S-Clarke

Fellows is the sort I can see us going for, a real traditional winger who will keep the width and stretch the game. Right up Stills street. Azaz will happen I imagine, he'd be the 10. Spertsyan isn't happening and probably never was if we're honest. Guilavogui has gone quiet, but will probably happen. Doesn't set the pulses racing though, I think we need better than him given the current state of our options. GK - isn't Ryan a free agent? If we were interested in him it would have been done by now. He probably wants first team football, but we're only signing a backup GK.

I'd rather gouge my eyes out than have Martin managing us again. You cannot judge Still at this stage, it's pretty weird to do so and sums up everything that is wrong with with modern football.

I mean it's a bit daft to judge him before the windows shut. Let's see where we are in a week. The 'biggest' deals were always going to happen towards the end of the window, they always do.

I think people are being OTT about him at this stage. This is what happens when you purchase potential though, it's not ready 'straight away'. He will score goals for us, I'm sure, but we need guys in our attack who can do that for us straight away at this point.

We need more Mads style signings in the attacking areas, ready made players who can come in and make us better from the day dot. I don't want to see any more 'potential' signings at this stage. We need ready players who start for us tomorrow. They need to replace Fraser/Armstrong/Archer and such in the attack immediately. If they don't then we've failed.

It was a bit of a disjointed mess really, I don't feel we ever had control of the game. The first half was pretty even, but Stoke had the edge and looked like a threat on the attack - much more than we could muster. The clear issue with this team is a lack of ability to play the ball between the lines, the guys just have no idea how to do it. So often our approach play is predictable as we go side to side because we have no one stretching the game or with the ability to split the defence with a pass. When teams sit in with a strong defensive unit, like stoke did, you need width, pace and the ability to move the ball quickly. Our players in unable to do that and it won't change. I would happily take an offer for Downes tomorrow. He blotted his copybook with me last January and if I'm honest I don't think he fits what we're trying to do now. His work in the midfield sums us up, as he moves the ball too slowly - russball is engrained in him and that's never going to go. To be done on the break against 10 men is embarrassing, non-league/pub league stuff, let's be honest. That should never happen. But this team always seems to produce things that should never happen, bad things - not good things. So we're pretty much as we were really. Our attack, no matter how many people keep proclaiming it's ''good for the championship' - it isn't. It's utter fodder. Individually they have good records, but collectively it's a mish mash of a mess and it will never work together. We need at least 2 wide players, game changing ones who start - not kids. And a 10, again, a starter - not a kid. I'd also use the money for a striker. Downs is a project, but he needs better to push him. And Stewart isn't that. So, a big week upcoming. We need to spend big and sort the attack out, if we don't, we will struggle to finish Top 6 with this outfit. This last week of the window will confirm us as playoff hopefuls, or Top 2 promotion chasers.

There was a crazy media story at the start of the window which said we put a £100m price tag on him, as we valued him at close to Grealish or something daft. I don't think that came from the club though, weird rumour.

There's all sorts on twitter, impossible to know what to believe really. I saw something which said £42m fixed fee, with £6m achievable add ons + 20% sell on. There's obviously agendas at play, Everton journos wanting to say they got him for much much less, and our side making us want to believe we stood our ground. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

£42m fixed fee, with £6m add-ons. 20% sell on. So pretty much what we wanted all in.

Where's Abu out of interest?

Does anyone else find the Forest owner a total knob end? He's the sort of owner who will run that club into the ground if they're not careful. I can see him stomping his feet and stopping the taps at any moment if the fans ever say anything against him. I'd hate someone like him owning us, just a constant state of apprehension.

I assume the 'bidding war' brewing has pushed them to get this completed sooner rather than later, fully on our terms I'd assume. I always felt this was likely to happen. Be interesting to see who we target to replace him, clubs will know we're totally loaded now. The next 10 days are going to be nuts.

I'd be staggered if he hadn't had an involvement or a recommendation towards this one.

I'm sure that actually came out of his mouth once. 'if we lose, but we're doing it the right way, I'm so proud of them'' - or something a long those lines. Utter bullshit. So glad we're out of that. Feel sorry for Rangers.

Depends how the Boro manager sets up, he may find that his setup fits BBD more than he's ever fitted here. I think he's a very limited player, but his past has shown that he can clearly be effective in the right environments. Why anyone thought he'd effective for us in a Russell Martin pass the ball style is beyond me though, a truly bizarre pick for the situation we were in.

It's a weird one from Ipswich to be honest. He's not a true first team player at Leicester, so they did well to get £12-14m for him. Not sure what Ipswich are getting there, Leicester describe him as fairly average - but that's probably on the back of last season. I remember him doing pretty well against us in the Championship thrashings we had against them.

I don't want to speak too soon, because we've all been burnt so many times in the past. But I do kind of get the same vibe. It's hard to explain why, but sometimes things just feel right and you ultimately have immediate trust. That's what this feels like here. I think a lot of it is because he talks straight, there's no waffle from him. He's straight, he wants to win games, he doesn't care how, here's here to win games. So many times it's been about philosophy and playing a certain way all the fricking time, but for me it's about getting good players, playing them in their natural positions and being flexible when required. That's where I feel we are now. And the Mads signing is another example of our common sense approach imo. Nothing clever, nothing flashy, 'just works'.

Once someone picks him up from South Korea.

I get you, we've dealt with crappy signing over crappy signing for what feels like a decade - but this sort of signing feels like a bit of common sense for a change, and a 'now' signing and a step away from buying kids with up sale. This guy has been signed to make us better today, rather than a view to make us a profit in the future.

How I see it is that he was reasonable enough at that level to allow Brentford to establish and stabilise in the PL. They've now evolved their full back positions with better players, so he's dropped down the pecking order. I think they signed that Kayode guy this summer for £20m or such. Yes, people are now looking at Brentford to struggle - but it's because of what they've lost in attack, as opposed to what they have across the wider team. They evolved on from Mads, but it's not to say he wasn't part of the setup which established them in the PL in the first place. There is a risk that sometimes you can look too far ahead with signings, I think you have to take what he can offer us today. We've all called for players ready to come 'straight in' rather than 'young with potential', well this guy - and Azaz - will be players who can come straight in and immediately lift up the side in our weak positions. Absolute no brainer for me.

I don't think anyone is expecting him to be better than KWP, or were expecting us to signing anyone who was as good as KWP. This guy is a completely different profile to KWP too. I think we all appreciate that having KWP last time out in the Champ was a bonus, a ridiculous bonus. Those levels of players don't often operate in the Champ. We got lucky he stuck around.

Everything about his game is so bad. It's a shame really because I love his attitude and how he approaches 'life', but he's just not right for English football. A poor pick of many from that ill-fated transfer window last year.

I'm personally frustrated that we allowed Real Madrid to sneak in and snap up Trent. (tm)

Not sure if Blackmore is guessing on that one. It would make sense though. He was a player who arrived with much fanfare, but holy christ he is easily the worst RB we've ever had in the PL. He's a happy chap, but he made me depressed. If we get a good fee for him, at least making back our £6m, then we should accept it and move on. He's even frustrated me in the Champ with his awful wayward passing.

Brentford have Kayode and Hickey as their full back options, they are better than Roreslev, yes, but both of their 'starters' are out of our league and thus irrelevant options for us. We are shopping in the market of PL reserve players, I don't understand why you're so upset about it. Who were you expecting exactly? We're not signing a starting PL player, they're always going to be a squad PL player.