saintant

This in a nutshell is our issue.

We have to meet Celtic's valuation first and I can't see that happening.

The sad thing is,unless we are prepared and able to spend big, we aint getting above Bournemouth any time soon.

Ok,tell me when we last had an exciting and successful transfer window. What you describe as my negativity is actually realism fostered by our recent attempts to strengthen the squad during consecutive windows.

We need at least 4 not just a couple. The current squad is miles off what will be required. Not sure SR are that bothered about trying to avoid relegation back to the Championship. It all feels a bit lacking in any real ambition to survive and consolidate and more a question of let's see what happens - a lack of conviction.

I think we have to hope this is Dibling's break through season because it would be like signing a quality new player for free. He has been great in pre-season so must be in the running to start in our final friendlies and possibly a contender for the Newcastle match. It'd be a gamble but maybe one worth taking.

Seems to be a lack of fresh rumours while the stale ones get rehashed. Even the COT is not posting any new tantalising clues. Ramsdale on loan is frequently mentioned but there seems nothing to suggest this is anything more than a forlorn hope resulting from the fact that he was at Wembley to support his pal Brooks who is not even at the club now. We are likely stuck with McCarthy and Lumley as our first and second choice keepers - we'll need far better to repel the likely onslaught on our goal during most Premier League games. There seem few links to any decent strikers and our midfield needs seriously beefing up. Hopefully major developments are being worked on behind the scenes and we'll be in for some exciting surprises in the coming 3 weeks. It is a long while since we had a successful transfer window but I guess we are still swimming with the bottom feeders due to the lack of a major financial backer.

Rock bottom it is then 🙂

To be competitive we'll need to sign a minimum 4 good new players who can step straight into the side (including a goalkeeper). Will we get them? I doubt it. Even if we do they need to adapt to the RM way of playing and we had all that at the start of last season. My guess is that we'll get in a few underwhelming new signings and muddle along. Hope I'm wrong but that's the vibe I'm getting. Decent money will not be spent and we'll miss targets because we won't offer the going rate. We must sign a keeper, a striker, a solid midfielder to slot in alongside Downes and a creative number 10.

Even if it was possible I'm not convinced JWP is what we need. I'd rather we signed someone in the mould of Romeu who gives us more of a physical presence.

I wonder what the likes of McCarthy and Lallana are earning. Maybe we need to be less sentimental and more ruthless when dividing up the salary budget.

No idea but we should be competing with West Ham for Rodriguez.

He is currently listed as 'without a club' so surely there is no transfer fee involved.

No transfer fee to worry about. Offer him a generous 2 year contract. Him and Downes would give us a very secure midfield and that is something we are going to need in the Premier League.

Hard to argue with that.

Don't think we'll be getting another player who operates on the wide left.

Agree, from what we've seen so far, SR is not prepared to back us to give us a realistic chance of staying in the Premier League. As ever there is talk that we are after high quality players at reasonable prices but we always seem to miss out on them. We then end up paying less for players many of who end up being a total waste of money. Maybe we just don't have the budget to compete with other teams of our standing or it's something to do with FFP restrictions. Whole month to go I know but I am getting the usual vibes this pre-season.

Why not? After all, he continually championed Baz as an acceptable number one when he clearly wasn't.

He needs to stick his nose deep into the coffee jar.

Madness if that's the case but I suspect you are right on the money.

I'll give it a miss I think.

He looks to be a huge upgrade on Che.

Goalkeeper made the assist.

Well if Darren Mowbray can step into Jason Wilcox's shoes he was clearly not as good as he was made out to be and we were paying him far too much.

We can increase it.