SNSUN

I've spent a nice evening with Dick Slicker.

£40 million sounds about right to me, probably could have got closer to £50-60 million last summer. He's a player in his prime that never misses a game, has a good engine, is a good passer of the ball and in the right team will get assists and goals. If other clubs think they can get him for £20-£25 million then they're dreaming - clearly they think relegation means we have to sell our players on the cheap when we actually have a good pot of money and can play hardball, as we are doing with Tino and Lavia. I can see JWP going for £35million, possibly even as low as £30 million with add ons but not £20-25 million.

I noticed how porous he was last season! Honestly though I was a big knocker of his last season and I do think a better keeper would have saved us some points, but had we stayed up I would have said we should loan him to the Championship for experience. Well now we're in the Championship so... sod it, he should play. At least until such time as he starts costing us points again.

IMO his long term injury will put clubs off looking at him as a first choice RB - most will want him as a squad option/future prospect. I look at the Premier League table and struggle to see a club where he will be first choice - Chelsea have James, Newcastle have Tripper - he's either going to have to be content sitting on the bench and playing cup games and the odd league game or staying with us, the team that nurtured him through his injury, and being outright first choice. The fact that we are financially better off following this relegation than the last does make me think we can hold on to some of our better players, as long as, like Carlos, they are happy to stay.

Edwards being linked with the Prem, would be decent if we got him though. Links to all the Swansea players concern me slightly, not least because they were only mid-table last season (I believe their squad was thin though) but also because, having pinched their manager in iffy circumstances, they may be unwilling to do business with us. Latibeudiere and Manning are out of contract so they will be getable though.

Think we'll need more than one CB but it depends who stays. Very likely Salisu, ABK, Lyanco and DCC could all be off leaving us with Bednarek, Stephens and Simeu. Personally I would like one starter and one decent younger CB at the very least. I hope Tino stays though. Newcastle pulling a fast one there.

More importantly it would leave us with Armstrong, Mara and young Ballard as recognised strikers (if Onuachu also goes) so that's one non-prolific striker, one underwhelming striker thus far and one untested youth striker. Definitely would need a signing there, if not 2 (although I wouldn't want to block Ballard's pathway).

Badly injured isn't he? I'd be surprised if he went anywhere this summer. But even if he does it leaves us very light at CB. Salisu most likely will go, DCC and Lyanco are moving, really only Bednarek and Stephens will probably remain and we sent both out on loan last season and even Stephens may yet go back to Bournemouth. I guess we will still have Simeu but really it's a position we will be desperate to strengthen as well as CM.

Goldie did a good job following Shep on Blue Peter so hopefully the same applies here.

Early next week, I hope we’ve been eyeing up a decent Bosman or two. Heck I’d take Redmond back for a Championship season.

August and January but my otherwise my thoughts exactly. We are going to have to completely rebuild our squad and we have 5 weeks until our first fixture. I think we start slow but will pick up results later on and squeeze into the play offs. Championship is a tough league.

Cracking news. The younger players will see game time this season and I hope they take their chance. Ballard in particular has a great goalscoring record in the youth teams, why not give him a chance. I also hope Diamond Edwards comes back from his injury as good as he was before. I've seen clips of him play and he's electric.

I said "hope". That's all us fans have to go on this summer.

I know we were expecting players to leave this summer but with the Tino rumours that would leave RBs as Bree and Payne (assuming KWP also goes which we expect). With Lyanco, DCC, Stephens and Salisu most likely leaving we will only have Bednarek and ABK still here and the latter only because he's injured. JWP and Lavia will be gone too... we only have 5 weeks and 4 days until our first fixture. I hope Sports Republic are really on it this summer or we are going to be starting the season slowly which will not be good for promotional aspirations.

Abu like Aladdin's buddy... I wonder if he still has that magic lamp. Could do with a genie.

Welcome Russell. It's not the unifying name I was hoping for but I said I would get behind him and I stand by it. The issue he is going to have is that I can envisage an awful lot of players leaving meaning a complete rebuild which is dodgy the season after relegation and if it doesn't go right, he'll be the one to bite the bullet. Still let's see.

We're waiting until we're League One to sign people to pay less compensation. 🤪

It's ok. I have to try to like the home shirt as it ends up being one of my Christmas presents every year whether I like or not.

We haven't sold anyone so far so we're no worse off than last season. (Actually as we're releasing Moi and Theo we're probably better off, fiscally and in squad terms). I assume KWP, JWP, Lavia etc will all be there at the start of pre-season training unless sold in the next fortnight. I'm not worried... yet. The only thing that concerns me longer term (until the end of the window) is that we might lose too many players and become cash rich and talent poor. We need to keep at least some of our better players. We will want automatic promotion but a complete rebuild of our side could be risky (although I do appreciate we were SO crap last year it wouldn't be the worst thing).

I've seen our trophy cabinet on a tour of SMS. That was 10 seconds well spent. 😎

If he punts it over the bar in his local park hard enough (Ché style) he might actually reach SMS. 😉 He had one decent 5 mins of a (I think it was cup) game where he showed a bit of attacking pace. Beyond that he’s only been half decent in FM. I remember when Shaw signed for United and they knew they’d signed their left back for the next 12 years. I’m a tad surprised that remains accurate but I do think Lavia would be a similar long term signing for the right team.

His Celtic loan actually cost us. If he had bombed up there he'd have gone a long time ago. I'm in agreement with others, I've never seen anything in him that suggests he was worth what we spent or that he was Prem quality. And it's players like these leaving this summer that means we can at least try to reset and cut out some of the rot that has set in.

Been watching a few Championship predictions videos from Youtubers (for my sins) and most of them think Martin is a good appointment and that we will be top 2 contenders. Personally it's too early to predict as we will see a lot of players leaving but it's nice to be talked about as promotion contenders... for now.

Farke, the man that knows how to get teams promoted but doesn't know how to keep them up. Still I suppose promotion is the main aim for the relegated 3 so...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.skysports.com/amp/football/news/12020/12839344/republic-of-ireland-3-2-latvia-evan-ferguson-strikes-on-first-international-start-as-hosts-edge-to-home-win He played well on his senior debut for Ireland and.... he's a set piece taker which we could be lacking soon. I'm not saying that justifies keeping him but in a summer where our midfield is likely to be decimated it would make sense to keep him at least a season IMO.