Saint Matty 76

2 minutes ago, Turkish said:

I don’t know much about him, who would he replace as he won’t be coming here to sit on the bench 

He’s pretty much like for like on Fernandes, unless we changed up system.

West Ham fans one of the more normal bunch upon reading their views after being linked to one of our players. With the exception of that Central WUM on Twitter of course.

Lots of understanding that the ball is in our court and we're quite famously good sellers in recent history. Obviously the few idiots who act like them walking away would be a devastating blow to us but largely less suspect than usual.

Their main guy Ex is stating that a bid has gone in this afternoon for Fernandes. I imagine we're hours away from an Ornstein rejection tweet. 

1 minute ago, SuperSAINT said:

£45m & one of the “WP” brothers on loan would suffice. 

Yeah I wonder if that'll get revisited. I remember LeG saying he felt confident he would come back if we stayed up last year. 

The wages would have to be heavily subsided and it felt like Potter quite liked him, so I find it somewhat unlikely.

I feel incredibly positive that's nonsense based on Parsons himself labelling the fee as "very high" last week.

I doubt there's a single person within the football club who'd consider anything less than £50m a viable fee.

I actually have zero interest with him sticking around with both Jay Robinson's emergence and Dibling's clear disinterest in putting a shift in amidst speculation. Even further if it means we can somehow afford to keep Fernandes around.

£50m and 25% is obviously a dream figure, hopefully we can get something done at around £45m and 15%. I think anything in that range will be a brilliant deal for us, but also present enough upside to Everton if they can get him playing like he did for 2/3 months.

I have little idea of what to expect for Dibling's career. He looked unplayable in incredibly short bursts so it's surprising to remember how little he contributed and how often he completely vanished from games.

Is lambden a new one on #ITKWatch? 

Have we had any success stories yet? Missing a good ITK these days, feel like it’s just LeG left.

This place will go absolutely up in flames if we put in anything close to as poor as Ipswich have been.

2 minutes ago, Appy said:

Wasn’t it just Downes who might not start? Impression I got was that Fernandes is good to go. 

Yeah you might be right. I was just a bit hesitant due to his chat regarding him missing days last week etc.

Either way, my final go at predicting the zero creativity XI -

Bazunu;
Edwards, Stephens, Quarshire, Welington
Charles, Fernandes
Armstrong, Fraser, Archer
Downs

Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Taylor and Smallbone all out through injury.

Dibling, Edozie and Aribo out through transfer speculation.

Fernandes and Downes both in the squad, maybe not ready to start.

Will Still stating that Dibling, Edozie and Aribo all out of the squad due to transfer-related reasons.

9 minutes ago, warsash saint said:

Get your arse down there then instead of whinging on this forum!

Quite literally not how it works you tit.

Largely shit answers from Spors/Parsons, but our fans really let us down time after time with this opportunity and the questions they ask.

Fair play to Trollope on short notice who spoke the best, even if he was the least challenged.

Spors has zero interest in answering any questions/providing any detail.

Parsons waffling the same stuff which they've preached beforehand without ever actually implementing.

Nobody wants to talk to our Assistant Manager who has got here about three weeks back.

Huge waste of time this one. Even more than usual somehow.

Jack Rosser, one of the few with clear club ties, reporting a bid for one of the best players in the league hours before the board go in front of the fans, give over. 😆

If anyone is dying for a rumour then the horrendous FootyInsider have just linked us to Fellows.

14 assists last year, him and Rudoni would be the dream end to the window.

If Downes and Fernandes are back in training, we may as well make use of the latter whilst he's here (such as JWP v Sheff Weds).

Bazunu
Edwards - Stephens - Quarshie - Welington
Downes - Charles
Armstrong - Fernandes - Archer
Downs

That'd be my guess. Although wouldn't be at all surprised to see Bree in for Edwards and Fernandes back next to Charles with Fraser in at 10 (🤮) if Downes isn't quite ready. I'd also love us to just give Robinson the start, but would understand the logic behind him being an impact sub to begin with.

6 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Minor injuries do not prevent transfers. Medicals look for injuries that will impact the future. You can pass a medical even if you are currently injured. Plus in any case he is already back in training so not injured.

Minor injury combined with not being that deserving of a large enough financial package to warrant a move will stop it, however.

THB isn't going anywhere with his knock. Whilst I completely agree that replacing Bazunu is a no brainer, I've made peace with the fact that we're definitely not doing it.

Got a shit load of strikers already and therefore I'd imagine the only remaining incomers will be midfielders, whether holding midfield cover, attacking midfield or wide player(s).

Buonanotte, Encisco, Esse, Echeverri and maybe Fabio Carvalho are some of the higher end options coming to mind who may become available for a loan? Perhaps Nyoni at Liverpool who has seemingly had a good preseason as well.

Rudoni would be my absolute number one target right now if we've got the capability for a permanent deal.

Our four Summer loans in 23/24 all took place in the final 10 days of the window. I wouldn't be too surprised to see that be all we do for the rest of this year. It was three games into the season before we signed any of them.

Two/three central midfielders and one/two wide players would be my guess.

Harwood Bellis: 1st September
Fraser: 25th August
Holgate: 25th August
Downes: 21st August
 

Wellington is absolutely miles better than Manning.

Not really sure why he's not an automatic first choice?

Didn't for one second think we'd keep any of Ramsdale, Fernandes or Dibling.

Also would've hope that the foresight of it obviously happening would've meant that a week out our replacements weren't Shit Existing GK, Nobody and Nobody.

It'll be Armstrong, Fraser, Brereton Diaz; Archer on the opening day as it has been in preseason. Absolutely dying for a #10 and a left-winger unless we're willing to put a load of trust in Robinson. 

Interesting one where apparently Ajax nearly signed Spertsyan but their board blocked the signing due to "moral concerns about dealing with a Russian club".

4 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

It wasn't an ACL injury it was his Achilles tendon, just like he is our Achilles heel!

Ah right, my bad.

Well if he was as poor getting down to the bottom corners as he was before that, I dread to imagine that part of his game now.

3 minutes ago, SWLondon Saint said:

I've been a big critic of Bazunu in the past, but we did still get promoted with him last time, he actually made a couple of great stops in the previous friendly, and I don't think we're going to get a prem level replacement in at this point so why not just see if he has actually improved at this point? Not playing suicide ball and with proper defensive structure ahead of him might help a lot already.

We got promoted in spite of him, and actually got carried over the line by a 50 year old McCarthy who looked better than Gav.

There's nothing to suggest an ACL injury and a terrible loan move in Belgium has done anything to believe he's improved.

Apparently it's likely to be a significant fee loan + option anyway.

Good news that we have a good level Goalkeeper available if we come back up and the option isn't picked up.

Bad news that we're significantly less likely to go up with Bazunu and having Ramsdale still technically on our books makes buying another 1st choice basically impossible.