StriderHiryu

Yep that seems notable. When Forest beat us 4-1 in the cup, they bullied us and Cooper recognises that physicality is a big part of the modern game. Getting in the set pieces coach adds to that. Comparing Okoli vs Greaves will be interesting, as both cost around the same amount of money. I'd have gone Greaves personally, but this feels like a Glover signing, so let's hope he's found more gold in the market.

Definitely expensive for Delap, but thinking about the way Ipswich play and the way they used George Hirst, Delap would work well in that system and is a good upgrade. But put it this way, if we were in for him, I would be disapointed! Philogene fee is pretty good IMO. I'm a little surprised we aren't in for either him or Greaves as both are good on the ball, young, English and have high resale potential. Both proven in the Championship if it came to that too. As it stands Ipswich are improving their squad and have continuity with their manager, whereas our squad is considerably weaker (assuming Ndidi doesn't stay) and have been thrown into chaos through the departure of the manager! Our games against them will be huge and hopefully this time round we don't hand them late equalisers!

The Turkey vs Netherlands game was epic and a lot of the chances came from direct play. Koeman stuck on Weghorst and they went for the second ball and it worked. Turkey the whole tournament have embraced chaos and played a bit like a red bull team and it also worked well for them. England don’t deserve to still be in the tournament with the way they play. If they win it fans may not care but in both of the last two games they’ve scored with their first shot on target and it’s been a screamer. That’s not a consistent way to win!

The 4 best teams to watch at the Euros were Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Spain, all of whom play system football with clear attacking patterns of play. This version of Spain are brilliant, they progressed from playing possesion for the sake of it under Luis Enrique to being a a team that loves to go 1-1 on the wings and play quick vertical transitions. Often times when they attack they get 6 men into the box. There is a subplot going on this Euros which is "In International Football which style works best; system football or relying on the individual brilliance of top players?" It's extremely hard to get system football to work at International level because you work with the players for such a short amount of time over the course of a year. England and France are the villains of this Euros, both of whom play abject "just don't lose" football with awful chance creation and over reliance on indiviudals. This video from FourFourTwo is well worth watching where the analyst says "I can't believe I am saying this, but the way England got back into the game against Switzerland was... vibes" (see 10:30 in the video). If Spain win, it might make the French and English FA's choose to appoint more progressive managers. If England went for Potter (which we all know he's holding out for), they would play system football for example, and that would be interesting to compare to how Southgate set them up. Also just want to say @Finnegan is making some top posts in this thread today!

Looks like he played quite a few games last season as an attacking midfielder and not just as a winger: I could see us picking him up on a loan with option to buy deal. He was loaned out last season and good performances in the Premier League would increase his value if we didn't pick him up. I'd be surprised if we got him though, it feels like one of those transfers where someone else would gazump us once interested, like how Spurs stepped in to take Archie Gray when Brentford thought they had him.

Mo Amoura went to Wolfsburg. He’s really rated highly by many on here, so will be interesting to see what he can do. I also believe this means we are targeting a powerful striker, as otherwise I think we would have been linked with this guy, even if he wasn’t interested.

From the Telegraph article today: Long hours have been spent with head of recruitment Martyn Glover and the analysts to work through potential targets. Cooper has watched the majority of games from last season to understand why the team was successful, with the intention to build on it and make improvements in preparation for operating in a higher division. We can only speculate as to what we will see, but I suspect that in the first game in pre-season we will use the same 3421 we used last season. I can see us moving away from it over time though. With both 8's currently gone from last season and a lack of proven quality in that area, it's the most glaring hole we have in the team right now.

It's Tielemans all over again, and look how that worked out.

Greaves for 10-15m sounds like a similar price to what we’re paying for Okoli. I’d prefer Greaves, left-footed, good on the ball, knows the English game. Our club is so weird with centre backs, we collect them like stamps! Luckily we’ve found some great ones; Morgan, Huth, Maguire, Soyuncu, Fofana, but then Coady and Souttar have made than less 50 appearances for the club combined. If Ipswich end up with Greaves, Phillogene and Hutchinson that’s an amazing statement of intent, though I feel they need a much better striker to stand a chance. That said looking at Leicester with a new manager and our previous “premier league ready” midfield now almost non-existent plus a points penalty, it’s looking rough.

Would be worth a punt for that price I think. Couldn’t get him last season but second time lucky?

For us to have a chance to stay up I feel like we’ve got to strike gold again in the transfer market. Adam Wharton went in just 6 months from Blackburn to Palace to England team so it can be done but obviously leaves a lot to luck. Glover did great with Hermansen and Fatawu so here’s hoping he’s found another one.

Like Fernando Santos the Portugal manager who won the Euros with them. Yes they won it, but no Portuguese fan ever rated him. France fans don't rate Deschamps that much either. As they won a World Cup and he got them to another final they give him more of a pass, but he plays terrorist football just as much as Southgate.

With KDH gone, Riccy P is by a million miles the best player we have in the team. If we have ANY chance of staying up, we need to get the best out of him. It will be interesting to see how Cooper uses him. As a full-back, wing-back, CDM or as a midfielder higher up the pitch. I would argue that our second best attacking midfielder after KDH wasn't Ndidi, it was Ricardo when he played there! For me it actually doesn't matter where he is in the team, the important thing is that he's in it, probably as captain. He's a class above and we are lucky to have him at Leicester.

Habib Diallo scored 20 goals for Strasbourg the season before he went to the Saudi League. Admittedly his record in the Saudi league is pretty poor, which is a worry. However, players from that league have shown they can still cut it at the Euros; Kante has been one of the players of the tournament and Laporte good for Spain. If anything, the players from that league seem well rested and relatively injury free! @moore_94 just said they value him at £10M, imo that's not a bad deal though obviously a risk. The Saudi club signed him for 20 Million Euros. I will admit that I am biased because I signed him myself in a recent Football Manager save for Leicester and he was pretty good!

That's honestly pretty impressive. I'm guessing that BCR is more of a squad option rather than a starter, but having a really professional player with quality and can set a good example is decent business on a free. We just hope it's not a crazy amount on wages given poor signings in the past like Bertrand. I can see this player being like Albrighton in his late 20's when he was a very solid player who often made a big difference when he started or came on.

Havertz missed too many chances. I think they would have won it if Fullkrug started! Usually I do appreciate a false 9, but I think that with Wirtz and Musiala, they are better with a more direct and physical 9. Though that said they didn't start with both the 10's, so maybe that was the bigger tactical mistake. I don't think I can say a bad word about Nagelsman though, he is a top coach and you can see it. Losing the way the Germans did would hurt, but you would be proud of your team if they played like that!

What a fantastic game! Germany really unlucky, they made enough chances to win it themselves and did themselves proud. Spian really good, but their lesson is not to go into Southgate mode. Taking off those wingers almost cost them. A great watch!

Spain are properly good. Their manager is going to go far. This version is not only good but very watchable! Technical and use possession but direct and commit bodies forward.

That’s a contender for signing of the season if his form for Bologna translates to Arsenal. In general I think they overpay for players, eg Havertz and White, but signing possibly the mainstay Italian CB for the next decade for that amount is great business.

Now you know why Lamine Yamal is a world class player aged 16. The guy was literally baptised by the greatest player of all time.

A few more Okazaki types the season we got relegated and we probably would have stayed up. Was sick of seeing Tielemans pull out of challenges by the end! After Ranieri was sacked, the first thing Shakespeare did was bring back Okazaki and Albrighton into the team and results immediately improved.

And / or a signing-on fee. I think it's likely that he's getting whatever Marc Albrighton was on. Between say 2016 and 2020, Sharky was a really good squad player who was well worth his place in the squad. If we can performances and stats like Sharky generated, it's a good signing. If he's Bertrand level, looking forwards to selling [INSERT TALENTED ACADEMY PLAYER HERE] in 2026 after achieving promotion to offset PSR muck-ups based on terrible deals made for poor players.

Yeah that's a bit of an issue. He had a very good season last time round though, if he stayed with us if we went down he's proven down in the Championship too. Both signings we've made speak fluent English. I think Cooper is going to try and create a siege mentality and relationship between fans and players based on getting what it takes to play in England / Premier League. The last signing we made like this was Bertrand, who was a disaster. So we need to be weary. However, Bertrand came to us off the tail end of his career, whereas this guy is in much better form. Both signings so far feel a bit weird though. Get used to digging in and trying to nick something all season long...

It’s thoroughly depressing looking at the Leicester results! And I’m not talking about the football!