HarvSFC

The Greek player's stats other than last season are pretty poor at both club and international level and we've been stung a few times by these one season wonders reverting to type, especially when they join the Premier League. No chance we should be spending over £20m on him. We were linked to a similar Greek player three years ago in Giorgos Giakoumakis, who had one breakout season in the Eredivisie and in 2024 he's playing in Mexico. If he does sign we really need to hope that our scouting and recruitment has improved from recent years.

https://streamin.me/v/7a2f1d32 Here's the goal, Che will not be used to attacking at pace.

Beach, the goalkeeper who left us for Chelsea is appearing on that graphic of their hundreds of players lately. 20 years old and just joined Crawley on loan. Jimmy Joseph Jack John James Morgan doesn't even make that Chelsea graphic, behind their hundreds of strikers. He's 18 and they've signed 18 year old Marc Guiu from Barcelona for their first team this summer and Samu Omorodion is joining from Atletico Madrid, 20 years old and £35m. So, he's got some tough competition. Whereas, if he was any good, he'd definitely be getting a look in ahead of Mara now. Max Alleyne is getting much, if any of a look in at City, either, now 19. Dibling came back and he's now looking likely to feature in the first game against Newcastle following a strong pre-season. We haven't get much of a pathway here anymore, but there are still more opportunities for first team football here, if the player has the talent to breakthrough.

Now starts the links with the European footballers. I don't believe Sugawara and BBD, although started in England are the only talented and affordable players looking to play in the Premier League from Europe. We just need an actual scouting department for once.

Adam Blackmore Gakpo'd me again. The bastard.

Where's Charles? Good to see KWP back, will be a positive to have him next Saturday.

Two years ago we signed six players before July 26th and then didn't sign anyone else until deadline day. That day brought in Caleta-Car, Edozie, Larios and Maitland-Niles. Last summer was similar, Manning and Charles signed in July and then Downes, Fraser and Holgate late August with Harwood-Bellis and Stewart signing on deadline day. So, a pattern is forming now that we're more active than we were previously. Got to have a better end to the window than we did two years ago, though. Hoping for an Alderweireld and Mane deadline day. Remember that one summer when the window closed before the season started, but again, the big clubs didn't like it.

Remember the summer Joe Shields was in charge of transfers here... Squad building isn't his thing. If a player is available, come on in.

Point still stands, but I'd have put Wilcox down as the one who got Harwood-Bellis. But yeah, a lot of our signings last season had links to either Martin or Wilcox. Manning and Downes, managed by Martin at Swansea. Charles, from the City academy where he worked with Wilcox. Stewart, Martin wanted to sign him for MK Dons. Fraser, former international teammate of Martin's. Brooks, from the City academy with Wilcox. Then you have Holgate, Rothwell and Lumley, who were all pretty poor. This summer, our main target has been O'Riley, who Martin managed at MK Dons, we've signed Wood who Martin managed at Swansea and Lallana was a nostalgia signing, although there are rumours it's to keep his son in our youth system. No obvious links between Taylor, Edwards, Sugawara and Brereton Diaz with the leadership at the club and we've of course signed four players for Goztepe in Matsuki, Juan, Welington and Takaoka. Time will tell if there may have been better alternatives to these across the globe when the season kicks off in 9 days time.

Never actually see footballers go for it, especially not in a friendly. Fair enough. Alcaraz looked really bright tonight too, moved the ball forward a lot quicker than what we saw for a lot of last season, but that hot headedness isn't going to endear himself with the manager, unfortunately. Probably not helped him fit in with the Lazio team either, if they were interested...

Did that a lot in his highlights video. Nice if he brought it out against Newcastle too.

Stuttgart bid £25m for Undav from Brighton. So, they may have money.

The day was looking pretty miserable and then Adam Blackmore came in to save the it, similar to when he said Gakpo had agreed personal terms a couple of years back... Finally confirmed what we all know about ABK. He wasn't up for the fight last time and was part of that divided dressing room which played a huge part in sending us down as the players clearly weren't fighting for each other under Hasenhuttl, Jones or Selles. Please can somebody take him, he did at least seem to have some talent even if he is a dick. A lot of players we sign do cite Martin and the football we play as a key reason they joined. Could just be nonsense to fill up interview time, but if his relationships with Carvalho and O'Riley get us them then I will struggle to criticise him in the future. Both would be big signings for us. Surely Leicester aren't going to get Carvalho, too much money and they may be starting on minus points. Plus Martin shits all over Cooper in the looks department. I'm not too sure on Dubravka, Newcastle fans don't like him a lot. He's probably better than McCarthy though. Interesting note the experience on benches. Before the window opened I was interested in Tom Heaton. He still looked good for Manchester United when he played a couple of games in 2022-23 and was taken to the Euros this summer, so clearly a good influence to have. Would have been a good mentor for Bazunu. But he's signed a new deal there. A few other bench goalkeepers: Obviously Ramsdale, Kepa, Kelleher, Steele (been linked), Johnstone, Fabianski and the legend that is Scott Carson, best job in football. Might also be worth keeping an eye on Neto's position depending on what Bournemouth do with their goalkeepers. We could pounce like they did with Boruc. But, yeah, lets get O'Riley and Carvalho in! We missed something in our attack last season, whether it was a clinical edge or really putting teams to the sword despite the amount of possession we had and these two would be huge help in strengthening a weak area.

Yep. Can't talk about being a "bigger club" when buying a star player from Celtic, who are a bigger club than us. Bigger club stuff is nonsense anyway. All players and staff care about is where the clubs are at right now and who can offer the better money.

Sara's been sold to Galatasary for £20m.

https://x.com/AdamBlackmore/status/1820081286062424291 The last bit of Blackmore's Tweet... "O’Riley would no doubt love to play in the PL …and if a player or two goes the other way on loan, good for all parties." So, which two would you send to Celtic on loan? Shea Charles is the one that has been reported and would make sense. He needs more game time and the Premier League would be too ruthless/unforgiving for him to learn his trade. Shaw, or Lavia, he is not. We would need to replace him with a more senior head though to backup Downes. I think the other would be Alcaraz. Again, talks of him leaving, but I think his true value has plummeted after last season. Put him in the Celtic team and hopefully he excels in Scottish football, adding a few more million onto his tag. Worked with Tella, who became a £20m player from his time at Burnley. I think other possibilities would be Dibling/SAA and I know they're flavour of the month at the moment, but I would like to keep them around the first team this season.

https://twitter.com/worldsoccertalk/status/1819886902083826050 Carvalho scored against Manchester United last night and has generally looked good for Liverpool this pre season with Slot giving him a chance. A couple of other previous window targets/links in a similar position have also looked good in pre season this summer. Diallo at Manchester United and Bobb at Manchester City. These are the ones who will probably become available on loan at the end of the window.

Dibling's the Rothwell replacement.

Not too disappointed at missing out on Moukoko. His agent seems a bit of a knob and he's got a whiff of Renato Sanches, Moise Kean and Ansu Fati over him. FIFA wonderkids who do nothing in the Premier League, in real life. He'll probably tear up the French league, but it is the French league. Marseille are spending a lot of money this summer, though.

Keylor Navas is the free agent to look at. 37, one year deal. A big part of why Nottingham Forest stayed up two years ago. Was close to signing with Monza, but that's apparently collapsing.

We were linked with Wright before he moved to Coventry and when we were last in the Premier League. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11654941/Southampton-bid-8-6million-Antalyaspor-USA-striker-Haji-Wright-short-11m-asking-price.html He's another one who can't take penalties, though. Karma.

That's the biggest drawback with Smallbone in that he can't play on the turn and in the Premier League he becomes a lot more predictable and easy to defend against for the opposition.

Wouldn't be the worst thing if Oxford score a couple more to really rub in the need for a goalkeeper. I'm not a paid analyst, just merely a fan, but God knows what these guys watch to think we can start a Premier League season with either Alex McCarthy or Gavin Bazunu (if he wasn't injured) in goal. Been a big blind spot/the club have tried to be too clever since Forster's big contract. McCarthy's like a cat, minus the reflexes. Every time his contract nears its end he has a handful of good games and then gets rewarded with a new deal. Had so many lives. Come on Martin, you didn't think he was good enough for 90% of last season.

One thing that shouldn't be underestimated is character and leadership. Last time we went down the dressing room was severely lacking in these areas and reportedly had fractions all over it. But, Luton had both of these attributes last season and they were the best of the three to go down, despite on paper looking the worst. Blackpool, Burnley, Stoke and Bournemouth over the years have also stayed up through having leaders, characters and a tight squad. Even in our most successful days of recent years we used to boast the black box, which identified good characters, rather than just good footballers. Looking at our business this summer, which prompted my original post: Lallana, our former captain and hugely experienced Premier League footballer. Probably more use off the pitch, but again will help stop what happened last time were here. THB, here last season, captained the England youth teams, a leader at just 22. Taylor, not a Bertrand or a Shaw, but he is a solid and experienced Premier League footballer. We had Maitland-Niles at left-back a couple of times last time. We needed an upgrade on Manning and have done that. Edwards, England youth international and captained Barnet youth teams when he was coming through there. Wood, yeah, I'm not too sure, but he knows Martin and vice versa. Got to be better than Holgate, which you'd imagine is the role he'll play here next season. Sugawara, good fee for a player with Champions League and Europa League experience. Appears a good character in his interviews. The old Saints wouldn't have replaced Walker-Peters until he had actually left and then we'd be rushing a player in late into September with no pre-season expecting them to pick up where they player they've replaced has left off. Downes, was essential we signed him permanently. The mistake Burnley made last season and Forest almost made the season before was not securing their loans on permanent deals, but looking elsewhere instead. Again, he appears to be another leader in the dressing room to go with his importance on the pitch and in the system we play. And now today, Brereton Diaz. £7m is peanuts. We paid more for Ross Stewart and nearly double (without add ons) for Shea Charles last summer. It made too much sense to sign a player with his goal scoring record for such a little fee and it's one that usually bypasses us as we would look for the more exotic choice. Again, also seems like a good character. The key point being, that while a lot of these signings aren't head turners or household names, they all do boast positive footballing CVs and you can see where they fit into the squad. This isn't Joe Shields' scattergun approach we had last time where we identified players who looked good at youth level and hoped they could then go straight into senior Premier League football. Now, of course our business is far from over. But to get all these players over the line when it's not even August yet, the club needs to be applauded. Ramsdale (another strong character), O'Riley, a CDM to cover Downes, a wide attacker to replace Tella/Brookes (Although that may now be BBD) and another striker would give us a good chance of making a claim of staying in the league and then targeting a higher calibre of players next summer. Although, the need for a new goalkeeper is essential as we've been there and done it with both Bazunu and McCarthy and they aren't good enough. Why can't Lis go back to Goztepe, permanently, or on loan again?

But Football Insider said we were getting him on loan?