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.

I don’t love either signing but I think your friend is correct. They played under McKenna, whose system isn’t a million miles away from Martin’s. The issue is what we do with them next season assuming we go up, but we were always going to sign a few players like this.

This is what the manager is going to do, with the addition of a few more signings I'd imagine. For me we should have at least one old fashioned target man in the squad where we need to grind out games.

Totally agree. Even if a signing like this is a total dud, I would like it if the club tries these punts more often. "Premier League Proven": - Jordan Ayew - Bobby Reid - Oliver Skipp - Harry Winks - Ayoze Perez (nowhere near as bad but imagine if we'd got someone else instead) Compare this to "Unknown Quantities": - Riyad Mahrez - N'golo Kante - Anthony Knockaert - Jamie Vardy (to some extent) - Kasey Keller Sure there have also been plenty of duds that can go into the second category too, but some of our most legendary signings have been unknowns.

Almost certainly will, but he can't play every game in a season as long as the one we are about to have.

That's interesting to hear. For the way the gaffer plays, you'd want someone with these characteristics: - Good on the ball so they can get involved in the build-up as they will often join the attack as we dominate the ball. Like JJ under Enzo. - Be an attacking outlet that can overlap or underlap a winger to join the attack, think of Kerkez when he was at Bournemouth. - Be fast so that they can help out when we lose the ball on transition, like Djed Spence at the World Cup. My understanding was that he was one of those "not quite good enough to be a winger so converted to full back" types, so hearing he's good defensively is a real bonus. If you think of Luke Thomas, I don't think he's good at any of the three above sadly.

Of all the players we were / are linked with, this one I was most excited for. I think he's got tremendous potential and left back has been a position we have struggled with for years.

We covered this once on BTG I believe. Martin was previously offered the job before Cifuentes got it. It was a very odd affair where he was interviewed by more than 10 people at the same time and was offered the job at the end of the interview. During it he asked if the club was for sale and was told it was. I can’t remember who told us this but have it on pretty good authority it’s true. At the time Martin walked away because the whole experience seemed weird as hell and set off major alarm bells, but 12 months later I guess was less picky! Given we got in Martin’s preferred assistant and some of the signings he wanted already I think he is probably generally in the know as to what’s going on. But you never really know, as you can tell that PSR issues were kept from Enzo a few years ago.

I think there is a lot of misplaced bitterness towards this player on here. In my opinion the club are massively responsible for his drop-off, firstly when Steve Cooper was appointed, as he was idiotically dropped from the first team, then he got injured away on duty. Then the club in trying to make things right, blew too much smoke up his arse with his "documentary" and t-shirt. Look at Fatawu under Enzo, he towed the line because Maresca would haul him if he didn't do what he was told to. Maresca was the one that had him changing from rough around the edges to potentially being a top Premier League player. 20M sounds good for a League One player, but if you look at what West Ham got for Fernandes and now Summerville, it shows you how massive the mismanagement of the club is. A well-run club would have made serious bank on a player like Abdul, whereas we are going to find out *if* we get back to the Championship that 20M doesn't buy much these days, look at Boro signing Will Lankshear as an example of that. Fatawu's ego was out of control by the end of it, but he didn't start out that way, the club facilitated it. For me, he was one of the most exciting players we had signed in years and it makes me sad that in selling Monga and Fatawu, a lot of the flair we had is gone.

Not paying £20 to watch pre-season and you can't make a detailed tactical analysis from watching YouTube highlights. I am so upset and disappointed with the club right now. When the season starts I will get to it, but I cannot stand the regime in charge right now and have been concentrating on the World Cup instead.

My biggest concern isn’t even the manager here but the direction from above. This is an opportunity to build a new squad in a style that is more applicable to what works in 2026. With Martin we are going to recruit and play heavy possession again, which isn’t working anymore, teams have wised up. Even in League One last season the champions had the lowest possession stats of anyone!