goodymatt

3-0 Leeds.

One of the best defensive midfielders in the game. You’re being sarcastic right? 😂

Brenden Aaronson looks like a great signing for Leeds.

Mendy with a huge error. Didn’t take Leeds long to double their lead. Can Chelsea do a Saints and come back?

Are the dominos starting to fall into place. Everton linked with the Coventry striker Gyokeres today by Sky and that might suggest they are moving away from Sasa. Zirkzee identified as his replacement for Stuttgart. Austrian link to Ralph. Can play up top on his own. I don’t see United linked recently either?

Ralph talked about definitely signing a ‘game changing striker’ and how they cost more. With add ons a rumoured bid for Delap was up to £23m. Other rumours suggested we had an offer down for Broja all summer, which you’d think would have had to be minimum £25m. “We will never spend £40/50m on a transfer, as it’s not right for our club” is another recent quote. Whoever we bring in it’s more than likely going to be a record transfer fee (£20m+) and the noises coming out of our manager do not suggest it is a £15m youth player. Perhaps I’m letting optimism get the better of me and reading what I want to see in between the lines. Would Watkins be wildly out of that scope if they feel they want to sell? Possibly but not 100% convinced.

£33m would smash our transfer record, but at 26 I think he’d be a great signing for us. If they do actively want to sell him maybe £25m plus add ons would be fair? I’m desperate to see an actual link to a decent striker, we need one yesterday.

I’d take him!

Should be available to listen back to on BBC Sounds

Sounds logical. I’d never heard of this guy before. Little bit more experience than some of our recent signings. Hopefully he’s good enough.

I think his goal against Watford, where he placed it top bins, shows he can do it. However most of the time he doesn’t take his time and just smashes it full power in a straight line. Guy lacks composure and has no left foot whatsoever. His strengths are his power and ability to battle through. Shot power is great. Having started off as a CM earlier on in his career, his build up play is good, something Broja lacked entirely.

Looks like he’s a former Spain u21, now 24 years old. Played 34 times for Marseille last season (1G, 2A)

Apparently we don’t have enough fund to pay the €10m fee, so are discussing a loan. I’m hoping that’s just because we aren’t budgeting to buy a new RB this summer, rather than we’ve run out of money!

Much needed Tino cover, is he any good?

Immediately looks more solid. Wish Ralph would consider this formation. Prowsey banging them in from the edge of the box. Those 2 CDMs would be hard to get through. New main striker signed before the end of the window, ABK to take Bednarek’s place over time.

The Athletic have us going down in 18th.

I see Lyanco has now removed his story, so I’m guessing not an intentional leak!

Lyanco has just posted a reel which appears to include our new 3rd kit: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgxLjplgQRW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

For those that think Ings might be leaving Villa this summer, he’s just been given their number 9 shirt: https://www.instagram.com/p/CgmXADAMucu/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The only player I thought looked poor in the first half was Redmond. He just kept giving the ball away. Good determination from him for our first goal though. Overall a very encouraging performance, much more like it.

I think that JWP, Hojbjerg, KWP and Ings all became notably better players under Ralph. I think they all reached levels that we didn’t expect. Salisu started last season really well and fell off a cliff second half of the season, not sure what happened there. I don’t think you can say players like Tino went backwards. He burst into the scene and just showed the inconsistencies of a young player. Perhaps that’s what we saw with Salisu too, to a degree. Broja would also be in that category for me too. Ralph isn’t perfect but he has shown he can develop players, he’s also not scared to play them which fits in well with our transfer model.

So the questions that come to mind are: 1. Are we going sign another CB? 2. If so, having had various links to this guy and Colwill, who was truly our first choice? Have Palace beaten us to this guy or has Colwill turned them down?