Ric Flair

I've been very impressed with Jakub Piotrowski at Ludogrets. His contract is up next summer and he's one to watch if Poland can get through their group at the Euros. All action central midfielder.

It was a very physical game in the 2nd half and we coped better with that side of the game than I thought. There are some issues with this team that we need to iron out. I think Gallagher or Wharton need to play alongside Rice and then work out which one of Foden, Saka or Palmer play on the right. I'd start Eze vs Denmark wide left. In theory Foden or Palmer could play there, Foden has in the past at Man City but it's not his best position and he's come off the back of an exceptional season on the right, as has Palmer. Both of those being on the bench is pretty ludicrous but if last night's performance from Foden is the consequence for being put on the left then he can't start there. I'd be looking to utilise such weapons off the bench though much earlier. Bringing Foden and Palmer on at 60 mins as roaming 10's could be the ideal scenario.

McIlroy bottled that big time. Just can't get across the line in a major again, could be hugely devastating for this career that.

By that metric no football club should ever get rid of players or managers either then. All in it together, all human and make honest mistakes. It's no less important off the field as it is on it at being effective.

Fair point, but it's certainly going to be cheaper than trying to recruit from the next wrung up the ladder. We're prats for not utilising Leuven for value for money anyway.

I might be being picky but we should be the ones getting such players from Rosenburg and the like rather than letting the likes of Benfica sign them for a pittance and them flip them for a decent profit.

These are the sorts of players I was hoping we'd target under Maresca as Italian Serie A clubs are notorious for ignoring their youth players and selling them to Europe for modest fees. Calafiori went for £2m FFS.

I'd heard Potter moved back to Scandinavia last year.

I'm pretty sure those sorts of deals to prevent dishing out sell on % end up at tribunal do they not? To establish how much McKennie and Iling-Junior are worth and added to the total value to then carve up a chunk for Man City.

Whilst you're not wrong, it's not the going on loan but that's essential. It's the playing football. Why we can't offer that to a select few of these ourselves is on us. Other clubs do it, with just as much jeopardy on the line as us in what's at stake. Next season is a unique situation. We may struggle to get the squad we'd ordinarily like for financial reasons and we may also be at a point where staying up isn't feasible so we have the perfect opportunity to blood our three standout academy talents. In fact I'd rather we did that anyway, regardless of points deductions.

Bizarre

I'd be surprised if a club needing to raise funds for PSR would do player exchange deals. Makes no sense. Separate deals fine but for Villa it would be sell pre 30th June, buy post 1st July.

He's a player I wanted us to look at a few years ago when Juve were ignoring him and Iling-Junior. Either of them would be great competition for Mavididi and Fatawu but Iling-Junior would be the one that's easier to agree IMO as his contracts up next summer.

How about Liverpool make amends for allegedly tapping Trey Nyoni up and settle the transfer fee to the tune of £30m (elite talent). This bails us out of another PSR charge and then wr agree to pay them £20m + add ons for Carvalho in July.

Or maybe they'll give it Leon McSweeney who was U21 assistant. This has been a position I've wanted to be filled by an exciting and dynamic coach but in a rare turn of opinion I actually think our academy decision making is drastically improving.

And yet there's been zero changes in any of these positions, bar Finance Director who was poached by Newcastle. It's unthinkable that such failures have been left largely ignored from a personnel perspective. Probably all blaming each other and all falling for it. There's a common ideology that in modern football an elite director of football is one of the most important positions within the club, hence why there's such a clamour by clubs to keep recruiting until they get the right one. Some of our fans wrap up the mystique of the responsibilities ours might or might not have as some sort of excuse for the comedy show continuing.

Return of the Beaglehole

Fatawu's crossing ability is exceptional IMO.

He will need to hit the ground running rather than prove his worth over a long period of time. He's not really done that in England, he's a builder. But if we get 41 points next season, like he did in his 1st 2 seasons at Brighton then there's a good chance we are immediately back in the Championship.

I suppose I need to quickly get used to it being Graham Potter. I don't think I've been more dismissive of a manager in recent years. Hahahaa

I struggle to align to this way of thinking. Potter kept Brighton up for 3 seasons and was part of a slowly well built setup but he's hugely flopped at Chelsea (not the only one). His time at Swansea was mediocre, trumped by Cooper who replaced him and trumped by Corberan in the work he's done with an arm tied behind his back at both Huddersfield and West Brom. I'd say Potter's got an inflated reputation, some of it warranted but I don't think the gap in risk is that obvious.

You make a good point. It isn't just him but if as some fans suspect, our owner requires a DOF to show far more business acumen as they themselves aren't football people, then replacing him with an appropriate DOF may well be a cure. The Finance Department are going to engage on total transfer budget of wages, transfer fees etc. Any movement on that to cover bottom line (PSR or club agreed margin) would need to be offset by other means - revenue from success, commercial stuff or most crucial with Leicester in their failure - selling players. I'd imagine in the various yearly forecasts was to sell several players they didn't do for whatever reason. The CFO ought to have made a huge song and dance about this and maybe they did? They left to join Newcastle.

Bang on.

We are in a world where the director of football is expected to be a highly dynamic leader, nearly every successful club will have recruited such a person and their responsibilities and expectations would be extremely high. Ours seems to not be performance measured on our appalling ability to sell players (bar the obvious highly coveted players) and the culmination of over paying for players in fees and wages and breaching PSR. Not my fault jack attitude from our fans on one of the most important roles in our club is unhelpful. We should demand for better.

That new deal we signed him to as well when it must have been painstakingly clear he was bang average is another one for the scrap book.