honeybradger

Surely people aren't getting wound up because we haven't already signed a potentially washed Conor Chaplin. There's no guarantee he will ever return to the form he found for those couple of seasons at Ipswich. If it happens I hope he finds that form again but if it doesn't then there's a decent chance it's a bullet dodged.

His record in the PL2 isn't great either.

Hopefully not.

Different Rego. We were after João Rego, they signed Rodrigo Rego. I'm sure the one we were after would be the Ali Express Rego.

Page is perhaps too optimistic about being a key player this season considering the club went to every lengths to not have to play him last season. Mukasa, Aribo, Ramsey, James all brought in to play his position last season. I fear it will be the same case this season where we bring in 2-3 new midfielders.

All that editing for 4 likes. The Arabians really do have too much money to burn.

Personally i just think Skipp is very bad. There were too many times last season where he would just miss-time a tackle and get spun around or where he would go missing in possession hiding behind opposition players. In general he just seemed too slow mentally and physically to keep up with the midfield battle at championship level. There were a few moments where he would drop back and do well in helping out the defence by filling in at full back or centre back but in the middle of the pitch he was generally useless. Dont get me started on when he tried to join in with the attackers either, like a fish out of water. If he switches to playing right back he can probably have a second wind as footballer but as a midfielder i think he's going struggle for the rest of his career.

Surely the evidence from last season would suggest that Skipp is not championship level.

Joe Aribo was also the best midfielder in the Scottish League 3-4 years ago. Players' performances don't always translate between clubs and leagues. At any rate I don't think Cartwright is thought of poorly in Scotland, just didn't play much.

You're going through a lot of mental gymnastics to justify this transfer. If we paid £15mil and Skipp for Maddison then that would make Maddison an £18-20 mil player as Skipp is worth £3mil at best. This simply doesn't track. Within reason Maddison is a £40mil player so £15mil + Skipp for Maddison must mean that Skipp cost the club £25mil, which he did. If the point was to get the money up front we do that already by taking out loans from Macquarie against future installments so that doesn't work either. Whichever way you look at it we massively overpaid for Skipp, probably 10x his real value.

Facundo was actually good under Cooper tbf. Significantly worse under RVN and hasn't done anything since as far as I am aware.

Why would we need to buy Skipp to offset money already owed to us. Unless you're saying Spurs had an IOU with us for them paying £40mil for Maddison instead of haggling and cashed it in to make us pay £25mil for Skipp. Which doesn't make sense as £40mil was a fair price for Maddison. Whatever way you spin it we have been fleeced.

Honestly this part of pre season is the best part. Lots of exciting faces such as Braybrooke, Aluko, Nelson, Alves, Jayden Joseph etc. Even having a new manager in Martin who hasn't had the life sucked out of him yet is exciting. It's when Winks, Skipp and Faes all come back mardy after their deals have fallen through that my mood is going to plummet.

We shouldn't have to accept one or the other. We should be aiming for players that care AND have more in their locker than 5 metre sideways and backwards passes.

You could argue they have been set back 3-4 years. They would both be looking at lower championship/league one loans in the 23/24 season had they not been injured. Instead 3 years later they are both yet to have a full season at that level.

They played together for the England youth teams and Braybrooke was the better player at that time. Sadly Braybrooke got injured meanwhile Wharton started getting minutes for Blackburn's first team in the championship and eventually made the step up to Prem level while Braybrooke's career pretty much stalled until last season. Just goes to show how volatile football players' careers are but theoretically, if nurtured and trusted properly, there is a better player in Braybrooke than any we could reasonably attract in the market.

I'm not suggesting spending money or loans on backup players. I'm saying we should look to the academy. Why bring in Devenny when we could play Logan Briggs. One of the worst transfers we made in Soumare could have been avoided by trusting Dewsbury Hall.

The problem is that we bring in players to make up the numbers and they end up starting and tanking the club (Ayew, Cordova Reid) or they come in and aren't trusted enough to play (Édouard, Carranza, Aribo). Bringing in players to make up the bench just blocks opportunities for our own players.

We all know that's not how it works. We will have some stragglers next season and game time for our young talents is never guaranteed. Remember we brought in Aribo last season to keep Page off the bench. Bringing in a 3rd rate player to make up the numbers is never a good idea.

He's the Crystal Palace version of Hamza Choudhury, perhaps a worse player than Choudhury. Just because he's a squad player at Prem level doesn't mean he will be good as a starter at league one level. We have Braybrooke who was considered a bigger talent than Wharton before his injury FFS, just play him. Page as well has a future as a prem starter, something Devenny will never be. Look at what Palace fans have to say about him

Yh they were a nightmare to deal with on Dennis Praet and Victor Kristiansen. ...actually perhaps they were just being sensible not matching our asking price for rubbish players.

The senior players come back from holiday later don't they?

Had a pretty poor loan at Portsmouth. The question is whether that version of Conor Chaplin that tore up league 1 and the championship with Ipswich still exists or did he push himself past breaking point.

I guess I'll have to concede as he will know better than me. My understanding is that Peterborough are a similar team to us, trying too hard to be fancy and not doing enough of the basics, with Collins being no different. In my opinion we don't need more of what we currently are, we need hard working players. If that is actually what Collins is then he sounds like a good signing.

One of our biggest issues is that we get overrun in midfield too easily. That was also one of peterbough's biggest issues last season. A lack of defensive solidity and energy in midfield, at which Collins was supposedly the defensive component of. Collins is more of the same type of midfielder we already have and which has got us into so much trouble. A midfield controller without enough energy or defensive nous to sit at the base of midfield.