S-Clarke

Things starting to hot up now, the three relegated sides have been somewhat stable squad wise up to this point. We've got Dibling and Fernandes being circled. Ipswich now have Davis, Hutchinson circled. Leicester have Mads, Ndidi and such being circled. I think they've agreed a fee with someone for Nididi actually. It'll be interesting to see how all 3 look in September as we'll all look fairly different IMO. I'd say Ipswich are operating from a position of strength as they already had a solid team, whereas we need to rotate quite a bit of ours out.

It's all a gamble isn't it really. Forest spent stacks in the first season they came up, which is what pushed them over the edge - but it enabled them to be competitive. Sure, they survived by one point but they were in the conversation until the end. These days teams are relegated before Spring, so it's eroded any form of competition in the bottom half. If a team comes up and gambles a bit, says 'to fuck with PSR', they'd make the likes of Brentford and co very nervous I'd say. I just don't really rate PSR when clubs get around it by selling parts of the club back to themselves, there are loopholes everywhere that the very 'rich' and clever owners just scoot around all the time as they can afford the best lawyers. The Man City situation is a case in point.

Of course, it could just be that they’re… well-adjusted. 😄 Great, my cover isn't blown.

Honestly, they should stick your snippets up on the walls in the changing rooms pre every game to gee the players up.

It's not going to happen, they're going to escape it again. No idea why, but again it just puts PSR into context really. Next time we go up, just fricking spend and if we breach shit who cares. It's not hurt Forest in the slightest.

Early days, but at least it seems we don't have a club/manager/coaches blowing smoke up mediocre players arses anymore. Jack Stephens the only blot, but Still wasn't overly committing on Bazunu and with the news that Smallbone may be off it is suggesting the club are looking deeper than has been before. I hope so anyway. There's so much to do and only a few weeks.

That all sounds great. All very quiet on the Fernandes front in terms of 'specific' interest though, do the club have expectations that he will stay - and if he does, will they then go for 2x 10's do you think? All the noise at the moment is around Dibling, no much around Mateus.

As someone else said above, I think it's just media posturing. (and they are after a couple of attackers fwiw). The Dibling deal has gone too far down the line to not happen in my opinion. Given that he's training alone to avoid any contact injuries suggest to me that negotiations are active, on-going and probably intending to be finished rather shortly.

Yeah this is how I see it too, I don't have a problem with signing these up and coming unproven kids, but they've got to be backed up with some established players too. We did that last time out in the Champ in the form of loans, so we can do it. Charles for £12m and then Downes on loan for e.g is the exact balance we should be aiming for. Where we got it wrong was in the 22/23 window under Ralph. We just went too far with unproven kids, neglecting the need for quality established players around them (I can't count AMN as a quality established player). And for all that splurge, we got 1 good player out of it (Lavia) who was sold anyway shortly after as we were relegated. All rather pointless.

No one has said that at all. We don't know the plans, we don't even know if he's linked, it's just an opinion based on past windows that we prefer young/unproven, rather than the big fee established ones. I don't think they've even bid, so it's a bit far to suggest they're baulking at paying it based on zero evidence that we're actually interested. It's all hypothetical.

I would still class those two as gambles, very raw and untried gambles. We don't know. They may well work out from day one, but my suspicion is that Downs will need a little more time due to a limited pre-season. They are both unknown quantities, let's be honest. Quarshie for example has only played 20-25 games as a pro. He could be a superstar, but no one can say that yet. Fellows is the sort of tried-and-tested Championship player that you'd expect to come in and do his thing straight away, you'd know what he can do. Similar to someone like Hayden Hackney or Akpom for example, you know what you'll get from them - but because of that, they will always cost a bit more. Maybe towards the end of the window, when we've pocketed the cash, we can actually put some genuine $$ down on the table for some proven and established options.

I thought I'd stumbled back into the P&O thread again. Have we figured out if P&O Ferries and P&0 cruises are different yet?

That would kill that deal dead if that's the case. I still think Everton have gone too far for this to not happen, especially if Dibling is indeed training away to avoid contact injuries, it suggests that something is close - not just speculation.

Fellows is good, and a proper throw-back style winger. More so than Dibling for example, who tends to play more inverted and can float around. I'd estimate, with their new ownership, he'd command upwards of £15m though, he still has 2/3 years left on his contract. Not sure we'd push to that on individual players at this level, as it's not our style. But we should do, as it's those sorts of signings that make the immediate difference, not cheapo gambles from Germany. (imo)

I know Romeu met up with the squad in Girona, but if we was at the training ground last week then he'd have had to fly back with them which would have been odd. I took it that he was pretty settled out in Spain with his family, pets etc. I'd be surprised if he comes back, he may be at the training ground, but the more likely conclusion is that he came back here for a holiday and is just linking up with old people at the training ground. The club allowed him to move back to Spain a few years ago because he wanted to return home for the later years of his career. Rather inexpiably though, as the City Group are all intertwined with Girona, we used Romeu's move there as leverage to get discount on Larios and Edozie. Genius.

I take it positive that things are quiet, I think we've been leaky in the past - but we seem to be working professionally this summer, not just for media clicks and club propoganda on targets. We all know they've done that in the past to appease the fan base, then they come out with a ''well we tried'' statement. We will 110% add players, we will lose players too. The better players with the better value come available in the closing weeks of any window, whether that's loans or players we looked at earlier all of a sudden becoming more affordable as clubs panic that they haven't offloaded them. We'll have lots of options I'm sure.

Ah we're firmly in silly season, already at the point where posters make up nonsense on internet forums to try and sound ITK.

We've lost Lumley and Ramsdale so far, so almost certainly we'll bring another in. I don't see it as third choice, second choice or 1st. Just target a good goalkeeper and then let him battle it out with Bazunu. McCarthy is fully squad keeper for me, emergency cover if required. It's about the competition for Bazunu, genuine - not just squad fodder.

That's how I see it, I've never questioned their intentions as I think they're pretty aligned on progressing us given the money they've invested, it's just their execution of pretty much every major decision has been awful. Had they got the big decisions right (probably starting with the Jones appointment), and continued to put the money in, we'd have been in a good place imo.

There has been a lot of criticism over SR, and rightly so, they've been awful.....but the one thing I can hold them in good light for are the sales and what we get for players. £50-60m for Lavia, 35-40m for Tino, £35m for JWP, £20-25m for Tella, £15-20m for Sullemana(!!!!!!). So we're never short changed or pushed around by selling clubs, not sure where that view has come from. I have full confidence that they'll get top, top dollar for both Dibling and Fernandes - if not, they'll stay. Simples. The entire model of their operation is a sell-to-profit setup, so this is one thing they have to be good at - and they are.

I guess he's got form for shirking off, as he did mid-season when his boyfriend was sacked. I hope that's not the case again and he can get his head down, but if there is the remote possibility that he's skulking around then we've got to shift him. He's not that important to us that a good scouted replacement wouldn't be able to fill.

Why would any decent team want Suguwara after last season though? Weird. I have no idea what any top outfit would have seen last season that would make them think ''Yes, that's the guy I want playing for me in the Champions League" He's got a hell of a lot to prove.

Yes, using 3 may be a good opportunity to extract the most out of the options we have. I've never felt comfortable with Stephens in a 3 though, he's even more confused about his role in that sort of setup. There is part of me that just wants to return to a normal back 4 though.

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