S-Clarke

He's Chelsea's player tbf, totally up to them what they do with him. Not for us to dictate what we want.

Well, having 'experienced' Bednarek and Stephens didn't stop us. We'll always conceded goals playing how we play, so we certainly need to add more firepower up top. But...having more pace at the back is critical because of how high we push, having just one slow defender in the back line can kill you with this system.

I do like this summer so far. It's somewhat refreshing to be involved with a club showing ambition. And showing ambition doesn't mean throwing zillions around either, just having engaged owners is enough.

It genuinely sounds like he's got everything we want in a CB, a right sided Salisu. One of the most important things about playing the way we play is having the players capable of doing it, you could argue that Ralph doesn't seem to know how to play another way but that's another argument. At least it seems like the club are properly backing him with players who totally suit the philosophy and he won't have to try and hang out Bednarek and Stephens to play in this team. Having mobile and quick defenders is so important against the transition, something we remember all too often last season with Bednarek being turned.

I thought that the other day actually! Svanberg next...? Leaving the big $$ for the attackers! How refreshing is it to have a bit of money though, we're able to act on these improvements without figuring out who we have to sell first.

It's Salisu all over again!!

If you were to describe a CB we needed for our system, you'd pretty much describe that video of this guy. I don't like reading too much into youtube videos as they can be jazzed up, but he does look like he ticks every single box we could actually ask for. No, he's not experienced, but his potential is huge and that's the model we're going for.

That's about fair, given his significant drop off at the end of the season. We do need him back though, well if not him then someone similar - as an on form Broja gave our game something totally different, a bit of penetration in behind to start with. It's odd that the club went from openly trying in January to then not being interested from March onwards, does beg the question as to what went on behind the scenes as we just went cold on him. It sounded like we were prepared to pay £30m in Jan.

We've lost Broja though, he was our second top scorer. We need to replace his goals and his physicality. After him was Elyonoussi, and most of his goals came against Newport county. Adams needs to step up, but he seems incapable of being that regular 10+ goal a season man. We need another forward and number 10.

But that all boils down to not having an engaged owner during those years, and if anything I think we overachieved to even be within a shot of Top 10. The seasons just caught up with our poor quality squad. I don't particularly think the methods or the plans being imposed by those in charge of the club have been wrong, they've just been massively hand tied in terms of what they could do. I think they're a bright bunch, now aided by some even more brighter people. Of course I might be massively wrong and we're a clown show, but from the outside I think we know what we're doing and know what we want to do, we just didn't have the ownership to really back that previously. It must have been an incredibly frustrating place to work and manage at.

What's your definition of well run? Let me assume it's chucking millions and buying better players. Personally my view of the people in charge is of a high opinion. If you want to have a moan about how badly the club was run, then look at the previous owner not the people who were there (and still are here) on a day to day basis. It's somewhat of a miracle we weren't relegated in Gao's tenure. The club have a strategy, there's a clear identity of how we want to play and now with a bit more muscle behind us financially (and with more engaged owners) those strategies will start to accelerate and then you'll appreciate that the guys at this club have always known what they're doing, they just had to od it with both hands and both legs tied behind their back before.

I think he's been signed from top flight turkish football, but the team has just been relegated and he didn't renew with them. I'd be pretty miffed if this was McCarthy's main competition, but it isn't...and it's a fairly safe approach to baulk out the GK positions. It's succession planning I guess, with the plan to loan him out this year, Willy retires next year, he comes back to the club next year to fight with McCarthy and Bazanu for a place in the side. That's how I see it going anyway. Certainly better options than Lewis and McAarthy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally sold on the idea of lots of 'Tino's either, certainly not when the base experience in the club is horrendous. But that's the route we've decided to take so I guess we just have to accept it and hope for the best. The club has to pretty much start from scratch with the squad and they've decided to put all their eggs in the youth basket. High risk, high reward certainly and you never really achieve anything if you don't take an initial risk I guess!

I'm not expecting anything else though to be honest. If we were looking for 'experience' at the back, then Tarkowski and Mee were available. The fact we weren't even sniffing for those guys kind of showed me our intentions. We seem to be operating in that below 25 bracket, nothing above that. Basically the gamble zone. It would be nice to add some experience but I don't think that is the clubs intention. Any big investment is going to go into players who they can re-sale for significantly more in the years to come, that's the model. No chance doing that with Tarkowski or Mee which is why we've steer clear of those sorts.

Interesting thing to note about this guy is that he can also play RB and LB, so he potentially gives us that Tino cover as well. Two birds with one stone. Could be a sensible move, he certainly looks a very cultured CB to me on those videos, which obviously you can't read too much from! I haven't seen much of him before though.

I give you Carillo and Forren....

More like the usual fiasco of you never wanting to be seen as being wrong.

I reckon the plan is still as it was, loan Lis out and keep Willy as third choice. Then next summer Willy goes and we still have 3 keepers.

Lis has signed.

Willy...?

In an ideal world we'd have wanted a bit more experience in goal, but as others have said all the noises coming out of neutral sides are very impressive. He is spoken about very highly by almost anyone who has worked with him or seen him play. I reckon we will see him start on day 1 if I'm honest. He's got an entire pre-season to settle in and friendlies to play in, that's his chance to prove he's better than McCarthy.

I think I read elsewhere that we don't sadly.

Just to say, I'm not ITK or anything about Sesko. I've always kept an eye on Salzburg since we bought Mane from them, their scouting has always been top notch - I'd class their scouting as consistently the best around. They've had Haaland through the door, Adeyemi, Heidera, Minamino, Sabitzer, Dayot. Now they've got Sesko and Junior (who we are interested in, funnily enough). Solet at the back is also very good, he was the replacement for Caleta-Carr who they sold (another forum fave). I just think they're the perfect club to look at, not to sound disrespectful, but just below our level stature wise and full of players at the right age and with a good level of experience, ready to make the jump to a bigger league. But the market has changed since Mane, so we'd need to double what we paid for a similar level.

That's an interesting move for sure. He scouted Bazunu and also Lavia, who I think I saw we were interested in. I wonder if those signs are an early indication that he's actually agreed to join us, but obviously nothing official can happen until he's completed his notice periods.

Always the risk though isn't it. But to us, if he isn't a hit, he's only going to cost us around £11-12m I reckon. So we wouldn't have to take too much of a hit, we took more of a hit with Carillo and Boufal..! In the grand scheme of things though, in PL times, £11-15m is absolute peanuts for a PL player given all the income PL clubs get. So it should be a safe risk to take without worrying to much about losing money.