S-Clarke

Thanks for your views, always nice to have civil fans coming on and contributing. I'm certainly envious of your success and all the things you are doing. We made a lot of the right noises a few years ago under Koeman but we then lost our way because we thought we'd 'cracked it' and then tried to get clever with our moronic DoF and idiot Chief Scout, who are thankfully long gone. We spent big fees on Carrillo, Gunn, Hoedt, Boufal, Elyonoussi - about 65m ish there in players bought. We've let 3 of them go for free (paid off their contracts) and made a 60% loss on Gunn. We've still got Elyonoussi, but that's because no one else wants him - he'll go for free next summer. In that time we also gave Fraser Forster two new contracts, the latest being around 80k p/w. So we saddled ourselves with crap, had no where to move and the problems with our ownership and investment model became even more apparent. You are definitely a model all clubs can follow, you do it the right way in every aspect.

Is that actually done? I heard rumours weeks ago about Atalanta, but nothing has materialized yet. He would be the best option we could ever hope for in our current climate. Not seen any links to him though.

I literally don't know how else people can spell it out to you to be honest. Think we'll just have to leave it there.

He was alright I thought, did a job for them. Used the ball well/played out well from what I can remember. He was quite a comedy signing because of the mess Schalke were in defensively whilst he was there. They must be keen to ship him out, given they were relegated.

How do players get experience though? You can't keep them out of the team because they don't have experience, he's only going to get it by playing. I think he's been somewhat eased in so far, but it will be a bit of a baptism of fire for him this year - I like him though. Bednarek I somewhat agree, I think if we have aspirations of top 10 and above then we probably need someone better if we want to go higher immediately...but for where we are as a club right now he is pretty much fine, standard/average etc. He's got experience at International and PL level which is something the other CB's do lack. If we can find an experienced PL/International CB to replace him for under £15m then let's go for it, but I don't think they're out there. We'll be shopping in the 'up and coming' market with the view that they will potentially evolve into Bednarek's replacement etc, I think that's out strategy on our budget.

I don't think that's something which usually happens to be honest. The only example I can think of in recent times is Fabian Delph when he was at Villa, and then a week later....he left. So yeah, a bit of a pointless empty gesture really. He'd be well advised to just keep his head down, be professional and crack on. He knows the clubs stance, he'll know who is interested and the clubs will know at what value we will start to listen - as he will have a valuation.

It comes down to priorities though doesn't it. Do you ignore left back to sign a keeper? Do you ignore a striker to sign a keeper? Do you ignore midfield to sign a keeper? We had clear gaps we needed to fill over the last couple of years - RB, no question - KWP. Midfield with Hoj out - got Diallo. Needed another CB, as we only had 3...Salisu came in. This year, lost our only left back - got a left back. Lost our main striker, got two new strikers. Those were priorities before a goalkeeper. I'm not denying it's a 'problem position' but we had/have a lot of problem positions which come before goal keeper for me. There is also the added issue in that no one wants either Fraser or McCarthy, we're not going to sign another goal keeper on 50k upwards when we still have two keepers on 50k upwards. It would be daft. We learnt that lesson with Angus. In fact when Ralph came in he had two £10m goalkeepers (Fraser and Angus) and a £5m goalie in McCarthy, the club would have wanted him to try and get the best out of the existing investments. Next summer is the summer for the goalkeepers as we will have some flexibility due to their contracts expiring, in fact some of the links in this window are probably pre-scouting options in advance of next summer. When you have as strict a budget as we have both the club and the coaching staff need to prioritise and I think they've got it right.

Sorry, that's the one! I knew it was one of their defenders we looked at.

Didn't we look at him in January? Wasn't the story that we went to Liverpool looking for Nat Philips, but walked away with Minimino instead?

I don't know what that has to do with the point I was making. Fair enough you think I stick up for Ralph a lot, maybe I do because I think he's a good manager who has been afforded a bit of a shit deal on the squad he inherited - but on the flip side you seemingly look for anything and everything to throw his way. The point above is irrelevant in this context and speculative at best.

I think this season will be a fair point to judge him, yep. He's pretty much got his own team now which have the profile to fit his style of play. So we will see. Obviously depends on what we get in at CB, but I do think this is the first summer he's been afforded that little bit of flexibility - mainly due to the sales, but it's given him the opportunity to mould the squad much more than he has before. I think he's a good coach and with the right profile and balance in the squad we could see some nice surprises.

Just signed a long-term deal I think. Chalobah is an interesting one, he is that profile of a CB/CM and occasional full back.

Same shit different day then!

Agreed. Struggling to get onboard with Phillips, I think any new CB we get needs to be mobile/quick.

Well, a crown jewel in the weakest of terms - but what I meant was the player who could generate the most $$ for us, alongside Ings or JWP etc. Those are the 3 money makers in the current squad. (well, were)

I certainly think the pace of Salisu helps us, gives everyone that little bit more of a margin for error. He's still very raw, very inexperienced...but you only get that experience by playing and from what I've seen he has the physical tools. Although the most impressive part of Salisu's game for me, given his lack of experience, is his reading of the game - right place, right time more often that not. He's just got that uncoachable knack of reading danger.

I think that's what he's been getting at -it's Ralphs fault because he's prioritised other positions over the goalie etc. But actually having a LB or a striker is more important than having neither, unless we want to go into the season with Long up top and Moussa at LB - but at least we have a new goal keeper? Wrong way round imo.

That's the fella I was thinking of - fits our profile, like you said...1 year left, should be available for around 14/15m. CB/CM....ticks a lot of boxes. Be interesting to see how we replace Vestergaard, although I do feel that the club see Salisu as the immediate replacement.

This is a very good point which shouldn't be missed. Ralph has never really been given the chance to properly mould a team, he's inherited a lot from previous managers and has done the best he can - some are just not suited to his style though. So I'm kinda intrigued to see how we get on now that he's had a real chance to shape this team, potentially could see up to 8 signings in one window.

I literally cannot get my head around your view that this is on the manager. How is the goalkeepers contract situation and financial situation anything to do with Ralph? He's been dealt a shit card with two very average keepers (Well, 3 before Gunn left) on massive money. As I've said before, if no one takes either Forster or McCarthy in this window I cannot see how we can realistically move for another goal keeper.

Let's be honest, 2 years ago I think most would have accepted £4m - or even Buttons - for him. He was very much in the Hoedt category at that point. So to get this level of fee 2 years later seems good, even more so given that he has 1 year left. Would have liked 18m ish, but the ball isn't really in our court on this one. He has certainly redeemed himself though, but I'll never be massively comfortable with him.

As much as I'd like some experience, the description of any Vestergaard replacement by Martin and Ralph last night was......''A player on his second, or third contract. Someone who can develop and learn with us, and in two or 3 years may get a move elsewhere'' Not sure how concrete the Nat Philips stories are, but he ticks a lot of boxes on those regards. Don't know a great deal about him as a player though, I'll be honest.

Surpised it's at that level, I thought we'd have held out for more. Maybe we've just decided to go with it, get it done and then we can move in on our target. Certainly not ideal to have this hanging over on the eve of the season though. We've had one of our 'selling of the crown jewels' summers! Let's just hope the reinvestment works out. Be interested to see how we reinvest the Vestergaard fee, I'd try and split that across two positions if I can - get an extra CM and a new CB. I'm not worried about losing Vestgaard particularly, as he was part of one of the worst ever PL defences and has been a bit of a dodgy buy bar 9 purple months. The worry I have is the depth of quality and experience at CB. But I'm sure that will be addressed...just not in time for Saturday.

I did expect this to happen, it has an inevitable feel about it. Closer to 18m the better, but we are in line to make a loss on this one - as we bought him for £20m believe it or not. For what it's worth I'm not sure he's suited to the way Ralph likes to play, in fact a lot of the players he inherted haven't been. It's a slow process but he's slowly being able to bring in the right style of player to fit his game plan. We don't play too high a line, but we are still high enough for him to be hugely exposed against pace. Alongside Bednarek we had two CB profiles, who whilst experienced, just did not fit the style of play. The only benefit Vestegraard brought us in the sense of our 'game' was his switch and passing from the back, but to be honest we shouldn't be relying on just a centre back to be able to do that. His experience will be a loss, for sure, but I think we can use this opportunity to bring a player much, much more suited to the style of play Ralph wants.

No questions about that - only stadium question was relating to the moving of the away fans.