S-Clarke

I think he's the sort of player that's really important for us to keep, it sets the right tone. Technically he's brilliant, touch, movement, upper body strength - he can be frighting on his day at the top level, I can't wait to see him against lesser players with more time. I hope he has the right support around him to advise him that a season with us, in the Championship, is going to be 1000000% times more beneficial to his career than sitting on the bench at Spurs. It might not be better for his pocket, but he's young enough to still have ample opportunity to earn that big move. From our point of view and sell on value, yes, we'd lose out if he doesn't sign a contract - but he still wouldn't walk for free, we'd have a player with 1 year left and still a British premium on him. I'm kind of looking at this from a pure footballing point of view rather than finance, I couldn't really care less if we end up having to sell him for less in a year, if he can help us in the here and now then we'll make up for his drop in value with tons of promotion prize money. (hopefully)

Suguwara really struggled last season, I think the PL was just a bit too steep a step for him at that time. His touch was never tight enough and his position was always miles off. His lack of awareness of his surroundings really troubled me, but I think a lot of that was just down to pure blind panic. I still think he's technically capable in the right surroundings and almost certainly better than Bree in those regards, this will be a good opportunity to see him with a bit more time and space on the ball. He did offer some good deliveries in games last season, but they were few and far between as we so rarely had the ball or got up the pitch to cause a threat. In the right team with the right structure, and support around him, I think there are attributes to his game that will make us stronger at this level.

That should cover any impending PL fines re: their dodgy goings on then! Easy job for them.

To be fair, Bednarek has a fixed £6m release clause right now. He won't be cheaper at the end of the window, he'll still be £6m and if clubs don't pay that I suspect we'll keep him as a first team player. He's not a great player, but £6m for an International CB with over 100 PL apps, under 30, is pretty much bargain basement stuff anyway.

At the top, top level I'd agree, we certainly had him during his peak years. We got lucky as we had him relatively injury free and at a time where he was as quick/mobile as he'd ever be. Never quite been the same since really, and because he's flittered in and out of the team at Villa and WHU he's never quite gained the full fitness he requires so he's just picked up knocks every week. Now, if he can get the game time regular at Boro and gain the required conditioning then he will undoubtably score goals at this level - but he's definitely on the wane as a player. I enjoyed him whilst we had him at his highest level.

It's an optimistic view for sure, but the clubs haste to offer Jack Stephens a new contract suggests to me they're content with the overall 'level', but want to reduce the bulk.

I don't adore the stats, don't get me wrong. I made the point underneath that though - forget stats, I watched him with my own eyes in our PL season and our Championship season and he was truly, truly rubbish. I'm never one to play the 'in spite of' card, but we certainly got promoted in spite of Bazunu. No doubts about that. His presence contributed to us never truly being in the auto race.

I think it's well documented that Martin's teams didn't 'train hard', it was more around energy conservation by retaining the ball. Obviously at a higher level when you can't keep the ball, you need to run harder, but we never could. I'd say we have some unprofessional players in the mix too, as they don't seem to have pushed themselves since he was dumped in December. There will be some players who simply won't be able to handle the intensity, it won't be in their makeup as we were built for pass, pass, pass. The two signings suggest the profile we're looking at, but we really do need to shift a lot of our existing as it's still a right old mish mash of a squad that will struggle.

I mean the stats aren't even borderline, they're pretty conclusive. That's why I just don't understand the view that some have in that he's ''fine for the Championship'' - surely everything on record suggests he's the worst option for a Championship club? Stats are stats and not always the full picture, but even with my own eyes I can tell you (and most fans) that he is an absolutely horrific goalkeeper and he lacks the right attributes to ever contribute at the top level. That's not bias, that's not agenda driven, it's come from having to watch this guy try to keep goal for 2 seasons for us. I'm sure he's a good lad in the changing room though.

But even saying he's good enough for the Championship is a stretch, if not a total lie really. He was the worst keeper by a margin last time we he played in this league. I'd be depressed if I supported Hull and he signed for us. (well, there are many reasons to be depressed for supporting Hull tbf - but that would tip me over the edge)

I heard that Ramsdale was keen to set up in the South of England, he wanted to put some roots down here. That throws that out of the window, looks like Sunderland is almost done. £25m, big chunk off the wage bill, and some decent time to get ourselves a good keeper to replace him. Don't be clever Saints and proclaim he doesn't need to be replaced, as you will lose the fanbase on mass.

It was just a training game, but to be fair all we've played for the last year are training games. At least we won this one though. Not much to read into it, we've got a hell of a lot of shit to shift, which we know. Interesting to see where we are in September.

I don't think it's most of them, it's all of them. A really odd strategy. They simply have to start the season well up to December, if they don't they're done.

How on earth can Stewart be ahead of him? The guy has barely played in 3 years, just because he had a few caemos at the back end of last season doesn't mean he's now ultra fit. He will very likely miss huge chunks of games this coming season. For me Stewart is the last one in the pecking order, we cannot rely on him. Armstrong was never best as a 9 through the middle for us anyway, he was more of an inside right forward (or left). Potentially you could have BBD and Armstrong on either flanks, with Downs through the middle after time. I wouldn't put Archer through the middle on his own as I think he works best in a pair, his best season came when he played alongside a physical player in Akpom at Boro. Maybe pairing him with Downs could work.

And the cynic in me tells me that's exactly what the 'powers that be' wanted.

It's always been a thing, but like you say the window of opportunity is now smaller. 6 months to a year of your best players from a good season, pretty much all you'll get from them. No chance to build a team, no chance to evolve a squad - not without stupid money or the ability to fudge the books by selling parts of the club to yourself to get over PSR hurdles. Forest did overachieve last season, so ideally they'd have used this window to fill some gaps and add more quality to the existing - but they won't get the chance to do that, as the focus will be on just trying to stand still. PSR, FFP and all that rubbish has ruined football as we know it basically.

It's what PSR has done sadly. It's just hindering the lesser teams, it's created the most uneven playing field I've ever seen, when supposedly it was supposed to make it fairer - but I think they all knew what they were doing when PSR came in tbh. The smaller clubs have to hire accountants to work out what % of this % they can spend, but the bigger teams just get stronger as it's all based on commercial revenue and income. (or they can sell off parts of their organisation to themselves to make money - I mean wtf?) I don't really know what the way out from this is, but for promoted sites they simply have no chance. You can spend upwards of £200m and probably still go down on 20 odd points. The PL is broken and PSR has done it.

No chance, the club aren't that stupid. I see a lot of people saying that 'Bazunu is fine for the Champ' - but what are they basing that on? Last time out he was statistically the worst keeper in the Champ, so I'd suggest he's probably the last guy you want in goal.

Agreed, I don't trust our squad yet. Doesn't fill me with much confidence, the drop down from our 'better' players to the squad players is way too big. i.e Ramsdale to Bazunu, THB to Wood, Dibling to Fraser. We need to balance that quality out.

If they truly think any of that, then we have no future under the current ownership and management model and they need to go. That would be sending us to L1 at a very alarming rate. I don't think that's the case though. We will replace Fernandes, THB, Ramsdale if they were sold. You can't lose your best players and complacently fall back to your squad players and expect to be competitive. I'm sure they're not that daft.

They're all over Petrovic at Chelsea. He won't be going to Bournemouth.

Service is still running and streams are functioning, but they're AWOL so if you need to renew then it's dead. They've had a good run tbf.

No, he's the player. Who stepped on the pitch last season and screwed the team over by being totally ill-disciplined. That's where I'm judging him, as an on the pitch influence, and he is so poor. I'd be totally perplexed if we sold Bednarek/THB, didn't replace either and ended up with Stephens as first choice all season, that would just about finish me off.

The leadership and 'good to have around' angle is being played a lot with this one, but can we just rewind a bit and remember the squad he managed to 'lead' and 'inspire'? One of, if not the worst ever top flight team in history. That is not showing up top leadership or inspiring quality what so ever, in fact it shows that either no one really gave a shit about what he said if he was really throwing a rocket up people last year, or he didn't really do anything and was passive (which is just how he plays) He has had some pointless personal abuse directed at him, which isn't really needed - but it's all born out of frustration really. 99.9% of the fan base know he isn't good enough for where we want to be, he certainly shouldn't be the one 'leading' us into this new era that's for sure. As others have said, it's put a huge dent in the new setup before they've even really begun. We needed ruthlessness this season, not more rewarding failure and mediocrity. If we continue to do that, we'll be in L1 before we know it.

Probably not, he was one of the least culpable towards that though!