S-Clarke

Good post, well summarised. The jury for me is still out on our perm signings, although I think Downes and THB will clear that issue. Not sure in what universe Ross would have ever been worth double what we paid though, he'd only ever paid 13 games above L1 level. We overpaid at £8m by some distance.

Martin confirmed Sulemana is out for the start of the season, couple of weeks out at least (not much loss mind, might put off any suiters though annoyingly). Mara should be back for the mid week game. Stewart may be involved in the game next Saturday, i.e. our last one - emphasis on 'might' and they'll have to 'wait and see' - what a see on what, who knows. He hasn't been able to take part in a pre-season for 2 years.

It's a bit of a stretch saying we've lost Rothwell to be honest. He was nondescript for us. As a number, yeah I'll give you that, but as someone who contributed we haven't lost anything. I still expect us to sign a wide player, a number 10, a proper number 9 and hopefully a goalkeeper if the blind spots are removed from those at the club. If those signings take until the final few days to get right, then let it take that long - these signings are being talked about as critical for us, which they are, so let us make sure we get the right ones and not jump early and miss a potential opportunity that only comes up on the final few days.

We're certainly not weaker, not sure where this is coming from as I've seen a few mention this. We're on par with the side that started the playoff final. If you think Brooks - we've got Charly back. Fraser, we've brought in BBD. I cannot get behind the notion that we are weaker, on par yes, but not weaker. What happens in pre-season friendly's is largely irrelevant, but I still wouldn't expect us to have all our signings done by Newcastle. Come the start of September I'd expect us to have a squad that can compete in the PL. Count me disappointed if we don't after then, but I'm not going to get all panicky before. Let's not also discount the guys we've already bought in, i.e Downes/THB - they have a chance to prove themselves as PL players.

And that approach was a raving success. They were still embroiled in a relegation battle, a massive squad of players who have never really clicked, hit by points deductions because of their spending and further sanctions on what they can do this year because of their daft approach. So, yep - please don't do that Southampton.

I don't know why people are so panicky at the moment. It's been absolutley evident that our squad isn't going to be finished before the end of August, it will go right up to the deadline. We were never going to have all of our requirements filled by the Newcastle game, there is not a scenario in the world whereby that was a possibility. We may need to roll with the punches a little bit over the first couple of games, but the messages I'm seeing about the club being slow, sluggish, losing their way, asleep on the market, penny pinching, only focused on Gozepte etc are just nonsense. (that's not a dig at you personally by the way, it's all the things I see over social media from so called fans) As has been said so many times, we will wait for opportunities in the loan market - top level players too - they will only become options and available as we reach the end of the window, the same can also be said for guys like Matt O'Riley - as we get closer, he may push himself, which will force Celtics hand (to Atalanta or us). I think we've had a really structured and sensible window up to this point, we got the early deals in we could get in, but we have to be patient to get the quality enhancement signings we are clearly still after.

I'd argue that it's probably easier, in financial sense anyway, to push Goztepe up to this level in a relatively poor Turkish league. Just needs clever scouting, not millions spent. It's much harder for us in the PL, where you're looking at a hundred million + to build a squad to compete for Top 4 nowadays - which we couldn't do even if we wanted to because of PSR. Just don't want to see this turn into an agenda where people believe SR are putting all their ambition and resources into Gozepte. They're not. They'll be putting the majority of their resources into us just for us to try and stay above 18th.

Sadly in this day and age the only thing that counts is the $$$$ spent on your first team squad and the quality of said player. Nothing else makes any odds, Sunderland/Sheffield Wednesday/Leeds are relevant examples of that in relation to club size. As it stands we have a proven Championship team, but unproven in the PL. THB/Downes/BBD/Smallbone/Armstrong etc may well step up, but that's what we're relying on outside of any PL level additions.

That's a shock, remember him as a big part of Leicester's title win. Always a highly regarded coach. RIP.

Easy peasy. Not sure why the club can't just do this tomorrow.

I don't think that's fair, Trousers is a very reasoned poster on here - one of the few. He just has the same concerns as the majority of the fan base I'd say. It's not a dig at the manager per-say, it's just what we all see in front of us with our eyes. We watched it last season and witnessed our weaknesses, which up to this second, have not been addressed. Put those weaknesses in a stronger league and those 66 goals conceded will easily hit 100+. You don't think McCarthy as a starting GK is a good idea do you?

Expectations are very low, as it often is for playoff winning sides, so like has been said we can go into games underdogs - anything is a bonus. I'd expect us to compete against our fellow promoted sides for sure, but based on squad depth currently, everyone else will be too strong for us. I don't want to become a 'yo-yo' team, but I have a feeling we may end up being one this year. But either way, if we go back down we start again from a strong base and strong finances from this season to go again. Maybe at that point we will no longer have a blind spot over our GK and ST signings, so we could start a PL season with a proper GK.

However we feel about it, that is simply never, ever, ever changing under this manager and the philosophy he follows. His is quoted as saying that if we make mistakes doing what he wants, he's happy. He's not changing that. We will need a new manager if we want to see another approach, which obviously won't happen. Personally we can do it - we just need a GK capable of receiving the ball under pressure, Bazunu was great at that to give him credit, but it's never been McCarthy's game and at 36 he's not going to learn that or improve at that - dead loss on that one. We will concede bucket loads of goals next season though, I think we should all prepare for that - need to ensure we score lots at the other end. In some ways it's commendable that we are sticking to our plan, but there does seem to be quite a lot of head in the sand/fingers in ears from the coaches when it comes to genuine questions of it. That will be Martin's downfall as a manger IMO.

I keep seeing this, but I don't see it. We're on par with last season's 11, maybe a tiny notch up with the BBD signing. Play off final - McCarthy, KWP, Bednarek, THB, Stephens, Aribo, Downes, Smallbone, Armstrong, no Fraser so we can field BBD in his position, no Brooks but Charly is back. So we can easily field as strong a team as we had in the playoff final for sure, no issues with that at all. But obviously we now need to see some better quality in the ST position, GK and Aribos/Smallbones positions.

He's way too loyal for his own good, it's a commendable trait...but it can also be completely ill-advised in some circumstances, and this is such a circumstance. I'd go as far to say that if we keep McCarthy as our GK, we might as well have not been promoted - as the season will be a waste of everyone's time. It scares the life out of me.

I don't expect us to start the season well at all, we will probably be waiting some weeks for our first win/points - we will be recruiting right up until the end of the window imo, so how we start at Newcastle will still be nowhere near how we look come September/October. I think we'll reserve our more impressive editions (loans) until the end of the month - got to be patient and roll with the punches up to then I guess.

Ronnie Edwards give away was absolutley due to a lack of understanding of who is around him, lack of communication, too near other team mates etc. Manning is seemingly doing the Stephens role, probably because Martin see's him as capable on the ball - but christ, you need shit loads more in your locker to play that role! Football isn't just about passing.

We have a weird blind spot when it comes to GK's though, the same people at the club did just offer him a new 2 year contract, with the PL in mind. The same people who extended Lumley's deal in Feb. Our GK ideas are incredibly confused and have been for as long as I can remember.

The positive is that it hammers down the need for a GK to all concerned within the club, just in case they were bordering on the 'club is relaxed about the situation and happy with McCarthy as first choice' lines. The club can't sleep on this one any longer. He shouldn't have really been given a new deal if we're honest. Real lack of understanding throughout the entire team though, which is somewhat understandable I guess.

I guess in a way they do also attract the wrong sorts of players - players seemingly happy to just take the cash and not at all bothered if they don't play lots. They signed a young CM from France last summer for around £35m, 120k p/w apparently, barely features in any capacity. Lavia slightly different because he's just been injured for a year, but even with the injury I cannot help but think he picked the wrong club. I think a combination of the injury and the club he's at will stop him ever fulfilling the potential he could reach.

I'd have argued we needed a striker if Che had stayed, but without Che we need two. BBD is a good start, he's more of a fluid attacker across the 3 I'd say - we do lack a proper number 9, I'm completely discounting Mara and Stewart as viable options.

He was equally well on course to win the same award in the Championship. I'd love for him to restart elsewhere, but we know that won't happen. His place will be kept warm by a filler until he's back fit, then we'll have to suffer his inadequacies again - let's hope we're prolific up the other end when he returns, as we'll need to be scoring 3 to win games with him in the goal - at any level.

Some odd bitter Blackburn fans there. One saying they wouldn't take him back! Laughable. Some players just don't suit certain leagues, we've seen it in the EPL many times.

What did Totton do to deserve him? In all seriousness, that's a pretty big signing for Totton.

Yeah, it's certainly been a different approach. We've still signed players with potential, such as THB and Edwards, but have supplemented them well with the likes of Charlie/Lallana/BBD etc - bit of know how in those areas (although how much Lallana plays is up for debate). Even look at pre-season and our fixture line-up, games against teams that make sense and slowly build up to the hardest tests etc - how we're approaching football things is making sense for a change, rather than it being solely focused on metrics, numbers, what we'll get for a re-sale etc etc - we're doing things based on footballing reasons in the here and now. I still feel we are planning a big signing though - that's why we've been pretty clever on our additions up to now outlay wise.