Saint Matty 76

£30m would be a very decent price for Sulemana but fucking hell put your foot down on somebody. Alcaraz is going to change his mind on sticking around seeing every bit of quality around him being let out the door.

Fully respect the confidence and belief. I'll back him in the stadium until he proves me otherwise but I'd be lying if I said it doesn't feel like a really underwhelming move on the face of things.

Because that was in 2018. He has 3 goals in 4 years.

100%. I get that we want to trust in Wilcox but if we head into tomorrow without either of them, and the only resemblance of a replacement is Ryan Fraser who hasn't kicked a ball since October 2022 and hasn't got a goal or assist since March 2022, then I'd struggle to remain too content.

Definitely a bit of a tenuous confirmation but if we really have replaced £20m+ Tella with Ryan Fraser on loan then it’ll be time to ask a few questions. Alfie House asked about Tella today but it’s embargoed for 10:30pm, so we’ll either find out then or around 2pm tomorrow I guess.

Little bit more nice news.

Yep - not really got any concerns about CB. RB is a bit of a worry if we suddenly end up with Holgate and Bree as our two options after a late move for KWP. Like you say, we could be Sulemana - Che - Tella in a weeks time or we could be Edozie - Armstrong - Fraser.

Midfield suddenly looks a lot better with the news Smallbone will be back for Sunderland, a nice area of certainty at least!

My opinion from listening to that presser is that Che is going. Sounded that way from RM's expression.

Every sale has been met with club-fed paragraphs about how it’ll enable us to reinvest back into the squad to get us back promoted, seeming a little off right now. ABK, KWP, Sulemana, Tella and Adams are all still here so there isn’t a reason to lose it just yet. But as they start slowly going over the next week and the replacements make it clear to have been Mason Holgate and Ryan Fraser on loan… deary me.

Excellent. Fraser too? That’ll be a Sulemana or Tella replacement I guess. Fucking dreadful moves.

Fingers crossed he’s either 3rd choice or seriously benefits from the drop in a league because Holgate is a truly shit signing. Just good that it’s only a loan and we’re lumbered with him for one year.

Yup. Not that there aren't other strikers in the world, but Archer and Piroe were the two "safe" options that have good records at this level and the former being very familiar with the system as well. They were probably the two signings we could make where no fans would bat an eyelid about selling Che and replacing him with them. I really hope it's a case that we're confident with Che's future so didn't feel the need to go for Piroe, rather than us not actually being capable until his future is confirmed. That's completely playing with fire going into the final week.

Fingers crossed, but he'd be mad to do anything before September 1st anyway.

Worried but can't be annoyed until we see how the next week plays out. We still have the better player but selling him now without the obvious replacement would be yet another disaster in the attacking department from SR. The issue, like mentioned above, is how easy and obvious an option Che is for a real handful of PL teams going into this final week. There's a good few he'd immediately start for and he's seemingly available pretty cheap. Palace, Everton, Fulham, Wolves...

Damn, didn’t actually see this happening.

Definitely is a worrying situation now where Piroe could want his future sorted out (Leeds) before anybody commits to signing Che (Everton, Wolves, Fulham etc...). I really have a feeling we'll end up with Duk from Aberdeen.

My biggest hope going into this season was that we'd somehow have Sulemana - Alcaraz - Tella playing behind the striker, through all the noise we've encountered these past two months, could actually be a possibility?

Obviously YouTube pinch of salt but I don't think you could find me a single clip of Bednarek looking that comfortable on the ball. Or Stephens for that matter, who for all the comical DM shouts over recent years has looked absolutely terrible receiving the ball this season.

Everything else you've written is bullshit.

He exists!

Fuck off. Delete this shit.

None of them have got close enough to even try so far! Fair enough, could definitely be too soon but he just looks so impressive.

This is where I stand as well. The "it's better to get promoted than get the £15m" logic isn't totally flawed, but I don't think a team who've just got relegated will/can afford to pass on the Che money as opposed to letting him leave for free in a year. I also imagine SR/Wilcox are pretty confident in their own abilities to get a similar output from a replacement, which my current guess will be Duk from Aberdeen. As for Tella/KWP, there really is absolutely no reason to sell either or to have a realistic "price in mind" this window. We've made enough money, risks have to be taken to get promoted and holding onto both of these players in the hope they get us up, or instead taking a reduced fee next Summer with 1 year left on their deals is absolutely one we should make. Obviously there's price points for everybody, but at this point of the window they should be extremely inflated and not where they were weeks ago.

Bazunu KWP - Bednarek - Stephens - Manning Downes - Charles SAA - Alcaraz - Tella Arma I'd say it's probably about time to give SAA a chance from the start, especially as we won't have any more opportunities to do it in the cup against lower opposition. It may be the case that both he and Edozie are better suited to the last 20 minutes against tired legs, but that's doing a disservice to Amo-Ameyaw as we haven't seen him have a go from the start yet. As per before, Stu in for Downes if he's not yet available and a more conventional 433 shape, or in for Alcaraz if he's not yet fit again. Can't make this one due to the train strikes unfortunately. Hopefully not the first of many of that again this year.