S-Clarke

He's been incredible since he's been back, he's just reliable and steady - not flashy and honestly that's sometimes all you need. We're not reinventing the world playing Fellows RB or anything daft anymore, we have a RB for RB. Simple game really.

I didn't want the club to put all their eggs in the Ross Stewart basket last summer (they did), but equally I didn't want them to do it this summer either, as you still can't truly trust him to remain fit. I can understand the clubs prerogative in not wanting to commit too heavily, the guy didn't play for almost 2-3 seasons in his 4 years with us. Even this season, whilst contributing, it has been punctuated with injury breaks and early subs - we were always walking on egg shells with him. From his point of view he's entitled to go shopping elsewhere and see if he can get a longer deal for security, but I can't see him anywhere other than Scotland. This now gives us a clear opening to replace and provide Larin with equal competition again. I enjoyed the rotating approach of these two in the 2nd half of last season, so let's hope we get someone equal to make a similar impact. (I'm discounting Downs as he's not a footballer)

Good to see Bazunu improving - up to third bottom, possibly the first time he's been that high. 👍

I feel a bit sorry for WHU fans in all of this, as their name is about to be dragged through the mud I'm sure. Not the fans fault, but apparently the 'club' is somewhat complicit in some of the coverups. Doubt we'll ever find out the true story.

Last season we signed this guy when we still had Bazunu as first choice, and the argument was that our keeper signing should have been first choice and then Bazunu would be backup. We've got it the right way round this summer. First choice keeper signed first, and then backup GK signed.

I feel the same. Usually in the build up to a Euro's or a World Cup, you start to see cars with flags, flags outside houses, just a general excited vibe. It's just not here is it? All feels flat as a pancake like it's not happening. I used to listen to the build up podcasts, the preview shows on the channels etc. But I just haven't been interested. Most people say we'll get into it once it starts, but how are we supposed to get into it when most of the games are in the early hours of the morning or really late at night. I think a combination of the kick off times and the dull nature of International football these days has killed the excitement.

Does this mean he's 'Fine for the Championship' ?

This sounds like an approach to get better terms, we obviously went for the trigger option which retained his current deal, but his agents say we missed that boat so he needs an entirely new deal. I wouldn't say he deserves to be paid more, we need to be more careful if anything - pay as you play and not too long a deal. It's a strange one to be pushing for better terms because he basically didn't play for us for 3 years. I think from a pure moral stand point he owes the club.

Not another one! A busy day to say the least, I thought we'd have a chance with Larin either way - but to me it feels as if the club are putting all effort into retaining this team, as it worked so well in the second half of last season. He was a little bit WTF when he signed, but immediately he added what we haven't had for many years. Pace/Power and a presence up top. No more relying on Adam Armstrong or Archer to hold it up, made so much difference to us.

Oh yeah for sure, but just in terms of the squad we had upon PL promotion and what we'll have in the Champ - even though temporary - is a crazy jump in quality. No idea how we thought we'd compete under Martin.

Well, this escalated quickly. How did we pull that one off? I didn't think we had a chance if we didn't get promoted, but I get a feeling that the way we didn't get promotion has given all the players a bit of a siege mentality - hence the unfinished business. We're almost certainly going to give it a good crack next season by the looks of it. This addition is huge. We went into the PL under Martin with Bazunu and McCarthy as our goalies, but we'll enter pre-season with Ramsdale and Pertez in the Championship - crazy.

I think a lot of people have been carried along on the emotional rollcoaster this brought, reading back through the Spygate thread makes for interesting reading, as I believe peoples initial reactions to it are probably the true feelings. People got caught up in the media onslaught, which is what Boro wanted, and it dragged us a long with it. But go back to when this first game out, I remember my reaction was that I found it quite bizarre and amusing. If a club did it to us I'd have held the same view. It was somewhat surreal. Then the picture coming out of the guy behind the tree made it feel even more like a comedy sketch, a stupid and daft thing to do, but pretty funny. We all drifted along with anger with Tonda, the club, whoever etc, but once the dust starts to settle I think most of us can now see this for what it was from day 1 - an absolute load of daft nonsense blown out of proportion like nothing I've ever experienced in my life. That's why I'm with others in taking the siege mentally here, because we're football fans - football is played and won on the pitch, not in court rooms and with lawyers. Let's put that right next year.

This is the thing, it doesn't mean what we did is right, but professional sport - football in particular, is a dirty, dirty game. Everyone playing little games to get advantages, if that's spending too much money, selling the women's team to your parent club to pass PSR, or chatting to players to tap them up before talking to their current employers. That's not even touching on in-game betting, or using the media to manipulate narratives. All of that is dirty shit, and a hell of a lot more dirty and deplorable than a kid with an IPhone. The way it was made out that we've committed treason, given everything else that goes on daily in FIFA, EPL, FA etc, makes my blood boil.

He's worth putting in the bin now, clearly influenced by the EFL/Boro in some way. How he can change his view in such an extreme way from Bielsa to Tonda is embarrassing. It's put his entire credence as a journo in the bin for me, not worth listening to. Easily influenced rather than coming up with his own view.

Well that was an eventful few hours - it's what we've all called for, direct communication to the fans from two key people involved. They've come out and pinned their views to the mast today, and sure it'll upset the 'football community' - but we can use this to create a siege mentality and truly allow football to 'win'. My emotions throughout all of this have been a rollercoaster, anger, frustration, acceptance. I'd say I'm at acceptance but with a newly found tinge of anger again - not anger at the club per-say, but angry at the media and Boro and how they manipulated this entire situation to provide them with the opportunity to get the biggest reward. I was waiting to read the full report and extracts, because we were told of bullying and 'deplorable' exchanges between the manager and interns - but that's not the case is it. Not even close. None of what we've seen released has made me go, wow, what a disgrace, instead it's made me go ''FFS, is that truly all it was?''. The onslaught from Boro and the media treating this as some kind of crime of the century almost certainly influenced the EFL. Let's remember, before the panel actually sat the EFL recommendation for them to consider was 'expulsion' - so before we even had a chance to talk our case, they'd already decided on expulsion. The entire way it played out in the media was wrong. From leaking the personal details and photos of a junior member of staff, to the story changing by the day - it was behind a tree, then an open field, then in bushes, then it was an organised 007 mission - it was none of those. The picture we saw is pretty much the full story, a young kid taking a photo of some training sessions from next to a tree. Nothing ground breaking, nothing that requires someone being hung. Of course I'll always be frustrated with the club in how they dealt with the entire thing in the direct aftermath, but the offences themselves - whilst daft - were so miniscule in the context of the dirty and murky world of professional sports, and I will always stand by the opinion that it was extremely blown of proportion. My anger will sit with the EFL/Boro though for how they strung us through the media, just to gain an advantage themselves. On one hand they can complain we tried to gain an advantage by spying, but they almost gained the ultimate advantage themselves by using dirty tactics throughout the media to get to the final. Two wrongs don't make a right, and they were as much on the look out for an advantage as we were. It's a shame they can't play football and had to resort to political tactics, and yet they still failed quite spectacularly when they had to play football against Hull in their 3rd chance. That probably tells you all you need to know.