Lighthouse

I don’t know why you think that’d be more important to him than playing PL and possibly international football, or why he’d really care at all. He’ll be well remembered here and generally welcome throughout the city for the rest of his life, I’m not sure what he’d really want beyond that. I think a lot of people overestimate how important the opinions of us internet dweebs are to millionaire, PL footballers with supermodel wives.

He suffers from Vydritis. Too good for the Championship, not quite PL level. Bundesliga is a smart move.

We looked much more dangerous down the left when he came on. Sadly that was the oposite side to where I was sat but there was a lot of direct penetration into their area and RF was right in the thick of it. Should definitely be him starting, rather than SAA, once he becomes more comfortable with our system.

Amazing how two people can see the situation completely oposite but I'm going to have to disagree entirely with that. Two years ago he was as useless going forward as Djenny, Redmond and Moi, that's why we loaned him out. His touch was nowhere near good enough for the PL and his only goal came in a cup hammering of Newport, if I'm remembering correctly. He was loaned out because he wasn't good enough to play in the Premier League, simple as. If that upset him he has only himself to hold accountable. I wont say blame, it's a little harsh for a player who seems to try his best but ultimately he was approaching his mid twenties and was nowhere near the standard required. Did he elevate himself to that level with Burnley? Possibly but they clearly aren't serious about putting their money where their mouth is on that, aside from a bizarre poster campaign about Nelson Mandella. If he leaves, it'll be with my best wishes wherever he goes. If it's Leverkusen I think it'll work out well for all three parties. He'll do well in Germany and we'll get £20m for a player we hoovered up on a free from Arsenal about five years ago, who never really made an impact. He'd have done a job this season but I can't see us missing him, we've more than enough wide quality as today's display showed and by most accounts we're looking to bring more in.

Areola made a tit of himself there.

That isn’t true though, is it.

Good result there and a lot of decent individual performances. A very interesting things we’ve learned: Lyanco and ABK are almost certainly off. If neither can get on the pitch/bench when Stephens is injured then they clearly aren’t in our plans. The rumours around Tella and Adams appear to be confirmed. We have plenty of wide options even without anyone else replacing Tella. AA is good at this level but not a number 9. We’re definitely lacking a proper CF. SAA isn’t ready to start yet. Baz is more than good enough for the way we want to play. Our style of football is perfect for keeping the ball after we’ve just scored and yet we seem to struggle with that, especially at home. All our signings have added something. Fraser, Downes and Charles looked excellent today.

Nope. Just wearing my usual poncho, gimp mask and ski boots.

I think there’re a few likely explanations for that. We’re fairly confident that a departure for a CB is imminent. We want to keep a back three/five as an option for the season and want five CBs to cover for it. We enquired about Piroe but were never really that desperate to get him and couldn’t agree a deal which suited both parties.

It means what it’s always meant - that Lyanco and ABK will most likely be leaving before the end of the window.

SR spent a very large amount of money both last summer and in January, something Gao never did. We were never the second top spenders in any given transfer window under Gao. Now we’re having to adjust our squad to compensate for a huge drop in revenue and to cash in on various players whilst their stock is high and their contracts are long. Not to mention we probably gambled on overspending in January, on the understanding that we’d have to recoup most of that outlay if we went down.

Sully looked better in the Prem than Tella ever did; neither were great but Sully was better. Edozie and Djenepo were no worse and Fraser has in the past looked good in the Prem. I don’t think those are bad options to have out wide, I really don’t.

The problem there is that didn’t happen. People thought he did moderately well in getting a good price for Lavia, which he did, and are hopeful/optimistic that he’ll do a better job than Shields and Rasmus.

Everybody is saying Utkin was killed in the plane crash but I’m sure I just saw him in the Luton end at Stamford Bridge.

I was optimistic that Mara, Aribo and Edozie would be able to emulate the six goals contributed by Broja the season before and that AA would improve and maybe chip in with half a dozen of his own. Clearly I was wrong on that but if nothing else the last two windows have proven we do know where our weaknesses are and are prepared to spend money addressing them, so that's something at least. A week before the last transfer window closed, you were convinced we were getting Andre Ayew on loan and nobody else, so lets not throw too much faeces at each other. I don't get why the last week of every transfer window is like this. Every. Single. F**king. Time. Even in the two Koeman summers people were hysterical about the business we hadn't done, before signing Mane, Toby and Virgil on those respective deadline days.

Even if Tella leaves and is replaced by nobody, we have Sully, Fraser, SAA, Edozie, Djenepo and at a push both Armstrongs, who can all play the winger/AM role. Not exactly bare bones in terms of either quantity or quality.

I don’t know, I’d have to find out who this other mystery club is and ask some of their fans if they have any idea.

We have interest in a lot of players.Transfer windows aren’t about going out and buying all the players you want, they’re about identifying a range of viable players and seeing which ones you can secure a suitable deal for. Given the money we’ve brought in and what we were willing to spend on Charles, we could obviously have afforded what Leeds paid for Piroe. The fact that we didn’t get him would suggest he wasn’t really that much of a priority for us and that we’re either looking at other targets or planning to keep Che.

It’s astonishing some of the narratives people are managing to construct in their mind and then get upset about. We’re apparently of the verge of securing a very low risk loan for a decent player, with plenty of experience at this level and the one above. You’d think people would be positive but apparently this somehow proves we’re a pathetic club with no ambition and our only other signing is going to be a one legged LB from the Chad second division. A week before the January window closed, some people were convinced our only business would be signing Andre Ayew on loan. Let’s maybe wait and see?

It's also worth remembering Leicester were the big spenders who 'won' the transfer window in 2011. They finished sixth.

I've never bought that argument, personally. No player ever really blocks another, the inference there is that the other player simply isn't good enough to get selected ahead of them. Our young players will have to show in training and in the opportunities they do get that they're at least as good as Ryan Fraser. If they can't do that then they don't deserve to be on the pitch.

Might as well have a separate thread for anything Fraser related, as it’s widely reported as being close to a deal.

I hope and expect we’d sign the players we need for the way we want to play. I couldn’t care less if they were unwanted in the Prem, decent in the Champ or the top scorer in the Slovenian League. Jack Cork came from Chelsea, Rickie Lambert from Bristol Rovers, it’s irrelevant; both were important players in getting us promoted.

People have been crying out for more experience all summer. Like it or not, this is the kind of experience we’re likely to get. I don’t think we’re going to be pinning our promotion hopes on players like Fraser but he sounds like a useful option to have, if he wants to come here.

Which is worse than being sh*t, at least Moi and Walcott triedand wanted to be on the pitch. Yes, you did get Orsic wrong. I though Mara and Aribo would be decent signings and what we were missing up front. Turns out none of us are infallible in our opinions and predictions, so maybe ease off on the sarcastic comments about what 'the forum experts' believe?