trousers

Impossible to answer given the club's furtiveness and/or subtefuge on the matter... if only we had some investigative local journos who could get to the truth rather than sit there meekly not challenging it every time Russ glibly trots out the "two weeks" line...

I see they're discussing the income from stadium naming rights on that thread, which has got me thinking.... given "we've got to be careful with our spending" to avoid breaching the financial rules, it seems bizarre (on the surface) that we seemingly haven't sought a stadium sponsor deal to boost our player spending potential. Anyone with inside knowledge know why this might be? I don't know what the going rate is for stadium naming rights (must be upwards of £10m though?) which potentially puts us in the market for another player and/or players in a slightly higher quality bracket. Indeed could/should Dragan's media company not be exploring this as a way of legitimately massaging the figures, a la Man City etc? Just seems like we're missing an obvious trick here....

No, but that wasn't the gist behind my thinking. As I say, it would give our "best" 11 players chance to gel as a unit. Arguably better to integrate new players in a cup game rather than in a league game? Anyway, as I say, was just me thinking out loud and I can also see the benefits of alternative approaches to this match.

I'm in two minds. Part of me thinks that playing a second stream team is a bit of a wasted opportunity to field our best 11 players (on paper) to give them chance to gel. Russ has stated that he's showing loyalty to the players that got us promoted at the moment, but that could change if/when any said players are struggling to maintain the same levels of form in the Premier League. So, with that hat on, I'd probably have gone for a line up along the lines of: McCarthy Suga - THB - Bednarek - KWP Downes - Ugochukwu Fernandes - Dibling - BBD/Armstrong Archer (Would that be our current strongest starting 11 on paper? MLG caveat: Yes, I know I've listed 12 players but can't decide between BBD and AA) But, as I say, I'm in two minds, so I also see the merits of playing all the fringe / new players too.

Anything to be concerned about...?

Never heard of him

Ha! Best answer yet

Blimey.... our medical team spotted a medical issue.... "every cloud....!"

To my mind, relegation is only "horrendous" if it's unexpected. Given we can't / won't adjust our wage structure so that we're competitive with the rest of the league (on that metric) then relegation is more likely than unlikley, I would venture, and thefore won't be a shock if/when it happens....

Fair enough. Looks like a yo-yo strategy to me. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing given how over-commercialised the PL is. Alternate seasons in the PL and Championship works for me

Yep, same... I've no recollection either of any reports of Ings explicitly declaring he "doesn't want to come back"... Appreciate it was at the start of the window but can you remember where did you heard / read this @Dman ?

Could it be argued that instead of spending £15-£20m on "average" players we'd be better off spending £30-£40 on half as many "very good" players...? (i.e. ye olde quantity vs quality debate). That's how I used to build my Fantasy Football team anyway....

...

Do we know why Ings "doesn't want to come back"? Is there an interview / article somewhere that explains his thinking? Maybe it was a reason that could change over time? Or maybe the reason was set in stone? Who knows....?

I know it's tiresome and predictable but.... oh... go on then... one more time...

From what I've seen in the first two games, I would be inclined to disagree with you there. He's easily our player and has been running the show in the opening matches... Head and shoulders above most of the squad. The difference between staying up and going down this season is likely to come down to a few points, at most, and I feel losing KWP diminishes our chances of staying up. The only caveat to that is whether or not we're able to reinvest the £20m in a player who can be equally influential (in whatever position) but SR's track record to-date would suggest that's not guaranteed. If we're serious about staying up then banking £20m now instead of letting KWP go on a free this time next year is a potential false economy IMO. Of course, if we're resigned to the likelihood of going straight back down then, I agree, getting as much as we can for KWP now makes complete sense...

This is the key point to me... Yes, SR have spent substantial amounts of money on transfers since taking over, but we end up spreading our relatively modest budget too thinly IMO. As you say, why didn't we spend our remaining striker budget on a single player in the higher price bracket rather than on two seemingly mediocre strikers in the lower price bracket? Buying one very good striker for £30m is better than buying two average strikers for 2 x £15m, surely? #QualityOverQuantity

Worryingly, that going to rock a lot of boxes on our scouting reports....

I wasn't disputing that. Just adding additional info for my fellow forum chums

Yep, for 5 minutes in a friendly 18 months ago

🤔

That is arguably a worse combination than being competent and stingy...