S-Clarke

End of Stu's time here. But also, finally, after what feels like a lifetime - we've released Jake Vokins. Not sure where he'll go from here, maybe non-league at a guess. Simeu off as well - clearly a signing to help Tino settle in at the time, offered nothing long-term for us.

Sad end to his time here, but one of my favourite players in our 'less than stellar' period. He had an amazing spell under Ralph during the empty stadium games and start of the following season, he was at the peak of his powers and one of if not our best player. Didn't he hold a crazy record that we didn't win without him playing? Sadly time caught up with him and injuries and a gradual slowdown has enormously impacted his game. I have nothing but gratitude for all that Stu has given us during his time here, but I feel that this was a natural point to have a parting of ways and allow both sides to explore something new. I hope he gets a good move.

I think I always get a bit of excitement when a tournament comes around. I don't care much for the friendlies, but world cups or Euro's have resulted in some of my most memorable summers in my lifetime! I'm a bit of a footballer watcher in general though, so there's nothing better for me than 3/4 games a day for a month.

Yeah I appreciate that point, it makes sense - but it can sometimes be a bit of a chore watching! I agree that having Rice in CM is an amazing plus for us now, I think he's one of the best in his position around at the moment - with him deeper, Bellingham a little more advanced....it does look good.

I think we've had a decent period since 2018, final appearances, Semi finals etc. Better than what we were doing under Sven. I think losing a final on penalties is luck of the draw, I wouldn't call that underachieving. I think our attacking options are up there with the best, Saka, Palmer, Foden, Kane, Eze, Grealish, Bellingham (kind of) - it's a ridiculous pool of talent (I've probably forgotten one as well) Where we can't quite match that is at the back, so he's having to work with quite limited centre backs outside of Stones. Defensively will be where we come unstuck (if we do). I just hope Southgate can get the best out of Foden, Bellingham, Kane and Palmer though - the top 4 English players right now. My only criticism with Southgate is that he's quite risk averse, my feeling is that with the attackers we have we just need to go for it.

I think it's inevitable that opinions on him will be inflated because of his brother, he's no where near his level and likely never will be, but I still think he's a decent player. I think another season in the Championship could aid him though, let him become a star at that level first and then he'll have the pick (or not, if he flops).

Gomes Rodriguez? Yeah he could come through, but he is very young - only just turned 16 I think, but looks like he's 20. Be interesting to see if he gets involved in our pre-season this year, certainly has the build already for mens football.

I think he's on upwards of 100k, so you're probably right there. It depends on how much the player pushes for it, if he's happy to sit and pocket 100k for nothing then fair enough and RIP his career - but if he wants to get out and play and makes that clear to them, I'm sure WHU aren't going to keep a player who wants to leave.

I'd say getting relegated was bad timing, given the quality of those coming up....but I think this is actually a decent season to be promoted back. Everton have to sell anyone who moves before they can even look at free transfers, Leicester ditto and will be hit by up to a 15 point deduction. Ipswich are an unknown quantity and do need a lot more work than us, IMO, in terms of bringing their squad up to the level. Brentford are drifting and will lose Tony and Mbueno this summer, could be a difficult one for them. I'm not saying we don't need to strengthen, we really do and we will, but it's not as daunting as some are fearing in my opinion. The standard of the PL last season was horrific.

I think with Ings people can sometimes forget what he can do when he's a regular. At both Villa and WHU he has been in and out of the side, on the bench, unused sub, 10 mins here and there etc. He's a player who 100% needs games to build up momentum. When we first got him on loan from Liverpool it took him a while to get up to speed, he picked up a few niggles and didn't really set the room alight in his first year. I remember there being some debate if £20m was good use of our money to make his loan permanent. But once he played regular his injury's cleared up, his confidence rose and the rest is history. I wouldn't be totally against an Ings return, as a regular he knows how to score goals and he will score goals.

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.