S-Clarke

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.

He'd certainly be a first choice striker for us, big powerful unit. Could learn his trade here for a few years and join a mega club for big bucks down the line. He'd be a statement signing given the clubs that are interested in him, physically powerful enough to make an impact straight away even if it's not goals. If you think that Dortmund signed Haaland for £16m for Salzburg, Leicester signed Daka for £20-25m ish - I'd say he'd be somewhere in between that. It's obviously out of our remit if we're fixated on the under £15m transfers though, as that kind of closes the market for these players.

But if he goes back to City it will be for £40-50m as per any set fee (i think it's around that region), so we'd still be in profit and not out of pocket by any means. Plus if he goes back to City he'd have done well, would have likely contributed to us doing well and earned us dollar in league positions as well.

Wonder if we're looking at someone like Benjamin Sesko? Currently at RB Salzburg, very similar striker to Broja if you watch the videos, and has a bit of Haaland about him as well. Salzburg obviously scout very well, so he's got something about him - he's going to be a star imo. I think this is when we need to try and get players like this - before their move to Dortmund/RB Leipzig. Lots of big clubs sniffing, but he's only 18/19 and isn't going to get regular games at those clubs yet. Not sure how much Salzburg would want, but I like him.

''Spend the money on players, not other clubs FFS. Dragan out''

Or City rate him very highly and are structuring the deal in a way that won't leave them out of pocket when he goes onto bigger things, which they believe he will. We're not going to be out of pocket either way ourselves, so I'm not sure why that makes us desperate.

We were supposed to have them last summer, and then in the first international break, and then in the second international break. And then nothing. The reason for the delay I believe is that the screens which were ordered required more substational structural support on the stadium roof than it can currently support, or something along those lines. It's possible that they've had to wait for an unused period of the year to do something like that.

Can't think of anyone else other than Elanga.

Tough first month so I do expect another winless start, but Dec > March is quite kind and is an opportunity for us to do our usual 'mid season' burst and get what we need. We avoid the promoted teams at the start which is a bonus. But unless we add quality to the first team then it's all academic really!

Backup keeper, and when played pretty crap.

Yeah, I think that's what it is. Although I don't remember the clamor as much re: Gunn, I think he was seen as a decent English keeper as opposed to a potential superstar. This guy from all I'm reading sounds like a potential superstar in the making, Tino levels in goal. It's a gamble which makes me nervous in such a big position, but the rewards if it's successful will be huge for us.

I think there have been '3' variants of fixtures so far. The latest see's us against Spurs

Everything I've read about him is suggesting his potential as very, very high. So i'm excited because of that, slightly nervous due to his inexperience though. A safer bet was Dean Henderson, but maybe a more forward thinking bet is on this guy (certainly if we're looking for resell)

I'd somewhat agree. If we already had a capable goalie (like WHU had with Fabianski) then I'd probably prefer a move for Bazunu with a view to him replacing in a year or so. But in our current position we need a ready-made one to start from Day 1 in my opinion. I'm sure Bazunu will get there, but I don't think he's quite there yet.

He also said that Southgate is in fact, massively overachieving. I don't really know how you can overachieve when you have many £100m players in that 11. Underachieve yes, but certainly not overachieve.

It's all he knows really, he's not what I'd call an attacking manager. He's a defensively minded risk averse manager, so when he tries to play an attacking team with all guns blazing it goes horribly wrong as he has no idea how to balance the transitions. Stick to what you know Gareth, but sadly that will never get the best out of the players we have.

Exactly. This was more of a mental switch off rather than a physical one, they were just not there in a mental sense. They didn't want to be there, none of them. The one guy who probably did and wants to stake his claim (JWP) didn't get a look in. Give it a few weeks and you'll see all the pictures of them away on their Duabi holidays on the beaches lapping it up. That's where they want to be now.

What exactly was Maguire doing there? Holy jeez.

This feels like another Wolly with a Brolly moment. Ramsdale is incredibly overrated too.

Decent at the Euro's, his call up at the time caused a bit of confusion though. I think this season has been an absolute disaster for him though, from start to finish. Injuries, injuries, injuries and then part of a pretty crappy Leeds side to top it all off. I know he's being linked with big moves this summer, but in my opinion he needs to get back fit and get playing (well) for Leeds again.