saintwbu

I have faith we’re going to end the window strong, my only concern is what will be or won’t be done by midday to allow anyone to play tomorrow…

Drameh off to Birmingham on loan by the sounds of it. The RB slot for us really is a bit of a mystery - almost no links to KWP all window, yet still feels like he’s going to go, and all our linked replacements/reinforcements are ending up elsewhere. Also wonder if ABK not leaving impacts the Harwood-Bellis loan? Would give us 5 CB’s who would all expect to start, if ABK didn’t leave.

I don’t think that Sacha guy (if that’s the journalist from Belgium you’re referring to) is overly reliable - he was changing with the wind when it came to Lavia, always seemed a step behind everyone else despite sounding like he had a close contact.

There was talk of them extending it for a year so they still own him - can’t see them loaning out a good prospect and letting him go for free next year. Imagine announcement of his departure will be accompanied by a contract extension.

Don’t reckon Bournemouth could’ve given Solanke away the summer they got relegated

I can’t really blame Sulemana for not wanting to be playing in the Championship tbh. He came in January to a new league and new country, starts one game and the manager gets the boot. Then he got hooked after an hour the first two Selles games just to ‘maintain the press’ and from then on was in and out the team. Never given a real chance to bed in, can’t imagine he feels particularly responsible for the shit show of last season, so don’t blame him for thinking he deserves more.

Sounds like no fee at all this year for Beto, so presume that was a big factor - can’t imagine we’d entertain anything like that considering we seemingly don’t want Che to go.

I thought he only had a year left! That makes more sense why he’s not being linked anywhere near as much as I expected.

That Forest season was the one standout season in his whole career. Either side of that has been nothing to write home about. I guess not too dissimilar to Holgate getting Everton’s player of the season one time, albeit that was at a higher level.

Our home atmosphere has been crap for years, this doesn’t make it worse, arguably it makes it better because people carry on making noise for a bit after the goal celebration.

The thing that Che brings that none of our other attacking options bring is his physicality. He’s a big powerful forward, he holds the ball up really well and plays with his back to goal brilliantly at times. That is something we really need to replace if he goes imo.

ABK definitely had his shirt on ready to come on at one point, I think it was when Manning (i think) looked like he picked up a knock. Wasn’t a massive surprise that he didn’t come on for Stephens, he’d only played 45 mins midweek against Brentford so it’s a big ask to come on for 80 or so minutes in the league straight away. On a separate note Shea Charles was absolutely class at CB I thought, aerially dominant as well.

A shame to see him go because he’s the sort of lad you like to have at your club, seems a really good guy and has an infectious energy. On a footballing level i’m not too disappointed - the loan worked out for everybody imo, I don’t think he’d have made a great difference to us last year, but it’s turned him into a £20mil player when we’d probably have been lucky to get £5mil for him last summer. It’s a great move for him, really glad he’s going there rather than Burnley. For me, SAA and Edozie are both more technically gifted, and have 4+ years each to get to the level of Tella overall and i’m confident they both will do.

Just gone on loan to St Mirren, confirmed. Maybe a sign..

In a complete pipe dream world, Broja on loan?

With his record, and only one year left on his deal, the fact Piroe went to Leeds without much fuss maybe suggests people don’t think he’s worth a punt in the top league. In which case, maybe we weren’t that bothered either? At £12mil he’d have been a steal if people thought he was good enough for the Prem. As mentioned earlier, we don’t seem to be paying for players that we don’t fancy to be worth having in the PL, given the only money we’ve spent is on Shea Charles, who I guess we’re hoping is another Lavia type purchase. There’s a week left, let’s see how it plays out.

Blimey, the sensible posters do exist, they just wait til the early hours to appear!

We still have Aribo too, who seems to have had a bit of interest in him, so maybe him going would see another body in for those wide positions.

Conversations is a bit different to handing in all kit and saying goodbyes because you’re imminently off to Germany?

I’m not a fan of either Fraser or Holgate, both in terms of ability and on-field character. But people are judging them on their ability in the Premier League. They’re playing for us in the Championship, in a team full of players people couldn’t stand in the Prem but now don’t want to leave. We haven’t seemed to include an option to buy in either deal, so it doesn’t seem like we see them as options for the future but for the here and now instead. Both signings make sense, the circus around Tella/Che is just taking people away from that.

Agree - think Edozie gets more than his fair share of stick from fans tbh. His actual minutes played must be pretty low, Tella was still in the youth set up at his age. Edozie has a lot of skill, finishing and crossing obviously needs work but he beats players with absolute ease, not a lot of wingers can do that - even Tella struggled to do that when he switched to Edozie’s side when he went off. Hopefully with experience and game time this year his end product improves, he’s one of the few players in the squad that I find genuinely exciting to watch.

Ballard starting for U21’s tonight. Given that he made the bench after starting last Friday, I know we can’t read into it too much, but would he be starting if Che was off imminently? He’d be jumping a place in the pecking order if Che wasn’t available tomorrow.

Not sure that’s quite a fair representation of what he said…

People are bemoaning signing Holgate on the basis Everton don’t want him, but are gutted we didn’t sign Coady, who Everton also did not want. Personally don’t want either, but can’t use both as a stick to beat the club with.

People wanted experience, that’s what we’re getting. Not a fan of either, but I guess as loan deals it’s not a bad thing as they both need to prove themselves to secure their future somewhere as neither are wanted by their parent club any time soon.