S-Clarke

Apart from that, they sound like good fits.

I guess we offered a packet of Walkers and a half eaten mars bar as the opening offer?

This is exactly the case, the gulf was already getting bigger but our mistakes have allowed Brighton and even Bournemouth to an extent to accelerate past us. It will take a good few years of PL football to bridge it, but there will come a time where Brighton loose their touch slightly - and 1 or two bad transfer windows for a club of their size, as we all know, can equal curtains and stunt your progress overnight. I'd say we're also still paying for the poor signings of Lemina, Carillo, Hoedt, Boufal, Elyounoussi, as well as the recent additions of Sulemana, Onuachu, ABK. Add all that up and it's £150-160m worth of player just there. We'll get back about £10-15m if we're lucky. I get the odd poor buy here and there, but we literally had to pay up Lemina, Carillo, Boufal and Hoedt just to get them out of the club. It's that sort of failiure which is unacceptable for a club like us, and we're somewhat fortunte that we are back in the PL. SR deserve credit in the investment they've put into us to soften the blow slightly of all those years. We're getting there there again slowly, but I do still question some of the decision making within SR - not so much the intention, as it's clear, but their decisions are often a bit questionable and naive.

That is showing his best bits, but also some pretty poor finishes in there. He does have ability as he was highly rated for a reason in the past, WHU tried for him a year or two ago (Although their record on signing strikers is naff to say the least) - but the last year/18 months have been tragic for him really, I see some Brazilian fans calling him the worst number 9 in the Brazilian Serie A. My feeling on this one is that we've gone on a punt based on what he was in the past, potential etc, in the hope that he can rediscover what made him spoken about a few years ago. He's a similar style to that of Jonathan Calleri if you remember him, Was at WHU for a season and flopped (and he's regarded as a better player than Alberto)

I don't think Hugo is part of the deal anymore, he is rated quite highly actually and is valued at the £15-20m mark. I think we were a bit cheeky hoping for some money and him. Couldn't agree a loan with obligation. (from what I've read). Sounds like a straight £20m for Charly.

This is a laugh for your bank holiday Monday viewing - As I said, highly rated a few years ago - but fallen by the wayside quite a bit. Not sure what we've seen in him, because Corinthians have wanted rid for a little while.

He's a bit of a comedic figure in Brazilian football, known as the striker who doesn't score - so I can absolutley understand why we'd be after him. He was highly regarded as a youngster, and we have been linked before, but his last 18 months in Brazil have been horrific and he doesn't have many fans over there. He may just need a change of scenery, but jurys out.

We can firmly put this one to bed now. We were never in the running once the fee went above £15m.

Not at all, people who have seen him play will tell you that.

Diaz and AA are wide forwards, an 8 is another central midfielder really - it's the job Smallbone does (well, supposed to do) - receives the ball from the deeper CM, turns and plays in the number 10 or the wide forwards. I do think we need better than Smallbone there if I'm honest, so swapping him for Fernandes after a few weeks may be something we do. The 10 is also a position that needs significant work - we currently have Aribo/Charly/Dibling who sort of rotate in that role. Aribo is not good enough in my opinion. Charly is off, and then Dibling whilst a quality young player, cannot take the burden of being our only creative link player - so I'd expect with Charly going that we go for a number 10 to fill that role, which I think will automatically make us look better as we will be able to link the play. We obviously need another wide/winger type as well. Those are the two deals I see us doing (outside of the GK) - a number 10 to replace Charly and a wide man to replace what we've lost in Fraser/Brooks. A number 9 whilst I still think we're desperate for it is seemingly not on the agenda - it would be another big bit of negligence, but with the right additions in the other areas we could potentially make something of the season.

I like Ramsdale as I think you get a ready made English/PL goalkeeper, knows the league, is a bit of a shithouse etc. So those were massive positives with him. Onto the negatives.....the loan fee to start with is as much as a permanent transfer, then the obligation to buy would have been in excess of what we were comfortable with (£30-40m). When you factor those finances and the long-term commitment required, and you look at his attributes and actually realise he's not amazing with the ball at his feet, you question if he's worth that level of investment longer term. Bjlow is a player not many fans will know about, but he was on course to be one of the elite goalkeepers in Europe and the Dutch number 1 before his injury problems. If we start with the negatives on this deal, it would be the injuries - major red flag as they are recurring in some instances, he's missed a lot of games in the last couple of years. But if i'm honest, the injuries are the only negative I can see with it. But on the positives, if you wanted to create the perfect modern sweeper keeper, you'd put a lot of Bijlow's attributes into the pot. We wouldn't have even been in the conversation for him had he not had any injury issues, so whist it's a negative, it's also a positive that's enabled a deal for a player who is light years ahead of what we've had in goal since peak Forster/Boruc. The structure of the deal (if true) makes sense as it protects us should he struggle again this year. One of my major asks for this summer was for the club to think about replacing Bazunu, not just filling him in with a stop gap, and this guy with his fitness issues behind him will replace him.

If any deal demonstrates the shift of transfer values, this deal probably does. 5 or 6 years ago this is a £5m player tops. Dara O'Shea has gone to Ipswich for £15m. That's the level your £15m player cap realistically gets you nowadays, the £25-30m mark is where your Mane's/Tadic's/VVD's/Waynamas now live in this day and age. If we are still stuck operating in and around that £15m cap, then we have to aim for players who are running down their contract and have injuries - that's where the value comes in.

Don't they want £60m+ for him? Doubt they'll sanction a loan deal, but these are the days the random loan opportunities popup - I'm sure we've got our feelers across loads of unexpected options.

Absolutley he is, people saying he's going to be on the bench and won't demand a starting spot aren't aware of the guys ability. If he plays 20 games and signs for us, he is our number 1 for however long he is available. Bazunu will have to make do with a bench place, which if we're honest is where he should have been for a few years now. We're actually signing a proper GK for once.

Sulemana, are you kidding me? What do some fans still see in that fraud? When has he ever created anything? Replace Sulemana with SAA and you have a point.

I think what they were referring to in that comment was our recruitment, and they were true to their word on that. We signed too many kids last time, this year we've gone for more of a balance - but we do still have some enormous holes lacking any decent quality, so still work to do.

They're different types though, I wouldn't call either Archer or BBD number 9's - they both play off or around a proper focal point to get the best out of them, wide forwards is probably the best way to describe them - they're the runners beyond the focal point. We did this before in Che and we tried to stick our heads in the sand with a player not suited to what we were doing.

There was a lot of talk about this being the redemption from the Nathan Jones Forest Home masterclass, but that wasn't any better which took some doing. I think there are a few players in our side who are top half Championship players, but poor PL players. There have been tons and tons of those players over the years, sadly we seem to be a bit littered with them. I have confidence in Suguwara, KWP, Downes, THB etc as I think they've got the potential (but THB didn't help himself yesterday). Now we're sorting out GK, the area that is lacking any star quality is attack. In the Championship it's passable, but you need to have more about you at this level and we just don't have that. We started the season at Sheffield Wednesday with forward options such as Tella, Edozie, Mara, Adams, Armstrong, Stu Armstrong, Sullemana, SAA, Moussa, Charly. We now have Edozie, Armstrong, BBD, SAA, Dibling, Sullemana and Archer. We're down on numbers and quality in that area. We need an AMC (who can play across the 3) and a proper number 9 if we are to do anything this year. Sounds like the club agree though. The funds from Charly, ABK and Onuachu will help us get a few good level players into the club I hope.

Our last pickup from Feyenoord was very good, so hopefully this is similar. The only question marks are his fitness, but that's why we're able to get him if we're honest - otherwise he'd be way out of our league. On his day he had the potential to be an elite level keeper and had stacks of clubs around Europe sniffing, especially these playing from the back style managers, so let's hope he stays fit. He is probably 4 or 5 levels above anything we have right now.

We went into the 22/23 season without a striker and it cost us. We went into the 23/24 season without a striker as we signed an injured Ross Stewart, and it almost cost us. We cannot go into the 24/25 season without a striker, as unsurprisingly it will cost us. We have lots of attacking forwards, but none I would consider your ruthless number 9 type. I'm not even expecting the striker to hit 20 goals or whatever, but we need a focal point and someone to build the attack around. I still have faith that some loans will catch us all by surprise, ones we didn't even know were gettable a week ago - this is where we will get our value and best additions, I still believe that. (maybe misguided faith, but we'll see). The club cannot ignore it again, as at this stage it will be absolute gross negligence.

Yeah, I'm not sure on the Stephens bashing today. He did nothing wrong, and was probably our more passable player with the ball. THB had an absolute disaster class, so his sub made total sense. I think most appreciate that he's not a superstar, but the piling in on him when he didn't evne do anything wrong is incredibly tiresome. There were many other players more benefiting to a rant. Not that anyone deserves really ranting about at this stage.

Credit where it's due, proved his worth as a shot stopper today. Kept the score down. Still not great playing out from the back though.

It had all the hallmarks of Wigan at home on our last promotion to this league. Big fan fare return, expectation against a lesser PL side, and it's a complete damp squib. I didn't think we played well at any point. We looked incredibly nervous in the first half, we tried to force things and kept giving the ball away - it was food and drink for Forest for 90% of that match. They fully deserved their win and there's not really much else to say. When you oly have 1 attempt on target, which is straight at the keeper, then there's a problem. Way too passive and reactive on and off the pitch. Best performers for us were Downes, KWP and credit to McCarthy too who kept the score down, which I didn't expect to be saying. It's quite a wakeup call in the sense that Forest are one of the weaker sides, yet the players they have in their attack (Hudson Odoi, Elanga, Gibbs White etc) are massive levels above anything we can put out. Ourselves, Leicester and Ipswich are going to find that. We lack a bit of magic in that final third, someone you can give the ball to and get fans off their seats. We don't have that player. We need a decent couple of additions in the final few days, as it's going to be quite a painful season trying to watch Armstrong threaten at this level on his own.

I would imagine the 'this season' finances in the Ramsdale deal are very similar to that of the Bijlow, main difference is the outlay would be on a loan rather than the permanent. Something the club will have to weigh up. If they can negotiate a reasonable obligation clause should we stay up, which factors in financially what we've covered this season, then it could make sense if we get him for say £20m next summer.

That's Brandon Charles, U18 midfield player.