Saint Pete

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.

No, he wasn't the answer. But leaving ourselves with just 2 strikers and only 1 genuine target man wasn't either!

It seems totally unnecessary that we would leave ourselves so light on strikers after we had so many on the club's books. Not saying I was desperate for the likes of Archer, BBD and Downs to stay, far from it, but I can't believe we would let all of them leave plus Oyekunle and Stewart, with only Mubama, a relatively inexperienced youngster coming in to join Larin. We must be working on something surely, but we shouldn't have let all of the above leave before we had secured at least one more to come in. As it stands, I think it's very likely Larin will be burnt out by Christmas with so little backup.

What's he gonna do if Larin does his hamstring in the next game once the window is shut then?

I agree with all that, just think we may spoil it by skimping on not getting adequate cover for Larin up front. We have Mubama who so far seems to offer something a little different from Larin which is fine, but just 2 senior strikers is asking for trouble. But there are still a few hours left, hopefully we are working on something if only another loan.

Downes fit and starting, that's good.

There's still a chance he may go before the other windows across Europe are all closed, but it is oddly quiet on the rumours front.

I don't think folks are suggesting we should spunk £20m on a striker just that we are asking for trouble if we go into the season with just 2 senior specialist strikers.

Absolutely. Which is why we should hopefully be ensuring we get another body in today who can play upfront, especially if Archer leaves. Preferably one who can hold the ball up and allow Larin to rest.

Sad to see him go, but can't begrudge him this move, he has a great chance to make it in the Prem now with such a good manager showing faith in him. Good luck THB.

It wouldn't be ideal, better to get a replacement in and let him go. But that replacement needs to be fit enough to do a job, which doesn't seem the case with March.

Well, let's hope one of our 2 strikers doesn't get injured before January then! What could possibly go wrong?!

Yeah, there must be better options out there (or just keep Edozie as our backup if we genuinely can't find better).

It's good work that we look like we have found homes for all of Downs, BBD and Archer, but as Stewart has gone and we chose to loan Oyekunle out as well, I cannot believe we would seriously come out of the window with only 2 specialist senior strikers. There's the obvious risk of injury to our main man in Larin, but also even if he avoids injury, playing as a target man over a long season is hard work and he is no spring chicken. He looks great at the moment but we need him to still be sharp in the depths of winter and crucially in the run in later on, and that's where you need enough decent options to come in and give him a rest. He will not and should not be starting 46 games or near that, that's for sure. Also, tactically, we may be happy playing a lone striker right now, but we surely need to have options to switch to 2 up top if plan A not working for a while? We could do that now (with no injuries) but then our first option off bench would be a youth player. Very threadbare and not really the squad you want if serious about promotion challenge. Surely Spors must have a plan?!

Yep, he will have been pissed off that we turned down those £4m offers for him from abroad as reported yesterday. Fair play that the lad just wants to be on the pitch now.