S-Clarke

It's impossible to know really, it was all a bit tragic. We kept the momentum and completed the dream he had, but the money wasn't going to last forever - we needed alternative streams and creative ways of generating it, we're a tiny club in comparison with most in the PL so it was becoming more and more difficult to complete - esp with FFP/PSR coming into play, which kills clubs like us. We needed external investment and we tried so hard to find it, and ended up with Gao which was a laugh. What I would say is that Markus would be turning in his grave right now though, his entire vision has been bulldozed and demolished by SR. There is a genuine possibility we could be back to where we started if SR don't sort their shit out.

It's weird because he's never really played 3 at the back at any previous club he's been at. It's stuff like this which makes you wonder if tactics and style/shape is being dictated above the manager, but surely not. That would be a bit too far fetched.

I'd like to see Stewart get his first 90mins for us, it would be a good test of his condition.

I think Still said this match would be around managing minutes. Fernandes didn't have as a complete pre-season as the rest, and played all the game at the weekend - his first 90mins I think. That's my positive slant on it anyway.

I wouldn't say that's good enough myself. Azaz alone is a 100% upgrade on what we have, so I wouldn't be unhappy with that at all. He's a good player at the top end of this league. Rak Saki - no idea if he's any better than what we have in Edozie, or even SAA who we let go. He's not what I'd call an instant upgrade, which is what we need. He's another kid with potential upside. The loans will be where the value is IMO, that's where I think we may pull off some surprising deals. We had no idea on the THB last season, he'd just been promoted from this league as a Champion with Burnley, so that was a huge pickup. I'd expect similar status loans.

El Khannouss may be staying at Leicester - It could be posturing and forcing someone to bid more money, but like with us keeping hold of Matty, that would be a good bit of news for Leicester.

We've known we've needed better in attack and 10 all summer, since July, yet all we've managed to sort so far are two unproven kids/project signings from 2.Bundesliga, a third choice GK and a smart pickup at RB once Suguwara was off. I'm hoping so much that we're all proven wrong and we end the window with such a good squad, but my positivity feels more ill-judged as the days tick down, of which there aren't many left.

Yeah I'm with you on this. If that is how it ends though, with Edozie back in the fold because we couldn't find anyone better, it's a pretty shocking fail from this new recruitment setup it has to be said. Probably an even bigger fail of who went before, if that was possible. I'm primed for the classic excuse ''We only add if they're better than we have, if they're not then we won't panic''. That translates to we're shit at scouting or skint, or a mixture of both.

I don't think they want to sell him particularly, they've rebuffed our approaches quite a few times. It's probably a case of the 'price being right' then they may deal. I think they see him as a talent and so do we, but the Sheffield United loan has raised some eyebrows as he didn't impact the league as I expected him to do.

But the problem came when the taps ran dry, he hadn't developed enough partnerships (no one wanted to deal with him) or commercial revenue at that point, so he was still totally reliant on the so called trust fund. Kat rightfully pulled him up on that and regained some control. We still had some momentum which carried us through the next 2 seasons, but once the money taps had dried up it was obviously going to start going downhill, and it became very much a sell before we do anything model. The problem which compounded all of this is that once we did get some money, we splurged it all on the wrong sorts and big mistakes, PSR then came in and made it even more difficult because of our lack of commercial revenue. I include SR's ill-fated windows and also Ross Wilson and Les Reeds waste of the VVD fortune. I said it at the time but it felt as if Cortese had built everything on sand really, without a genuine stream of money there was no foundation and it didn't take much for the walls to start crumbling down.

I liked Rak-Sakyi, but his loan at Shef U raised some eyebrows as he did diddly squat. He's got genuine ability and pace though, certainly adds to what we don't have. I'm just not quite sure if he's any better or any more proven than Edozie that's all.

Taylor is another of those good lads to have around, we've got a lot of those. I don't think he's of the required quality anymore though and we are already stacked at LB. (Assuming Wellingtons injury isn't bad that is)

BBD going makes sense, he wasn't even in the squad at the weekend. I imagine someone will take him on loan, no one is going to pay a fee for him. He's got some qualities for the right side I'm sure, but we're not that side as we like to play football. If we can shift Taylor, Edozie, Aribo, BBD, ABK, Sulemana, Onauchu, Suguwara then that's a huge chunk of wages and deadwood gone from the club, which is something we all wanted us to do 100% We now need to make sure the quality comes in the building to replace those. It just seems like we've got such a short period of time to do so much, if it goes as we need it to go I don't think we'll have ever seen the likes.

Is that because he's a sensible signing, but with no huge future sell on/upsale?

I just hope we build a decent enough team to support him, as he's wasted in the squad as it is. I'm being patient, but the next few days are going to have to be epic at this point. More Roesrlev level signings out of the blue required.

Yep you've nailed it. It's not that we have a personal problem with George Long, it's that we shouldn't have been targeting squad filler for GK when the GK's we have already aren't good enough. We should have targeted someone who was better than both, or at least with the ability to be better than both. We've now got 3 really poor goalies, one less poor than the rest, but it's put us in a really awkward place. McCarthy helped us get over the line in our last Champ season, but that was over a small sample period. He's now 2 years older and he's not someone I want in our goal for a prolonged period of time. As you rightly point out, Bazunu has recently returned from a serious long-term injury. It really isn't beyond the realms of possibility that he'd pickup a knock or a tweak which could put him out for months.

He reminds me of KWP in that sense, I think he'd more than happily get his head down and crack on if a club didn't match his valuation. That's why there's been less noise around this one IMO, whereas Dibling was constant - he clearly wanted out.

He was a total knob, I know people who were at the club at the time and it really wasn't an enjoyable environment. There were no easy roles or slot in and take the salary in quiet. He took no shit, no one got an easy ride. If you didn't do what he wanted, you'd know about it. He had the ego the size of a planet. However, that approach did enable us to ensure we had people running at their maximum when they were here, whereas in the years after Koeman and co (once his involvement was totally removed) it felt like everyone had a free ride and roles were being given to less qualified individuals. Kruger was the most polar opposite you could have found really.

I find it odd that he hasn't landed anywhere yet. Surley he rejected Burnley's contract offer on the expectation that he'd get a better club, it just hasn't materialised yet. He got 18 goals from CM in the Champ last year, so it's not like he's squad fodder. He'd be an instant upgrade on Downes or Charles in terms of that style of CM. It would make sense - dump Smallbone, bring in Brownhill, but as it makes sense it won't happen.

Things weren't perfect before they came in, our scouting was still pretty shocking and we had gaps in the side - but you'd have to say we had a better base than we have today. What they should have done was used their investment to strategically target areas of concern, build up gaps and add quality in 1 or 2 places - but no, they decided to rip absolutely everything apart and start again when that wasn't needed.

It really is a waste of time arguing with you really. McCarthy is already our Carson, we have that sort of stalwart at the club playing that experienced role, and someone I wouldn't have a particular issue with playing once or twice if required, but once or twice tops really. And Carson did play for Man City in the PL, I saw it, I watched it with my own eyes - so they must have believed he was good enough to do so, even a fleeting appearance. So we've basically got two Carson types at the club based on your description, one worse than the other. So if Bazunu gets injured, we are in a position where two players - who aren't good enough for longevity in the team - will have to play for us, something you said would be rare. This is the problem people have. Not signing George Long in isolation, it's that the players he is back filling aren't good enough as it is. We needed competition to push an already weak GK group, not make it even weaker - which takes some going.

I get the point of Moody in respect of development/game time, but I still think players we sign should be at least good enough to play for us if required. Even more so when the options in front of them are incredibly limited. It's not like we have Ederson, Ortega, Trafford etc in our ranks.

But doesn't that really scream a problem for you? Surley every player we sign 'should' be good enough to play for us, no matter how rare it may be. If we're signing players that are 100% not good enough to play for us, what's the point? It's just wasted squad padding when we might as well have kept Dylan Moody in that role.

And even looking outside of the Champ, how were Sunderland able to find Wilson Isidor, or Coventry finding Sakamoto or Wright - or Hamer before he went to Sheff U. These players are out there. Birmingham signing Kyogo for £7m, or Stansfield on loan when they were down here last. The players are there, but we seem obsessed with finding the next kid or injured player.

He is more of a goal threat than Downes or Charles. But even if he isn't a goal threat in the '10 goals a season' level, he's still a really good CM. More mobile and box to box than Downes.