StriderHiryu

Forest made a 25m bid for Santiago Gimenez of Feyenord. Not sure he’d fit our system but that would be an impressive signing if they make it.

His stats are good, but I've got to be honest, he doesn't look like someone capable of leading the line for a Premier League team yet to me. It would be a gamble, same as Theirno Barry, etc, etc. Mo Amoura who went to Wolfsburg I think would have been good though. One thing I will say about our recruitment is that we *didn't* go for Ben Bereton-Diaz, Cameron Archer or Sammie Szmodics. That to me is actually a good sign, because whilst I might be proven wrong, none of these guys scream "striker that keeps you up" to me. Are any of those better than Daka (even if he's injured)? Maybe they are better than Cannon, but it's hard to quantify. That said, if we end up with Datro Fofana from Chelsea, is that good enough? Probably not.

Really highly rated, Sporting fans a bit surprised he's being allowed to go. However, with signings from other countries it's really hard to gauge how they will perform. Saints signed Carloz Alcaraz a few seasons ago and other than scoring for us, he hasn't yet hit the heights, despite being loaned to Juventus last season. But that said... When a really promising player does look the business despite a modest transfer fee and fans on here pointing that out, we sure look stupid. Transfers are so hard to get right. More than 50% of them don't work out.

With one game to go, no team has shipped more than 3 goals so far Going to take this chance to post my season preview here. Nice and optimistic

I wonder if the club will take risks with players from leagues like the Swiss and Austrian ones after Daka's return here? Ioannidis is from Greece which sort of goes against my point, but he's definitely on the market, which is why he's available. Salzburg have another african striker called Karim Konate who looks pretty decent, though I wouldn't risk it personally. William Bøving from Sturm Graz might also be one to keep an eye on. Holland and Belgium could be ripe for the picking also. Kevin Denkey at Cercle Brugge I think will end up in the Premier League one day. Chuba Akpom is getting on, but think he is definitely on the market. He'd be good as a false 9. Last season I picked out Evanilson who went to Bournemouth as one we might go for. He went for big bucks, but it shows that such a move was possible despite him playing for Porto. There is still likely to be a ton of domino effects from strikers as Oshimen, Toney, Nketiah and Moukoko (Dortmund) are all going to be on the move.

Tammy Abraham Patrick Bamford Elijah Adebayo Someone from the Chelsea loan army Chuba Akpom I could also see someone from Belgium or Netherlands. Habib Diallo was also mentioned but think he might be too old for us to buy.

A look at the season ahead, including some analysis on what Oliver Skipp could bring to the team. I don't think this will be the worst season in the club's history, but have to say that we're struggling to see us surviving as it stands.

If we are paying that much, he's coming straight into the first team. That makes me think we will shift back to a 433, which we tried against Shrewsbury. Klopp played 433 for years with combatitive midfielders, relying on the fullbacks and attacking players for creativity. One thing to keep in mind is that in most games this season, the opposition will have more of the ball than us and we will be counter attacking, even if we don't set out to play that way. Most teams have better squads than we do. For that reason having industrious players in the middle of the park who know the league and can compete is a good thing, and provides a platform to give us a chance to stay up with. My concern would then be with Kristiansen as I don't think he's good enough to play as a raiding left back, but we could put JJ there and then bring back Ricardo to the team. With this signing I feel like I am starting to see some kind of strategy with our permanent transfers. Skipp will stay with us if we get relegated, as will Okoli and Reid. Skipp I suspect will become the mainstay of the team for the next 3-4 seasons regardless of what division we are in, and I expect a Harry Winks style effect where he goes from written off to beloved. Though not neccesarily this season! 20M is a bit tough to take, it's very much Premier League tax. But I think he's a good player.

I said this earlier in the window, I think he’s a good player. Not that dissimilar to Winks but younger. He improves the squad. Not 100% sure where he fits into the starting XI though. And not the sort of player that adds much to our creativity. Unlike our other signings, he’s a player I could see Enzo signing if he was still here, he’s good technically.

I don’t share your enthusiasm but I must say this is a very good post!

Someone's just pointed out to me that Bentancur will start ahead of Gray even if Bissouma is injured. Which makes me feel even more pessimistic!

Doesn't get much more optimistic than the average prediction being 4-0 to Spurs We need the crowd to give the team some energy for this one!

Time for the Pre-Match preview! This season, I have started a YouTube channel and will be posting full videos on there as speaking through things and using examples is a LOT easier to do than typing things on the forum. However, old habbits die hard, so I will post a few things on here too! Spurs will be a tough test for us given our current team and squad. Ange plays a very specific system that means we know almost exactly what to expect: ^ Spurs invert both their fullbacks into number 8 positions. This gives them a defensive "box" to build with and defend on transition, with potentially 6 men forwards in attack. The system gives them 6 men in attack if they can get the ball forwards: ^ Here they are up against Liverpool who have a 5 man press against their 4 man build-up structure. But we also see their inverted fullbacks providing additional passing opportunities to generate attacking superiorities. I have also shown an area of weakness. If we can turn the ball over, there are gaps on either side and with our fast and talented wingers, this gives us a potential attacking angle to exploit if we can win the ball back. It is a big if though! ^ Ange has totally transformed Spurs from a "sit back and soak it up" team under Nuno, Conte and Mourinho to a front-footed one. In fact last season, Spurs made the most attacking turnovers by any team in the league, more even than Klopp's Liverpool. They have pace in attack and will make it hard to play out from the back. Vestergaard may well sit this one out because of his lack of pace, though I worry somewhat without him or Ricardo in the team, as this severely impacts our ability to play through the press. I think the game has a few key battles that could determine how the game goes. In pre-season when we build, Ndidi pushes forwards, leaving Harry Winks as the sole pivot to receive, turn and make things happen. He's a great player, but this means that teams will target him as the key man to stop our build-up. Maddison has been great at pressing after being coached to do that by Rodgers when he was here, so he will be the one who is tasked to hunt him down and try to stop Winks. If Winks can get out of his press, it will act as a way to unlock Spurs, but if Maddison has the better of Winks, we will be in for a long day. We may also decide to tell Ndidi to be more conservative and make sure Winks has protection, which IMO would be the more sensible and pragmatic way to go. Yves Bissouma has been left out of this game for an internal discipline breach. This means that either Archie Gray or Lucas Bergvall will probably come into the team as a number 6. I expect Gray given the fee paid for him, and think this is a battle that Ndidi will be selected for and possibly one that he could win. Ndidi can win the physical battle, and we could set pressing triggers and traps to lure Spurs into passing into Gray and try to target him. Spurs have by far the superior team and squad, and I haven't mentioned Son, Kulusevski or Solanke here (but do in the video) which is a formidable frontline. Despite that with Hermansen's distribution and two good wingers, I'd give us a chance, even though I sadly expect a pretty routine win for Spurs. If you do watch the video, please let me know what you think about it, I would appreciate the like / subscribe / comment tripple threat! You can also follow the channel on Twitter too, even if it's a horrific social network! @ForFoxSakeTV Come on you Fantastic Foxes!

Giving Salah a 10m head start sounds like a less than ideal tactic

His voice quivers a bit when talking about transfers . You know he's having to hide what he really thinks.

That's what I think he will go with too, even though I would not go this way. Spurs push very high, with both full backs inverting into 8 positions. It's quite a unique tactic. That means the chance for us is to exploit the wings and ball over the top. Playing a fast player up top should make the Spurs CB's think a bit before just mindlessly playing a high line. That's why Mavididi over Cannon does make some sense. For how crap our team looks (and boy does it look crap), having Hermansen, Fatawu and Mavididi gives us a chance against almost everyone in the league. Mads has elite distribution. Sit back and soak, hang on if need be, put a great ball over the top for the front 3 to run onto and we can sneak something. I don't expect it to happen, but my point is that what happened in the Championship to us, we can do to teams in this league. That is the hope to cling onto for me this season. I do have to say that leaving Ricardo out of the team is career suicide. The way we play, Ndidi pushes up, so Maddison will be told to target Winks, and that will be the key battle in the game. I think Ricardo is the best overall player we have left after KDH left, so to not start him is making a hard task even tougher.

Strengthening with good players too. Either with international experience of coming in with form in the case of Szmodics. Someone said this already on the forum, but I can see us having a similar episode to Arsenal when they got beaten 8-2 and then signed 4 players in a week as a result.

Another thing to add to your post is that it's much better to get a player who is motivated to be here and show what they can do, than a player who is just here for a paycheck. The last time we went down, it wasn't due to talent, it was down to attitude. Well that and having Danny Ward in goal.

Lesley Ugochukwu is a great pickup for the season IMO. As is the recurring theme, this window is turning into a nightmare. I assumed we would pickup a number of players on loan, but now it's looking like all of the better loan players are already going. All this is headed in the "Casadei Returns!" announcement on deadline day...

Good analogy

I think we will still sign 3-4 players on loan from the top 10 clubs in the league. The problem is they will be the scraps that other clubs don't want, e.g. I could see Casadei back here. Even such signings could make a difference, but them not being here for preseason is a big blow and will cost us points. For me the way to stay up was to have a great system that the team was familiar with, which would mean that a team with a worse squad than those around them could punch above their weight. If Ipswich survive, that will the way they do it. Sadly I feel like we will end up with a poor squad who don't have a familiar system, and will have many young players instead of veterans who know what it takes to survive in the league. And with such a squad, the end result is fairly predictable. It goes without saying I hope I am totally wrong and we somehow find some momentum from nowhere and use it to get some blood and guts into the team.

New merch has just dropped in the club store!