S-Clarke

Liam Delap was mooted.....there's a loan there with an option to be had if we want it. Amad Diallo at Man Utd another shout if we wanted more attacking depth. Rico Lewis (Man City kid RB) is available for loan, we could do worse than to grab him for a year if we lose KWP.

The loan market is massive for me. We were experts at that last season, our use of that is primarily the reason we got promoted. Let's try and replicate that this year. (minus a Holgate)

If it was a choice between Charlie Taylor, De Cordova-Reid, Fraser and Lallana on free's.....or £80m on exotic names such as Sulemana, Onuachu, Boufal and Carillo I think we all know what we'd prefer. They don't sound sexy on paper, but more often than not these are the ones that work out (As we are experts at finding out). I remember when we signed Long and Bertrand under Koeman, seen as massively boring at the time but they turned out to be excellent additions. Stu Armstrong, Oriol Romeu, Ings on loan etc weren't seen as sexy additions at the time we got them either, but made our big money signings of the time such as Lemina and co look shit.

Don't forget Ryan Fraser, he's pretty much a done deal I'd have thought. He'll be a strong option for the left, then De Cordova-Reid for competition on both sides. Fraser, Edozie, SAA, Armstrong, DCR - that sort of depth with no transfer fee outlay will be pretty clever IMO.

I quite like Charlie Taylor, a bit of a boring but pretty solid PL addition for me. When Burnley had their European season a few years back I thought he was outstanding, he always stretched their left hand side and provided some great attacking width. He may have slowed down a little, but he's full of experience and the sort of mentality you need IMO. Not a 'sexy' £40m signing by any means, but a sensible addition in our circumstances 100%.

I do see what you are saying, but I think it was too few a sample of games to really come to the conclusion that we've entirely ditched that. I think we did what was needed at the back end of the season to get us over the line, so we'll probably see a revert to the 'brave' approach next season. My biggest concern with this isn't that he will be our number 1, it's that the club are continuing to put all faith into Bazunu. This was the opportunity to replace Bazunu and fall on their sword, but by signing McCarthy it's clear we're just waiting for Bazunu to come back which is just bonkers.

There was talk of De Cordova-Reid if he didn't agree to a new Fulham deal, looks like this one may have legs if the above is true. Good free signing if we can do it, have always liked his directness.

Entirely possible, but maybe we'll pull out a Boruc style free transfer after the window has closed - once it becomes apparent that the GK's aren't up to it. (as we saw with Kelvin when we last got promoted, so had to act out of desperation once the window had closed). Our management of goalkeepers has been diabolical for so long now. We might all be wrong and we have a number 1 up our sleeve about to sign, but I think we've been here before!

First glimpse of Football Manager 2025 along with what we can expect from landmark new version - ReadWrite Tiny glimpse of the UI. not sure how legit this is. Couple of other notes of things they are removing from the game this time round.

I think we all know how this ends. This is our GK until Bazunu is back. Totally bonkers, completely backwards decision. If he hadn't come in for the last handful of games last season (he didn't even feature on the bench for us for 90% of the season) then he'd have walked off into the sunset on the released list. Somehow those handful of games have convinced us to give him a first choice PL contract for 2 more years. If he was a squad player then fair enough, but we all know deep down that he is starting next season and we won't be signing another. Lumley and McCarthy are our two GK's at PL level. At this stage we might as well have stayed down.

Absolutely this, it's not as if we're about to offer him a 6 year contract. It's just a fair reflection of the targets being hit and and like you say, you'd expect a bonus upon that. Keeps everyone committed and happy and doesn't tie us into anything monster-length.

But what if he just wants a fresh start and a move back to London? It's entirely feasible that an all money can buy offer wouldn't tempt him as he fancies a fresh start, and we may well have had that discussion with him. He has earnt a new start wherever he feels fit in my eyes. He gave us an extra year last year, it was ridiculous to have a player of his level in that league. He goes with my blessing. Now it's up to the club to ensure that we get the replacement bang on and don't end up with Bree starting.

Sorry should have clarified, I meant in terms of outlays transfer fee wise. I still expect us to get a Striker, but I imagine it will be someone in the loan market towards the backend of the window (if Adams leaves). If Adams and McCarthy do re-sign then I can honestly see them sticking with that (not that I'd agree with it). I think we're making use of the free market up to now, so I expect us to make equally good use of the loan market at the end of Aug.

It does sound like this move would help appease a lot of the PSR nonsense. I don't think we have the flexibility to put down money on the table for Downes outright and then sign a replacement for KWP - so including KWP in the Downes deal will free up the funds allowing us to get the RB replacement. I think Charlie Taylor coming in on a free, Ghoddos on a free, Fraser on a free, Downes in a swap and Sugawara (however you spell it) as a replacement for KWP will be us done. Still massively short up top and in GK though, but without a substantial sale or two more (i.e Charly or Adam Armstrong) we're a bit stuck. It's a clever way of getting two new players for the price of one in PSR terms really. It's just a shame we have to get weaker before we can get stronger.

Oh for sure, don't disagree with you on that one either. Think he needs replacing too if we're to offer any competitiveness at PL level.

I like it, feels like one of the more believable leaks. Shouldn't be long until we see it.

Bree was better for that little period in Dec, then he got injured. When he came back into the side after that he was horrifically bad. His performance at Ipswich stands out for maximum level incompetence. He was perfectly ok for a squad backup as a Champ team, but if we're honest he should be nowhere near a PL squad. He was signing to appease Jones, much in the same way Carrillo was signed to appease MP. Let him head off to Charlton or something.

Oh for sure, the majority of the Friendly tours are for revenue (advertising, fans, sponsors etc) - zilch to do with fitness. It was the same with the stupid friendly Newcastle and Spurs had, against each other, in Australia, a week after the season ended. Make that make sense.

Saw something online yesterday that suggested Liverpool and Celtic have missed out on McCarthy as he's signing a contract with us. They were going to sign him as their backup keeper, or at least squad keeper. (that's the story anyway). If that is true...then he will sign with us to be first choice, as painful as that is to say. He doesn't turn down the opportunity to be backup at Liverpool or Celtic to be backup here. I still hope with everything that it doesn't happen (thanks for McCarthy for what he did at the end of the season though - but that's where it needs to end for me, on a high). The clubs goalkeeping decisions over the last 10 years have been absolutely bonkers though.

Yeah, they're basing the odds on the side of the draw we're on. Very fortunate to be fair. We even lucked out by missing Holland, Slovakia haven't been great tbf - one of the worst third place teams. Italy, potentially, in the quarters will probably be our undoing though.

I thought the competition started off pretty well, the first round of games at least - but you're right in that it became more turgid as teams saw how others had done, and realised they didn't need to exert themselves a great deal due to that third place best of rubbish. I was surprised when I read that only one player has 3 goals so far, and that's a Georgia one. The final rounds of games in all groups, bar the Austria one which was great, have been bore fests.

He's a bit of a superstar to be fair, I think last year he was linked to Bayern and Real for in excess of 100m euro. He will be one of the most expensive players when he leaves Napoli. Georgia do have quite a few good technical players though (and their GK), so they've hit a bit of a sweet spot with their generation right now. Probably more obtainable for us is the Watford player they have, Chakvetadze - who has been pretty tidy too. (never seemed to be that good whenever I've seen Watford)

That's a wonderful start. It'll be fun watching this playout, they'll be in for a rude awakening. I notice a lot of pundits have them as finishing top 12, but I look at their squad and I can honestly say I don't know any of their players. I knew of Ipswich's players, ditto Wednesdays, but I just have no idea who half of their squad are. Just randoms.

Don't excite MLG This is just for the fan zones outside of the Northam.

Yeah I don't quite get this logic either. We had the easiest group in terms of team rep in my opinion. Serbia are a bit shit, Slovenia bar Sesko are utter fodder. Denmark aren't what they were in 2018 - but we've struggled so badly against all three. It's not inconceivable that we could have drawn with Serbia, lost to Denmark (based on the game) and ended up on just 2 points. (That would have been the fair outcome imo). The logic that we will somehow now turn up against Holland confuses me. We were lucky the three we've already played didn't have the quality to really punish us, once we face that quality there will only be one ending. This is flowing very similar to the 2010 world cup in South Africa. Two shitty draws against USA and Algeria I think, the final group game saw us booed up and Rooney slagging off the fans etc. The logic was similar then...facing Germany in the last 16, you'll see the best of us then etc etc. We were utterly trounced. It's going to play out the same here, and it won't even need to be a team of Germany's level.