S-Clarke

It's weird that we even thought that was a goer, he was already on huge wages. It wouldn't take much for the club to do the initial due diligence on those elements before wasting any time on it.

Interesting dig from PSV there! I think that's pretty clear we didn't get our shit in line for this one! Don't know anything about him to be honest, but it's another kick in the balls to our transfer plans. I wonder if this was who Ralph was referring to as our 'first targets we missed out on' - or was that more Mckennie?

The argument is that we've had 1 year to source replacements for Hoj, some were even calling for another midfielder last summer. I get that the budget has probably changed from where we were last year, but planning should have also included alternatives at different price ranges. My worry is that the budget has changed to less than £10m, not much you can get for that. This puts us in a very, very dangerous position in terms of league survival. We are pretty much relying on our core 11 to be fit all year.

So if we summarise it... This is what Ralph has been quoted as saying: Asked if he would be happy to go into the rest of the season with the squad he currently has available, Hasenhuttl said: "No, I wouldn’t. But I know that we will get players in. "Either way I think we know we need a few, one or two players minimum we must get, maybe three." Semmens has been quoted as saying we don't need to sell before we buy. So what is the issue here...? If we fail Ralph (Again...) then I wouldn't blame the guy for walking. He has never been backed here, he must be so frustrated. It could be an exciting week or it could be a week of pure frustration. Whilst we have a decent 11, if we were to lose 1 or 2 out of that long term, we are absolutely dead.

I think the problem with that one is his cost. He's still got a few years on his contract, Bournemouth paid £25m for him. They will want at least that amount back for him and we wouldn't be able to get close to even half of that. We're struggling to raise funds for anything over 7-8m IMO. Which puts us out of the market for pretty much anyone unless it's a loan, with small loan fee's and big wage contributions from the parent club.

Not entirely sure how we've managed to miss out on that one, less than £10m. Work Permits, as speculated? But again, we've had over a year to think about this, so you'd hope we've sourced players and scouted players to understand how buyable they are. What is all this PR bullshit about us always having a list of 4/5 players lined up for any potential departure? Yet here we are, sniffing around last min loans, for players who wouldn't have been available a year ago anyway. (so, reactive buys).

That January transfer window when we sold Fonte and didn't replace him was criminal. But...we kinda did - we bought in Caceres who couldn't oust Stephens from the starting line up! Yep, that's right, Uruguay international, former Juventus and Barcelona centre back could not oust Jack Stephens from the starting 11. I don't think we could ever afford Caceres and Puel was played like a puppet to ensure he didn't hit x amount of apps so we had to sign him, or something. He was signed for a PR thing I reckon. We then had 6 months to sort it, so we came up with Hoedt for £15m, who we are now trying to sell for loose change to anyone who can whisper loud enough.

They were all the result of dreadful defending, tbh. Clumsy tackles, Mendy giving away the last one. He was turned on the edge of the box, lost his player, and just tripped him from behind. Dumb. Not sure about that Eric Garcia either, he is equally as slow and clumsy.

Do we have any money to even contribute to this?

I've never rated City's LB, Mendy. I think he's a dreadful defender, doesn't offer anything going forward either

He's made for those sort of games against those sorts of CF's. The problem is when you put him up against movement and pace, that's when you see his real limitations and why he'll never be a regular for us.

Not sure he's ever been too suited to the PL to be honest, think we need some height and presence in CM. He wouldn't add that in any way. He seems a very Italian league style player to me.

Both 'wide' players were dreadful tonight. Armstrong doesn't look anywhere near fit enough yet, feels like we've had to rush him back due to the injuries to Redmond etc. Shows how desperately we need additional wide players tbh. Not fair to expect someone like Tella to be the answer.

Seems as if they've seen the light. Shame for us.

Looks like he's forgotten how to play football. Desperately lacking wide depth. Let's see what happens in the next week.

We out Burnley' d, Burnley. Truly inept performance all round, but 3 points are all that matters really. A side with anything about them would have taken us apart today, thankfully it was Burnley reserves with their u18's on the bench. Still tons and tons of improvement to be made though, we are absolutely nowhere near where we were at the end of last season, nowhere near.

Or we need to get the fee for Hoedt first (plus lose a portion of his ages) before we are able to move for anyone.

I'm fairly certain they changed the rules after, but I never saw confirmation of what it was. But from what I'd read the new rules would have stopped him passing if he went in for it again now. The Fit and proper test is a total farce, really. Even Wigan's owners passed it, and they just had it for two weeks before throwing it into admin.

It's ok, they changed the rules so he wouldn't be approved in the future, after they'd approved him for us. 🙄

I'm glad we're shot of him. The most arrogant defender I can remember us having. What did he have to be arrogant about? He was turned by just about anyone in the PL. Hopeless player.

He's not young, but he's certainly hungry. Wayne Shaw.

I meant profile of player, winger/attacking either flank style. Can't really read much into the youtube vids either way.

Cabral is certainly the sort of addition we need on the flanks. Out of Redmond and Moussa, that's it for our wide players - and we couldn't count on Moussa for any of last season really. This will give Redmond a bit of competition if it happens, he's had it too easy. I thought our transfer fee use would be the other way around, spend the £££ on a midfielder and maybe a loan for a winger. But we'll see.

I don't think you can class Ings as a Hasenhuttl signing, he was brought in under Hughes on a loan with a full obligation to buy. He was signing him no matter what! The 4 real signings he's had input into are Moussa, KWP, Salisu and Adams.

The Athletic is really good, just lots of well written articles and some info you don't hear or see anywhere else. I got it at the discount a few months ago, well worth it so far.