StriderHiryu

The only pro he has is winning aerial duels because he is so tall. That third Stockport goal, we were defending pretty deep and he does very poorly for a cross into the box. He's a poor player and one that it's baffling to think commanded such a big fee.

I also fear this. As far as I am aware the club has never officially responded to claims the club is up for sale. Russell Martin has been asked about it in press conferences, but told reporters he had not been made aware that the club was for sale. If this is incorrect, please someone let me know where they have responded to it and what was said. In other conferences Martin has talked about "the project" when trying to recruit young talents like Kangasiemi and Bristric, where he implies that the club is looking at a multi-year strategy, hardly the actions of a club that is looking for a quick or panic sale. If you want to go really tinfoil hat, what if asking Citi group to shop the club around is a way to take heat off the current ownership because the club is up for sale and then at the end of the season they say "we have decided we don't want to sell the club after all and are committed for X amount of years", which would presumably be after getting back to the Championship via promotion. Of course the flaw in this plan is that the way it's going it doesn't look like promotion will be a lot tougher to accomplish than first thought.

I'm speechless. I was on the BTG stream last night saying with the squad we have we would piss the league and win it easily. Instead I've just done a watch-along for the worst result in our history. I already knew things were utterly broken at the club, but Jesus Christ. If I was at the game today I would have stormed the pitch and directors box. The lowest of all lows... so far.

I don't fully agree. A lot of players have gone, but those were the ones whose contracts expired. Faes is still here, Mavididi and Skipp have left but only on loan and still will be here. As for players brought in, we have brought a ton of duffers from the Championship and jobs for the boys for Russell Martin. Liam Cullen is doing his best to impersonate Casper the Ghost and the Ipswich lads have been massively underwhelming at best. This is whilst we have sold some of the "crown jewels" of the academy in Jeremy Monga and Darren Motsi. I think we will win the division and will get promoted comfortably. But then the parachute payments run out and we will be left with a lot of older players who are likely going to be past their sell by date in the Championship. Our best players this season have been the academy graduates; Jayden Joseph, Sammy Braybrooke, Will Alves and Louis Page. So maybe instead of signing players like Cullen and Burns, we could have given minutes to Jake Evans and Kirsten Otchere instead? Overall I would say the window has exceeded my expectations, but as I say, I won't be truly convinced till next season in terms of how good it was or wasn't.

Absolutely unreal, throw him a few suitcases of cash, he will play for England in the future for sure.

Played well but we still give away way too many big chances every game. But still, that was a lot promising from what we had seen previously.

Because to them it’s admitting defeat. This is a regime that has never taken accountability and they won’t start now. I maintain that despite being in league one if the club was open and transparent with its fans we’d be right behind them. They did the hard part by climbing to the pinnacle of English football but hubris has meant they’ve thrown it away. Quite incredible and sad to be honest.

It's as simple as this. TALK to the fans, explain what is going on and why. The club is up for sale, but has anyone from the club said anything? Of course not.

I lived in Berlin for a bit and loved the 50+1 model they have over there. The Union Berlin fans over there donated there own blood when they were in the 3rd division to pay for the club to survive. The relationship between fans and club is what it should be over here.

The case of Leicester City for me is an example of how effective Sports Washing can be. When they first took over, many fans were very hesitant and worried about who the new owners would be. Fast forward 15 or so years and you have people that defend them like they were one of their own family members. Notice how in the stadium "King Power" is emblazoned everywhere, but there is little about the history of the club like you would find in other stadiums around the country. None of the stands are named after former players or coaches, and though we have a statue, it's for the former owner. Now he actually deserved it, but still my point stands. If you force a brand down someone's throat for long enough, it will stick. I will always be thankful for the great memories King Power gave me as a fan, but to be honest throughout their entire tenure they never really sat well with me. It's always been too much of a forced narrative and keeping the fans at arms length. In the successful years like many you had to think "how can I complain, this is incredible", but in retrospect the niggles were always there, like the way Top hogged the trophy on the day we lifted the title.

Yes but it depends on the instructions for our players. Bobby Reid and Kirsten Otchere had been dropping in very deep during our build up in pre-season and in friendlies, and it often meant there wasn't anyone to attack the box. A good false 9 can drop deep, but they also have to be mobile enough to get back up and attack the box too like Harry Kane. Last season we saw Ayew standing everywhere but the opposition box!

Problem is I bet with the system we use, he won't be spending that much time in the box! I really hope I am wrong as we have been calling out for a proper target man for donkeys.

We spent that on Slimani instead... Deeney I think would have been a lot better, but yeah for that money he would still have been poor.

Sorry but not seeing that. Braybrooke was good in pre-season, but he gave the ball away time and time again today, kept turning back and took way too many touches. The same could be said for every player who took part today. The only player who played well was Skipp, and only because he was never under any real pressure so he had all the time in the world to turn and pick his pass. Watson I will give you was good when he came on, but we didn't see enough of him to really comment. But no one on that pitch was impressive, even for the low standards we set for ourselves these days. If a team is going to play possession football, then the speed at which the ball is moved is the key to it working. It doesn't need to be fast all the time, but when you make your move, it's got to be a series of first time passes that are fast and accurate to cut the opposition apart. Every player on our team took at minimum 3 touches every time they received the ball and it meant that every move we made was over before it ever began. Given we had drinks breaks, it's disappointing that the manager didn't also see this and tell them to speed it up. If we tried to play the ball quickly but lost it because of misplaced passes, that would have been better at this stage of the season than taking too many passes for me. What I saw today was concerning...

I hope so! The thing is that parachute payments run out next season so players on high wages will be an even bigger problem. I was also convinced that players like Reid, Ayew and Skipp would be too good a level down and well we all saw what happened. For that reason for a player like this I’d prefer a loan only maybe with a small loan fee.