SWLondon Saint

I'm a bit worried if he'll be able to step up to the PL, but I was assuming we'd have to pay £15m+! At 8m+2m it feels like a lot less of a gamble, as I said before their fans must be absolutely fuming. 🤯

Honestly, just watch the press conference where Still gets asked about Cam Archer. He said he wants him to be himself and not fall back into 'things we don't want him to do.' Basically he's saying 'Martin f***ed Archer up' without saying it. There's your answer about BBD in a nutshell.

I'm optimistic he'll be able to make the step up as his game seems to be based on technique and vision which are arguably more valuable in the Prem. Feel like he might need to up his physicality to cope though, but confident the new regime is not gonna let anyone slack off in that department.

I think most on here would agree with you tbh - right now he hasn't shown he's a PL quality defender. His best quality is probably his passing or the way he gets to the ball at attacking corners, when it comes to defending he isn't that strong or quick, nor does he read the game that well. I doubt Palace would go for him but if they do, selling is the one area SR have a rock-solid success rate in...

Unfortunately I reckon the price goes to £12m if BBD is included....

Don't disagree, but as I said, Russ has been bad for his development because he's gotten into the habit of only playing 'safe' backwards and sideways passes. He never looks to turn / take on the half turn and go, and in the PL with the pressing systems so developed, if the opposition know you always go backwards and sideways, you're a sitting duck. Which he was, and we were. You have to earn the right to pass it in the PL and I don't think Russ ever got that.

I think it's because of his close association with Russball unfortunately, which hasn't done him any favours development wise either. Every man and his dog on here could see he needs to up his level physically and he needed to be told that - like Ralph did to JWP - to compete, but instead he got Russ blowing smoke up his ass.

Bloody hell, £7m + 3m? Their fans must be absolutely fuming, what's going on there? I assumed they'd want at least £10-15m but doesn't seem so much of a risk at under 10...

I'm not sure this is actually possible - it's just the way things work with a transfer 'window', unless a transfer is totally straightforward, it's always going to go on until just before a hard deadline. The only way to get Dibling or Fernandes sold in, say, July would have been to accept the initial bids, which would have cost us a season-changing amount of money, £15-20m less than we got.

I think on this front going to the French, German, and other leagues is by far the better bet. Can anyone think of an established or 'marquee' championship player who wasn't just a big club loanee who then went on to tear up the PL recently? I honestly can't...

Think the main concern about Fellows and Azaz is that we're getting 2 players whose ceiling is probably the top of the championship, arguably a bit like Downes and THB - 20 PL teams have already looked and said nope, we have better already or they're not good value. Azaz to me has a better chance as his game seems to have more variety, if you look at Fellows' highlights his assists are basically all the same assist again and again, step over, go to the byline and cross right footed. I don't think he gets away with that in the PL. Yes, you can say we have to buy for this level, but as we saw with those 2, the money you spend on 'marquee' champ-level players then holds you back if you get promoted and you have to replace them.

What I find really odd in all the Fernandes business is that Man U haven't been in for him. Amorim knows him, he came up in the Sporting system so he'll actually know how to play in that 3-4-3 he insists on, and they can afford him. Wouldn't be surprised if the publicity about the fee is basically his agent issuing a come-and-get-him to Utd or other clubs.

I mean watching that just makes me feel sorry for the players who've been sent out like lambs to the slaughter. Not surprised Fraser / Taylor fell out with him last season, maybe they offered some home truths about how crap his training was. Hopefully Still can get the Russball exorcised from our players.

Mm, not really. Wharton was 19 when he moved and cost £18m plus add-ons, so much more the 'brilliant youngster with potential' type. Azaz is much more the finished product, which has its pros and cons.

Just listened to the Adam Blackmore and Jo Tessem podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0lz5bt4 They both think we desperately need a striker, hard to disagree - though they seem to have a blind spot on the idea of playing 2 strikers which I reckon is worth a try.

I think I know the highlights you mean - yes, Schlupp probably is quicker than Roerslev but the main problem was the chances came from us giving the ball away at the back, so Roerslev was a bit the wrong side. In the second half when the giveaways stopped, Schlupp got absolutely nowhere, so I think he's solid defensively.

Absolutely not. Way overpriced at £20m +

Our recent success rate with getting the old favourites in hasn't been great, but that one I could possibly see working. But they might want to give Sesay more minutes which could also work, he looks very promising.

Just watching the post match with Still and Archer, they both mentioned 'back to basics' quite a few times and Archer said he's trying to get his confidence back not only from the goal but just doing the basics and being instinctive. Think that says a lot about what must have been going on last season, and also why Still said they need to remember how good they are.

Downes is a funny one, at times I think he looks good enough for the Prem, at others he commits stupid fouls, and then sometimes he plays the most infuriating passes backwards or sideways into danger or completely stopping our forward momentum. I absolutely think Martin was bad for his development as a player, encouraging him to play safe negative passes instead of improving his awareness of what's around him enough to take it on the half turn sometimes, which he pretty much never does.

If Welington is going to be out for a while, hopefully he stays, think he's better defensively than Manning to be honest.

I think the problem is that usually when you play with 3 CBs, one of them can step up - either into central midfield like a classic sweeper, or a CB/FB pushing up in the wide positions. There was one semi-break by Norwich late on which if Wood's starting position had been 5 yards further forward, he'd have pretty much closed all the space down in the centre behind Charles and Downes. I reckon the problem is none of our CBs has much confidence right now so they don't dare be more aggressive and instead we get this V shape with the central player very deep when we're on the ball. Ideally the central CB should be ahead of the wide CBs and you use the keeper as the extra man.

As I've been saying, BBD is exhibit A in Russell Martin's Circus of Broken Players. I have no idea if he was OK technically once or not, but he clearly has absolutely no confidence right now and can't seem to do anything right really.

Got to be Stewart and Archer up front I think. Stewart can actually win the ball and shield it, Archer looks a different player with a big man up ahead of him. Downs still a work in progress but if Stewart can stay fit and be the main target man, that would help Downs a lot as he'd have someone to base his game on. He should throw himself around and be more aggressive though, he looks a unit.

The ghost of Russell Martin haunting Norwich's defence, that was absolute comedy...