S-Clarke

Downs paired with Archer does have a nice look about it. Archers best season came when he played with Akpom, a powerful striker, which allowed Archer to make the runs in and around. It worked quite well. That would require us going '2' up top though, which doesn't seem very fashionable these days.

Didn't he reject Burnleys contract offer and leave them, as he had interest from higher up? (Not just English, but Foreign leagues). There's no chance he ditches Burnley in the PL to drop back down to the Champ.

Oh christ, yeah - I forgot about ABK - so we have stacks of CB's on the books! Defo need to shift 2 IMO. I think Sanda would be the easier player to accommodate that 5th floating CB role, it's probably a bit unfair to stick Wood in that role as he's at an age where he really needs to play - so he's probably best to find a club as a starter.

I disagree wholeheartedly, the fact he came bottom of the GK stats last time out in this league puts him more of a 4/10 at best GK for this level. Stoke have a good GK in Victor Johannesen, in fact they bought him for just under £1m. Sensible, no frills, no risk signing. We'd be able to get better than Bazunu on a free - Matt Ryan for example, so I don't buy the ''to expensive to improve upon' angle. Maybe I'm overly harsh on him, but I'm only saying what I see in front of me (not just stats). Talking of scar tissue, I've got it from Bazunu I'm sure.

Robinson and Fraser are probably the only wide players we currently have.

Number 10, wide right and wide left. But if they're clever, they could buy one proper '10' and another player who could play multiple positions across the front 3 (versatile winger type). Certainly the attacking area is the priority even without selling anyone else, so it's interesting to see what they do. 3rd GK - surely 1st choice GK CM and RB are probably nice to haves and depend on departures, i.e. if Smallbone or Bree leave. Although to give us a bit of cover it wouldn't be unreasonable to have another CM. So potentially 3-5 new players? (taking us to a total of maybe 7 for the window) That's not asking for much, but they all need to be starters - that's the key.

Or Edwards, he showed up well last season and could represent a profit if sold.

I hope something happens with Wood soonish to be honest, as whilst we are overloaded at CB it makes me uneasy that we may look to cash in one one of the better ones - and see it as bonus income.

You do make good points, we have lurched from one 'style' to the next without any forward planning or understanding. The issues of the past still haunt us and it has all been very chaotic, but I'm still in the zone of giving the new setup a chance as we've not had a revamped 'scouting/analysis' role like this since SR have been in. Yes, we're lurching back to another style of play again...but I always think this style (Aggressive/powerful) is more beneficial for smaller teams anyway, if smaller sides try to be tika-taka it only ever ends one way. Let's see what situation we sit in next summer.

Wood seems to be the odd one out in all of this - maybe he'll get a move before the end of the window? We've also got Sanda who the club rate (fits the profile of Still/Spors). Sanda would make sense as the floating 5th squad CB, moving between U21's to first team as required. Cheaper too.

I think £35-40m is a standard price these days, yep. If clubs aren't prepared to go there then they're not paying the going rate. It's the standard going rate for PL players really, and having PL experience adds another £5-10m to that price. Because we never shopped there is why we're now where we are. We spent lots, but on lots of sub £20m - which just bloats the squad, with maybe 1 or 2 gems in and amongst.

Oh absolutely, especially the first half I thought Downs was way too isolated. But it just highlighted the lack of attacking options we have across the 3 (10, wide left, wide right). We need at least 2 across that area, 3 if we're being really ideal. We can't go into a season with Fraser and Archer being our wide options, or even 'false 9's' as Fraser played during points. He'd get eaten up and spat out doing that at any level. Fraser can be an asset to us, but only as a sub. If he starts as a first team player for the majority of the season then we've cocked up recruitment imo.

What part, the losing of them or replacing? Seriously if we lose those 3 and don't replace, we'll finish below Top 10 - guaranteed. It'll be a mimic of our season in 2005/2006, and Still will be made the fall guy for an inadequate squad. Genuinely the club aren't that daft though - they can't lose the amount of attacking depth we had (which wasn't even great, let's be fair) and blindly go into the season without replacing. It would be negligent on levels we 'eve never seen before.

My fear is that any bump during August is going to be greeted by a chorus of ''get him out'', as we've all been conditioned for many years with shit managers and the expectation that cycling through them mid-season is what we do. Genuinely I think in this instance we simply have to allow him the time and space. He's shown he's capable as proven in France, arguably more of a calibre than Martin was when he joined us. Juric 'could' have bene good, but the massive issue he had was inheriting a team that had absolutely no ingredients to play the way he wanted to. This is the initial problem Still will face - so we have to stick through it, allow the squad to evolve around him with the right sorts and hope we don't fall too far behind the likes of Ipswich.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that. I thought I was maybe being ultra harsh, but it's another case of coming away from a game, conceding multiple goals, and wondering should Bazunu have saved or got to at least 'one' of them.

Expected and probably the right move for all. Not sure he's the right sort of player for a high intensity team in any way. With Edozie, Aribo and likley Fernandes all offski....we are going to get some exciting new additions in the attacking areas!

Victor Udoh joined the U21's, don't believe he's been involved in any first team squads. Probably will end up at Gozepte. The link to Balikwisha was fairly quickly shut down too, I saw that rumour but straight away another came out saying we have zero interest. Who knows! Silly season is upon us.

In a weird way it's kinda worked in our favour in the transfer front, he'll get no takers this window due to his injury. So at least we can count on THB this season, which will be less Stephens all being well.

They've entirely re-laid the pitch this year I believe, they had some support from an out side company and there's lots of new tech involved (I think). Looked ok to me, certainly not like the 'disease' ridden days.

It's all self preservation about him. Some people get suckered in by his ways, but he's the most egotistical person there is. It's his way, no way, if you disagree under the bus you go to make way for my ego.

Where does it say £30m is fairly certain? I'm sure I've seen everywhere that it's £40m and no less. a £45 package will seal it, we've pretty much just dumped their £30m offer.

It seems as if a couple of pre-season games is being taken as gospel that Bazunu is good enough, he's had 3 seasons of varying degrees of league standard and he's been shit across all. (he let in 2 by the way, a more agile/taller keeper would have probably got a hand to at least one). It was another one of those Bazunu games for me, no clangers but you're always left wondering ''should have have got to one?'' - probably, yes. Pre-season is pre-season, doesn't mean diddly squat. We will unfortunately without question start with him during August, which is a right old mess once again, but as long as we replace him before the window and demote him to backup then that's fine.

His way of playing is totally flawed, maybe he'll get it one day. His teams just allow too many shots and let in too many goals, there is an enormous tactical error in how he coaches football teams. Way too easy to break against, MK Dons, Swansea, ourselves - it's always going to be the same with him.

I really wish the club wouldn't treat us like idiots by proclaiming Fernandes is 'ill'. Everyone plays from the same script, it's pretty cringe.

First half was mostly more of the same, quite passive and easy to play against in the main. I wasn't too impressed with Quarshie for either goal, I thought he stood off and didn't really commit. He clearly has pace/power and height, of which will be big for us this season - but he just needs to be a bit sharper and less passive in his defending. We lacked width in that first half IMO. Two poor full backs who offered nothing, and a striker (Archer) entirely out of his comfort zone and not impacting the game at all. Fraser as a 9 was really weird and I never, ever want to see that again. Second half was much better once the likes of Suguwara and were Wellington introduced, energy and attacking intent, ability to overlap etc - made a huge difference. Robinson drifting around in front was a threat too, a lot of this is because opposition know little about him - so he can sneak in like he does, but he did cause more problems than anyone else in that second half. I really liked Charles' performance though, a real box-to-box display from him. Good on the ball, good breaking up play - pretty much everything. He's a good player and always has been, just really poorly used by Martin in our last Championship season. Edwards too is exactly what you'd expect him to be - a very classy and cultured centre back, makes the game look easy. Archer, imo, was utter utter trash. I don't know if it's confidence with him or that he's simply not fitting in with the right players here. He's not a wide man that's for sure, but even through the middle I thought his game was off. Downs was pretty quiet too, he's got a real presence about him, but I thought he was a bit subdued overall. A good comeback though and an enjoyable second half compared to the first. I still don't think much of what happened today will really make any odds once the real season starts, for either ourselves or Brighton, but it's nice to be going into the Wrexham game with a tiny shred of positivity at least.