Smirking_Saint

To be honest its again backing up what Ive been saying in the great ‘I wish we were Leicester’ debate… Iheanacho is worth more than that, but Leicester are desperately trying to trim a wage bill pushing them further into the red and are having to cut adrift players that ‘could’ make a difference at cut price deals

Not sure I understand it but this it Boehly’s Chelsea after all

I can’t see McCarthy starting for a team looking to play a possession based system tbh

Rumour was we had strikers lined up but Semmens fucked up the negotiations Summer was a shitshow all round

Because he is a good coach, its his transition into management thats been the issue

You still havn’t managed to make any semblance of a point tbh Leicester have lost 1 starting AM, 2 CBs and a couple of squad players with arguably a market value of 100m+ for 40m and have replaced them with… checks notes… Harry Winks and Conor Coady… they’re also widely reported to be absolutely skint… man I wish we were Leicester Edit - Their squad depth is also absolutely woeful and includes players either ageing or injury prone (or both) and their better players only have a year left on their contracts… they’re genuinely an absolute mess and absolutely HAD to make quick early signings that aren’t necessarily going to be the best available

Well… to an extent you did… you’re literally going round and round in circles and failing to land any significant point to be honest… we aren’t and shouldn’t back down on our asking price, potentially by smaller margins but almost certainly not at almost 50% of what we value our players at, thats just daft And how do you know ‘we’re missing out on potential targets’ ? You’re literally making stuff up now, unless you genuinely believe we were in for Winks, Coady, Tom Ince or Ashley Barnes… none of which we’ve been linked with anywhere in the media

In what way do you not know what point I’m trying to make ? Its pretty obvious ? Im not sure there is any clubs, unless financially stricken (of which ironically Leicester are one) that initiate a rushed firesale in order to understand squad set up… its dumb….. for a start you undermine any negotiating position that you had, both buying AND selling as you’re effectively informing the market place that you’re under pressure and secondly you’re operating on a lower budget As for Leicester, they’ve lined up targets because they have too, they had two fit CBs and 1 reliably fit midfielder who is technically more of a forward operator… they lost Tielemens for free, Madisson under value and likely Barnes too… what they have remaining is ageing and injury prone and widely documented on high wages… Leicester are a mess and yes have done a decent job trying to firefight so far but Winks is a player nobody around the prem wanted last year and ended up stinking out the place at Sampdoria and Coady has been bombed out by two teams battling relegation so im not really certain what quality actually remains There really isn’t a need to stress, we will lise players but we obviously knkw what we need to bring in and who to sell and where our value lies… moreover as Ive said before and clearly is correct SR are happy to bankroll us for atleast thus year.. we aren’t the Southampton that has to sell to survive any more… Leicester however are.. hence why Im not at all envious of them

If all else fails blame it on the MSM

So what do you suggest ? We roll over and accept low bids to get it out of the way ?

Winks doesnt even improve them massively… I like Coady but there is as much cons as there are pros to that transfer overall, likely high wages for a CB deemed not worthy for a relegation scrap in the prem and who can only reasonably operate in a five Doyle looks an astute signing though agreed

You’re quite jealous of a team that is losing its best players ? Including 1 on a free and most of the others are ageing entities on a high wage ? If I was them I’d be more jealous of us to be honest

This isn’t how the transfer works though, especially for any lower ranked clubs and even more so for a recently relegated Championship outfit It appears we are comfortable sticking to our guns, there or there abouts as far as our asking prices are concerned but if you think clubs, us included, just walk into negotiations and pay the first fee without any negotiating then you’re a fool The window is open for another 2 months, there is absolutely no rush for the likes of Newcastle etc to conclude deals early unless there are competitors bidding, in fact we have far more pressure but realistically it doesn’t do us any favours accepting lower bids It would be great if we can, like you say, tell them if he isn’t sold by X date then he won’t be sold but unfortunately we don’t hold the strongest hand here Regardless though Id expect Lavia, JWP, Che, Onuachu and probably atleast 2 CBs to move so we know we need to bring in 2 x CMs, atleast a CB and a Striker and I’d fully expect us to be working on it

I very much doubt it too, which is why I said somebody like The point still stands though

I find myself in this camp, I like him, think he’ll do well.. but realistically makes sense to cash in and fund someone like Piroe/Gyokeres

A Rice/Lavia double pivot will be incredibly solid

I hate how the media phrase it… “Newcastle threatening to walk away” as if they are doing us a favour Pay up or shut up.. you have the money Eddie

No.. just my own conjecture

If its just training I question why he wasn’t allowed to carry on here

Ive been away for a few weeks but I absolutely wouldn’t be surprised to see him do well at Reading He is imo, and from what I hear a very likeable and talented young coach, unfortunately this job was just too much for him and he was too friendly with the players Given a chance somewhere like Reading he could do well, depending on the level of expectation there of course… he clearly needs to work on his management but overall I think there could be a good manager in there in a few years

I think regardless of overall squad shape we probably need a striker and a CM A striker because we’ve been searching for one for a couple of years with no real luck and despite my opinion that Che ‘should’ do ok this year Id feel a lot more confident with a Gyokeres or Piroe A CM because Martin will likely line up with 3 midfielders and so even in the unlikely case that we start the season with Lavia and JWP I feel we’ll look to bring in another, probably Grimes unless Swansea play absolute hard ball

Yes and no… he’s a good solid, experienced CB but you effectively have to play him in a back 5 I would have liked to have him around the place almost certainly but there’s no point in moving for him before we know the shape of our back 4 over the next couple of weeks If either Salisu or ABK stay then signing Coady would have likely been slightly redundant

How do you know I havn’t read enough of both sides ? Pretty arrogant to think Ive not just because I don’t agree with your way of thinking

My point is… until we know IF the likes of Prowse/Lavia/ABK/Salisu/Tella/Sulemana are definitely leaving then there is very little point buying replacements because; 1. They are on significant wages 2. If they remain they will likely form the backbone of the side as they are ‘arguably’ as good or better than any replacements we can get It sort of leaves us in a bit of a situation within which we don’t want to force a move, we want the best money available but also we need to know where we are so we can plan accordingly As for the whim of the manager, this is why we’ve needed the joined up thinking Ive been asking for for so long, and hopefully we’re getting this year

In what way ? I am slightly concerned we’ve seen no incomings so far but the only players we’ve lost so far are Ely and Orsic… so incomings will be heavily dependent on who we lose over the next couple of weeks I really couldn’t care less about the signing of Winks, he’ll be ok at this level but there’s a reason Sampdoria weren’t interested in making his loan permanent Coady I would have liked but there’s plenty of evidence that suggests he can’t play in a back 4 so Im not convinced it would have made a lot of sense for us I’d be far more concerned if Piroe goes to Leeds or Leicester