hypochondriac

I also think there are some caveats. Bazunu is young and may develop into a solid keeper. No point pretending he's been anything other than absolute rubbish this far though. We got promoted largely in spite of him last year and the season before would rival the worst season of any top flight keeper we've ever had.

Was just pointing out that forecast didn't count. I wouldn't put Bazunu above Kelvin or McCarthy though and probably not Stekelenburg either and it's a toss up with Bart. Blayney fair enough but he barely played. There's very very few if any keepers who played a reasonable amount of games for us who I think has performed substantially worse than Bazunu. Certainly in the top flight, he was statistically and in reality absolutely rotten.

What evidence do you have that Taylor, THB or sugawara are championship or lower at best? Edwards perhaps but by all accounts was excellent value and may prove himself to be prem standard. Lallana genuinely no idea how he was perform but I doubt he will play that often.

Didn't actually play for us though.

Do you have any evidence at all that not getting Downes yet is anything to do with saints?

Will be quite interesting to see how he gets on this year. I'll predict 7 league goals. Maybe he will surprise me.

Encouraging words from Martin about Downes. I don't think he'd be saying about wanting him with us if he didn't want to sign.

Loving all the jap players. I reckon there's some untapped potential there.

Yes we may lose some of them but I'd be confident we'd at least be attempting to replace them with players of a similar quality. Not so in the champ!

Yep and think how much shitter the window would be right now had we lost to Leeds. No THB, kwp, Downes, Bednarek, Adams etc etc. Yeah we might get relegated this year but at least it should hopefully be a fun ride. As long as we are competitive for the season that's what's important and we may do better than expected. I'm hoping so at any rate.

Overall, player costs do definitely have a correlation with success. That's why the teams who spend the most generally are the most successful. We probably have the funds to make two standout signings which involve spending a bit of money. One of these imo has to be a striker and we need quality. It seems incredibly unlikely to me that we will be able to find a quality striker without spending a decent amount of cash. I think we will anyway I'm just struck by how little we are spending.

Would he be top ten signing in terms of amount for a championship side? For that dough you'd be expecting absolute top quality. I'm pleased with our signings so far but I will be expecting Downes or equivalent, a top quality striker, a decent AM and a good winger as a minimum really and I'd be expecting us to be shopping in a higher bracket for at least a couple of those.

Is it a little unusual that the fees we have been rumoured to pay thus far are a fair bit less than we paid last year for Shea Charles? That was an incredibly odd signing. Not that I particularly want us to spend a load of cash but I do think to improve our chances of getting a decent signing we should be looking to spend about 20 million plus on a striker and 15-20 on an AM. Not sure if we are able to spend that but that's what I'd be looking at to improve the team (maybe that will change if we get a decent free transfer in.)

That's not my recollection of Downes. We've utilised him as a defensive midfielder to disrupt the other team and dispossess him. The only other player who played that role last year was Charles.

Either way certainly not a definite dm. I'd be surprised if he was the Downes alternative.

Doesn't seem like he plays the same position as Downes at all. If anything he's a Stuart Armstrong replacement.

I don't think there's any chance we will have 6 cbs in the squad.

At least it's not another English club. Much better than Brighton.

I'm not sure we have the space to accommodate him to be honest unless we ship out other players. Not sure with his injury record he's someone you'd want to be relying on. Edwards, Woods, Stephens, Bednarek, THB and ABK are too many CBs. Maybe we would try to keep him if Bednarek leaves or something but I can't see it.

I dunno. Some of those people who vote for the green party over here are batshit insane themselves.

Think it was all agreed but he needed to do his medical.

Yep. Democrats won't like to hear it but if they don't dump Biden and Trump is back next year then they are almost solely to blame.

Yep. All these companies want lifelong medical patients. Nice little earner.

What help from medical professionals are you talking about? Hopefully not the sort of medical help criticised in the Cass review. If its something like therapy then sure. Did Suella really say that trans people seeking therapy disgusts her? That's wild!

When you say seeking care do you mean removing body parts or taking hormones that do irreversible damage to their bodies in the fruitless attempt to change sex?