S-Clarke

This defensive highline is insane, what on earth are we doing? Need to replace Stephens, we have since 2017 really. Bednerak is decent, but still not amazing. McCarthy is bog-standard. If we continue to play this high line, then we will finish bottom of the league on single figures. If we want to play a high line, we need a new GK, a new CB and Salisu in from next week. That won't happen though, so to preserve our position we need to scrap this insanity.

The inconsistency is driving me insane, and the media are driving it. Why have some EFL clubs allowed fans back in today? (Boro) when that entire area has been locked down? So, has it, or hasn't it? Why do we have to wear masks in shops, yet most of the workers inside the stores don't? In fact, why do I have to wear a mask inside Supermarkets, but I don't have to in pubs, which have much higher concentrations of people? Sorry, not a place for that sort of chat - but you get my point. It's either lock it all down 100% or let us all bloody well get on with it.

I would imagine he's one of the 'group' which we identified for renewal, if he doesn't sign a new deal this window is probably the height of his value. We may decide to cash in, and then replace? He certainly looked off it last weekend, even to be subbed at HT was a bit strange. He looks distracted, I'm not sure if that's just me reading too much into things though.

It looks as if the market is starting to move now, so we may see things change a little for us and rumours begin to surface.

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has hinted Demarai Gray could leave the Foxes. The winger is in the last year of his contract at the King Power Stadium and has struggled to cement his place under Rodgers. He said: “It’ll be up to him. He’s in his last year and he hasn’t signed another deal but, for me, I will always respect Demarai and what his wishes are. “He is working very hard to play a part while he’s here. We’ll see how it evolves over the course of the season."

Not sure if you watched their Docu on Amazon prime, but that was fairly clear from day one. Jose pulled Ali into his office to moan about his lack of application/attitude. Maybe we can bring Ali in on loan...! 😉

This is the problem, I thought Gao was supposed to help with further 'investment'. He's killing us, really. But let's not go into that debate again.

I do agree with the averageness of some of our players, It felt to me as if we may use this window as an opportunity to 'upgrade' and evolve some positions, it certainly started that way with Salisu (I'd say he's going to be an improvement on our current two) and KWP is certainly a level above Valery. I wanted to see us go out there and buy a midfielder to replace Romeu, someone who could start every single week alongside JWP. Surely we can find someone? If we sell Boufal, let's go out there and get a starting wide player...not a squad player, someone who can start. Otherwise we will just fall backwards and it's boring and painful watching that.

Yeah he certainly won't play in our game, 110%. Doubt he'll be with the squad either, but they'll want to announce it before the game I imagine. Good PR for them.

RLC springs to mind. Hudson-Odoi needs game time, could be an opportunity to be a regular here. McTominay at Man Utd? (now they've signed Van De Bekk) Davies at Everton? (Given that they've redesigned their midfield). Delph..?

I think how you explain it is how it played out. Ralph has said today that he wanted to give the players 3 weeks off in the summer, they needed a break. But that meant they had 3 weeks with zero training. Then most of our players had just 1 week training with the club before our first game (that's because of international duty etc). It doesn't take long, maybe 5 days, for an elite athlete to lose his top level conditioning if he steps off of it.

It's a fair stance, but it'll be taken out of his hands if Danny doesn't sign a new contract and he's on 1 year remaining this time next year.

I was surprised to see Leicester going after the Roma winger, Under - he's a really good player. Even more surprised when I saw it was a loan...! So, they are out there...just got to hope our new 'setup' is ready to do the job. It would be nice for us to back Ralph once and for all, he's been on a shoe-string here since day 1.

Redmond came in when we had Puel and it seemed as if every.single.player had been reprogrammed to pass back. Maybe he was scouted for specific Puel requirements? Not sure. But yeah, I agree, he 'wimps' out of opportunities to fully attack full backs. He'll often be in a good position and then turn back and it frustrates the living life out of me. Because when he does attack full backs, he can get to the by-line and produce something - why doesn't he do that all the time though? That's why Ralph keeps him in as there's always a chance he 'could' do that, but like you said he plays it safe. Feels like it was borne out of our Puel days. Hoj was exactly the same.

Lots of pressure on the next couple of weeks....definitely need at least 2, hopefully 3. Another CM, a couple of wide players. Then let's see where we go. I imagine we'll use the loan market.

Redmond is a strange one, if you look at him in isolation with his attributes he has everything Ralph wants in a player. Quick, pressing, energy in the attacking third. His problem is his pass selection and decision making, it's quite frankly awful. He'll sometimes have some purple patches where that will come good, but more often than not he will use his pace and pressing to either give the ball away or run into a blind ally. Frustrating, but you can see why Ralph sticks with him because of his attributes and what he 'could' potentially offer, could being the main word. The problem for Ralph is that he is hugely hamstrung financially, he has little to no movement in the market without moving players on first. I doubt we'd have had the money to replace long, he'd have gone for a free at the end of the day, so sense meant we kept him as an option. So if we can move Boufal on and use that money on a decent loan, it may work out. I've given up on Boufal myself, he's not a PL player.

It looks like we copied what we did in 'lockdown', as that worked well in a very unique and unprecedented situation. Basically, we got complacent, saw that what we did worked before and didn't bother to do anything else, even though in reality starting a brand new season is a totally different dynamic to coming back after 'lockdown'. We have done this so often over the last 5 or so years, we think we've reinvented the wheel and get all complacent and totally take our eyes off the ball. I thought those times had past us.

Is it me, or is Ralph sounding a bit pissed with the lack of numbers in the squad? He's got every right to, we've got nothing beyond that 11.

I'd be stunned if he was sold this window, that's not going to happen. But I fully expect this interest to have put a permanent pin in any contract talks, unfortunately. He'll be off next summer.

It's a strange one, we had the club saying how we managed 'lockdown' really well, and we've replicated the same situation this 'small pre-season' as it worked before, but that always stunk of serious complacency. It's a totally different scenario, it wasn't a break during a season, it was a stop and then a start of a new season. It looks like everyone got complacent and we are frighteningly underprepared. The squad is too small, even the manager is saying as much. Even Semmens has said he'd like to do more, but 'we know our limits'. I think the buck stops with a certain Gao and whilst he is in charge we will drift around in no mans land, hoping not to get relegated. Sounds like a laugh.

Shhh.

Nope.

Exactly, he's changed something. We can all see it. He needs to have a word with himself if he thinks that works with these players. Get back to what we had and scrap that line. So shit.

Worst 45 under Ralph, nothing in this half. Those guys need to take a long hard look at themselves, they've believed the hype and took their foot off. Shocking, disgusting attitude. The losers are coming back out to play.

I'll say again, what is up with our defensive line? We've changed something in pre-season from what I can tell and it needs to change back now.