S-Clarke

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.

I guess what I mean by ''no way back' and 'shown the door', is that as a fan base...we would need to stop being so passive about them and actually give them some genuine shit. I'm really intrigued to see what we do this week, and the season in front of us. If we're marooned in the Champ come 26/07 then I think as a fan base we can't keep rocking up like it's normal and just 'how it is', that's the sort of attitude which equals mediocrity and mediocrity is dangerous in football, as it's pretty much the route to failure and regression.

Jason Knight is another good option, CM, not a typical 10. But a goal threat.

I don't disagree with that at all, but numbers wise I think we need to lose one or two first (Aribo/Smallbone/Matsuki). Downes, Charles, Matsuki, Smallbone, Aribo, Fernandes in squad size is pretty well loaded, albeit not really a good mix of player. We lack some proper steel in there IMO. If we can dump two and bring in better then we should be doing so, but it's the one area we need to lose some from before we can add.

I'd like us to go all in to get Tom Fellows too, he's the sort of player we need. Azaz, Fellows, that winger from Germany - keep everything else we have, and that will be it. If we lose Smallbone then we'll get a CM too.

I mean, after 3 full seasons the patience is somewhat wearing thin it has to be said. How long do you give them?

Azaz would be a good pickup. I think we'll get two wide players too, as Still keeps referencing a 'few'. I think another 3 signings is what we'll get in the next week, assuming no one else leaves.

I wanted to just go back through and get a real picture, rather than sitting here thinking I'm going OTT over the signing of George Long and actually we're in good hands overall. But we're not.

Signing players isn't as easy as it sounds on FM, 100% - that's why we've appointed analysts, scouts, and highly paid DoF's to use their expertise to navigate the murky world of football transfers. If it was as truly difficult as others make out, no clubs would ever sign players. It's the same as the excuse ''We'll only sign players if they improve us'' - it's weak nonsense. If they can't find better than the poor players already in the squad then they're not very good at their job.

I thought I'd summarise what SR have given us since 2022, it isn't pretty reading. It's quite scary really, more suited to Halloween viewing. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season 1 - Established PL club, albeit hovering at this point. ABK - £12m. An absolute fail. Gavin Bazunu - £14m. An absolute fail Romeo Lavia - 8m - A success, credit them with that. Charly - £10m - A success in my eyes, just poorly executed by management. Sekou Mara - £10m - An absolute fail. Joe Aribo - £6m - Not great, let's be honest. A squad filler signing for the level at that stage, not a quality enhancement. Caleta-Car - £8m - A really poor addition at the wrong time. Fail. Larios - £5m - Why? Pointless. Edozie - £5m - A fail. Orsic - £5m - I mean, wtf. Sulemana - £21m - A total fail. Onuachu - £18m - A total fail Ainsley Maitland Niles - Loan - A total fail. Mateusz Lis - Why? Story of the mangers - Backed Ralph, sacked Ralph, appointed Jones, backed Jones, sacked Jones, appointed Selles, sacked Selles. Story of the DoF - Brought in Shields, he stayed a couple of months and then buggered off to leave us with no one in a DoF role - supposedly Rasmus stepped into the void. Season 2 (After they'd relegated us) Shea Charles - £12m. We needed better than a kid who hadn't played pro football at any level. He's a good kid and a good prospect, but it was the wrong priority at that point. Ross Sewart - £9m - A total failure. Ryan Manning - Free - Decent, squad player at best really at higher levels. Holgate - Loan - wtf? Lumley - Free – pointless squad padding. THB - Loan - Good pick up. Downes - loan - for the level, good pick up. Brooks - loan - for the level, another good pickup. Poorly used though. Fraser - loan - good pickup at the time on a loan to help squad depth. Story of the managers - Backed Martin, who sneaked over the line. Story of the Dof - Hired Wilcox in the summer, he stayed until the spring and did a runner. We then went into PL planning mode without a DoF. Season 3 - Back in the prem THB - £20m obligation - fair enough, that was already agreed. Downes - £17m - I don't think anyone argued that one at the time, but he's not been a success since. Archer - £15m - A failure Ramsdale - £21m - A good addition forced because Bazunu was injured. Fernandes - £15m - A success, credit to them for this one. Brereton-Diaz - £8m - A total fail. Suguwara - £6m - Another total fail Nathan Wood - £3m - A low cost signing. Hard to say if he's a success though, seemed a rather pointless addition at the time. Ronne Edwards - £3m - Too early to say, but I think he has potential. A low cost addition. I don't think we needed both Wood and Edwards though, one would have been fine - two is just squad pointless padding. Ryan Fraser - free - Why? We got what we needed from him the season prior, we didn't need to sign him perm. Adam Lallana - free - fail, pointless signing in the context of what we needed. Charlie Taylor - free - fail, pointless signing again. Maxwell Cornet - loan - i mean.... Gronbaek - loan - another WTF Ugochukwu - loan - he was OK, would be better with better players. Juan - free - what's the point? He's not even here anymore. Matsuki - free? - he may come good, but I don't see it yet. Wellington - free - Not sure yet, didn't cost anything though. Story of the managers - Backed Martin (naively), sacked Martin, appointed Juric, Sacked Juric, appointed Rusk, sacked Rusk. Story of the DoF - Went into the season without a full DoF, we relied on Mark Bitcon and Martin. Spors came in during Feburary of that season. Season 4 - Relegated again. Damion Downs - £6m - No idea yet, another 'prospect' with potential. Quarshie - £3m - No idea yet, another 'prospect' with potential. Mads Rosorlev - £3-5m? - Looks a sensible addition for a change, hopefully works out. George Long - Loan - Pointless squad padding which doesn't improve us at all. Story of the managers - Still appointed, so far not truly backed it has to be said. Story of the DoF - We still have Spors in charge, it'll be interesting to see if he sticks around a full year. ------------------------------------------------------------------- So we've splurged around £200m + during their first 3 full seasons in charge. (being generous to take into account that total fees may not have been paid at this point for some players) Over 40 players signed - including loans, perms and frees. Maybe 5 or 6 good player picks from the above (probably being generous)? There will always be fail rates with transfers - 100% appreciate that, but our record is just catastrophic when you look at it across several windows, you can see the same mistakes being made over and over again, with managers and the DoF's. We've likely made most of that money back, with the big sales of Tino, JWP, Tella, Lavia, Dibling and co - but they've got lucky with that. Had it not been for our academy they'd have been absolutely screwed and our club would be on it's knees financially. We've spent a decent chunk of money for a club of our size, but the people making the picks are consistently making the wrong managerial and player picks. As a fan base we have some hope, maybe somewhat misguided, that this summer will be better as there's supposedly been a change up. It will be interesting to revisit this after August and around Christmas to see where this season sits in terms of decision making. If they've mucked it up again then I'm sorry to say there there is simply no way back for them and they have to be shown the door ASAP. I think they're lucky the fan base has been as passive as it has up to this point imo, because their management of us has been a disgrace.

Newcastle down to 10 men now. Since when did the referee speak to the stadium to confirm the decision? Feels a bit rugby.

I think the 'since January' comments are referring to when Spors came in, believe he came in during Feb.

You called it. It will probably end 0-2 to them.

Now I know what we use to sign players. It all makes sense now.