HarvSFC

"When you can feel some of the lads' energy is not all there, because they feel like their future is somewhere else, it's difficult." 8 of the Rangers starting 11 today were signed this summer. Are some of them looking for moves already? The other three being Jack Butland, goalkeeper so not much influence on a noncommittal display, John Souttar, who captained the side, so should be committed and Nicolas Raskin, who may well be thinking about elsewhere, but I doubt one player had that much of an impact on the other players lacking energy. "We're making it hard for ourselves, conceding poor goals is so disappointing," he said. "We turn the ball over a lot without having conviction in our actions. "When we have a difficult moment, the response is not good enough. We need to stick to the plan always. But I loved the intent in the second half." How many times did we hear this exact response here. His press conferences are as predictable as his playing style.

Not in the know, but I don't think there's some big conspiracy with Spertsyan, I believe he's just made the decision to stay there and sign a new contract this summer, rather than some unknown contract extension last summer. The Armenie football Twitter knows some things, but not everything, as Spertsyan has signed for us and the deal's been off about 8 different times this summer. The only stuff we've heard from Spertsyan himself was the on the pitch interview where he said "It's too early to talk about a departure. I will go to Krasnodar and talk to the president. We'll see what decision we make together." Sounded like he was open to staying and the talks with the president and the decision they've made together is a wage increase and a contract extension. We got the agent quotes, and they seemed quite positive in our direction, but again the agent could have just been working in the media to make us sound like a good proposition, while negotiating a higher wage for his client. Shame, as he did seem like a good player, despite never having heard of him before all this. Finn Azaz should be a good fall back option. (But, I did also think BBD was a good fall back option after Delap).

A negative result against Portsmouth would definitely be the final straw for many with SR. Would be worse than anything that happened last season, and last season was pretty horrific. We've had Bournemouth and Brighton leapfrog us on the south coast. Not great, but we can live with that. But, can't let that lot down the road lord over us after all these years. A big week for the decision makers at the club. Make or break, and with the Dibling money there isn't any excuses. Let's hope we finally strike gold.

I'm probably repeating what's already been said, but I'm just hoping that we haven't closed off on getting another striker in. We've got Downs in as a project, but we can't put all the pressure on him to fire us to promotion, he needs to learn and grow in the position, as he's far from the finished article at the moment. Stewart's crocked and I'm not actually sure he's that good. In fairness we haven't seen enough of him, but all he's got at this level is a very good, but little run in a Sunderland team. Again, not one you can rely on for promotion because of his availability. Archer's shown glimpses of good finishing, but so had Mara. Not consistent enough for a promotion chasing team in his current state. And lastly Armstrong, his best work here has come from out wide, rather than in the central position, where he's always looked like a struggling and lost figure at this level, as he did two years ago. I think one would need to go, and we're probably not going to get any sales for the latter three, but I wouldn't be against loaning out Stewart, or Armstrong to a team outside of this division. Maybe Rangers on loan could be a possibility. Either would be closer to home and they're Martin men. Then we could either explore the loan or permanent option for the best available replacement with the Dibling money. I just don't think our current options are good enough for where we want to be, despite their record at this level, it just isn't happening for them here now for whatever reason. We're carrying them in the team, rather than them bringing quality to the side. Either way, this is a massive week for those at the club and SR have to give us something to get behind after the disaster of last season. So far this summer hasn't been the most convincing, but it never has been under this ownership and they still have time to get it right. But, the next thing they need to learn for next summer is not to leave their transfers so late every year, as it massively disrupts the start of the season. I know a lot of deals do happen in the last few weeks of the window, but other clubs still manage to bring in more than two young players who haven't actually improved the first eleven (Without counting Roerslev as he must have only had one training session before today) three games into the season. Roerslev's one in the right direction and hopefully players ready for the here and now is where we go this week. They had many months to prepare for this summer and you'd have hoped outgoings, which seems to be the current excuse were being negotiated before the window opened.

Still crazy how JWP hasn't scored a free-kick since leaving us two years ago. Thought he had the record sewn up when he made the move. When he isn't scoring them he isn't contributing a lot else.

I think we'd have all taken Dibling as the big sale to reinvest in the squad this summer and if it gives us a better chance of keeping Fernandes. There's still a lot of question marks over Dibling following his end of season form, better players have not met their potential, etc. Or better yet, he becomes a superstar and gets sold on, and this time we don't trade the sell on for Everton's version of Tommy Forecast. Plus his contract situation, which Dibling had no intention of signing an extension to didn't help from our side. Pure profit, so helps with PSR. Sold for more than Sunderland got for Jobe Bellingham this summer and we've seen their spending power this summer. Key thing is now we don't waste the money as we have done so much of in recent history. Use this for Still to get his required squad and win promotion. Up the Saints.

The old recruiters used to love a left-back. We signed two last summer in Taylor and Wellington when we already had Manning, Larios and Meghoma (left on deadline day) at the club. All five signed in the last three years as well. Maybe the new ones love a right-back and we're going to sign Kabore as well? 😂 Doubt it will happen now, but I was a fan of the Kabore link. Fits the profile of being athletic, good going forward and has the potential to grow with us and become a Premier League right-back, as he didn't look too bad at Luton a few years back. But, maybe he was too expensive, and we're trying to avoid too many loans this window.

Love a signing out of the blue. Can't say I had heard too much about him despite all his Brentford appearances, but he is thought of highly there, which is a good sign: https://griffinpark.org/forums/threads/mads-roerslev-southampton.143061/#post-4838469 Sounds like a good character and attitude, which Still has highlighted all summer. Also has two years Championship experience, something else Still highlighted as wanting. After signing Quarshie and Downs I did fear SR were reverting back to signing a team of untried youngsters having also moved away from the possession based ethos, but this sounds on paper exactly like the type of signing we need and the type of signing that has given us success in the past. A highly thought of squad player from a higher placed club. Also, the right-back spot was a problem position in the team. Neither Sugawara or Bree are promotion winning right-backs, so it's good that we've looked to strengthen, rather than plodding along with them. A sense of the ruthless streak we've all been asking for, as Sugawara was fairly open about wanting to stay earlier in the summer.

Said the other day we should sell Juan to Goztepe for £20m to help with PSR. Won't be £20m, but hopefully it's above his market value, as other linked clubs do.

Things are getting interesting now. Azaz would be a good signing. Top player in the league, still quite young, improves the team. Kabore would be a good signing too, very athletic, think he did well at Luton in the Premier League, but hasn't been able to kick on since then. We were linked with him before he went to Marseille in the Joe Shields summer window. With Sugawara and Bree, he also improves us.

Sunderland and Leeds on three points from one game. Just a reminder that it took Russell Martin 10 games to get to that.

I think Danilo's the dodgy one this year. £20m after 8 league appearances last season. A few over inflated prices between Nottingham Forest and John Textor owned clubs. Textor also tried to get Cherki to go to Forest this summer instead of Manchester City. A couple of Botafogo players went to Forest as well, similar to the Anderson/Vlachodimas deal as of course sales go straight into the accounts, while transfers in are spread out over the contract. They've managed to find a loophole to the PSR setup, like most clubs have (sales of women teams), and if we have the financial power to do so, it would be something we need to do next time we go up. Sell Juan to Goztepe for £20m, as an example. On the topic of Forest, I did see this on Twitter earlier: "Sunderland have spent £158m on signings this summer. They've smashed Nottingham Forest's record £142m spend as a newly-promoted team." While today they've reportedly bid around £30m for Abdul Fatawu from Leicester. They're certainly going for it, similar sized club to us, only sold Jobe Bellingham as their major sale. It's the spending power we need and SR have previously demonstrated they have the money, just not the talent spotters.

Looks Steve De Ridder good in his YouTube video. Only played above Ligue 2 level two years ago and looks like he struggled a bit at Lens, but had some success in the Bundesliga. Another one that could go either way, but you're just hoping this summer's recruitment team and a bit of involvement from Still is better at identifying talent than last summer's. At last a link from a reliable journalist.

Can add Liam Delap and Fabio Carvalho to the list of failed targets last summer. Their alternatives were considerably worse... Joel Piroe from the summer before, we got Ross Stewart on deadline day as the alternative... Moussa Dembele and Vitinha from the January we signed Sulemana and Onuachu and of course the Gakpo and Ramos saga, and we didn't go for an alternative in that case. Since their time here SR have struggled to get the "wow, he's good and improves the team immediately" transfers over the line. Only one I can of is Ramsdale, and he was a panic buy on deadline day, who we offered an uncharacteristically high contract by SR standards. All the players that have turned down contract renewals here too. Adams, S. Armstrong, KWP, Dibling. Some we may have been happy to see the back of, if we had properly replaced them, but again it's similar to the transfer situation. Stephens, A. Armstrong and McCarthy will happily sign new deals here, because they aren't getting better offers elsewhere. Just like all the average crap we sign. But, those that do get others offers prefer moves elsewhere, even when we became a Premier League club again. Similar story with the academy, the youngsters are getting offered more elsewhere and leaving, when you could potentially have a £30m+ player in there like we've seen with Dibling, so they pay for themselves. I had never heard of this Spertsyan guy, but apparently he's good and clearly he's been the main target, as we haven't signed the attacking midfielder alongside the centre-back and striker that was mentioned earlier this summer. But, from the outside it's like SR aren't paying the going rate in football these days. Promoted clubs, Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth, etc are dwarfing our record signing and it isn't like we haven't made any big sales ourselves in the last few years. They sell a player for £50m and replace with a £30m+ player. We sell Lavia for £56m and replace with Downes/Charles at £10-15m each. And those two aren't even our worse performers.

Ipswich are actually pressing us, and got rewarded for it. As opposed to our players, who just amble towards the opposition player. Allowing a lot of crosses in too.

Whenever a player gets ill on Football Manager, I have to "send them home", or it spreads across the squad. Maybe Downes has been cooking for the squad. A choice between Armstrong, or Archer up top, neither going to work, so shows the lack of depth. You just can't depend on Ross Stewart. If we're chasing the game like last weekend, we can't put all the big men upfront again and launch balls in. The bench doesn't look like it will give us as much help this week.

Did Sunderland not get the memo that good players don't move to clubs like ours until the final weeks of the transfer window? Also not allowed to spend above £25m.

Ipswich getting a lot of money today from Broadhead and Hutchinson. Right time to play them on Sunday before they can spend it.

Sullivan's mouthpiece wouldn't say that a player has little, or no interest in a move to West Ham, that would paint a negative. They're pushing a narrative that favours West Ham. Until they meet our valuation Fernandes is here.

What were their intentions? To try and unsettle him and get a reduced price, or show the West Ham fans they're trying, but little old Southampton aren't playing ball and demanding too much? I don't think we return with a counter offer for this one, like we're reportedly doing with Dibling. Fernandes still seems happy to be here, played both matches and has a longer contract.

What Michael Dawson needs to learn is if we keep Fernandes and if we get promoted, we get more than £50m simply from being promoted back to the Premier League. So, Will Still (😂) is right to set those price tags. Additionally, if Fernandes has a good season and then another good season in the Premier League, he skips a club like West Ham. Even a good season in the Championship could see that, see both the Bellinghams. A lot of ifs, but Dawson seemed to be struggling with us not selling our star player for around £30m.

Imagine signing James Ward-Prowse for £30m and then thinking you can get Fernandes at the same cost.

Just seen this on Twitter. It's actually happening? Although he's now alerted every club in world football ffs.

Yeah, they don't get Fernandes at the same price they signed Ward-Prowse for.

Under Martin, that long ball at the end never gets played. We'd be passing it around our centre-backs on the centre circle with time ticking away. Manning also doesn't make the forward run as he was always the inverted full-back and expected to tuck in to the centre of the pitch and recycle the ball sideways when we were attacking. The same role Max Aarons is playing at Rangers, and he's had a poor start up there. A lot more freedom and tactics designed around their strengths seemed to aid Charles, Manning, Stephens and Bazunu (allowed to play long balls now and not under constant pressure) yesterday.