S-Clarke

Ah yes you're right actually, my mistake. Same point stands though, £50m on his head by the sounds of it.

Bazunu, Smallbone, Fraser and McCarthy - just to wind everyone up.

One thing I did take away, was the quite direct compression Phil Parsons made between Garnacho and Dibling in terms of their relative impacts last season. Man Utd have put a price of £50m on Garnacho, so I think it's pretty clear that's where we sit with Dibling.

I mean those sorts of questions aren't ever going to give the answer that they were pushed for, let's be honest. At the end of the day, we all disagreed with it, but the club signed him on a 3 year deal. If the person who was part of that decision then turns around in the fans forum and says ''Yeah, he's shit. I don't know why we did it'', then I'd be questioning his judgement a hell of a lot more to be honest. He wasn't going to throw him under the bus, I wouldn't have ever expected him or anyone to do.

According to FM maybe, but in real life it really isn't.

Yeah, pretty much. As blunt as that , directed at Phil Parsons, he asked for a description of 'FFP' and how it works.

Spors struck me as the perfect sort of person you want. He doesn't say much, he doesn't offer much, but you can tell he thinks and 'does'. We've had too many people who can say all the nice words and sound great, but he has this inner confidence in himself and he doesn't feel like he needs to waffle shit. He seems pretty competent to me, but we'll find out at the end of the season just how much.

A rumour! And a good one at that, he's a class CM for this level.

If I was Newcastle I wouldn't bother and just avoid further disappointment, no one seems to want to join them.

Portman Road in Feb, feels like it was the year before tbf - but we actually did win there. Tall Ball in the final few mins. And we still believed...

Levy's first offer will be a signed photo of Poch and a packet of crisps. Maybe Tommy Forecasts re-gen thrown in for good measure.

They didn't renew Antonios contract, so he's a freebie now. Feels like a Wrexham or Birmingham style signing though.

Ah yep, that makes sense then. I think those calls must have been made when we had a DoF void, or when we were pretending a hybrid of model of Bitcon and Martin would work.

It feels like we're due a good period again (consistently over a few seasons), but then I guess Stoke/Boro/Blackburn would all say the same thing and they've been in the rots for a decade or more.

I still think he's a little daft to be leaving at this stage, but if he won't sign a deal the club have to maximise the value on a full home grown talent. He's a shy lad as everyone says, so with a £50m price on his head and media surrounding him in the bright lights of Liverpool (which is a tricky place to adapt for most people) he could sink into the wilderness. I hope he doesn't as he's talented, but he should have been advised to stay here in an environment he trusts to refine his skills - and when he's a tiny bit older, a bit more confident and has a bit more to backup the reputation...he may handle a big move better. It feels a risk for him right now. Not financially, not for his agent, but for him personally I think he's been incredibly poorly advised by those around him.

This is why BBD, Archer and co looked absolutely prolific in training last season. On a serious note, the poor squad (i.e. the large gap of quality between starters and the rest) makes the training environment unbalanced and no where near a fair reflection on what they'd face in real matches. We have a big squad but very little competitiveness is how I see it, and that will harm training as it creates a false sense of illusion for less savvy managers that player x or y is better than they actually are.

But didn't we sell SAA to Strasbourg under his watch? I'm sure we pocketed £10m this summer for him. Or was it a pre-agreed fee? Possibly actually, can't remember (would explain it if that's the case)

I think it's naive at this stage to believe that the Everton rumours are gossip and unsubstantiated. In my eyes, it's all but done. He's been pulled from training to avoid any last min contact injuries which would scupper a deal. That wouldn't happen if there wasn't an expectation on both sides that a deal would be done. It's just a matter of when and it's probably 99% going to be Everton.

Things starting to hot up now, the three relegated sides have been somewhat stable squad wise up to this point. We've got Dibling and Fernandes being circled. Ipswich now have Davis, Hutchinson circled. Leicester have Mads, Ndidi and such being circled. I think they've agreed a fee with someone for Nididi actually. It'll be interesting to see how all 3 look in September as we'll all look fairly different IMO. I'd say Ipswich are operating from a position of strength as they already had a solid team, whereas we need to rotate quite a bit of ours out.

It's all a gamble isn't it really. Forest spent stacks in the first season they came up, which is what pushed them over the edge - but it enabled them to be competitive. Sure, they survived by one point but they were in the conversation until the end. These days teams are relegated before Spring, so it's eroded any form of competition in the bottom half. If a team comes up and gambles a bit, says 'to fuck with PSR', they'd make the likes of Brentford and co very nervous I'd say. I just don't really rate PSR when clubs get around it by selling parts of the club back to themselves, there are loopholes everywhere that the very 'rich' and clever owners just scoot around all the time as they can afford the best lawyers. The Man City situation is a case in point.

Of course, it could just be that they’re… well-adjusted. 😄 Great, my cover isn't blown.

Honestly, they should stick your snippets up on the walls in the changing rooms pre every game to gee the players up.

It's not going to happen, they're going to escape it again. No idea why, but again it just puts PSR into context really. Next time we go up, just fricking spend and if we breach shit who cares. It's not hurt Forest in the slightest.

Early days, but at least it seems we don't have a club/manager/coaches blowing smoke up mediocre players arses anymore. Jack Stephens the only blot, but Still wasn't overly committing on Bazunu and with the news that Smallbone may be off it is suggesting the club are looking deeper than has been before. I hope so anyway. There's so much to do and only a few weeks.

That all sounds great. All very quiet on the Fernandes front in terms of 'specific' interest though, do the club have expectations that he will stay - and if he does, will they then go for 2x 10's do you think? All the noise at the moment is around Dibling, no much around Mateus.