Midfield_General

Jason Wilcox and the rest of Ratcliffe's lads continuing to do a cracking job at Man Utd: - Only made one signing (Cunha); Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City etc have all made multiple major signings already - Struggling to get Mbeumo over the line because Brentford keep raising the price - they are now demanding £70m, and fair play to them for seeing United coming and knowing they'll panic and pay it in the end - Rashford, Garnacho, Sancho, Antony and Malacia all estranged from the first team and training separately. Hundreds of millions of talent going to waste and no buyers I wonder when they start freaking out, panic buying and sacking more people? Wilcox has got to be next in the firing line if this window doesn’t improve pretty quickly

Imagine being synonymous with - and represented by - that

Yeah, it wasn't really meant to be an analysis, just a list of dates when we brought people in. You're right though.

Last time we were preparing for the Championship it went: 1st July: Manning (Perm) 6th July: Lumley (Perm) 12th July: Charles (Perm) Unspecified date in July/ August: Stewart (Perm) 21st August: Downes (Loan) 25th August: THB (Loan) 25th August: Fraser (Loan) 25th August: Holgate (Loan) So we got a few cheap perms in early and then the two 'big' signings, Downes and THB, both came towards the end of the window and were both loans, with Stewart somewhere between the two (and let's just forget about Holgate shall we). Different management and recruitment team now of course, but from what we've seen so far, we may definitely be following a similar pattern. Let's hope so.

I’m waiting until the end of the window to make a judgement. Signs are slightly concerning so far, but I’m telling myself that the proper signings will come in the last few weeks once we’ve got the money from our big sales, the big sides are fully restocked and need to shift out their fringe players who we can swoop in for, etc. That’s what I’m telling myself 😓

I know. That's not the point I was making. I was just using Bednarek as an example. The point is, we've got way too many centre backs and now that everyone knows Stephens is staying and probably starting (as he's also captain), they're going to know that that's one starting position gone, so we'll need to sell a load of the others, and the longer the window goes on, the more that weakens our negotiation position for any of those.

There's also no guarantee that anyone pays the release clause though. So let's say Bednarek's release is £6m - if no-one has paid that with a week of the window to go, we'll just have to accept the best offer we can get for him. If other clubs don't know we're desperate to sell, they might offer say £4m. But if they know we need to get rid under any circumstances, they might offer a lot less because they know we're over a barrel. You're right of course that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Maybe clubs are lining up for a bidding war, who knows. Whatever's happening though, I can't think of many situations involving buying and selling assets worth millions where I'd not want the strongest negotiation position possible. I'm not sure we're ever going to be a club that's got so much money that we don't always need to try and negotiate the best possible deal. Onuachu being a case in point - we clearly didn't want him but we still made them up their bid three times rather than just shipping him out at any cost and taking a massive bath* on him. (*and imagine how massive his bath must be)

Imagine, three years ago when we'd finally shipped Stephens off to Bournemouth on loan and Bednarek off to Villa on loan, where he promptly started slagging the club, that someone had told you that there was a chance - however slim - that they'd be lining up together for us on the opening day of the 2025-26 season 🤣

Don't forget ABK still on the books until we can shift him, plus Taylor (ditto) who has played there a lot, plus Sanda coming through. That's nine centre halves. There are many reasons why the new contract for Stephens, and the timing of it this early in the window, was an incredibly poor decision, and this is just one of them. Now everyone knows that Stephens is guaranteed to be staying, we've now given ourselves no wiggle room at all if things don't go as planned in terms of people actually coming in for ABK, Bednarek, Taylor etc. The longer that no-one comes in for them, the more likely it is that we'll have to sell them off cheap, give them away or loan them, just to get them off the books because there's no way we can afford to still have them all by the end of the window, and other clubs who do their homework will be very aware of this. They will be able to exploit that by hanging back and then going low with any offers for those players because they know we'll be increasingly desperate to sell. So even if the club wanted Stephens to stay, giving him the contract this early in the window was really, really stupid because it totally shows our hand and massively weakens our negotiation position.

If we ended up having to keep Bednarek because no-one else wanted him then he'd be absolutely fine at Championship level. We'd just need to offset it by shipping out Jack Steph... ah. Oh dear.

Not sure Dublin-born ROI internationals are all that popular down Ibrox way, unfortunately.

But where is he on holiday? At the breakfast buffet does he favour the omelette station or the full English? In the pool has he opted to bob around on the big Homer Simpson doughnut or the inflatable unicorn? WE MUST BE TOLD This news blackout is a disgrace. Personally I blame the media team and Jordan Sibley. Or Eric Black.

I think ‘must start’ is a little premature. He’s played 45 minutes against a national league side and looked competent against a very limited attack who hardly got into our half and didn’t have a single shot in that time. He’s clearly quick but his passing wasn’t perfect. Let’s not get carried away.

Friendly result: Rangers 1-1 Barnsley. Goal conceded by having the entire team pushed up beyond the half way line and then the CB losing possession. One pass into the wide open spaces, striker ran clean through, goal. 10 days until their first CL qualifier. Four pre-season games played, yet to win one.

Not sure. Probably Downes?

FT. 2-1 Saints. Only really saw the second half. Summary: - Kit looks alright if you don't mind the plain white back - Basically just a training game generally played at about 50% pace with not a lot of intensity, as you’d expect - Set up as a 4-3-3 - Dominated second half - Robinson MOM. Looked dangerous every time he got the ball – running at people and beating them. Lovely pass for the second goal. Linked up well with Welington down the left - Dibling playing in the 10 role floating about. Was quiet, didn’t really stamp his authority on it. Didn't look as effective as he has done when he plays on the right - Dibling and Welington taking corners - Matsuki put himself about and showed for the ball. Should have scored but put it too close to the keeper - Edozie got into some decent positions but didn’t do a lot with it. Should have scored, but missed the ball completely. Got free later but misplaced his pass - Archer looked a bit awkward. Touch was generally quite poor, nothing really stuck to him. Took his goal well enough though when put through - Didn’t learn much defensively. Bazunu could have got a deckchair out. Not a single shot to deal with. Quarshie got in one foot race and looked strong enough and very quick Nothing else of any note really. Standard first pre-season kickabout. Not sure it was the wisest £5 I've ever spent but I was bored.

2-1 Saints. Archer. Lovely little dinked pass from Robinson, he’s been excellent so far.

Robinson’s playing a bit wider and further up than Fernandes usually does. Playing as part of the forward line rather than the midfield.

Nice from Robinson, falls to Edozie completely unmarked six yards out, does a total air shot and misses it completely

Decent by Edozie, Suga hits the post

Edozie and Robinson either side of Archer as the front three second half, with Dibling behind. Decent bit of skill and shot from Robinson, draws a save from the keeper.

HT. 1-1.

Armstrong scores. 1-1.

Penalty being delayed due to a medical emergency in the crowd

Penalty saints