S-Clarke

Obviously if your KWP you'd want to make the move, but if i'm totally honest my feeling is that he'll end up back on loan at a Villa or Newcastle style club in the next 18 months. He'll be a squad player for them and that seems like a total waste. After JWP there is no one more important to us, in fact I'd argue that he is the most important player we have. Our game is centered around 4-2-2-2 - so for that to work, we need expressive full backs who can get to the by-line and attack, and equally with the 3 at the back method he's even more important as a wing back. He can do the job at LB or RB, he is our main width. Take him out of our side and we have very little bar a JWP free kick. I can only imagine the low fee is due to some form of release clause in his contract?

Chelsea's approach to this window seems to be like playing Football Manager. Start a search, put a filter on for specific positions, sort by reputation. Bid, bid, bid. See who accepts first.

Tadic is better than Aribo, but one thing Aribo has that Tadic didn't have is physicality/height. I don't think he'll be totally invisible in games for long, as he'll always be able to put himself about. I know the touch you are on about, it was incredible. There aren't many players with a touch better than his, he can kill a ball from 90 yards.

They hit the infamous glass ceiling. To be in and around the CL places for so many years (and winning the actual league) is much more than Leicester fans should realistically expect to be honest, they were caught on a bit of a ride but last season was a return to more of their norm rather than a huge underachievement. I know their fans are jumping up and down demanding changes, but I'm not sure where else they can go now without Saudi style investment. They did well to sustain it for as long as they did, and they'll have memories that most fans will never have.

Leicester seem to be in a bit of a mess. They're selling Schmeichel, but Rodgers has come out and said the new first choice keeper will be one of their current backups - Iverson or Ward, they'll only go into the market for a third choice. That's the narrative of a club on the trajectory of a long and drawn out death, as we all know too well. Maddison will probably leave for the £50ishm fee too, talk of Dewsbury-Hall being seen as his replacement ''inside the club''. Not a happy place there atm.

Good signing, typical wide/number 10 type. Not particularly quick I don't think, but very skilful. They're having a good window signing some highly rated young players. Hickey, Lewis-Potter and now potentially Damsgaard.

I'd agree with this, I felt that was our oppertunity to 'upgrade' on Vesterguaard and to buy better than we had, which in turn would demote Bednarek etc. But we didn't have any money to play with, apart from a bit of loose change in the £4-5m bracket. Should have just got a loan to cover us, as it's hindered us a little now. It was a squad filler when we needed 'better' players, not more squad fillers.

The club have been a bit blinkered for years re: Bednarek, thinking he's better than he actually is. The lack of takers this summer says it all really, he's not really highly rated by anyone else and has been part of one of the worst defenses in the PL in recent years. I imagine they think they can get £25m for him, in my opinion clubs are only going to be 10-15m tops. We are certainly interested in Colwill, but like others have said we cannot realastically carry Bednarek, Lyanco, Stephens, Salisu, Bella-Kotchap, Simeu, Valery, Colwill. Need to lose 'at least 1' before we can think about adding anything else there.

That was a great watch, surprisingly easy in the final 10 mins. We just toyed with Germany at the end, expert way to see a game out. England winning a trophy in football does seem a bit surreal.

Lack of creativity is a problem for sure, I have hopes that Aribo will solve some of that. But getting another quick number 10 is important IMO. But getting a striker in is absolutely critical for our season, we can't ignore that area. We got so much more out of this team with a focal point up top, someone with power and strength to take on the opposition. None of our current forwards have the ability to do that. We could field an 11 with Adams and Armstrong, but prepare to have an incredibly frustrating time of it as they're not good enough to do it themselves at this level. They need better quality alongside them.

Leeds were interested in Che before we signed him, and then they tried to get him again after his first season here but we rebuffed their approaches. Feels like it may have been rehashed, but there's no smoke without fire and all that. Maybe the club feel they have a couple of targets who outperform Adams, but to get both targets we'd need to move on some of our players first. There's no doubts that Adams is our current best forward, but it's not a huge bar. If we are to have a somewhat decent season then Adams needs to start scoring more goals, or we need to replace him or partner him with someone who does.

Is it just me who didn't see any criticism in Ralph's comments? Just passing observations? (which I thought were fair and most fans would agree with)

He's not going to be our only answer up front this summer, so that will take the pressure off of him somewhat and allow us to blood him slowly. Didn't really see much from him to form any opinion today. Only thing I could maybe say is that he doesn't suit a lone role, he needs another striker who is a bit more experienced close to him. (Stu Armstrong was more of a 10)

I'd be more than happy with him and Salisu as the two, both very quick, powerful, agile defenders and good with the ball at their feet. For balance purposes Bella-Kotchap is right footed and Salisu is left footed. I'm sure we'll see them as a two quite often next season. I'd have liked some experience back there, but it's clear we're not going that way, so the next best bet is to sigh talented young players with strong physical profiles.

He looks like a very imposing CB, quick and strong. Able to recover quite well if he's caught. He looks raw around the edges, which is to be expected of a 20 year old, but physically he adds a lot to our backline which we didn't have before. Certainly don't see him as being 'the same' as what we already have.

Well done for giving him 4 (only 2 of those full) pre-season games. More than we usually give new players.

Not allowed to because of the '3pm blackout' (now the EFL has started again).

It's not going to happen though as it's a made up rumour by some saddo on twitter. I don't understand how you think it's within our power? He's earning 250k p/w at Chelsea, these sorts of players are miles away from being available to us. They're on a different planet. Let's hope we find the next Werner.

I noticed Leicester have turned down a bid for Maddison from Newcastle, sounds like there is a deal to do there though. They remind me of us a few years ago, couple of shitty transfer windows and they're having to sell their best assets to create the wage/finance wiggle room to add new targets.

I'd take £10m and Levi Colwill. But this is nothing more than agent/media nonsense, there is no way Chelsea will be looking at players of his level.

a1ex has had a bit of a nightmare here, it has to be said.

That wasn't a bad game at all. First half wasn't half as bad as some made it out to be on here, I thought we had reasonable control and just lacking a touch of quality. Second half the subs worked in our favour though, obviously we were stronger from the bench at it showed. Armstrong and Aribo made huge contributions in our attacking game when they came on. Diallo was the best CM out there tonight, went about it quietly but was pretty effective. Adam Armstrong was very lively though, he does have a habit of running into players and blind allies but he was still effective for large portions of that game. As with any pre-season game though, hard to read too much into it due to the way all the subs change the games up, but I particularly enjoyed the contribution of Aribo when he came on and the performance of Armstrong with a partner alongside him. Adams took some of the physical demands off of him, as he could run into space more freely.

I'm keen to see how Armstrong does with Adams alongside him, he was way too isolated on his own. The support play from Ely and Redmond needs to be good though. It's not a 'bad' team and it's clearly second string in the main, but it does show that there is still work to do in the attack and full back area's specifically. Didn't expect to see Perraud back, so that's a plus.

Really, really good post and I'm glad I'm not alone in my thoughts. I kind of see us as starting from a zero base and having to build ourselves back up again, because we've been on somewhat of a downward spiral since Gao took over. If the approach we are adopting is correct, time will tell on that, then we will lift ourselves back up the league and thus open the market to more 'named' players in future windows, and maybe the more 'sought' after young players that we can't obtain at the moment. I think the approach we are taking requires patience from everyone, it's not an overnight thing and the signings we're making this window aren't going to make us a top 6 team tomorrow, but it's a case of taking the steps in the right direction and building that base to grow from.

If I remember rightly, we had this same debate last pre-season. Moussa rocked up in pre-season at left back, Ralph saying he see's him as an option etc, but he never really played there when the games were actually on. Given how shit we are in attack, it's quite telling that we're putting one of those attackers at wing back. He does need to go and like you I think the club have openly put his name out there. I hope we don't expect £15m back, £5m tops I reckon.