S-Clarke

That's almost certainly as good as we're going to get, a surprising bonus income if we get that over the line. I expected a loan for him, so that's good news.

I honestly remember hotter weeks/summers in the 90's. Power in the park, the swimming pool down the common, mayflower park and all that stuff. There were some really warm days back then. We didn't need to be told about a heat health alert then. Everyone just got on with it and used their noggins. Weather will be weather, it might be cold, it might be warm, but it's not worth worrying about the fear that they try to put into us for any extreme. Just enjoy it, at least it's not raining.

I take issue with that bit, it went wrong long before Wilcox was involved. Remember the summer window of 2022, and the winter Window of 2023? They were amongst the worst we'd ever had, set us back years, and that was primarily on Rasmus. Wilcox wasn't even a glint in peoples eyes back then. The issue with not replacing Wilcox last summer was a genuine one, but let's not ignore the fact that things were pretty horrific long before Wilcox was involved. People like Rasmus will rightfully cop the stick when he releases books that are titled ''If it's not broken, break it', and then subsequently gets his hands involved in us and breaks our club.

Potentially looking to make back around £15-20m on two players who set us back £40m 2 years ago. At this point just get what we can, move on, and forget it ever happened.

As long as the investment in the facilities doesn't distract from us building a competitive team, then I'm all for it. If it's one or the other, then we need a competitive team before anything else.

I don't have any animosity towards Dragan, I never have. His intentions have always been right, there's never been any reason to doubt that as he's put his money where his mouth is. The problem came from the guys put in place to execute his intentions, and they got it fundamentally wrong on so many levels. It's clear he's recognised that. I don't think he wanted to take such an active role, it certainly doesn't sound like his intention, but he needs to claw back some control as the guys he put in charge were utterly destroying his investment. Admitting the mistakes of going into the PL under prepared are correct, I don't put that all onto Dragan as there were many other parties who should have been a lot more savvy than they were. His opinion of Martin made me laugh - 'a bit too cocky' - that's an understatement, but he is absolutely right in what he says. I don't buy the VAR robbed us of points though, and I don't think that would have saved Martin. Those 8 points would have given us 20 in total, hold the champers for that acoldade. Anyway, this has always been a crucial summer and arguably their last chance to get it right. I think there is a structure in place of the right people, but we just have to hope that certain meddlers are a bit further away than they have been. I'm intrigued to see where we stand in September.

The 'the only thing holding up his transfer' is the same thing that's been holding it up for what feels like many transfer windows. They won't give us what we want, they'll haggle, refuse to budge, we'll refuse to budge, then they'll take him on loan at the 11th hour. Certainly the dullest transfer saga in many years.

Odd one from Boro, why would Edwards get the job ahead of either of those two? If that is true, and I was a Boro fan, I'd be sat with my head in my hands right now. The lack of takers of Cooper is plain odd though, he's clearly better than Rob Edwards. Edwards just oversaw one of the biggest underachievement's in EFL history with the double relegation of Luton.

That is one game that made me feel sick for a few days, it was pretty bad. As a tournament as a whole though, Euro 04 lives in my memory. Loved it, brings back some amazing memories for me. I guess we all have a tournament that leaves similar feelings, probably showing my age!

Well, it didn't help it did it? They've been in charge of us since 2021. Since then, we've been relegated twice, signed loads of absolute bloody garbage, and endured the worst season ever seen. What we have given to Gozepte hasn't helped us a single iota, increasing in value is a moot point when all we want ourselves are good players as our squad it's self is horrific. I get the frustration from fans when they see us aiding the squad depth and quality of other teams, yet having to watch us with BBD lumbering down the wing. One of the benefits I potentially saw from the model is being able to get first dibs on the 'star' players from those clubs, and give them a platform. But we can't even do that, as we've been relegated so their best players won't even join us.

We only got through the playoffs because Bazunu was injured, we'd have still been a Championship side had he still been number 1.

That's all been happening whilst we've endured the worst season we've ever had. I'll reserve judgement if this is any good for us, at the moment it isn't and that's proven quite strongly by the two relegations and being one of the worst ever teams in Top Flight history. At least Gotzepe did ok in the league though.

Still a long way to go, I'm not going to be singing from the rooftops just yet - but the first moves and changes have been logical and sensible, which is more than we had before. I'll be interested to see where we are at the end of August and how he's navigated the window, that for me is the first big milestone test of everything he's put in place. If we head into September with Smallbone in CM and Bazunu our first choice in Goal, then I'm sorry, it's going to be no different.

I don't totally disagree with you, but it would have been daft to advocate against his signing in the summer. The problem with Downes, THB and those sorts were the lack of experienced quality to supplement them. I don't think either are ever going to be top, top level players, so expecting them to carry on 'leading us' like they did in the Champ was a bit daft. I always wanted us to sign another CM alongside Downes, but we still decided to play everything through him. That was probably down to a complete lack of appreciation of the PL from Martin, he totally underestimated it and probably overestimated his mates. I don't think either are bad players, far form it, but they had no support and as we have done quite a few times in recent years - we've thrown the lambs to slaughter.

I don't think anyone is against selling or reshaping the squad, you're absolutely right in that we don't want to experience what we had to ever again. But it comes down to valuations, Downes has a really long contract and is just a year into it. We paid £18m. There's no benefit to us right tow to ship him off for half that, it would be a pretty shocking business decision. We know he's done it at this level, ditto Adam Armstrong, so in my eyes unless the fees are good (i.e. near what we paid for them), then there's absolutely no point in selling them today. It would immediately weaken us at the level we're now at, without the required income from those sales to reinvest and replace. Football has changed so much though since 1976, I mean even in just the last 10 years. The gaps between levels are huge, and the wages players want are beyond most clubs bar the really rich ones. Whilst we're all keen on a rebuild, I think it will probably take a good few years to cycle this squad out in entirety.

No real surprises in that. Lallana will probably announce his retirement in a few days, he may stick around on the coaching team but it may be that we want to clear all ties from last season on that front. I hope the club give KWP a nice piece on the OS now he's left us, deserves it after his service. One of the very few who is able to leave knowing he did a good stint for us. With Lumley and McNamara leaving there is 100% an opening for a first team goalie. If we've learnt, then it should be McCarthy as third choice, Bazunu as second (At a push) and a new first choice (that's assuming Ramsdale does leave, but I'd be surprised if he doesn't)

You can't make a 50% loss on one year though, wouldn't make any sense. I imagine we'd take £15-16m if it was offered today, but £9-10m is just too low. Downes was my biggest disappointment last year, the drop off from him was enormous. I still don't think Martin's team, at the highest level, provided him the best level of protection though. He has too many limitations in his game to be an all rounder in the top flight, but I still think he could be a tidy midfielder at that level if he had the right support around him.

That's really sad to hear, he had a fantastic impact here. It was probably during our most fruitful academy period. Fulham did very, very well with him involved in their academy as well and they developed stack loads of young players. He'll be missed personally, but the ability he had was unmatched really.

He's already re-signed for another season on loan at Goztpe

I don't think anyone can really come to any conclusion yet, we know little about him. I'd suggest that Still has more higher level experience, I know people class the french league as low, but he still has experience of managing against the likes of Mbappe, Veratti, Messi and the likes. He managed against, and with, a much higher calibre of player than Martin ever has in my opinion. Rohl was probably my pick because of his experience at the level we're at, and also his experience at high profile clubs, but he was obviously umming and erring and we didn't really have time to piss around. Leicester don't have time either, but they seemingly are pissing around as they've still got a manager in place that they want to sack. Martin got lucky with promotion last time, we were no more than a playoff team under him which is pretty naff given the ability we had at this level - when compared to Ipswich. So, I wouldn't say that if he was in charge of us we'd be in a much stronger place. We'd probably get rid of him mid-season after we sit level with Swansea and 30 goals conceded mid-season. I'm intrigued to see what Still can bring. We'll know the answer this time next year I guess, but I don't think we should ever look back on regret hoping that we'd kept Martin.

FYI Rangers. We have some cracking players available at knockdown prices. Come and get yourselves the ultimate crab midfielder, ideal for propaganda football - Will Smallbone, available at a cut price. Also, come and get yourselves an outfield player who plays in goal, absolutely ideal for your new direction. Gavin Bazunu is available for free and last but not least, don't forget to pickup Russell Martins boyfriend, the ultimate ball playing centre back who can play up front, in goal, at left back or RB - basically anywhere on the pitch. Jack Stephens is yours for a snip. And because we like Rangers, we are even prepared to throw in our dynamic, attacking winger Ryan Fraser into the mix for free. He won't spend more time stirring in the background than on the pitch, honest.

But this is focusing on the financial side and the upside this brings (Which is a genuine point, granted), but in my eyes it feels really sad that this is the priority. I just want the team I watch today to be competitive and with a potential to grow and we are so, so, so far away form having that. Buying and loaning players to Gozepe is doing nothing other than reducing our transfer bucket and leaving us no better off 'today'. The priority should be us, not finding players for Gozepe.

I don't think there are any real footballing benefits to a multi club model for clubs like us. I can see Gozepe having a different view, because they can benifit from squad players from ourselves who will be starters for them. It doesn't really work the same the other way as the levels are skewed quality wise, ditto with the French third league. In our position I can only really see this benefiting the lesser clubs and also the ownership group financially, from a football point of view this does fuck all for us and being part of a group is pretty irrelevant I have to say.

He was poorly used by Martin, he should have been a standout in the Championship - and he would have been if he was allowed. He's a maverick type of player, he does things off the cuff so you need to give him freedom - but Martin hated that, he wasn't rigid enough for his propoganda backwards passing, so he was never really given a true opportunity. In many ways it's why players like Brooks even struggled with us, such a talented technical player, but another one who does things off the cuff and needs to be allowed freedom. Martin even managed to mute the game out of him, he's looked good for Bournemouth this season in the league above. Very similar story of Charles too in that Championship season, two very good players who have proven since that they are very good players, just used terribly by a manager who's idea of squad management was entirely skewed.

He's proven his ability over there, so I'm not surprised there will be interested people. He's not a bad coach as he has proven pedigree, but what he inherited here was just impossible to do anything with. He probably knew it on day 2 to be honest and I imagine very quickly regretted his decision. It was an odd club swing as well to go from one style extreme to the other mid-season. The squad was built for Martin's propoganda-ball so no one else stood a chance to be honest, his best chance was us spending in January but we didn't do anything so it was a lost cause. I don't have bad feeling towards him, it was just a really weird appointment which was subsequently not even backed with the appropriate players.