S-Clarke

He'd only done 6 months at Championship level pre-injury though, we signed him based on that and with a pre-existing injury. It was a daft move that backfired exactly how everyone knew it would.

What has Sulemana done since we signed him to warrant a £15m fee? Irrelevant what we paid for him, we had our pants pulled down as per Carrillo by another French side. When you think of standout Championship players like Clarke potentially fetching £15m, there is no way Sulemana is going to attract a bid anywhere near. If we got any permanent offers for him it would be £5m tops in my opinion. We wouldn't sell him for that as we want to protect our investment, so players like him will only ever go out on loan. Ditto Onuachu and ABK.

Water under the bridge and all that, what happened happened - he acted like a dick, the club acted like sour bitter pricks as well. No one came out of it well, but we might as well move on from it.

He moved to Girona after us, featured heavily for them and done very well as they continued to build. Then Barca came for him in the following summer, obviously just as a squad player, but it was a nice round off to his career. He would have added a lot to us in the season we were relegated, a rotational role with Lavia (and he'd have played as Lavia was quite injury prone)

And amazingly the Everton fans were happy to see him go, as he hadn't quite 'done it for them' in his second season. Banter club.

£15m is a decent price for him. No, I think he was a sale that happened under Cooper.

Clarke was on fire in the first half of the season, but then Sunderland tanked and that was that. He'd be worth a shot at £15m, very classy player when they done us 5-0 at their place. Tore us apart. Another couple of picks I like, Sara of Norwich and Rodon who was at Leeds - a real classy CB. A 4 of THB, Bednarek, Rodon and Stephens would give us a decent foundation for the PL imo.

I think our loan signings were the success stories this season, and by all accounts they weren't 'club scouted' options - they were managers picks and/or DoF (Wilcox) setups. Fraser - Martin knew him well, manager pick. THB - Wilcox setup. Downes - Martin knew him well, as well as his coaching staff. Manager pick. Brooks - Wilcox setup. Of the signings that were more 'club wide' based on scouting etc and not based on any specific manager relationships, it's a very poor show. Charles, Stewart, Holgate, Rothwell. The jury is still totally out on our recruitment under SR imo. Like you say, it'll be interesting to see what we do this summer and who we actually lean on for the recommendations.

I think this is actually a decent season to be promoted. Everton by all accounts are getting another points deduction, Leicester's is pretty much confirmed too. Both of those sides will be forced to sell their key assets before they can even move. So straight away you'll have two teams potentially starting from negative figures, with weaker teams than they have today. Throw in a financially screwed Forest, and a quickly declining Brentford and 4 of the bottom teams aren't as daunting as it could have been. The one side I'm interested in is Ipswich - as a squad I think they're on par with Luton in respect of them being a 'team' rather than having any standout individuals, but the manager factor may just give them an edge - maybe...but it'll still be tough for them given the lack of top level quality in their squad. As long as we make a decent fist of our recruitment then we should be fine imo.

I remember us being pretty ruthless on our last promotion. Out went Sharp, Hammond, Harding, Chaplow, Butterfield, Connolly - all either loaned or let go, all pretty big components of our rise through the leagues (including our club captain at the time). It does need a bit of ruthlessness when you're shaping a squad for this level, loyalty isn't always the best direction to take.

I wouldn't put it past them.....they did sell Lukaku for £30m, then signed him back for £97m and didn't play him. They are special when it comes to transfers.

It was an obligation transfer based on a set condition, which was promotion. Toby's loan signing was with an option. As soon as promotion was confirmed the automatic obligation was activated, which lead to us paying man city £20m and getting him to sign the contract he'd have agreed at the initial loan last summer. The loan signing announcement at the start of the season confirmed all the details. Not sure the club need to tell us anything, it's all out there to see already.

A loan or a perm £5-10m tops, no more than that. A good 6 months for us and a decent loan in Holland before that, but nothing since. He has had a really, really bad injury - a career impacting one. No idea if his pace/power is as good as it was previously, so I have no idea why Chelsea think they can get £30m for him. His little stint at Fulham couldn't have gone any worse, I think Fulham even had to pay a penalty clause to Chelsea as he didn't play enough games when he was fit - he was that bad for them.

I thought it was a great loan when we got him, sort of player who could be a game changer for us in the second half of the season. It didn't quite work out that way, although he did have some really, really big moments - just not the standout moments we hoped for. Gutted he got injured in the final. Overall a decent loan, just slightly less impactful than I thought it would be. He always came across as someone playing as an individual rather than for the entire team.

Technically he's a really gifted footballer, I just don't want to see him as the deepest CM. As long as he has protection around him he can be a real tool for us further up. I'm looking forward to seeing him in the PL next year, I think he's got the talent to do well in that league.

Don't WHU always want someone higher profile? They flashed their bits around in the summer trying for Ruben Amorim, but ended up with Lopotegei. From a natural pov I think they'd be nuts to give away Flynn, a proper fan of the club, a really good footballer - could build a decent PL midfield with the likes of him, Suceck and JWP - but like you say, they will want 'high profile' for no real reason other than an ego stroke. I obviously hope that happens for our benefit, but I think we'll have to be very patient for Flynn - end of August is when this will move if it does.

Absolutley it can be done, I genuinely think SAA could play a part - I hope we get to see him. Not sure we have many others who are truly ready for the mega step up, but the thing with academy kids is that one often comes from nowhere and catches everyone off guard.

Nice to hear from him, he seems a decent bloke and someone pretty trustworthy to me. Forget the stuff Rasmus has cocked up, I think Dragon has been fairly consistent in his approach and has funded a hell of a lot of his own fortune into us. He openly admitted to not knowing a great deal about football, so all he can do is provide the funds and hope others make the right calls. Regarding the stadium plans - it will be way down the line of the 10 year plan he speaks about, maybe one of the last things in that plan. This isn't something that's happening today, tomorrow or next year - we're talking years away and lots of established time in the PL to back that up. With clubs like ourselves we are only ever a single bad window away from relegation again, so we have to be careful - priority for the next good few years has to be squad building.

I still believe the Lallana deal will be more focused around coaching, that's what he wants to get into now. He may be registered to help in and around the squad if rqd, bit like Theo's role in that sense I guess, but primarily I see him as a coach for the academy, working with Drew and co - who may occasionally appear in first team training and first team squads to add a little extra at times.

Not really, they're all a bit naff. I'm waiting for the ''Behind the Scenes' one the club puts out for that, should be an epic watch.

He came in around Christmas time didn't he? He was a bit part in the first part of the season, but made the place his own since Dec. He's not playing what I'd say he was signed for either, he seems really effective for us in that 8/dynamic 6 type role. Very strong and his use of the ball in tight spaces opens up so much for us.

Another vote for Dave, he's great. Never has a bad thing to say. No idea what fabrice thinks he's achieving though, I find it odd when people trawl forums to look for posts which turned out inaccurate, without understanding the context at the time. Everyone has said daft things, my finest moment was proclaiming Ely would be a great signing as he's quick. Doesn't mean it should be trawled up to score points though.

Yeah I think for our 'style', he'd be shown up a bit. We need good technicians who can pickup the ball in tight spaces and move it on quickly, one of PEH's worst attributes is passing so he'd be totally wrong for us.

I think he's coming in as a coach, he's not coming in playing capacity as far as I'm aware. He'll join Surman etc in the academy former player cohort.

I think I've watched every possible highlight package this morning - ITV's, our club one, Sky Sports one, Leeds United's one. It never gets old. It wasn't a memorable game in terms of quality (these Playoff games never are), but when you're on the right side of a result you're just addicted to rewatching it.