HarvSFC

I think Edozie is one of those players who we're now trying to move away from. Technically gifted, but lacks physicality. He did have a good run in the Championship before he was crunched, but then never really came back and didn't exactly boast great stats in the Belgian league last season. One of those who could do well at his new club in France, but I think his time here is done. Still disappointed we lost Amo-Ameyaw to Strasbourg, but Shields has at least helped us back by taking Mara and Edozie now.

And there was James Trafford right next to them for £15m.

But, a minority of posters confidently told us all that Ramsdale wasn't rated at Premier League level, and he's going to a Champions League club? If Ramsdale is going out on loan, then surely we're going to go into the loan market for his replacement as well? The loan probably stops us from signing a permanent replacement. However, it doesn't stop us from getting a one year loan ourselves. We can't go into another season with Bazunu and McCarthy. We tried it last season, at Premier League level hilariously with the hope that McCarthy could keep the position until Bazunu returned from his injury, we quickly found out it didn't work and we panic signed Ramsdale for big money and uncharacteristically high wages from SR. If we do the same, we're going to need another panic signing, or give up on the autos. But, the hope is that Spors has a long list of goalkeeper targets, as this Ramsdale news hasn't come out of the blue and I imagine he's one of the ones Still has mentioned has been open about leaving. The Stephens new contract was a red mark on the new decision makers this summer, surely they have a contingency plan for Ramsdale's departure. Incoming new McCarthy two year contract, or Bazunu gets one.

Yeah, we've never had a good defence involving Jan Bednarek in it, not even in the Championship two years ago. He's been the best of the centre-backs for some of it, but it has been a very low bar. Of course, he has had a redemption after the Villa interview and refusing to play in our biggest game of the season against City in the cup because Poland were playing a week later. However, Bednarek has been taking up a squad place at this club for years now and we could do a lot better. I don't think he'll get much game time after the first month at Porto.

A small sample size and it is still only pre-season, but searching for positives this summer and at least Quarshie and Downs now have shown glimpses of talent on the pitch. After a number of years of signing 3 or 4 duds for every 1 good player, maybe the Spors scouting regime is better at identifying talent.

Damn was just about to come on and say how grim a display it was and how there wasn't a single positive going forward. But, we make one quick forward pass at the end and Downs scores it from an angle first time. Shows he has something and we need to sort the service out behind him, because he had nothing else to work with after coming on. We didn't get many clues from the pre-season squad, but today was quite telling with the lack of minutes for some with two weeks before the season's start. No run out for Bazunu, or McCarthy again, although they're keepers, so probably slightly different there. Sugawara didn't get on the pitch and played very little in midweek, so probably not going to get many minutes once the season starts, which is good because he is more of a defensive nightmare than Stephens. Neither Smallbone, nor Aribo got on the pitch today either. Two of our most lethargic players in the squad, so possibly not endearing themselves to Still. Sesay was picked ahead of them. Kayi Sanda also an unused sub, needs a loan to League One. You'd hope these players who aren't getting minutes will start to actively seek moves elsewhere, rather than seeing out their well paid contracts.

Still waiting for these high pressing, high intensity tactics. But, I've been waiting for them since Juric promised them, so who knows. I know a lot is said of the records of our forwards in the Championship, but Adam Armstrong also struggled and we struggled when Che Adams wasn't up top as the hold up player. I think it's showing again, as none of the forwards at the moment can hold the ball up and are just running down blind alleys continuously. Bring Downs on at half time, I want to see what he can do. Onto the positives, Quarshie is looking good. Charles looks good. Add Downes and by some miracle we keep THB and Ramsdale, and our defence is looking fine for next season. Just going forward. We need that attacking midfielder Solak promised before the window and before the sale of Sulemana.

"TransferRoom is taking football’s transfer market into the digital age and making football transfers easy." "When selling a player you want to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible." Can we get anything from Ankersen. Get on the phone to his brother, because we're still finding football transfers hard. We just want to find one potential buyer for our deadwood.

Newcastle announced their Singapore squad this morning before all the Isak news came out. Their official line for him was "Alexander Isak misses out with a minor thigh injury". Now and since, it has been quite well reported why Isak isn't going on the trip. Just to add to the theories for ours.

Rates Koeman as his best manager, Pellegrino as his worst. They were one year apart here. How Les Reed and co got it so wrong after 2016 is impressive in itself.

Not the most encouraging display. Saw a lot of what we saw last season, many passengers in the team when we don't have the ball. Castellon worked hard the full 90 minutes and when we had the ball our players had no time with it, were being swarmed and being forced into making errors and misplaced passes. When they had the ball, our players would stand off, gave them time to do what they wanted to do and dictate and they also attacked direct and with pace, which we didn't really do. Can't play like today against Wrexham.

Build-up play has been nice. Shea Charles definitely been my favourite player to watch so far this pre-season, just looks so comfortable in the middle. Add Downes next to him and Fernandes in the Fraser position today and it's looking exciting. Bazunu's also had a good half, pulling off three or four good saves. The front four is just where it's lacking for me. They're all quite similar in that they all have the same weaknesses which stops them from causing consistent problems to the opposition. They're lacking in pace and technical ability. This has meant that Bazunu has worked a lot harder than their goalkeeper has. Hopefully Robinson and Edozie can add a bit more dynamism to our attacks in the second half and Stewart can provide the hold up play that Archer just can't. One other positive is that we're also mixing it up from goal kicks. Should have always been the case. The overly predictable, and every team knowing we were going to play it short every time has gone.

He did. Wolves very nearly signed him last summer.

I'd definitely side with this. If we have to make one big sale this summer, although you could argue that Sulemana surprisingly became our big sale this window, then it'd be Dibling of the big three. I think he's the least suited to a Still team of the three and while his ceiling is probably the highest of them, his form from Martin's sacking was the lowest and I'd say there are still question marks over him fulfilling that potential. So, if we could get a good fee for him, allowing us a bit more financial strength in keeping the other two, then I think it'd suit. But, then last time we sold Livramento, Ward-Prowse, Lavia and then Tella. Getting good fees for all, but didn't allow us to keep any.

I just can't see how you can defend Martin after the inept setup he took us into the Premier League with last season. We had a lack of quality, but we could have at least put up a fight, if he put any effort into fitness training.