JimJams

I was reading that like a total plum thinking "he's stunk it out for more than 3 or 4 minutes, what are you on about". Then it hit me...

I'm largely indifferent slightly leaning towards optimistic. You can't really say at this stage if it's good or bad as the proof is in the pudding. We have actually made some fairly decent signings for the team. Some prices are a bit iffy, but it's about survival. If we survive, the fees become largely irrelevant as we'll have achieved the goal. And if we drop, we've not gone mental with any £30mill+ players that cripple us. One of our biggest fees in Bilal was well under his market value. But the moaners will look past that and focus in on the Skipp and Ayew fees. We didn't need a GK, but we didn't lose Mads to the mental Chelsea machine because they knew they couldn't pay what we wanted. RB didn't need improvements. CB not strengthened the starters at present. Okoli is being harshly judged already despite the fact he's not played for us in the league yet. That might be a poor indictment of him though. Other more exciting options seem to have gone elsewhere. If right now you just look at Okoli as a Souttar replacement I'd say he's an improvement because he can probably move faster than a dead sloth. LB VK coming back "is like a new signing" but how good that signing is is a bit of a curious one. He looked terrible in the first half vs Spurs (though he wasn't part of a 1 man club in that regard) but second half showed quality. Not really sure he's capable of playing that high wingback type role that Cooper wants though to the standard needed. And Thomas is the reserve! For what looks like a fundamental position for the way Cooper wants to play, this looks a big oversight. Unless Ricardo will be tasked with the role on the other side at times if VK isn't playing and JJ goes left. In the midfield I think we've made good signings. We've lost KDH, but hopefully his attacking output is bettered by having Buonanotte and Bilal in there who I'd say are probably more naturally attacking players than Kiernan, but we'll have lost that box to box energy he had, although the system under Cooper doesn't utilise that as much with it looking like we'll have a pair sat back with an attacking mid rather than the 6/8/8 of last season. So we've got Buo who looked very good in our first game, who also has a bit of versatility for the front line too, on loan. If he comes good for us, despite there being no option on him there's always that chance we can get him permanent if it suits all parties. Onto Skipp. I'm happy with Skipp. He's an unexciting player. He's not going to be giving you a chub-on watching any highlight reels, but he's an upgrade on Wilf for me. He is better on the ball and more confident in possession imo. £20mill (initially) is a lot, but Levy doesn't let players out the door on the cheap. Lots of people though they'd had our pants down for Winks last year. Hopefully we look at this transfer in the same way at the end of the season. Then El Khannouss. We've bought an exciting high potential player at less than market value. We've effectively done with him what Chelsea did to us with KDH in terms of the fee. As with any player from a lesser league this can go either way. But the uncertainty is always in the positive on players in this mould until they give you reasons to think otherwise. Up front. The front 3 hasn't been improved upon (unless you have reservations about Mav really). But the depth has gotten a bit better. For the wide positions we've got BDR and Ayew in. You're not going to be wetting your pants at the prospect of that but last seasons options were Yunus, who many thought wasn't good enough at champ level, and Marcal? McAteer is still with us so that's irrelevant to signings. Then we've lost Kel, gained Edouard. At present I'm going to look at that as like for like. Kel performed in limited spells and stank the place out in others. With Edouard in, when Daka is back there's no room for Cannon and we've got him a loan where he can prove his worth to us or increase his value. So a good outward move. Then a lot of our young players have got decent loans. Again, positive, especially given the potential of our returning to the Championship. By far the biggest thing to have happened to us this summer, and one that almost dwarfs any signings we made is the change of manager. We lost a manager who instilled an identity (however you want to view it) and that will have upset a few players perhaps that might have been better suited to Enzo than Cooper. We've likely made signings to suit Cooper which are less inspiring than those we might have made under Maresca, though that might be doing the Italian a favour, as he pushed for Casadei who was dump, but also pushed for Winks who has been good. But we did bring in exciting wide players last year, this year it's more in the midfield roles and those players are largely unknown quantities at present. Anyway, the football we've played in preseason was dire. Horrific. But it was preseason. Not neccesarily a concern, but that form has carried on into the (league) season but for a 30 minute spell in the opener. That spell was because Cooper changed things, so that's a positive. But there is a feeling he's playing players out of their best positions and leaving out some of our better performers from last season. But it's still early days. I don't really think the player signings matter all that much when compared to the gaffer. We're not at a level where individual brilliance can drag you through, something Ten Haag has had levelled at his side, that when the team gets results it's despite the manager, not because of him. We can't really rely on individual performers/performances to get us points, it needs to be from the collective, and that generally needs the manager to be doing a good job on the tactical front, and so far it's looked pretty bleak really. /waffling

It's not on us now though. The waiting game.

Or they're just having a chat in the tunnel and he comes by doing the flapping bird celebration past them...

I reckon they just re-edit the Ayew video and he looks down at his boots and he's got Edouard stuck on his shoe.

Didn't really waste it. He was injured for half of it and then played for a team that got promoted. He'll (hopefully) have realised he's got a lot to learn and improve upon. And hopefully for us he succeeds in that.

Hopefully Brentford are in trouble this season. Toney is finally off and their replacement is injured til Christmas. While they survived last season during Toneys ban, they were sliding down...

He'll go Turkey for 50k a week of his wages.

Wonder how that'll affect Hutchinson.

...because Leicester City fans have so rarely had anything to be optimistic about compared to the majority of clubs.

Salary Sport lists him on 84kpw.

Buo is under 21.

He's another example of an over-hyped youngster from a big academy that's done well playing against other kids but not been impressive when playing senior level football. It's a decent looking deal on the face of it though. Very Fatawu...

Hope it doesn't mean we pay anything in addons though!

Erm, we're loaning Edouard and then his contract will be done and he goes for a free. You've got to hand it to Palace though.

Mateta was absolute shit until Glasner came in. Hopefully Cooper can have a similar managerial effect. Nketiah is gash.

Woudn't be surprised if Newcastle also went in in case they can't get Elanga.

Yes, as our back up strikers. And if it goes through Palace will only have Mateta and Nketiah. So we've weakened an opponent as much as strengthening ourselves!

Although they might well be in trouble. Not really signed enough players at present to cover their outgoings. If Henderson gets injured especially (like last season) they're in the shit.

Well it must be bollocks because there's a medical sorted. The Kepa extension must just be to retain some value.

Neither player has or likely will reach the heights expected of them, even if they do establish themselves somewhat. I remember Thierry Henry raving about Edouard.

They might be open to letting him go, but is he open to taking a massive drop in wages?

I don't know if it's true or not but apparently you can't do a prem to prem loan for a player in the final year of their contract so they'd have to extend by a year. That could be bullshit because I've not seen it anywhere other than being mentioned in a couple of loans where the players have extended a year for the loan. Kepa most recently.

People did want him, but much like Daka he came to the Premier League with some promise and shown he can't fulfill it. He's (currently) another in a long line of examples of players who have flattered to deceive by pissing it in utter shit leagues. Hopefully if he does come, it's been a case of horrible mismanagement and poor coaching and he comes to us and performs. Who'd bet on it though?

Yeah, we were originally in talks with Celtic about a £13mill move or thereabouts, then the talks stalled and rumours came about that they were trying to up the price. Once that happened we moved onto Daka.