S-Clarke

Oh for sure, I'd be totally expecting two strikers brought in if we don't keep Che. I'd also be disappointed if we only signed one. We currently have a gap for 1 striker as we haven't replaced Broja, so logic dictates that we still need a Broja type and then a 'new' adams if he goes. I just hope the club aren't counting on Aribo being a number 9 though.

Madness if we don't replace him or if we only replace him with a kid who has never played mens football. If we replace him with a couple of better players then we probably won't miss him. If we get it wrong then it does have a Fitz Hall vibe about it for sure.

The Che Adams one is an interesting one. Let's be honest here for a second, he's the best of a very, very bad bunch of attacking players we have at our disposal. He has good physical attributes, but as a finisher I'd class him as very limited. Our best spells over the last couple of years have coincided with top strikers such as Ings and Broja having good spells in the side, whenever we have to rely on Adams for a period of time to produce our points return falls dramatically. I cannot see Che ever getting 10 goals or more at this level, and for a support player that's probably not too bad, but when we needed him to step up last year after Ings departure he didn't. I think there is some truth in that we're looking for players to sell who 1) have interest in them and 2) have somewhat of a usable value. We've spent quite a bit this summer without sales, my hunch is that we'd hoped we'd get takers on Redmond, Moussa, Theo, Bednarek etc to maybe bring some funds in and lower the wage bill - but no takers as they're rubbish, so like someone said above we now move onto the next lot of expendable players. If we get the scouting right we should be able to find better than Che. I'd only have a problem with his sale if 1) we don't replace him or 2) the replacement is a kid.

I think what you look at with Dyche is what made him successful at Burnley. Two target men centre forwards, wide players who got up and down the line, and old CB's who just dug in. A proper old fashioned 4-4-2 English setup. When they tried to move away from that at Burnley and bring in Cornet, Collins, attacking wing back Conor Roberts (more footballing type players) he started to struggle. Bring him in here and we have none of the players to create the team he would like to. It would be a daft move that would end in misery for everyone.

I wouldn't say he's inexperienced in our usual approach, I think he's 24. Full season as first choice in the Bundesliga, Germany U21 international on the fringes of their first team. Previous season on loan in dutch football for a season. So he's had 2 or 3 seasons in a 'top division'.

Powerful typical number 9 type to be fair, decent stats last season but not earth shattering. He would have likely been recruited to the City academy by Shields, so might be something in it. Might as well rename ourselves to Man City B at this rate.

I wonder why no one else has yet? He was on my list of potentials at the start of the window too, he was linked to WHU but that never materialised. Like you said, last year of his deal, available in the 15m ball park. Not over the hill old, and at that right age of player we need to add. I do think we need to shift at least 1 CB before we can even contemplate signing another though, that's half the conundrum I reckon.

Let's not start that one up, it's going to be even more depressing.

They've spent more money than almost any club in the world, but everything about that club is just wrong from the scouting to the players. Their main striker target now, after Sesko said no, is 34 year old Marco Arnautovic. Baffling way that club is being run on the scouting side.

Yeah he's got another bad hamstring tear, few months I think I read. Got to feel sorry for him, much like Wiltshire injuries have totally ruined any chance of a top career.

Would be a daft move, you don't build a club on that. That's one way of moving from manager to manager to manager over a short-period of time. I can't see how we have the players for Dyche-ball either, for a start he needs defenders who know how to defend and target men who know how to play up top on their own. We have neither. I do still have the overriding fear that changing the manager will change very little in terms of our outcome. I just look at Utd and the amount of managers they've gone through, still utilising the same core of useless players and then wondering why it's always the same. Feels similar with us to be honest.

There's experience and then there's established players, I think people are calling for more established players if anything. We need more players in the mid-20's mark, young enough to still give us a potential all important sell-on, but experienced enough with a few seasons behind them to hit the ground running from day 1. I don't want us signing a load of 30+ has-beens on their way down, but we need a better mix. Equally I don't want our transfer policy being a case of trying to unearth every 'Tino' in the world (that was my fear at the start of the summer tbh). I know there is talk of there being 'established' players already here, but bar JWP and KWP our established players are pretty hopeless at football.

I wonder how long Utd will give Ten Haag? It would be ridiculous to even call him out though, given that many managers get the same tune from the same players - i.e nothing. Not sure what they expect to be different when they're STILL lining up with McTominay, Fred, Maguire, Dalot etc. It's just groundhog day. And every summer they seem to create some sort of transfer saga, by tracking a player who doesn't want to join them or they aren't willing to pay the fee for. It's funny to watch though. All the talk of this being the big Utd rebuild and they're still starting with Fred and McTominay.

I'd love to know the thinking as to why we went for Diallo once Sanagre didn't happen, if he rejected us then (or work permits were an issue) we were clearly looking for a physical DM, but Daillo is the polar opposite of Sangere.

Yeah, I'm not sure Selles was a Ralph pick. He had a say, but it was a SR pick with that in mind - thought that at the time. But I imagine it was ear marked for 2 years though, he wouldn't be ready yet if we pulled the plug on Ralph tomorrow.

He needed to get tighter quicker, at that point he wasn't marking anyone. it wasn't just a fault of him but a lot of our players just stood off of Spurs yesterday and let them ping crosses into the box from both sides or take a crack from the edge of the box. It was a very passive display from a team that is usually front foot engaged. If we went that way because we don't trust the defenders to play in a 'front foot' way, then given we still shipped 4 goals that's a pretty damming indictment on the quality of our centre backs. I include Salisu in that who has been nothing more than an absolute liability for months, more so than Bednarek. KWP had a bit of a bad one, not sure if he's been affected by talk of moves away etc, but he wasn't on it defensively.

That's the only logic I can put to it to be honest, an injury or something brewing on the transfer front. It's a shame we've gone into the season having to play Adam Armstrong in a position he can't play though, more square pegs even after spending £58m. Let's see how things look on Sept 2nd, as based on yesterday there is still significant work to do.

Yep, it's Wolves. They've had an offer in excess of £30m accepted. He's a Jorge Mendes client.

I found the distribution thing quite weird, in the pre-season games I watched that was one of his better qualities. ''At least he doesn't kick it out of play''. But straight away yesterday you could see he had more nerves and panic around his overall game, which contributed to rushed clearances. It seems to be a theme of all of our 'players' once they get into a competitive game, they panic and start doing odd things that they weren't doing in 'lesser' games. There is a huge mental problem with these players in my opinion, somewhat made worse by the haunting 9-0's , 6-0's etc. Panic and nerves are catching as well, it doesn't take long to travel around the side especially to the younger players. We need better 'established' players without a doubt.

And then subbing him at half time, only to replace him with a midfielder whilst leaving Che on the bench. Easily one of his, if not his most, baffling subs ever.

To be honest I'd have him over Bednarek. The problem with the Fonte situation wasn't the contract as such, it was our ridiculous approach to not replacing him in that window. As a token we bought in Caceres but then didn't play him. I would agree with others that we haven't had a 'leader' CB for many many years, that doesn't necessarily need to equal age and experience, but someone who can actually organise. There is talk about Bednarek and Stephens being experienced, but as defenders at this level they couldn't organise a defence if they were just defending 1 striker. It doesn't matter how many talented young players you add to that mix if the base experience is so terribly bad. I do think we need an established CB to come in, but I just don't see how it happens unless we shift at least 1, but the problem is no one wants them as they're shit.

I don't think we'll all of a sudden rip up the blueprint, we have targets and I'm sure those targets include the more 'experienced' and established players we need to add. I noticed Hudson-Odoi wasn't in the Chelsea team today, even with 9 subs. Not sure if he's injured or not, but if not that's quite telling. The guy needs to play, he'll get in our team every week and even offers the versality of playing wing back if required. So those are the sorts of opportunities that we'll see cropping up now in my opinion. The slight chink in our chances are Brighton, who are now flush with cash, and Chelsea wanting Leicester players who may be interested in those infamous 'swap deals'. Next few weeks will be interesting imo, for a change we're clearly going to be heavily involved in it.

There have been some big changes since last season though, coaches, players, options available (And more players to come). So I think it's only right, if they backed him in the summer, to stick with him through those changes to see what he can do. If he can't and in a month or two nothing has changed then we'll probably twist. But they've backed him for this initial period imo, I'm not sure we should expect him to go anywhere yet.

For a start they're engaged. I don't think they're going to start blowing millions and millions, but they have provided us the cash flow to be a tiny bit more flexible and move early in this window. Spending £58m before selling isn't something we've seen for many years, so there's clearly some intent from them. I liked the action from the summer with the backroom staff, time will tell if they should have got rid of Ralph or not at that point, but they didn't sit still. Joe Shields is also an ambitious appointment which I don't think we'd have done under previous ownership. Sports Republic make me more positive about our future, I don't think they're daft. They've got some smart people in charge in the footballing and business side and I think they'll give Ralph the opportunity to work with these changes, they're not going to react after 1 game. But there's clearly pressure on him now IMO.

Entitled to your opinion, I just don't get the point of doing it now. They made the call to back him with the summer changes, so they need to give him an opportunity to see those through and complete the recruitment.