disconnect

Didnt want to join us when we were in the prem, definitely wont want to join us now

What a lovely stadium. Definitely fitting of a Ligue 1 side, hopefully Takaoka, Abu and co can help get Valenciennes back towards where they belong!

Good to see Rento Takaoka already got some minutes. Kylian Kouakou sounds like an interesting prospect for our multi-club model... Good luck for tonight!

Already one of my favourites, but mostly because he hasn't had time to let me down(s) as regularly as 95% of the rest of the squad.

Was highly rated when we signed him and seems to have done well since he's been with us, playing up in the under 21s at 17/18. Would be good to see him on the bench and get in and around the squad come the end of the season. Noticed that Victor Udoh nowhere to be seen - off to Valenciennes?!

Who was playing regularly in the side last year who isn’t now? Looks like quite a different lineup with a couple of younger guys in and some staples from last season nowhere to be seen

Although he did score a great well placed finish in pre-season when the ball was slid in for him (from Robinson?)

Ironically, when he gets forward, he could be a good crosser, just needs to have proper strikers in the box.

I don’t think Edwards and Wood are displacing Quarshie based on this. BBD truly awful, Archer looks fairly bright and Downes looks like he has the pashun that has seemingly made Stephens our star man 🤣

Didn’t set the world alight at Valenciennes, but this would explain his complete lack of presence in pre season. Not sure how much we bought him for but sounds like a (very small) profit potentially.

£30 mill? They planning to buy him without a foot or something?!

We need to be getting Downs ready - he's better than Stewart. Agree with Sesay, Matsuki and Wood starting, thought Taylor and Harwood-Bellis might still be injured. Interesting if Brereton-Diaz plays.

They are both two of, if not the best players for their clubs, who are in the same division as us. Both fairly young too. Think both could be good signings for us, having performed very well at this level with the potential to step up.

Where did you get that from? He's featured quite heavily in club photos this year and was made to sound like he'd be 'like a new signing for us'...

Ironically, that's probably the thing they've prioritised most - it truly has become the best away day for fans!

Hope this works out better than Daouda Traore who seems to have gone missing.

There's a quiz on the OS about minutes in pre-season. Pretty embarrassingly the two with the most minutes are Fraser and Stephens! I think most were hoping they'd be two of the first out the door. I missed Smallbone and Taylor (and Bragg and Bipepa), but got all the rest fairly easily. Must've been wishing a few away.

I think you may be forgetting the root cause here! 🤣 (but yes, world beaters they were not)!

I think whether that will happen is the major concern!!

Jamie Donley. Is he ready for Championship? Does he play centrally? We were also linked with Guilherme from West Ham and the Swedish guy Zeneli who looks good.

He always seems like a bit of a grumpy tw*t anyway whenever they do those training ground questions etc 🤣

I think he’s the young Irish guy, Romeo, was fairly highly rated when we signed him. The squad does look particularly weak from this though. Welington surely over Manning next week though

Terrible management more attributed to being bottom by miles rather than quality of squad. We would've still gone down, but wouldnt have been as embarrassing!

I'm not so sure about Sugawara - if Matsuki is genuinely going to be part of the first team squad (and there was that other young Japanese striker Takoaka who seems to have gone AWOL?!) then I think the club may want to keep him around.