 shirt and Guehi at CB wearing the no.6.

After failing a medical for a heart condition, it seems best to keep him this season, prove he is fit and can play, then sell him in January or next summer. If he plays a few games at the level he did last time in the Premier League, then we will get bids higher than we were willing to sell him to Hoffenheim. The knock-on effect is worrying though. Are we still going to get the GK (loan), AM, RW and ST that we are hoping for before the window closes? Selling Alcaraz, Mara and Onuachu now becomes a necessity and we would ideally move on some of Lis, Manning, Bree, Larios, Charles and Aribo too. I'd add Sulemana to that list but his injury seems to have ruled him out of a move. Stewart is in the same situation as ABK - needs to prove fitness before a possible sale (though I still have hope he can be a contributor).

lol. If you look at the full thread on Twitter it has a number videos each showing off a great pass. I don't think OP meant just that one video lol. The full thread is a very good read/watch from and English journalist who covers Liga Portugal. He seemingly rates him very highly and expected Sporting to be starting him this season. I saw in his comments on another post that he was completely perplexed as to why Sporting are selling him. He seems to think that one year at Sporting and he'd be getting sold for 4 times as much to a massive club. All very high praise. https://www.twitter.com/Ben_Mattinson_/status/1797681354114818116

*Mateus I really like the look of him. He has everything in the toolbox to become a complete box-to-box CM. For me, after bedding in he goes straight into the team ahead of Aribo, Smallbone and Alcaraz as an 8. But, he may need a bit of time to adapt to England and the Premier League. I saw some here saying they hoped Ugochukwu was the next Lavia. Personally, I see Ugochukwu as an almost carbon copy of Lavia's Belgian teammate Onana - tall, rangy and very defensively minded. However, watching clips of Mateus at Estoril last season gave me serious Lavia vibes. He was playing CM in a double pivot last year, like Lavia did for us, and the way he was able to receive the ball deep with his back to goal, turn and drive up the pitch was very similar. He also is able to make those line-breaking passes from deep that Lavia did when he got into his best form. Unfortunately, I don't think Aribo or Smallbone are good enough to start in the league regularly. To me, this is a very necessary transfer in a weak area of the side. He seems to have every quality Martin would look for in a CM. My only concern is how slowly Martin will integrate him given his age and inexperience. Is Mateus the Stu replacement? And if so, will O'Riley be the Alcaraz replacement?

I like the look of Fernandes. A complete CM. Good with the ball, athletic, can dribble past players and has some bite to him. I think he is an upgrade to both Smallbone and Aribo. If Alcaraz goes, then I could see the club signing O'Riley too. We are a bit short at CM at the moment with Charles looking like he is going out on loan, considering we usually play 3 in midfield. I suspect we will get a striker once Mara is gone and a goalkeeper on loan just before the window closes, from a team hoping to sell their extra GK.

I thought he did very well in his Premier League debut today. He's always been a big, strong lad for an attacking player and thought he looked physically up to it. Won a few fouls and kept the ball well, but a shame he didn't have a go at one of his driving runs. He's been showing Premier League potential since he was 15, so its good for him and the academy to have nurtured the talent so well. After the window closes, a long-term deal for him must be a priority.

Considering we are going to have two more starters for next week's game (Lesley and Archer) I thought that was a pretty good performance. Many recently promoted teams still get dominated even if the opposition have had a red. We look like we belong at this level. McCarthy THB, Bednarek, Stephens Sugawara, Downes, Lesley, KWP Armstrong, Archer, BBD 343. I think that could do a job next week. Obviously a GK on loan goes straight in the XI.

This is what I don't get. How did he down tools? He dislocated his shoulder, badly, didn't have surgery so that he could return faster. Consequently, he kept getting recurring shoulder injuries that season and last season with PSV until he got the surgery he needed. If anything, he did the opposite of "downed tools" and put his career at serious risk by not getting the surgery immediately and continuing to play? This whole narrative about him in our relegation season is so baffling and contrary to what actually happened that honestly reeks of racist undertones. No-one was claiming Livramento "downed tools" when he was also fighting through numerous injuries. I've addressed this supposed attitude problem earlier. I would hope Martin, a revered man-manager, and our supposedly strong dressing room could handle one player that needs a bit of guidance. Not every player is going to be a JWP pro off the bat, and there is a level of quality that means the headache is worth it - we can't be turning our noses up at Premier League level players so easily. If we had lots of bad personalities, I'd think fair enough, but Martin has done a complete British and Irish overhaul of the squad with players who's personalities he likes. No I don't think anyone would have paid £26m for him now, because he just spent the season coming back from surgery. That's why I would have kept him and played him because he is levels above Stephens. If he was toxic then we could have told him that he can get a move in January and I'm sure he would have put in performances on the pitch.

He got a serious shoulder injury, decided not to have surgery so that he could return to the team faster, and then people here started saying he couldn't be bothered when we were getting relegated. The hate for him is weird. Obviously he didn't want to play for us last season in the Championship. He was in the Germany team and he was trying to make the squad for the Euros in Germany at the end of the season. He was at the playoff final supporting us. It looked like he was expecting to come back with us win or lose having spent almost the whole season at PSV injured and obviously out the Germany squad. Then pre-season starts and Martin doesn't give him a chance. Then Blackmore says he's a bad personality. It's just weird. Perhaps he isn't the best personality, but one of Martin's strengths is supposedly his man-management. Can't the dressing room handle one bad egg and try to set him on the right path? I feel like it has been handled poorly. He should have been starting ahead of Stephens IMO. We have also done a bad job of selling players at the right time in recent years.

£12.8m is so cheap for ABK. He's the same age as THB and has been proven at a higher level than him, both in the Premier League and for Germany. Like Alcaraz, we got great offers for him last summer. I know he has had injury issues, but Hoffenheim must be happy he is through them. This is a bit of a disaster IMO. We should have kept him and started him this season. When fit he is probably our best CB with THB. Not sure what has happened where he is deemed too toxic for the squad as Ralph seemingly liked him, and he wasn't against getting players out the team if they became toxic (Obafemi, Bednarek to Villa etc). Hopefully we have some great clauses in there to get extra money on incentives or a future sale, because he should have been going for around what we bought THB for even with his shoulder issue. We've sold him at half price, which we aren't in a position to do. Could fund O'Reilly though, so not all doom and gloom.

I'm really rooting for him. He was bossing the Championship with Sunderland before his injury. 10G and 3A in 13 games - so a goal contribution per game. He certainly looks capable of the Premier League if we can get him back fit.... Obviously "if" is doing a lot of work there. I don't like how our fanbase has seemingly written him off. He has had one really bad injury that has derailed his career, but didn't have too many before that. Terrible work by our medical, sport science and strength & conditioning teams to have done such a shit job of getting him back from his original injury. They did the same with Livramento. Both got really nasty hamstring injuries when trying to get match fitness back. The club needs to be careful with him. His body composition will be imbalanced and vulnerable to re-injury having been out so long. On face value a loan until January in a lower league would be good, but we need to be in control of his minutes. I think a lot of time building up fitness in the U21s carefully would be best. Not just 1 game then throw him back into the 1st team squad like last time. He needs to be playing 90 minutes for a number of U21 games before he can get onto the pitch in the Premier League IMO. And even then I'd be starting with 5 minute cameos in the PL for quite some time. I really hope he recovers. It must be awful to be injured so long and watching your career slip away. Also, I want him to come good as a £4.5m starting striker in FPL would be incredible for my team.

They had to spend over £40m to bring back two of the players from the playoff final 11, so its not saying as little as you'd like.

I think Charles had a decent season last year, but Martin managed him poorly. Smallbone was clearly far worse than Charles at DM, but Martin would repeatedly put Smallbone there when Downes was out and it would hurt us. With Smallbone starting at DM our record was 1W, 2D and 4L over 7 games in the league. With Charles at DM our record was 3W, 1D, 2L (games where he played >45mins). Martin hooked Charles twice at halftime in the league vs Bristol and Stoke. The Bristol game was where, in my opinion, his misevaluation of both Charles and Smallbone's abilities was most evident: We had a midfield 3 of Charles, Smallbone and Rothwell. We go into the half at 0-0. Martin decides that this is all Charles' fault and hooks him at halftime. Smallbone goes to DM, Stu comes on at CM... we then concede 3 goals in the next 45 minutes ending our unbeaten run. Martin doesn't seem to like Charles because he isn't the passer or metronome that Downes and Smallbone can be, but I think he played well last year when given opportunities. I don't think playing Smallbone at DM was the right call, when Charles consistently performed better in that role. I don't think hooking him at halftime helped his confidence either when both times seemed to have no positive effect on the team. I like Skipp, but in reality he is a very similar player to Charles, just a few years older and a bit ahead of schedule in that regard. They really have the same strengths and weaknesses, so I see no benefit in bringing Skipp in. Charles has had a year in the system and could develop into a better player than Skipp. I think going to Celtic would probably be better for Charles's career, but not for us.

Every year people moan about the last midweek lineup 😂 This is very much the B team of players that are available. The 1st XI will do 90 mins on Saturday giving them a good week of recovery and preparation before NEW. These lads might get an extra behind closed-doors friendly squeezed in around this time next week. A really good test for these guys. They haven't played with each other much at all. Obviously Lazio will also likely be putting out a weakened side, but nevertheless a difficult test for a team that lacks any chemistry. Excited to see BBD.

Because he has been out for so long with significant injuries they have to be incredibly careful with him otherwise other injuries will occur (as it sounds like happened recently). He will not be on the same schedule as a fit player in the middle of the season that has picked up a "little something". Ross has barely played in two years. Personally my issue with our medical team in recent years is that they seem to rush players back too quickly from significant injuries, and then they inevitably get another injury from their body trying to compensate for this imbalance in their strength/flexibility. Ross had an injured ankle, but had a severe hamstring injury when trying to come back to full fitness. Tino had a knee injury, then a hamstring injury when trying to come back to full fitness. Larios has had so many setbacks and complications that I've frankly lost track.

I didn't say fitness was an issue, I said that they were exhausted during the week (and likely before the game) by their strength and conditioning department to a) build very high levels of fitness fast and b) make the match very hard work to replicate the exhaustion felt late in a Premier League match. They won't be doing massive weights and cardio sessions just before Premier League matches, so it really is no comparison. Perhaps the team just have massively regressed since Montpellier, but to my eyes, when players that have only played 30 minutes look shattered, its because they are in the middle of an extremely intense fitness schedule.

I'm pretty sure I watched an interview with Martin where he suggested the players were going to be fatigued for these two games. That made sense to me as it was otherwise weird to drop the level of competition from Ligue 1 sides down to League One and Championship, when building up for the season. But, clearly tonight they were looking fatigued. I'm assuming the scheduled late kick-off was to give them time to do a serious fitness session at Staplewood before the game. I didn't realise teams did this until I saw the England Rugby team talking about it in the build-up to the World Cup. They were absolutely awful in their pre-World Cup friendlies - including losing to Fiji for their first time ever - but they had been doing enormous fitness sessions throughout the whole process, then come the World Cup they were one of the fittest teams, played really well coming 3rd. Anyway, one would hope that Saints would perform better despite being massively fatigued, but I suspect that there isn't really much to read into these two games and that more of a sense might be found from the games next week. Who knows, we don't know their training schedule, but to me, they looked exhausted pretty much throughout the game. There were mental mistakes and huge amounts of space for Oxford to exploit throughout, which tends to only happen to exhausted teams at the end of games (or to a Hassenhuttl team after minute 60 lol). Or perhaps we have regressed to a league two level in a week. Who knows.