Saint Matty 76

Sulemana (at the very least) was the fastest player at the entire World Cup, which is something this team has been lacking for a good year. Bring in Onuachu as well and I'll believe we have an actual chance of staying up. Still can't see it without a new face up front.

I can’t see it but they definitely need to.

Really just hoping it’s Sulemana and a striker now, rather than we tried for a striker as well but couldn’t get it done.

Gonna get carried away cause why not, here's a link to some of his play - ...and it's now being reported in Portugal.

Asked my mate who supports Benfica for a quick review and he said - "He's very combative and doesn't give defenders a rest. Good link up play and is really intense every min he's on pitch. Haven't watched enough to know if he's consistent with finishing but every time I see him he's looked good." Got to post the fbref as well, seems hardworking for sure.

Well then... footballinsider are a pretty terrible source but they do have the occasional hit. He scored this the other day -

Can't disagree with that whatsoever. More minutes here than at Lyon which gives him a better chance of a big free agent move in the Summer.

A real link at least. I'd be very surprised if the player doesn't want to be a free agent in the Summer and get an absolute shit tonne of money, however.

Two absolutely nothing sources on Dembele so far, but a similar place to where the Orsic rumours began. I think it’ll be ruled out by about 7pm but I’ll be very happy to be wrong.

Crazy offer, considering midfield is one of their only strong areas with Onana/Iwobi. Maintain that whilst he's been poor for Chelsea, he's a decent mid-table player where there's less on the ball pressure and more reward for just running around like a mad man. If that's how they're reinvesting all their Gordon money however, it feels like good news for us.

This club has turned me fully cynical in the last year but this one really stinks of either "I promise you we're trying" from our end or "does somebody not shit fancy me?" from his.

He's also seemingly quite heavily linked with Villa, so this one aint happening.

As mentioned, if he told us we weren't good enough in the Summer then we're definitely not going to be now.

Haha, already at the happy with what we've got stage. Incredible.

Definitely. I'd love to be proven wrong but if anyone realistically expects us to sign an out-and-out striker on top of Sulemana at £20m~, then I fully respect your misguided optimism.

Brilliant goal.

Was just coming to say the same thing, having a good half.

Edozie is just brilliant at beating his man. If he was more consistent with the last part then he certainly would not have been leaving City.

Good strike from Perraud. I don't think he's a world beater but definitely been hard done by since NJ arrived.

Was it really worth playing him in this game if he needed that much strapping?

Looks like a nice team, definitely crying out for that Hjulmand signing as mentioned. Not quite sure what the Lavia deal is, this is the one game of the three I had zero interest in him playing. Hopefully we see a bit (lot) more from Orsic in this one.

We need to get a striker in cause Che can't finish, ah yes let's go for Michail Antonio

His percentile rating compared to the rest of the Championship fullbacks. 62% pass completion (the worst in the entire league) so I'm expecting lots of long balls to nobody has been a common theme of his career under NJ. His positive attacking stats are likely skewed from his set pieces, which he obviously wouldn't get here.

I had the exact same process of thought as well. He's clearly playing the 3 centre backs cause we're a smaller team on the whole, so I assumed this was some 6'2 shithouse full-back but he's the same height as Perraud who he's frozen out for more height.

Thanks for that. So we're looking at 26 games played, 1 goal and 18 games missed through injury, brilliant stuff if you ask me.