Sunbury Fox

We won't find a CB as good as him on the ball for less than £50m. We could get fast, strong, aggressive CBs for much less but in this system a CB with ball skills is crucial. He's on a completely different level in that respect to Coady, who I used to think was good on the ball. I think we need to try to keep him and make sure we get pacy players around him. I'm really not sure about Faes though. He's just so unpredictable which is never a good trait for a CB.

I kind of worry that we will end up having to buy Akgun because we have no choice but to play him a lot from now on this season, simply due to our lack of available CM options. That sounds bad but I'm just not sure that he will cut it in the PL and I wonder if we could do better for £7m. There are things I like about him but as a winger he looks too slow and as a CM too small. To be that small and a CM in the PL you've got to be seriously good eg Bernardo or David Silva levels.

No, the unwritten rule of football says that Ipswich Town will equalise with a shot deflection on 93min

And we sold players for £90m last summer as well as losing other high earners on frees. It's puzzling really.

Our squad might be the best in most respects, but in my view we are an injury to KDH away from being in a bit of bother, assuming that Ndidi is out for 3 months. Our other options in the 8 position look really thin now - a disinterested, injury-prone Dennis Praet, a converted winger and a bunch of unproven youngsters.

I can see it being like Sheff U's last summer. Sell our star players and sign a load of cheap players from abroad who are not up to the level required in the PL.

It's obviously concerning that we seem to have so little money available for transfers. How are we ever going to compete in the PL if that is the case? The other big question is why do we never seem able to move on squad players for fees? Our failure to raise money except by flogging our top assets is really hurting us.

Are we expecting only about 27k for this then?

Will probably outsing us anyway!

Yes but the stadium is tiny so it will still be a small allocation.

We owe these. Sick of losing at their poxy lego stadium.

When is a good time for a Cup run, though? People always say this kind of thing but are we effectively saying that unless we are in mid table we are never going to give the Cups a go?

Birmingham with only 3 changes. Jeez.

If Brum have gone strong I can't see this team having enough to beat them.

Took a big deflection. Their luck never ends.

How many tickets have been sold for this? I'm assuming Brum will sell out their 5k or whatever it is

That's the biggest understatement that I've seen on here for years!

What's making me feel better about this whole story is that at least we know the club is so good at succession planning and getting incoming transfer deals done quickly. Oh.....

Makes me concerned the finances are worse than we think.

He worked really hard but I think we've been spoilt by how good Fatawu is at dribbling past defenders and creating chances. For me Kasey isn't a winger. Would like to see him tried as an 8.

In the first half we outclassed you to be honest. In the second half, fair play you had more of a go at us but created little clear cut - in fact, up until the deflected pot shot that led to your equaliser you'd had 1 shot on target in 85 minutes against the 7 we'd had (drawing some really good saves from your keeper in the process). So I don't quite buy the narrative that you deserved a point. If you'd not scored that rather fortunate late goal I don't think many would have said you'd been robbed by coming away with nothing.

Obviously we're going to let in the odd late goal but in the table above it is interesting to see that only 4 teams have conceded more than us in the last 10 minutes of games. Moreover, all of the goals we've conceded in that period have come in the last 13 games, which is a worrying trend given that we didn't concede a single goal in minutes 80-90 in the first 15 games. I had thought that our possession based game was all about wearing teams down so how is this happening so often now?

You've taken the words out of my mouth. Exactly what I was about to post. I won't lie, after the collapses from similar positions in 2019/20 and 2020/21 I'm now starting to worry. What is clear is that our squad is not as strong as we all thought, which is why Enzo is seemingly reluctant to make substitutions in tight games against the better teams. Our options at 8 are currently particularly threadbare. Last night we had a probably not 100% KDH and a full back in those roles. Let's hope we sign Sensi (and he manages to stay fit), and that Wilf is back quickly.

I know what you mean but my heart sank when he went off as I knew it would leave a massive gaping hole as Yunus is not really a CM.

My theory is that after what we've achieved in the last decade, many of our fans aren't excited about being top of the Championship; in fact, most of them expect nothing less and that's what kills the atmosphere. Compare that to Ipswich - having done nothing for about 20 years, apart from getting relegated to League One, they finally win promotion back to the Championship and then surprise everyone by being in the top 2. So it's not surprising their fans are going to be more excited and up for it. Bit like us in Big Nige's first spell. Not saying that's how it should be, but it's a potential explanation.