honeybradger

Riley Carr is going to be special . Impressed with Kevon Gray as well.

Vardy won the golden boot at Ings's age. Ings last season scored 2 goals in 23 games in the championship. You can't compare the career trajectories of the two. Vardy is arguably the greatest post 30s striker in the history of the English league.

Out of interest why has he not renewed with Ipswich. If he still has the same quality as he did in 22/23 and 23/24 you would think there would still be some use for him as a squad player for Ipswich. For me Ipswich not being willing to renew is an indicator of him slowing down but it would be interesting to hear from someone who is more clued in on the Ipswich side of things.

I know you won't accept it unless I provide the written contract but here is my understanding: Jakupovic from 2020-2022 was reportedly on £23k a week. Smithies was on £30k from 2022 to 2024 (our worst contract ever). In the 23-24 season we had Hermansen (£10k), Ward(£40k), Iversen(£20k), Smithies(£30k), Stolarczyk (£5k) on our books. That's £105k a week on wages for goalkeepers that season. 2024-2025 we had Hermansen, Iversen, Ward, Stolarczyk. Ward was technically 3rd choice that season so on £40k a week with Iversen out of the picture. Last season was better where we had Stolarczyk (£10k), Begovic (£15k) and Vietes (£15k) but the goalkeeper wage situation has been absurd at the club for years. Arguably £15k on the 2nd and 3rd choice goalkeepers is still insane for a championship club, especially considering we got Hermansen on £10k.

I was impressed by Vietes in the friendly, can see Martin trying to keep a hold of him. If we lose a goalkeeper I can guarantee another one will come in. Having 3 senior goalkeepers is a criticial requirement of the club for some reason.

You've got to love that no matter what money issues we have or gaps in the squad there are the club are always committed to signing a 3rd choice keeper. £10million wasted on wages for 3rd choice goalkeepers since 2020 and that trend doesn't seem to be stopping.

We said we would do well in the championship last season with players who were below standard in the Premier League. As we all know it did not work out. I think you're being disingenuous if you are genuinely trying to say that Chaplin's decline in form will not carry over to league one. Football is a highly competitive sport and if a player has lost their edge then that's going to affect their performances at any professional level.

You think the player who played for Portsmouth last season is the same one who got 21 g+a for Ipswich in the Championship and 31 g+a in league one? Age is less important than performances and Chaplin's have fallen off quite significantly in recent years.

He's just come off a very poor season with Portsmouth. Not the player he used to be. Another player on the Ayew, Cordova Reid, Conor Coady, Ryan Bertrand pile of signing over the hill players.

Braybrooke not being physical is a myth. He's small but Kante was also small and similar to Kante he's agressive and knows how to use his body well. He averaged 2.5 tackles a game in league 2 last season, Winks and Skipp combined averaged 3 so defensively he's an upgrade on our starting midfielders from last season. If those two can play the 6 for us then so can Braybrooke.

As it stands you would hope that that's our starting midfield next season as it's our strongest. Choudhury was pretty good yesterday but I think Braybrooke would be better as a 6 as he's more suited to Martin's style. Think if somehow Skipp ends up being our starting 6 next season then there's a decent chance we do three relegations in a row. He just kills any forward thinking football.

Carr was very good. Probably our second best player behind Alves yesterday. Alves, Carr, Aluko, Wilson Brown, Page, Otchere all impressed yesterday. Evans, Hutchinson, Braybrooke were fine but suffered from being in a weaker side. Nelson probably the weakest recent academy graduate of the group. The usual suspects Okoli, BDCR, Skipp, Faes, Coulibaly all rubbish so expect them to be the ones starting the season.

Motsi's that good. You either give the money to someone like Chaplin and (maybe) get a good league one season out of him and no transfer value. Or you give it to Motsi and he could be a star player with us all the way to the Premier League and if he's sold it would be for £10mil+ like Monga.

Nyoni's only on £25k a week currently. Maybe Motsi is perceived as a bigger talent, but an agreement for a £15-20k a week contract when he turns 17 should still be in the ball park of what he would get elsewhere.

The interest in Chaplin is only rumoured as far as I'm aware but he's currently on £15k a week. I would guess based on our previous record we would offer him more than that to convince him to come to league one so £20-25k a week. Quite a distance from the £40k a week for Monga but surely even £10-15k a week should be enough of a deal for a 15 year old like Motsi. Can't imagine Man City/Liverpool would be offering more.

Can't have been more than we're going to be offering Conor Chaplin next season assuming the rumours are true. Would rather we had used some of that money to retain Motsi. Better value asset and I don't think Chaplin would be much more use next season anyway.

That's a shame. Considering how good Riley Carr was today you would think that Motsi would have also been able to contribute next season had he stayed. Certainly would have been a better option than BDCR.

Not part of the squad earlier today. Any news on whether he is gone this summer? Would hope we could give him a similar offer to Monga with backup minutes to Alves next season. Certainly would rather retain him and bring in no one than sign someone like Chaplin and lose him.

Braybrooke can play as a 6 as well. Anyone but Skipp in midfield for me and I think we will do well. Just offers too little.

Think you're a bit harsh on Hutchinson and too kind on Coulibaly. Thought Hutchinson looked strong and technical, had a nice moment where he took it around a defender and also had that strong shot that you mentioned. From my view it would have been very difficult to do much more with Coulibaly having a disaster behind you and Opoku/Cordova Reid in the middle offering nothing to work with.

Page played deeper as an 8 and was really effective at moving the ball quickly up the pitch albeit he did lose the ball in dangerous areas a couple of times. Always worked hard to make up for it when he did lose it though. Personally I would be happy to see Page and Braybrooke as the 2 midfielders. Better than Skipp being in there as he slows it down too much. Choudhury was good as well to his credit.

Bit unfair on Otchere and Hutchinson who both impressed. Would like to see Hutchinson be given a chance down the middle next game, looks like an absolute unit.

Watching Cordova Reid in the second half compared to Alves in the first half it is really night and day the gap in ability between the two. Of all the screw ups we have made in recent times playing Cordova Reid 2500 minutes in the last 2 seasons when we had Alves available has got to be up there.

Difficult for any of our forward players playing alongside Opoku and Cordova Reid who are having very poor games. Coulibaly as well having a nightmare. Alves, Carr, Otchere, Mavididi all benefited from the players around them playing well.

Hutchinson impressing considering he is a striker being played out wide. I remember being told he was only good for goals.