honeybradger

So far Vietes looks the most comfortable playing out the back. Hope he's not off.

Hutchinson is a proper bull dog.

So are McCarthy and Souttar, what are they doing.

Faes is such a bombscare

Hutchinson, Evans, Carr front 3

This is not a first choice XI so I'm not sure why this would imply McCarthy is first choice. Hopefully just trying him out.

Surely there's a Strait of Hormuz chant we can come up with for when we're protecting a lead.

Am I wrong or did Omerod not even play in the National league last season but in the National League north. Struggled at lot in the National league the season before with 1 goal in 33 although was only 19. Seems a bit silly to sign him when he is 3 years older than Evans and less proven.

£20mil for Fatawu £15mil for Fatawu + Skipp

Didn't play in the friendly against Burton. Wonder if that means he's close to a transfer, apparently he's likely to go to Huddersfield

The young players look lively and exciting. The senior players still look lethargic and unbothered. Some players just aren't athletic enough no matter how much you train them.

Surely that's not right and Alves, Braybrooke at a minimum will be involved as well. Don't think it was accurate for our other pre season games either

I think the bar for Skipp is just very low and I am not sure why. It might be because he looks like he tries or maybe because he is White British. Maybe our fans feel sorry for him but the way he gets lauded after the most mediocre performances by our fans is just laughable. Skipp is one of the reasons we were relegated last season, that's what a straight record should show.

Choudhury won more man of the match awards than Skipp last season whilst being a bit part player. Was also good against Charlton early in the season but didn't win man of the match. I can't remember any note worthy performances from Skipp (that weren't noteworthingly bad at least). One of the worst seasons a midfielder has had for us.

Choudhury has at least had some good games in a Leicester shirt. Skipp has been consistently rubbish since he signed. For me I think we're a better team with Choudhury than with Skipp. Choudhury is a bomb scare on the ball but at least he offers some energy in midfield. Skipp just offers nothing.

I was hoping the absences of BDCR and Coulibaly were going to lead to something a bit more permanent, either a transfer or out of the plans.

The problem is that Skipp is worse than Soumare and a similar level to Hamza. He's probably the midfielder we are least likely to win a game with in the team. Just a terrible signing.

For Nelson I wasn't talking about last season, I was talking about in 24/25 when we signed Okoli over trusting Nelson, which is an example of the club trying to bury academy players. You can also look at Coady, another player who was terrible for us, as an example of bringing in experience to bury Nelson under. Same with Dewsbury Hall and Soumare. KDH was coming off a very good season in the championship and we went ahead and signed Soumare as our backup centre midfielder. If Soumare was any good Dewsbury Hall would have never gotten his chance here. We also signed Ryan Bennett instead of just playing Calvin Bassey. There has been a track record of the club not relying on academy players then getting punished for it in the long run.

Will was kept out of the squad by BDCR last season who is an atrocious footballer. We signed Okoli instead of giving Nelson a chance who is worse than Nelson, as shaky as Nelson was last season. The evidence suggest that being good enough often isn't enough at this club. You have to be exceptional which considering the state of our first team simply isn't fair.

There was a time where we had an all time great like Rodri crying that we didn't play the right way after battering his team 5-3 How far we have fallen.

Chido Obi Martin (18) in the PL2 - 18 games 9 goals Kirsten Otchere (19) in the PL2 - 19 games 9 goals Obi Martin isn't all that.

He was still criticised for being one footed under Enzo. You would like to think everyone was overwhelmingly positive about Dewsbury Hall while he carried us to the PL but they weren't. Only now that he plays for someone else in the Prem is he seen as the gold standard.

I don't base whether I like players over how many games they have played, thats how you end up with players like Ayew. I like them because of their qualities and how good they seem to be at football. Using Mahrez as an example again, his record in Ligue 2 was poor but Steve Walsh originally identified him because he did a trick that he hadn't seen done on a professional football pitch before. As much as people might have gone off him recently one of our best signings in recent years in Fatawu had only played 6 games in the Portuguese League and 12 in the portugese 3rd tier when we signed him, not much to go off. The only way we could have picked him out is based on someone liking his qualities as a player rather than off his established performances. Carr to me has so much obvious quality and looks like a nightmare for fullbacks, i think our scouting team have their work cut out for them to find a better replacement for Fatawu if that is something they are looking for.

As an extreme example we signed Mahrez for £400k, that doesn't mean that there are loads of players that you can sign for £400k that are as good as Mahrez. Since Mahrez left in terms of right wingers we have signed: Ghezzal £20mil - too slow Diabate £1mil? - not decisive enough Perez £15mil - too slow, not a winger Under - always shoots, poor decision making Tete - too slow Fatawu £17mil - no composure under pressure It's clearly not as easy as you make out to sign good and cheap wingers. Ability wise Carr is not far off the wingers we have had starting at higher levels than we are at now over the last decade. I mean we had Ayew and BDCR on the wings in the PL in recent memory. If you can show me a player who is fast, technical, good at shooting, good decision making, good work rate that is available for cheap then maybe they would be worth buying and playing ahead of Carr.

What about it is silly? I guess using Mavididi as an example of a £7mil signing is maybe a bit off as it seems he's lost his motivation for football and he was a good championship player for us at some point. I still think it's a fine comparison as it just shows that even signing proven quality like Mavididi (he scored a decent number in ligue 1 which is more proven than anyone we will sign this summer) can always go wrong. Riley Carr has been very impressive this pre season and has done enough to show he has the level to be a starter for us. If we sign a player he has to offer more than Carr and I'm not sure there are many players willing to move to a league one club that falls into that bracket. To back up my earlier statement I don't think we could afford what it would take to sign a player like that either.