Saint Pete

Hmmm, doesn't exactly scream "ready to play a role in a Championship promotion chasing team", does it?!

You do make some good points there, some of which make me feel a little better! I'm still nervous though with potential reliance on Dobbin to cover injuries or loss of form in Larin/Mubama as it feels like he is being badged as "all things to all men" at the moment. First, he was competition/cover for Azaz in the No.10 role, then when Edozie was mooted as leaving, it was OK as Dobbin can provide the cover in wide areas instead of him, and now he's our No.3 target man as well! He's trying to settle in at a new club which may take time and whilst versatility can be a valuable quality, I wonder if it would be better for him if Tonda decides what his best position is and then we stick with it and give him a proper chance to settle into the side in that role only rather than switching him round all over the place? I haven't seen enough of him yet though to know which position that should be. Other point is I still would feel more comfortable if we can find another striker with more physical presence to backup Larin, so it would be great if the academy lad can provide some of that in time.

Yes, like I said Saints protected their interests by waiting until the very last possible moment before offering him an extension (for the reasons that you state plus possibly that they weren't keen on triggering the extension in the event we were promoted?) And when we waited too long, he then looked after his own interests by seeking a longer deal, which Swansea (possibly stupidly) provided him. Not sure what the problem is there or why you are taking it so personally. "Loyalty" works both ways and in any case, I would have thought you would have worked out by now there isn't much of it about in football, particularly in the modern game! And by the way, I don't think he will be laughing about sitting in the treatment room again, I would imagine he will be gutted that more time is being lost in his career, no matter how much he is being paid.

... Yes, but the paragraphs are not usually mid-sentence! 😉

Yes, more than happy with Larin, he is up there with Zipotnik, Piroe, Jimenez, Lankshear, etc amongst the very best in this league. My point is about depth as Larin can't play every game and his good performances last season were arguably aided by having a good striker that could be rotated with him. Can't say I was "happy" with Archer, think the stats say he had 4 league goals, but worth pointing out he only had 11 starts (admittedly with a lot of sub appearances). That's not amazing but also not worthless for a 3rd option and compares fairly favourably with Mubama (2nd option this season) with 5 goals in 20 starts for Stoke. Of course, Mubama is young so let's hope we can bring him on this season from that, we certainly need to. I'm happy-ish with those 2, but I can't understand why we wouldn't want the extra insurance of a 3rd senior specialist option, which all of the other main contenders have. Some are touting Dobbin for that role so let's hope he can do that if needed, although it's interesting that the number of positions he is supposed to be covering has been expanding over the last week or so!

This one has been debated enough times. But pretty sure we also always had the option to trigger the extension at any earlier point, but we didn't do that for our own reasons. So each side did what they did to protect their own interests, fair enough, end of. In his case, he got a longer contract out of it, surely it's easy to see why he would want that security if someone would offer it given his injury record? The sympathy I have is on a human level, I would have same sympathy for any talented player who can't reach their full potential due to consistent injuries.

Yes, what we have is fine if we want to be an average Championship team somewhere in mid-table, potentially getting in the play-off positions. I thought our stated aim was to be challenging the top group that you list there though? Last season (back end) we had 2 strong "starter" specialist forwards in Larin and Stewart, with a viable (but not perfect) 3rd alternative offering something different in Archer. Could we not have achieved at least that to start this season?

I think that shows that most clubs choose to have at least 3 viable senior players in the key position of central striker, despite some posters making out that would be some kind of crazy idea. And certainly all of the ones who consider themselves to be auto promotion contenders.

Celtic have just signed keeper Sam Johnstone from Wolves so that's a potential route for him closed off.

Celtic have signed Sam Johnstone on loan from Wolves so that's another potential route for Ramsdale closed.

But with Larin, it's one thing to be weaker in quality without him on the pitch, but it's another thing to have seemingly intentionally left ourselves with not even a similar type of player to play instead of him?! We had a good thing going at back end of last season that we could alternate Larin and Stewart and not lose much if anything in quality or have to adapt our game much. Both players benefitted from keeping fresh and sharp and I think that was a major factor in our long unbeaten run. It was best that Stewart left us due to his injury weaknesses, no argument there, but we have failed to replace him with a similar type of player that can help Larin to stay fit and sharp. It's not just injuries that will hamper us, it is players becoming jaded/burnt out because we don't have enough viable backup options. I also don't really agree that having 2 senior players for the 1 lone striker position is enough in the same way as it is for other positions in the team. Playing as a lone striker is very demanding physically, which is demonstrated by the fact that we pretty much always substitute that player for at least 20-25 minutes, sometimes more. How many times has Larin played a full 90 mins for us, not many if ever? So, we need 2 strikers to play in that position every single game, which makes it different from say a full back where they will mostly play the full game and not require a sub. If we only have 1 backup for lone striker, it will only take 1 injury to have a significant impact, as the player coming on for the 20-25 minutes will have to be an untried youngster or someone else played out of position now. It seems unnecessary that we have left ourselves in that position, I can't believe we are that hard up after the sales we made and multiple forwards going out on loan that we couldn't afford at least one more loaned striker of the correct type to help Larin.

I feel sad for him really. He obviously doesn't get injured on purpose, it's just he is one of those players who has weaknesses in his body that mean he will unfortunately never be able to fulfil the potential he has. It must be so frustrating for him that whenever he seems to be progressing, his body sets him back again. That said, glad he won't be in their line up against us as we know the likely outcome of that!

Your post demonstrates how exposed the club has left us for striker options after the transfer window. We know the right thing to do is to give Larin a rest to avoid him burning himself out early in the season, but against this kind of opposition, the lack of a similar replacement for the departed Stewart means that he probably needs to go again. I agree Mubama looks like he won't be as strong defending set pieces and we also lack aerial power in midfield. But at some point, we will need to bite the bullet and see if we can manage without Larin starting. Maybe we need to throw the young lad in if he has more physical strength (won't attempt to spell his name at this point)?!

Affengruber now confirmed as signed for Fulham.

Sounds like he fully expects Ramsdale to still go, can't believe we would just leave him kicking his heels til January. But feels like we are penny pinching by not finding a more adequate No 2 than Long, hope it doesn't come back to haunt us. Also pretty much confirms we are not seeking a 3rd senior striker. Madness in my opinion, both decisions leave us on the brink of disaster with just 1 injury. Very frustrating given that otherwise I would say it has been a largely positive window, but these 2 gaps are glaring and really unnecessary.