shen

George Hirst probably benefitted both teams as well. But yes, point still stands. King didn't do much at OHL and other loanees also largely flopped. Opoku was probably the only one to make some impact.

I mean, we'd have to be freakishly unlucky to lose our two remaining senior goalkeepers through suspension/injury over the next month on top of Jakub being out. Bausor can surely step in when it's an emergency. He's a goalkeeper that has trained for years at the club. You'd expect him to be able to do the basics and even be accustomed to the way we want to play. Expecting to have four L1+ quality goalkeepers in the squad is just not realistic or prudent.

We have just signed Ravioli. Surely having four senior keepers, even with one out injured, is just way too much for a League One team. We have Bausor as well.

A direct consequence of the big clear out, having little money to spend, their skills being more honed and taking their respective chances. It's very pleasing that the hype so far has been justified. We could do with a bit of feelgood factor.

Morgan Rodgers, a star performer in his prime for a Europa League winning team and a star-studded England squad? A transfer between two top half PL sides with top managers? It's not at all comparable to an England youth international with around 20 professional starts in the second and third tier. Yes, he was recognised by the EFL last season, but let's not kid ourselves. It's completely unreasonable to expect a £30m fee at this stage, even if we do get promoted.

I can see it from both sides. When you're involved in a dressing room like Vardy was and saw the success that it brought, then its natural to question it when different managers are starting to meddle and undoing things that have worked well. Ranieri did the right thing first season, but then started to mess with things and it didn't work. But star players will just often have a big say at every club where they've outgrown the club's stature. They need to be controlled or pandered to within reason. But the things coming out from Vardy could indeed suggest that player power was a bit rampant. Were they right? I mean, I feel Rodgers was backed handsomely... The club was effectively driven off a cliff in an attempt to keep playing with the big boys. (Slightly off topic, but look at the Chelsea team of Mourinho/post-Mourinho - I watched a John Obi Mikel interview recently where he went into detail just how much of the on-field matters were dictated by the core players like Cech, Terry, Lampard and Drogba. The only person who was really able to keep them in check was Abramovic who just took no sh*t from anyone.)

We just sold Monga for £10-12,5m - THE elite talent in our academy who is in the PL history books and had many more first team starts/apps in the PL and Championship than Page and was sold to the country's arguably biggest club - and all at a younger age! I know it's a different financial climate and PSR/SCR situation to just a couple of years ago when we sold Barnes & Maddison, but still. These were proven English talents with caps moving into their prime and with a great PL record to boost. To think Page would command such a fee - again - with our club situation in mind, is just utopian.

He was never captain material, was he? I don't mind that his myth gets a bit chipped. Over time it will give us a more believable picture of who he was and how that famous dressing room made miracles happen. It won't take anything away from his goals, his performances and all the sh*thousing that we enjoyed along the way. I think it's good to see that our feted heroes are flawed humans who make questionable choices.

Too early to say. We still might shift more deadwood in the coming days, so it could yet improve. I would also add Rowett and Martin to the window transfers. Which changes the complexion a bit again. The biggest positive of the window is keeping Page and seeing Academy players take their chances with both hands. I can't say that paying off Vestergaard and the prospects of Mavididi and Skipp returning is positive, and the fact we couldn't shift Souttar or Faes (again) is disappointing and a another damning verdict of the insane deals we've previously dished out. I would say it's par for the course at best - we've done a bit, but not enough to earn praise. Hopefully we've turned a corner though.

In what world?! Playing a promotion season in League One isn't going to suddenly triple his value.

What an investment that flag has been! *salutes the flag*

Diegem update: Solid start to the new season with 18 points from seven games putting us top already which followed a 5-1 mauling of Club Brugge in the Super Cup. A tweaked tactic now sees us play without a striker after we experimented a bit during the previous two seasons and early signs are it will take some doing to keep us from retaining the title. We've done some solid if unspectacular transfer business over the summer, with the highlights (pic links included) being outgoing transfers of Douglas Borel for £700k (signed on a free two seasons ago to be first choice RWB. Was relegated to backup when ninja signing Machmoum joined) ; Hadj Mahmoud for £4,2mil (free signing a year ago, meant to be rotation CDM. Never quite performed) ; Koba Koindredi for £3,2mil (signed on a free 1,5 years ago. Carried us for 6 months, then picked up that horrible injury last season) ; and five fringe/youth players for a combined £2,5mil which have been surplus to requirements or on last year of contracts. Incomings include: Andrey Santos for free (in November last season). Yes, the one that's just gone to Man Utd for £48m IRL Already a standout and a key player. Jurgen Ekkelenkamp for free (in November last season). Released by Leeds, he's an excellent all-round midfielder. Siphesihle September for £500k (in last January window). Classic speed merchant regen from Orlando Pirates who can play ST or AMR. Will become key I think. Lúkas Petterson for £275k, Icelandic goalkeeper who is a similar BGK to Roekaerts, just an upgrade in all areas, particularly agility and anticipation. Lucas Jetten for free. A decent LWB from released by Ajax. Knows the language and well-rounded with some potential. Louis Patris for free. Former OHL star who will be an upgrade on Borel for about the same wage - and will count as homegrown! Bop Gueye for £ 2,7mil. Excellent attacking midfielder with great versatility to boot. Harry Webber for free. 18-year old American centerback poached from the Galaxy academy - already valued at a whopping £28-45m (!) Valentin Angelski for £3m. 20-year old Bulgarian DL with 10 caps, who has solid potential. Bit pricey, but expect his value to grow a lot. William Osnes-Ringen for £4,3m. Very pricey and not my first choice, but we needed a well-rounded versatile midfielder with guaranteed value and who we could afford (wage demands are nuts!). Unfortunately he didn't sign in time for the CL registration (my frickin god, how stupid is it that the registration deadline is before the transfer deadline?) We've now upgraded to Excellent training facilities, while we're awaiting a youth facilities upgrade and a stadium expansion in the coming months too. Our finances are pretty healthy and we were able to remove some dodgy minimum fee release clauses, which would mean we should get decent profit off of any player sales now. The Champions League draw was once again quite rough for us. We had Olympiacos (A) first game in the League Phase (I'm so happy I don't have to go through qualifying!) and we threw away a 2-goal lead to draw the game to my dismay. Our next games are against Man City (H), Juventus (A), Marseille (H), Paris SG (A) and Napoli (H), before we get some winnable games against Slavia Prague (H) and RB Salzburg (A). I somehow need another miraculous performance like against Juve last season - and I HAVE to win the last two, just to reach 8-10 points. It will be another struggle.

You forgot Tommy Waterzooi

We do have considerable pulling power even in League One. I wouldn't put it past some players to choose us over the likes of Cardiff, Preston et al. I've read it was closer to £8mil with £4m due if we get promoted. Best £15mil we've spent in years.

Do you know Danish by any coincidence? "Riis" or "ris" is literally "rice". If not, what a great unintended pun

One can only hope it's 4 years on low-ish wages... But then again, knowing Rudkin we will liekly be paying top-6 Championship wages with promotion bonuses and the lot...

He was so, so desperately poor in the PL for us. One of those I thought would be solid after the season with Maresca.

What? He is one of the more reliable ones for sure. Not sure what sources you'd trust more with regards to Belgian players.

We are so lightweight and short in most areas, so having some physical presence up front, especially when playing a single striker, is the safer bet in this league. With Russell ball, we're not going to play in behind.

I know what you're saying, but at this point we have to also focus on the short term. It's unsustainable for the club to be in League One, plain and simple. We made similar signings last time we dropped down here with Brown, Berner, Powell and Dickov joining. Neither of them were good enough for more than mid-table Championship at best - which is precisely at the level Riis has been for a few years. If he can fire in 10+ goals for us, that would be much needed if we are to have any ambitions of promotion, as we look desperately light up front.

Listening to Pink Floyd - Animals (2018 remix). My absolute favourite album of theirs and the remix does it justice.

Since when do swords have heads? It's ironic how you blow your own horn and behave as arrogantly as you do, yet you're as blunt and as subtle as a maul.

Just need to tell Rudkin to use the "Hire an intermediary" option

This is embarrassing on another level... You left out Brighton. And if Midtjylland can keep hold of Osorio and Franculino, I'd fancy them to repeat last year's exploits in the Europa League. But then, the competition has always had good teams in there - just at look at the semi finals when we played against Roma and Marseille played Feyenoord. Arguably all CL level teams at the time.

For context, you're playing a game that was released 7,5 years before Ilari Kangasniemi was born