Number 6

I think I'd probably take 19th if offered it currently. Which tells you everything about how I think the season will go haha.

To be honest I haven't been overly impressed by Ipswich's or Southampton's business this summer. Obviously it has been more impressive than ours but that goes without saying. Ipswich have tried to sort their defence and I do think Greaves is a signing I'd have liked us to make (ahead of JV or Okoli) Other signings so far don't look anything special to me. Southampton have probably done better business but there's a big outlay there to get them back to their team which finished 4th. Brereton Diaz hasn't shone in the Prem and I don't see how he's different to Armstrong who they already have in this regard. That said they've probably both closed the gap to us any maybe overtaken us. The fact that we got another CB in when we're so lacking in firepower is ludicrous. We're requiring hail Mary's over the last 2 weeks of the window but I think the three promoted clubs look like the clubs that will go down to me (barring any other deductions or punishments elsewhere).

Dunno why people are absolving the player of responsibility in this. If I joined a company abroad and didn't realise my take home was less then I'd be the muppet (hello Andrei Arshavin). All part of the negotiation. Neither club wants to stump up the difference and the player doesn't want to take the cut, so the deal falls through.

People keep comparing him to strikers we have when he plays behind a striker. Not sure how he'll do in the Prem. His last season looked like an absolute freak when you see his longer term trends, for some reason he just got into lots of good scoring positions and converted well. Whether that was a team set up well for him at last or him changing something himself, who knows. Must admit, it's not one I feel sad about us missing out on.

Would be an excellent acquisition

That could happen with an option too. Obligation or purchasing now the only way to stop that. They aren't thrown into the loan deal as a bit of charity from Brighton either.

You can still buy players you have loaned without having an option in place at the start too. Negotiation would just happen next summer rather than now.

He'll only block Alves' playing time if he's a better player. And if he is a better player then it makes us more likely to stay up.

They posted £120m profit for 22/23. They can fund transfers.

Think people here need a dose of pragmatism rather than this wistful "shows how far we've fallen" every time something like this comes up. We've been dealt a shit hand, just got to try and make the best play possible from this position. It's a decent signing.

It sort of makes sense the clubs with typically the biggest turnovers would be most impacted by COVID to be fair.

Yeh I think some are overly generous to Vichai because the outcome was ultimately favourable. That was probably down to what was built by Pearson, Shakey, and Walsh though. The signs were there before, what was the comment: "10bn baht for top 5" as soon as we got promoted.

Art

Thought I would add an example of a club doing something right: Luton have announced that they will now operate on 2-year cycles for their home kit. Would have liked to see them do the same for away and change kits, but it's a start.

If we get a 12 point deduction then quite simply we are down.

Brilliant player. Dragged that club through last season and expect him to kick on even more.

I can't see us getting more than a 40 point season (ignoring any deduction) and then hoping that's enough to stay up. There is a group of pretty poor teams though. We don't necessarily have to be that good to stay up.

Surprised the methods Enzo employs haven't translated as well at Chelsea so far. We all know his strengths and weaknesses but he did get a little tune out of us in pre-season and we were solid defensively under him. Playing a system which doesn't get the best out of James and isolates the likes of Gallagher probably means there's a bit of squad disharmony though. Issue might be getting player buy in, but they should improve once Palmer and Cucurella are back.

We're an absolute state at the moment but this is horseshit. Clubs like Brentford are well run, definitely have a project, no way he chooses them over Roma. It's not complicated, he just had interest from an attractive club.

There's a fair few red flags with this one: patchy record, age, no sell on value, not free, a position we're covered in. Not even sure it gets us out of a hole long term as we need to start getting on players we can resell for profit. A bizarre bit of business.

Not sure why many assume that whatever punishment is dished out will be reduced on appeal. The Everton initial penalty was ill judged, hence the reduction, but Forests appeal amounted for nothing. It also seemed like there was more of a process and thinking by the time the Forest deduction came round. I assume whatever is handed down will stick, unless we've annoyed them so much that they try and really screw us.

I think this is probably what ends up happening. In 12 months time he will hopefully have had a decent showing in the Prem and attracted a lot of interest. If we've dropped down again then I think we'll promote Stol and offset monetary loss by selling Hermansen. More ideal would be staying up and being able to get another year out of him as we stabilise, but I think there's probably a natural parting next summer.

Think he just means however you set up you will have vulnerable areas. There's no perfect system where you don't concede. You can argue that passing out from the back makes you vulnerable to high press goals, and people hate seeing them, but they count the same as any other type of goal you concede. Reminds me of Kasper a while ago when asked about conceding at near post. His comments being that it's a goal whether it's near or far post, one is not better or worse than the other.

I'd be staggered if £10 was the optimal price point for maximising income from this service. Surely can't have had a huge take-up?

Cooper was at Forest when his third choice GK was being picked for Wales ahead of Ward. He knows he's shit. If he ends up as number two then it's a combination of poor planning/recruitment, and injuries that will have done it.