pmcla26

We might have asked and they either said no or silly money, we don't know.

Alves and Buonanotte are very different players, too. Alves is more flair and technical, good at taking people on. He's also right footed and is better suited cutting in from the left when out wide. Buonanotte is a player that runs hard and does a lot of good defensive work, is good at passing and receiving the ball in tight spaces, but unlikely to take players on quite as much. Left footed and more suited to playing from the right when he's outside. They're not really fighting for the same spot/role in the side.

Hopefully just a cheap back up to Fatawu and we can sign a few more.

I’d like Skipp in the sense that I’d trust him more next to Ndidi or Winks (should one of them be out) than Soumare or Hamza. I think he’d expect to start for us, though, and don’t like the idea of a midfield 3 of Skipp, Winks and Ndidi. No attacking threat.

Think there’s good chance we asked about him when we thought Mads might be off, Mads is no longer off, and therefore this won’t happen.

James McAtee (loan) and Elijah Adebayo. £15-20m in total? Not glamorous but decent players.

Not sure it is miles off if you put in a striker and number 10 of sufficient quality.

Ipswich, Southampton & Forest

I'd be surprised to see Faes not start

Hermansen Ricardo Faes Coady Justin Winks Ndidi Fatawu De Cordova-Reid Mavididi Daka

The two issues correlate

Yes, we need another winger as competition, but why can't we sign an attacking centre midfielder or striker first?

Surely the obligation will be dependent on our survival, much like Abdul's being dependent on promotion.

That’s all well and good but he won’t be loved by many if he doesn’t see that Mavididi and Fatawu you just put wide left and right and tell them to cut in, or that Ricardo doesn’t need to be pushed to play as a marauding full-back if we want him fit for a full season.

Is he really worth that sort of money? Seems a lot.

Adebayo would be an ideal foil for the likes of him, Mavididi and Fatawu. Think I'd be happier with that as a front 4 then Fofana plus a number 10.

Maybe he could play as a support striker to Daka or Vardy. Fatawu and Mavididi wide of them. Bit like Iheanacho did under Puel.

I don't understand why Cooper seems to be forcing this when we have an ideal player in Ricardo to invert and the rest of the players around him are used to it too, now.

He's very good at taking people on and carrying the ball - not so prolific in front of goal. Imagine he would play out wide if we signed him, rather than as a 9. Problem is think a number 9 and number 10/number 8 is what we need, right now.

I don't think he's amazing by any means, but £17m is a good price for someone who could get you 10-15 goals in the league next season. I'd rather roll the dice on someone like Wahi, or sign someone like Adebayo with a completely different profile to what we already have, than sign Nketiah though.

Marseille bidding £17m for Nketiah. If Arsenal would take that then we could do a lot worse.

The opposite of the 5 years after Mahrez left and we actually needed a right-winger

Think he might be falling into the trap that Dean Smith was falling into. Soumare isn’t a bad football player, technically he’s very good. Problem isn’t with the ball, it’s without it. In training it’s probably not so much an issue as you’re not always playing at 100% intensity like in matches where it becomes exposed. Maybe he’ll have seen enough now. The other point is maybe he’s just using him as a place holder in pre-season games as we don’t have many options there currently, but wants the rest of the shape to be the same.

Next game I want to see us try Mads JJ Coady Faes Kristiansen Winks Ndidi Ricardo Fatawu Vardy Mavididi With our lack of centre-midfield options currently, think that’s our strongest 11.

He's probably on inflated wages for his ability, given our track record and how much we paid for him. I imagine he'd have had teams after him in the Championship in January if he wasn't.