Ric Flair

Will be interesting. He was available most of last season and was immense for Monza but they couldn't afford to buy him as they're a small Serie A club and his wages are huge for such clubs. He's barely played this season but again he's not been injured so hopefully like Ricardo and James Justin, he may have found a balance on how to steer clear of the relentless injuries he previously used to get. Make no mistake, if he does stay relatively fit then he is an outrageous signing for this level and no question he's technically good enough for the PL. He's also quick both in the way he thinks with the football but also getting around the pitch. That's not necessarily a trait that Italian players have from central midfield and hopefully gives him the edge.

I'm not writing him off just yet but I've never got the impression he's ever going to be PL class. He did very well at the start of the season and he's got one thing you can't teach, movement and ability to be on the end of chances. There are obvious limitations currently that you've described above. I just don't think he's a winger. He's a central midfielder or makeshift striker IMO.

I might be wrong but they were fearing he was done for the season.

THE COVENTRY DEBACLE Our 1st podcast we've managed to stream live as well last night. This will now be a regular occurance for those who are interested in joining in the chaos. Apologies for the fcukin language

Ipswich's midfield is likely to be Travis and Taylor as Morsy and Loungo are out. They are equally as weak as we are in terms of losing 1st team players. 1st choice CB - Burgess away at the Asia Cup Both 1st choice CM's out, one is their captain 1st choice striker - Hirst out for several months.

Any PL side loans out such a player and they score 5 goals in their first 5-10 games, someone blindly offers £10m for them minimum.. There's an art to it, we've fallen foul before.

It's a big statement signing, it's high time one of them paid off for us. We're the big dogs of the league, I don't know whether it's our mentality or others misplaced perception of us but it's high time we reminded everyone not to mess with us. Sticking 5 past Leeds next month for example.

We're recording in a few mins and will be live on twitter too.

Don't think this is what's happened at all.

Funnily enough I text the BSLB boys earlier (even before the Casadei news) and said he'll score the winner on Monday.

It would appear any fee owed to Inter is on promotion, so possibly gets around our spending ruled for this season. Although I'm somewhat confused on what the periods are for this now, is it based on season, calendar year, financial year etc.

They should send us Andrey Santos as an apology.

This is terrible news. We need to act quickly to get a replacement in before Swansea at home. FFS

I said the same mate, although I was more using Winks as an example than Coady when in reality it was always like to be Coady that was poor business at his age for the price than Winks. Either way it shows the risk and I accept its not easy getting this right. Its why the strategy must retain some flexibility to account for flops and it not then hinder us.

Yes exactly, the best we can now hope for is a loan until June covering half his £30k a week wages.

Regardless of whether Rudkin is at fault for the inability to move unwanted players on or not, the fact is we struggle to and there seems to be no emerging change to suggest we won't continue to. Something has to then change in our strategy. We can't continue to purchase players and should a chunk of them not be good enough, that we can't move them on. If we have to suspend all purchases above a certain amount, look for free transfers more (we seldom ever utilise this market), go for more loans with options to buy etc then we have to do it. You'd have thought we'd have attempted to learn our lesson from the summer of 2022, but then in January 2023 we've seemingly paid way over the odds for a player from Denmark for a club record fee and a Championship defender who'd only just recovered from an ACL and approaching his mid 20's. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

If he was on £55k a week, he'll have had a 40% pay cut, so more like £30-35k a week now. I think any club willing to sign him permanently would be Championship or below and we'd have to chuff up half or more of his wages for the rest of the 18 months.

As in injuries. He got injured in pre-season when we signed him and missed a week or so but up until his injury away at Leeds last season I don't think he'd had many in across the 5-6 seasons. I'll check. https://www.flashscore.co.uk/player/iheanacho-kelechi/dIaES012/

Bizarre. They've sold Archer and Philogene who are both much better than Rogers. Weird move.

Interesting, hadn't seen we'd been scouting him. Would be a great piece of business to get him in, him, Alves and Logan Briggs coming through the academy who all have a chance of being Championship and hopefully PL class.

He's fit for Ipswich, Enzo confirmed yesterday. Trained the last two weeks.

Evidently still injured. Bit worrying as Iheanacho has been pretty much bullet proof the entire time he's been here.

I don't mind us having to win a few games 4-2 until we get the squad back fit. I'd like us to edge a 9 goal thriller at Elland Road next month too.

I seem to recall Pearson being banished and us having players missing and we won a big game and then he kept sitting in the stands for a while 😂😂

Not sure vs the top sides but quite possibly.