hypochondriac

Thanks for the post. I think we can infer that the signings done on that system could well be the ones from foreign leagues that are done very quickly with seemingly little back and forth - like Fernandes for example. It certainly makes things simpler and gives you access to players that you may not have been aware of.

I completely agree and I made a similar post this morning. I'm kind of resigned to our current strategy which seems to be sticking a few attacking okayers around the area and hoping one of them scores a few rather than having a focal point striker. Still some hope we could get a brilliant youngster on loan though and get them leading the line. Any ideas?

It's how we got the THB loan last year. It would make absolute sense for a team like Chelsea to have a loose partnership with a smaller club in the same league. Yes we are technically competitors but not really.

If we go through with this signing it does have the feeling that we're almost there. If we do lose Alcaraz then I really feel that we need one more attacking player as an alternative to Fernandes (Aribo is solid and works hard but without the trickery and bit of magic that Alcaraz provides.) if we got that and then maybe a winger I think we coukd be content even though you'd always want just one more.

I know that rasmus' relation owns that football site where clubs put what they have available and for sale. I wonder if saints and Chelsea are on it? If so makes sense how we were able to arrange the lesley loan so quickly and then they've seemingly helped us to sell Mara to their feeder club.

Quite a few saves there I've never seen Bazunu or McCarthy make. Exciting.

What is the price range? Anyone know?

Lesley?

He does sound like a top keeper though who would be entirely out of our reach had he not had these injuries. Rather like Ipswich gambling with Broja, maybe this is the sort of move we need to do and hope it pays off to give us a good chance.

Indeed. Premier league wonderkid up top on loan please!

His injury record is here. Certainly seems to be a lot and quite varied. Maybe just bad luck. Justin Bijlow - Injury history | Transfermarkt

Oh God. I can see Martin reading these words and quietly fondling himself in the corner of the room.

Distribution. Bijlow is suited to a short passing game. According to fbref.com, he had the shortest average pass length of all Eredivisie goalkeepers this season at 25.6 metres and launched (defined as balls that travelled over 40 metres) just 17.8 per cent of his kicks. He sounds exactly like the type of keeper that would suit us.

I hate questions like this. It is for the club and the scouting departments to get a list of players to suit our systems with the ability to score goals and keep us up. You could have said where is the affordable box to box player with the passing ability to provide us with assists and approximately zero people on here would have said Mateus Fernandes before this week. Someone posted a Greek striker earlier who may not be affordable but certainly seems like the profile of player I would expect us to go for with the potential to score goals in this league. It's the club's job to find plenty of players not mine and they will have done so. Personally I'd be looking for a promising young striker from abroad on loan, maybe structured in a similar deal to Broja from Ipswich. Moukoko from Dortmund looks good, as does Nelson Weiper from Mainz. Both may be unrealistic to sign but we could maybe get them on loan.

This is just superb business for us. Either it gives us some FFP breathing room or it frees up some funds for more players. My sense is we are almost done bar a possible winger and hopefully keeper. Maybe a lb if kwp goes.

I made the same point about Archer's xg last week but the point is that it's untrue to say there is "no reason" to suspect they can't step up. The reason is that loads of successes in the championship have shown they can't make the step up - including Armstrong and Archer in previous seasons! It's about being realistic not lacking in optimism. The hope of course is that they buck their trend from previous seasons and that under a new style with a new player providing assists they will be able to increase their scoring rate in the prem. Until that actually happens though there is going to be a question mark about their abilities to score regularly enough to finish above 18th and it's just realistic to point that out.

That's true but what on earth is Henderson going to do?

Have a read of what I posted lower down the page and what wolves fans are saying. It appears he is a bit worse than McCarthy at playing out with his feet.

I agree that we won't get another one but that's the sort of thing I think we need. Good post.

Is your sense that we'd ever look to get him back? I've heard some people say that he might want to return but I don't think there's a place for him with our new signings.

Have they shown they can score goals given chances in the prem? Diaz showed glimpses but that isn't case for the other two yet. They might well do but there's no evidence as yet.

In his position on the left coming inside I'd be confident he can do a job n for us there. I don't think he's a centre forward leading the line though.

Yes. One who has had prior performance in this league and whose previous scoring record isn't 4 goals in two seasons.

That's another reason we won't get Ramsdale imo. We can't leave it till the very last minute which is when arsenal might consider a loan to someone like us because we need one in. We probably have a large list with the attributes we want and we will go down it till we get one.

I expect we will see some improvement. Whether it is to the extent that it has a serious impact on our season remains to be seen. The last preseason game and the Newcastle game have still left me with some doubts. I'm glad he's in the team and we must give him a chance but I'm nervous about the prospect of relying on him too heavily abd pinning our promotion hopes on him until he proves he can score regularly in this division.