S-Clarke

I'd imagine Sims, Hesketh, Jones and co will all leave. Decent careers in the lower leagues I imagine, but they'll never make it here. I know someone will probably post about Sims being the answer to all....but he's not going to make it here, I think that much is obvious.

I certainly feel their fan base have been deluded into believing he's someone he's not. It's not helped by those completely inaccurate sky sports articles either. I imagine you'll see him with Lo Celso in midfield and maybe Winks? That all feels a bit samey to me, might be wrong...but I can't see Mourinho lasting too long there, his methods and approach to the game are dated.

Not sure I'd target an AMC type as our priority. Probably more of a box to box midfielder if we add to that area.

That's what a lot of peoples issues are I think, there have been no real clarifications. I think the clubs hands are tied with more wide-regulations and decision making as well. 1) How many fans will be allowed in 2) how that will be decided 3) what happens if you're not allowed in and you've paid full price for a season ticket? 4) Process for refunds..? I'm fairly sure they will refund back matches you don't get 'allowed' to go to, similar to how they gave money back from last years ST. But I don't know why there's no confirmation of that yet and that's why people are a little uneasy (including myself!) about shelling out upwards of £600 when you don't know what you'll get for it.

I can't see them using that logic, there are usually many reasons why people wait until the end to pay. Doesn't mean they're less entitled to special treatment than the ones who renewed early, would be a crazy move that makes no sense. As much as it makes sense to leave it as late as possible, I honestly don't think there will be any real clarification on plans until we go into September, after the deadline. It's a gamble to renew for sure, initial outlay and then not having a clue if you will be allowed to go or not. I just want this all to go back to normal and have us all in the stands again, we've been let down massively at home as season ticket holders for the last 3 years, so it's a real shame that after all home misery that we weren't able to see our win against City.

Name from the past.... Not sure how much we would/wouldn't pay back during that il-fated January? I remember when we sold Virgil there was lots of bluster from Reed and co feeding the media 'We want Theo, Sessengen, Promes...''. We wouldn't be forced into overpaying for Promes etc. We ended up with Carrillo and paid 19m for the privilege. The worst transfer window in my memory!

Lots of really good English right backs at the mo. Pretty stocked in that area for years to come, he'll find it hard to get in a squad imo. Trent, obviously. Walker - still decent. Trippier, Aarons, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Reece James who looks really good. He's come on the scene at a time when there's lots of comp, he could certainly play for England but I think there will be higher profile players in the pecking order first.

Yeah, it was a bit odd. Just hidden right at the bottom of an arrival. The club were making such big noises about keeping both deals separate, yet they plant his departure on the same article as KWP's arrival! Never mind, no drama. Will be kind of interested to see how he does at Spurs, but I'm not too bothered.

Maybe he's had some family tragedy and he's taking some time out? It sounds a bit of a strange thing to post though. I don't have instagram myself, so can't see what's happened previously. What have his previous posts been like?

Happy to up my subscription fee if needed so you can purchase more backend resources, I'm sure others will agree as well. I don't want to lose a good community here, but it's going to die very, very quickly if it carries on like this.

Probably the most obvious signing we could have made at RB! Glad we didn't miss that one, seems like a financially sound deal too. Not the crazy 15-20m prices that were banded about only a month or so back. Salisu next...

At last. Saints have quite conveniently hidden his departure confirmation right at the bottom of the KWP piece. Parking the bad news 😉 Although, I wouldn't say this is particularly bad news. Sky sports did a piece on him and said he could add what they've missed since Eriksen because of his forward penetration. Are they having an absolute giraffe? That is why reading stats and stats alone is a very, very dangerous game. I think they're in for an incredible surprise when he sits foot in their stadium.

There needs to be some sort of investigation into Carrillo and Pellegrino. Something seriously dodgy going on there, and whilst we're at it sue him for £19m

He didn't really rip up any trees there either did he? He may have in 1 or 2 games, but generally he lacks application to be consistent. That's why he's a lost cause and there is no hope for him in a Ralph team. I'd be surprised if clubs are willing to spend cash on him because of this, so it will probably be a loan at the back end of September to a random lower European league.

If they announce it all at once, how is this forum going to cope??? It'll be down for the day!

It's weird how the club haven't announced anything yet. Sky Sports confirmed we'd signed Salisu last week, nothing from the club yet. No doubts at all that these are both done deals, it's just odd as to why the club are keeping it so quiet.

I heard a rumour that there were serious considerations to 'pause' the completion this season, as well as the 'Checkatrade' or whatever it's called now.

Stats are stats, but I've watched him in every home game for the last 4 seasons and he infuriates me and bores me senseless. One of the prime reasons we have been so awful at home. We play more progressive and positive without him in the side. I can't say I've enjoyed him at all.

Yeah I think he is also another reason why we won't buy a 'Hoj' replacement. Lots of good things heard about this guy, he turned down some big clubs to join our academy and we seemed to shout it from the rooftops when he did sign. He is very highly thought of, maybe our new midfielder is already under our noses.

I reckon we'll start to hear a lot more in the next week or two, they're due back for training in about 14 days I think! That's when stuff will start moving I guess...

I kinda get what you're saying, there is a huge reliance on Ings and a long-term injury to him and our season is pretty much in tatters. I hope Adams form wasn't just a purple patch, but there are still elements of his game he needs to improve on. But you certainly wouldn't loan Watkins back, if he was an unproven/young player from L1/L2 - maybe, but this is a guy ready for the PL...he'd be straight in most bottom half teams squads.

No, I didn't mean Kat - I meant Gao, utterly awful owner. What did I expect him to do differently? Speak...? Tell us what his intentions are, show us some plans for what he wants to do with us. All he has done is sat back, left the running of the club to other people (there may be advantages to that, for sure), not invested penny and saddled us with the most dodgy of sponsorship deals in history. The team have got themselves playing well, we've got a good manager for sure, but the backdrop is still the same as it was - we need a change at the top to really do anything other than hover in the mid-table/relegation places. I don't want us to tread water and it just feels like that's all we'll do until Gao goes.

Possibly, but it does feel like we're totally strangled at the moment though. We couldn't even bring in KWP until we'd shifted out Cedric, so we're even dependant on money from players leaving to bring in a loan. We had to sell Targett before we could get Adams last year. We're waiting for Hoj to go so we can then pay for Salisu and KWP. Are we in financial ruin or something? It's a sad state of affairs really.

It's such shit timing that we have such a good manager in charge of us when we have such an horrific owner, it feels like a waste. A tiny bit of ambition and we'd be laughing, but no, sell, sell sell before a penny is spent. God forbid we actually spent something we didn't generate ourselves from a sale.