indierich06

To be fair, we generally tend to sign a load of crap and then one random player no-one's ever heard of who turns out to be shit hot - BEK, Fatawu, Fofana etc - hopefully this guy is the same.

Preston interested in a loan.

I do think we need to sell Souttar, but given Nelson's injury we have probably - rightly - put the brakes on his move to Sheff U. Wouldn't surprise me if we tried to convince him to stay in light of this, or at the least had a gentleman's agreement that he stays until we are able to source a replacement starting CB. Souttar and Okoli to start the season isn't a bad CB pairing for L1 if we're being honest.

I said several times over the summer that one of the key attributes I think we needed in a manager was someone with the ability to reset standards and attitudes at the club, and for the club to bomb out the bad apples who are infecting this squad - it sounds like for the most part that has happened. I'll hold my hands up, I didn't think Martin would be that guy - he struck me as another Rodgers, a bit cringe, with the accompanying David Brent-esque soundbites, but absolutely fair play to him. Remains to be seen how he will perform as manager, but this is certainly an encouraging start.

Chaplin for me.

Hopefully this may begin to pick up pace again if we complete the signing of Watson

There seems to be this idea that he's being brought in as our main striker, marquee signing - which I don't think holds up particularly? Seems more like a relatively cheap utility signing to me, has a bit of experience to help guide the younger lads. Martin seems to want the right attitude in any players he signs first and foremost, which is not a bad thing. I do think we're going to be mostly going for free transfers and loans, but think we will spend modest amounts of money on the right signings.

Scored about 1-in-3 under Martin, generally seems to get anywhere between 8-10 goals in a division that's higher than ours - and plays a variety of positions, not just out-and-out striker. Seems alright to me?

I'm as excited about Braybrooke and Page as anyone, but there's a very real chance that when it comes to actual competitive League One football, they might not be up for the job. Braybrooke has done well in League 2, but it's a big step up - Page has had very limited Championship minutes. If they're not at the races, that leaves us with Skipp and Choudhury week in week out and we're leaving ourselves light. I think for me, a free transfer in that position - especially someone who has excelled in this league - is a no brainer. Surely some room in the wage bill now we've shifted so many high earners. I would defo try and sell one of Skipp or Choudhury too, but frankly I don't think anyone will want them.

Why? It's a free transfer, we're not exactly overflowing with CM options

Archie Collins still without a club, surprises me. We should be all over that, a very straightforward quality addition.

Missed that 😂 not much of a cameo then.

Surprised he's not featured at all in pre-season

What's going on with Jake Evans? Deleted all his Insta and taken LCFC out the bio. Off?

Even if these lads get us promoted, they're not going for the kind of money we got for Fatawu - would love to be proven wrong, but can't see it.

Still not sure to be honest. He seems to be saying all the right things, but I remember thinking the same about Steve Cooper 😂 I think the Rangers hatred of him was over the top, and he was basically on to a loser there from the start. Look how they hounded out Danny Rohl as well - if you're not winning every game, in style, and winning all comps, it seems like you can basically **** off in the eyes of Rangers fans. Southampton fans seemed to like him? I think a lot of the unfavourable comparisons are due to the fact that we had Enzo, who was playing a similar type of football, playing it better, and battering his teams, and the fact that he probably should have done better with that Southampton side? He seems like a nice enough bloke at the end of the day, and I want it to work out because if it works out for him, then it works out for us.

The main thing I'm taking away from that list is that we mostly sign absolute shite with a few diamonds in the mix. Where the **** would we be without the money from the sales of Fofana, Maddison, Maguire, Hermansen, Fatawu, El-Khannous etc?

I'm quite a pessimist but I don't necessarily buy this line of thinking - yeah, you'd lay out a lot less cash initially, but then you'd have a club with basically no sellable assets in terms of players, and you'd lose a lot of what makes the club a prestige purchase in the first place - training ground probablu gets scrapped, academy loses Cat 1 status, then you have to invest a HELL of a lot of money into rebuilding a club from the ground up. If you're an investor who backs themselves, you probably see a club which is currently undervalued due to mismanagement and current league status, and you'd think "ok, this is a great chance to buy a club with potential, make some adjustments and potentially compete at the top end of the championship again, and perhaps the Premier League". The fact that we appear to be in talks with (hopefully) serious investors shows that there are people out there who would see us as a going concern at the right price. Long story short, if I was buying a motor, I'd rather buy something that needed a few repairs than a total write off.

I think if we're honest with ourselves, a lot of this is legacy-based due to the 15/16 season - the CIES Football Observatory puts us 7th due to our large social media following, but that doesn't mean much in our current situation. That Cape Verde goalkeeper is one of the most followed footballers on Instagram due to his showing at the World Cup but I don't think people will remember his name in 6 months, but they'll still be following him. I'm happy to be proven wrong by data, but doesn't feel like we are more popular than the likes of Villa or Newcastle for example at the minute. Maybe we're more of a recognised name globally because of what we did 10 years ago, but I don't think that translates into regular support of the club and global potential, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Wow, Woyo feels like he's been here for so much longer. Was that Jan-25? Christ, this club is a mess.

Forgetting Riley Carr 😉

Honestly I feel like if they go into the season bringing through all this academy talent, playing this kind of football... I feel like that's exactly the kind of thing they need to do to bring all the fans back on side after a couple of pretty rancid years. I really hope they don't go now and sign a load of washed-up former Premier League players, play Skipp/BDCR/Faes et al and ruin it. Fine to sprinkle in a little bit of experience in key positions throughout the side, like they have done with McCarthy and Chaplin. Maybe we should pick up a couple of defenders and a more experienced striker option (not Ings though). But a lot of these young kids should be given the chance to show what they can do this season - if they can do it against Malaga, who are a La Liga side, then they shouldn't have too many problems against a lot of the teams in this division - though I do think a lot of the players they're up against this season will be a lot more physical with them than these Spanish sides.

Probably mentioned somewhere else but is Jake Evans injured or does Martin just not fancy him?

A club that gets promoted instantly back to the Championship would be worth way more than one that is potentially stuck in the lower divisions and selling off any assets for years to come. Yeah it's a risk, but there is potential for higher reward too.