Ric Flair

That is an extremely exciting squad. Really glad they've promoted a lot of them from last seasons U16s. @Holly B @ramadaone are the U18 games accessible to watch? I used to go and watch them with my son at Belvoir Drive before covid hit.

I watched him in a pre season game vs Barwell and he was not surprisingly the best player on the pitch. Scored a very good goal. He needs another loan move, I think he'll make it to a good standard.

Is that going to be a long term arrangement? They did this with Petty didn't they when Beaglehole left. He took it temporarily after being assistant and then just carried on.

Doesn't make sense though does it as we are being told we bid £25m for Soule and £23m for Fotis. I trust Percy as well not to fall for any club antics if it's all a ruse.

It best be

No, I saw it was Leon McSweeney leading them in a pre season game but tonight it was difficult to make out who was in the dugout. Huth seems to spend a fair bit of time with the U21s too but not sure if he does any coaching.

He went in the building but didn't venture out on to the balcony from what I could see. Weren't interested.

Apologies, left my phone in the car. The hot dogs are spot on 😂 1st half I thought we looked quite tidy. Southampton were poor and were unnecessarily cynical but their physicality and superior fitness levels overpowered us 2nd half. Quite alarming how tired some of them looked, as @CosbehFox says - it was the likes of Braybrooke with cramp and Wanya that looked very weary. The 1st teams lack of matches that they were with all summer a possible cause? I really hope Braybrooke is going on loan as he risks stagnating staying at this level, he's far too good to be still playing academy football even if he didn't really show it tonight. A top League One side or a club like Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship would be ideal. Golding looked very lively 1st half and you can tell he comes from good stock, hopefully he's immersed in the 1st team and can learn the necessary requirements as he was holding on to the ball too long but otherwise I was impressed. Richards looked good. Ewing was an improvement on Raikhy even though 2nd half we started to get slightly overran. Briggs was brought on for minutes in the bank but played as a very attacking left back which is not his position. I think our most promising display was Jeremy Monga's cameo. I hadn't seen the team sheet but wondered if it might be him, he's already been in the U18s at the back end of last season aged just 15 and was very good when we beat Man City (along with Jake Evans) in the U16 cup final. Can't be having another Trey Nyoni situation on our hands if we can help it so getting him in to the U21s already is shrewd. He looked very good, was playing a bit more centrally and very nearly scored a lovely goal. The keeper made a flying top corner save from 15-20 yards. Will be going to as many home games as I can this season.

Infuriating. On my way to the game.

It's not even a debate

They sold Rutter for £35-40m and Leeds are selling for the same. That's not the reason. They sold a lad to Dortmund last week.

As soon as you see Romano sending multiple tweets saying personal terms still to be agreed and it's us involved you can presume that's likely the case!

You could have said the same about Kramaric the year we'd won the Prem. He's gone on to be an excellent player in a top 5 European League. Leverkusen have shot the lights out, they can afford to make ruthless decisions.

Given we've bid £23m for Fotis it's certainly a question that's difficult to fathom.

They seem to have accepted less this summer than we were going to pay them next summer. So frustrating.

Was thinking this earlier. A year ago we would be paying less in wages and have no guarantee to players they'd be playing PL football and showcasing their abilities at the playground they all want to be on in a years time. Yet we got players in without this farce.

Oh he will from me. He's got the easiest job in the world of getting the fans onside by utilising our academy but instead he'll play players out of position and ignore our best player in Ricardo. He's a diabolical appointment

Genuinely thought you were referring to our director of football for a minute

He's joining them because they were offering him a permanent deal this summer. This is on us again I'm afraid, we were willing to pay £25m for Soule and £23m for Fotis but evidently spied an opportunity to kick the can down the road (fair enough) but we've allowed ourselves to be beaten to the player. We are utter fluffers, it's an embarrassment. Heads need to roll

Alan Ricson

I know mate, it's such a shame we got promoted nearly 4 months ago as opposed to having to wait a further month like Southampton as it's given us too much time to make signings. It's not fair.

I like being proven wrong

I fancy us

Scored again tonight in Europa League qualifiers. Having a great season but we've seemingly decided Scandinavia isn't a league that we can get PL players from, disappointing.

This isn't about me, this is about the principle that defenders of the club wouldn't think it unacceptable the club would sign a player and take nearly 2 weeks to announce it. Why should they? Erm because of the fan / club relationship. I know our club appears to treat its fans with utter disdain based on a catalogue of recent decisions but this is just basic stuff.