honeybradger

Jake Evans is the heir to vardy. Hopefully he gets some more minutes as striker as he's been put out on the wing recently.

This lineup would be a lot of fun and what I would go with against Wednesday. Jakub Pereira Aluko Nelson Thomas Page El Khannouss Fatawu Alves Monga Mavididi/Evans (Don't say that midfield gets run through because the alternative is Winks and Skipp)

You are being too optimistic, there's still a strong chance that we mostly see the same old names this coming season with the young players only getting cameos. I won't be convinced until our last pre season game where we will see if the academy players are favoured or if we start with a similar XI as we did today.

He's as good if not better despite being younger. The only reason those two are preferred is because of seniority, not performance. It's BS really.

This is just a fantasy sadly. We will start with all the crappy players come the start of the season.

Alves is more suited to being a 10 than El Khannous, El Khannous is more of an 8.

Monga is our best player, need to start him as much as possible within his limits as a 16 year old.

Alves > mcateer

The toxicity is valid, we have seen the club's on pitch performance collapse over the last few years. This 'clean sheet' rubbish however is not valid and will massively hold the back in the long term. We need to shift the bad ones, not try to keep making them work in vain.

You say that like he didn't score 9 PL goals and assist 4 last season in a terrible team. Yes he missed some sitters but that also shows that he still has the ability to be one step ahead of PL level defenders, let alone championship ones. Vardy being one of the top scorers in the championship next season if he came back would be a realistic expectation. He's still one of the best options in the market for us. I wouldnt be surprised if he goes elsewhere and does well whilst our new striker is written off by Christmas.

Who else would we get? Danny Ings? Evan Ferguson on loan? I've seen suggestions of Agmeyang on here (not good) or Kroupi Jr on loan (not happening). Realistically one more year of Vardy might still be our best option if we were to sign someone, although im happy with Evans as our starter and Ayew, Daka or a false 9 as backup.

So you agree that the ideal situation is to sack them off, at least we can agree on that. Let's not be condescending, what i am proposing is not only acheivable in a video game, we currently have plenty of chances to reshape our squad into a young exciting team that can gain promotion AND look to establish ourselves in the PL further down the line. No 18 year old Brazilian wonderkids needed. For reference the last time we were in the championship we missed a massive opportunity playing Faes, Vestergaard and Coady ahead of Nelson and paid the price wasting another year with those 3 at the back whilst Nelson had to go on loan to gain the experience he should've had the season before with us. Hopefully we don't make that same mistake again. Here's my solution: rather than giving the old tossers 'clean sheets' and letting them back into the fold like nothing ever happened we should at the very least keep these players at arms length. We should give players like Nelson, Aluko and Okoli opportunities to stake their place as first choice defenders ahead of Vestergaard, Faes, Coady (ideally with the number of centrebacks we have we can just leave vestergaard at home). We're lighter in midfield so it will be harder to keep Winks out but let's at least give Page a fair chance to stake his claim as one of our first choice midfielders. Persisting with these sorts of players for too long is exactly what has gotten us into this mess whilst the likes of Brentford, Brighton and Bournemouth have looked to the continent for younger players on cheaper wages with less experience and reaped the reward. Yes we might get a short term payoff playing the safe game trying to gain promotion with known quantities but in the long term we are just going to keep falling further and further behind. If youre Monga, Page, Aluko, Evans, Alves, Nelson youre going to be looking at this championship season coming up and thinking 'if we're not not breaking through here now when will we ever?' and move on elsewhere for opportunities. Personally I value these players more for our long term prospects than I do promotion.

Look you've clearly made that Championship winning side your Roman Empire, which is fine I guess but you cannot ignore how those same players let us down last season and in particular the terrible performance of those two. They are both on good PL wages but are clearly only good enough for a championship promotion push. It would be fine if they were earning lower wages appropriate for their level as players but they're not. For example Maxime Lopez who is identical to Winks as a player is on £10k a week at Paris FC, for reference winks is on £70k a week. You also cannot ignore the fact that those two were frozen out by our manager last season, say what you want about Van Nistelrooy as a manager but he was elite as a player and knows when players have the right mentality and Winks and Vestergaard did not fit into that standard.

We got massively burned last season by giving Vestergaard and Faes a clean sheet under Maresca. We cannot make that mistake again, that Everton game last season should be the last competitive game that Winks and Vestergaard have in this shirt, disgraceful performance from the both of them. Two very highly paid experienced players completely switched off in an important game. Edit: in summary we will die a slow death if we keep giving poor players on extortionate wages clean sheets. If they havent performed in the past they're unlikely to perform for us in the future, shift them at any opportunity and rebuild with younger players on lower wages that hopefully will not keep letting us down like our current lot do.

How Ayew has earned a reputation as a player with good holdup play i have no idea. He usually slows down play looking for the foul or passes backwards killing the move. Would much rather Jake Evans in that position, against Pourtsmouth he was very good at collecting the ball deeper and looking to distribute it to the wings. Very underrated player on here.

Winks the same player who hasnt looked bothered since we lost Enzo? Not the kind of personality we want to platform within the club.

Championship is terrible quality wise if you compare it to top flights in other countries. The best teams in that league are pushovers in the PL and midtable and lower championship sides are pushovers for the teams at the top. The best teams in Eredivisie and Primiera league give top 6 teams a run for their money and the top 4/5 in the Belgian league are midtable PL quality. Also have we not just seen Winks, Mavididi and even Fatawu struggle significantly at PL level? I dont think on the basis of their performances last year that you could argue they belong at that level.

Bobby Reid played in a dominant Fulham side and averaged 7 goals a season. His only 20 g+a season in the championship was 8 years ago.

Definitely not! Just saying that we would be happy if we had spent money on these players and £5mil is the typical sum to buy a good championship defender. In the context of the market £15mil on Faes and Vestergaard each was ludicrous and is not the norm!

Selling Skipp for £10mil would meaning 6 mil less we can spend this year but we get £10mil of PSR headroom for the years after.

I definitely am calling for them to be in and around the starting XI. We need to play our best players irrespective of their age. Monga is arguably our best player despite being 16 and we were crying out for a centreback with Aluko's pace and reading of the game all of last season (and since Fofana and Soyuncu left in general). We were also calling out for a midfielder with technical ability plus physicality which we now have in Page. Evans is also our best striker in my opinion and has looked very mature in his appearances so far. Seriously, if these academy players were all new signings and playing this way in pre season we would have no question of whether they should be competing for the first choice positions. We would also be saying this is one of the best transfer windows we've had in a while. It's only because our fans innately do not trust academy players that they are being written off as not ready.

Which players are you talking about? Monga, Evans, Aluko, Jayden Josheph all played at u21 level last season with the first 3 having cameos in the PL. Page had a run at u21 level and went unbeaten then got dropped back down again for no reason. Alves and Nelson were on loan in the championship last season and are definitely ready for that level. So of the players above you can only attribute the performance of the U18s to Page and he proved himself at U21 level which outranks the U18s. If the opposition are just going through the motions then surely our senior professionals should look even better but the reality is that the academy players are simply outperforming them.

We now have 3 academy centre backs who look to be better defenders than Coady. Nelson, Aluko and Wilson Brown all looked very good today, would be very happy if all 3 were new signings bought for £5mil. What value is experience if the player attached to it isnt good? Much rather have the better players starting if you ask me.

I thought we played OK honestly and Monga is simply ridiculous, at 16 he's already our best player. Stolarczyk, Thomas, Nelson, Wilson Brown, Aluko, Page, Monga, Alves, Evans is a ridiculous generation of talent for a club our size. All of them are arguably better than the non academy players in their position. Was sadly disappointed with Baybrooke, think he looked very nervous today and there were quite a few misplaced passes which isn't normal for him.

Aluko and Nelson are starting quality in my opinion. Miles better than Coady or Faes who have started countless times for us. It's between them two and Okoli for the starting places next season if I had to choose. Edit: Just watching the last bit and Wilson brown looks impressive as well, would rather have him starting that Coady, Faes, Vestergaard as well.