Baird of the land

The club and Ralph clearly have faith in bednarek, hence why he is a virtual everpresent and was given a new contract. Equally salisu was bought with view to being first choice.

Personally not sure about Phillips. Don’t see what he offers barring a Liverpool branding over a bog standard championship CB.

It would have been nice to get a little but given his contract situation, getting that amount should at least help us replace him, hopefully with someone who can cover Romeu. We weren’t going to stumble into another ings situation and were perhaps lucky that fofana got crocked to actually stimulate a bid at all.

Yeah I just don’t see. There may be a ludicrous fee at the right time we might accept. Don’t think the desirory figures mentioned are anywhere near that and the timing on the eve of season just makes it illogical to consider.

Slightly odd decision imo(as Blackburn seem a decent club that have helped Armstrong boost his profile). Maybe he fancies running down his contract and moving somewhere else on a free(maybe even abroad)

Still prefer Mccarthy , though expect Fraser will probably get the nod to start with

But we won a shed load of games before that playing the formation. So is it not more likely the injuries/compressed schedule were behind that not the unsuitability of the players to the formation. We've brought in cover at fullback. We're told that Livramento can play there. While that & the notion of perhaps someone being brought into u23 setup might not be perfect it is considerably better than last year.

Yeah i was thinking is that a scar? Still concerning if its so heavily strapped. Doesn't make much sense to rush him back for everton imo.

Not sure I agree. We signed salisu to replace our 4th choice cb with view to him becoming into a starter. If club thinks he’s ready to start, we would be in the market for competition with Stephens for backup.

I doubt Armstrong will start,more likely an impact sub given he won’t had huge amount of time to adjust to our approach.

I think i’d prefer Mid who can also play cb. I hope I get another Steve Davis moment and get one of my favourite N.I players in McNair to saints, though my guess the club will look at someone a bit younger.

I do really hope we can get someone in who can cover dm. Djenepo being talked up as a left back is a slight concern, though it is interesting to hear idea of b team lb possibly being brought in. Not sure if Ralph meant to confirm that vestergaard will leave (though I fully expect him to given he hasn’t signed a contract)

Great to get replacement sorted. Hopefully there’s some cash left to strengthen squad elsewhere.

Even if Vestergaard stays i'd be expecting we'd at least be trying to bring in a player to add depth at DM and maybe at left back if the funds stretch.

Paddy McNair. Though he's right footed not left.

Interesting listen. Felt a bit more stilted at certain moments, though hopefully that’ll pass with time.

I'm pretty relaxed either way. I can see some logic of taking the cash now, given he's fallen behind tella in young/quick striker pecking order & lacked professionalism at times. Equally i wouldn't have an issue if the club decided to go extend and loan route to see if he progresses.

Isn't Obafemi's contract up at the end of the season though?

Yeah it's early days but i liked that against levante we carried a threat down both sides, rather than the lopsided approach last season.

I definitely there’s potential there. Stephens/salisu offers a bit more balance in terms of his ability to bring the ball out vs bednarek/salisu

The issue is if he does come in, you’d assume somebody would have to go out first.

Don’t really see the we should be aiming higher than a young cb who plays regularly for Poland. More importantly the club and manager clearly rate him as the former always plays him and the later gave him a new long term contract. as for oxlade chamberlain link. Where would he play? We seem loaded with 10’s, but our mid is very settled.

If vestergaard isn’t going to stay & sign a new contract it will be handy if Leicester are interested and we can snare a good deal out of their desperation. i’m hoping The club can sort out ings replacement by midweek. They have had plenty of time to analyze targets (knowing ings was likely to leave). If it drags on longer that would be very poor.

I get that we may not want to spend the full 25m on a one striker. The current reported offers are much lower though, which makes it odd we'd back off at that point. First and foremost we need to buy a frontline striker that can deliver immediately & be careful we don't spread the money too thinly across too many purchases.

At that sort of price if he truly was our no1 target it makes zero sense to be backing off.