shen

I hope you'll be proven right. The thing is, Fatawu and James have been productive for large parts of the season in the same team. Mavididi has been ever present and has been woeful. He did nothing in the PL and bar his one season under Maresca, he's been abject. Nelson is now another year older and didn't stand out in a team that got relegated despite ample playing time. The fact that the manager who had him at Oxford chose to drop him as soon as Vestergaard was fit again is a blow to Nelson and Chelsea will not be sniffing any time soon. I have not seen anything from Nelson that tells me he's going to go above L1/CH level. He will likely get another full season with us and if he stands out, then he might turn heads again, but on the back of this season, I doubt interest will be high. Could a midtable CH team pick him up? Maybe, but it'd have to be financially worthwhile for us as he's likely to feature heavily next year. The issue with Winks and Skipp is obviously their wages. It would require a top-half CH club or a PL club to buy them - and once in that bracket, there will be plenty of players at least as good. BDCR - I mean, yeah, someone might take a punt. He screams midtable CH. Maybe a return to Bristol City could be on the cards.

Hamza has already said he's here next season. I don't imagine Thomas, Stolarczyk or Nelson will generate interest - their level is League One and we're by far the biggest club at that level. There's no chance we'll be buying players out of their contracts - it'd be some kind of mutual termination at best. And with the wages these guys are on, I'd say that's highly unlikely. I think we'll really struggle to shift our British core. Our hope is that we can somehow revitalize the likes of Skipp, Winks, Mavididi, BDCR et al. Our non-British seniors are the most likely to generate interest as many of these have reputations back home or have had OK-ish seasons with their national teams, that means Vestergaard, Kristiansen, Okoli, Fatawu, Coulibaly, Vieites, maybe Souttar at a push. And of course our current Academy products like Monga, Page, Motsi, Hutchinson et al may already be on their way. I hope one or two of them can stay and feature heavily - it's important to keep the connection with local fans and homegrown players will go someway to get fans on board.

£2,6 mil - phwoar. Not a bad warchest! Hopefully the team will have gelled for the second half of the season and you'll see more stable performances and race to the front again. I tend to do a Team Bonding session every week, just to help it along. Not sure how quantifiable the effect is, but judging from my own start to my fourth season (not as many changes), the team cohesion is a big factor.

Youth players impressing is nothing new. Hype is built and when international call ups come, it adds to the fire. But as a club, we're hardly in a good negotiating position with regards to our league standing, financial situation, coaching situation, playing time or playing style. His reputation will certainly not have increased over the past year: He's now a year older, not established himself or impressed in a lower league and been part of another relegation.

Harsh as it may sound, I'd argue you're ONLY paying for potential in Monga's case.

I get @Finnegans point in the sense that just setting things up is a slog, like setting up training, tactics, shortlists, hiring staff, clearing deadwood staff/players, delegate tasks. I would say that regarding tactical familiarity, team cohesion, relationship with the manager, I often don't see it as a big problem as it feels the other teams are in the same boat. If you get a good pre-season in, you can definitely get an early advantage, especially with regards to fitness levels/match sharpness, which should give a boost to performances for the first few weeks.

Not sure Monga could even command such a transfer fee...

I'd argue it's the hardest season. The rest usually becomes a cake walk.

You should NEVER use the same sideline shout more than once per half though, regardless of match situation. You'll get punished for it and get a negative response. Also, to add to @Finnegan, pre-match talks, half-time talks and shouts also take into account the expected outcome of the match (whether you're favourite or not) and the amount of possession you've had (HT relevant). I'm not sure if shots/SOT also affects the squad's view of what the match balance is like, but in the past it was only possession that mattered (i.e. if your possession is lower and you're the favourite, you should rip them a new one; if your possession is higher and your the underdog, you can safely say pleased). Obviously squad personality plays into this (and getting to grips with this is even harder in FM26 as it's not easy to find), so it's good to have an idea how they'll respond. I'm surprised not much has changed with regards to squad dynamics in so long. It's not much different, if at all, than FM21 or even earlier versions.

He's got a whole international level playing career behind him, has been at multiple clubs and countries and been a top professional by all accounts. He will have a large network and has a big advantage in knowing the KP era LCFC inside out. If he has the right connections and the ability to surround himself with good people, that'll be worth a lot more than 'experience' in my view. Everyone will have to learn in a new job, but if he ever was to become LCFC manager, this would be the level he would join us at.

Brilliant feeling when it's you making the comeback though

Well done turning it around @Dan! Did you make any meaningful changes to the team/tactics? Has the squad dynamics improved?

We agree completely here. Regarding his fee and wages, that's not on him though. Expecting or thinking he should feel 'ashamed' for it, is just bizarre to me. I rebut by singling out Choudhury & Thomas, who've been here since they were kids and should have a greater emotional bond to the club. If anyone should feel ashamed for fleecing the club, shouldn't it be them? Or taking it even further... As a fanbase we happily accept Vardy's highest-ever club wages despite him having been on the decline for years. Did he get stick for running down his contract? Nope, instead he gets called 'loyal' and get's a hero's goodbye (rightfully IMO). But the economic burden of having him, Maddison, Barnes et al on top 6 wages and relegating us cannot be ignored in this context either. That's why I choose to push back on those comments. By all means, slate Vestergaard for his performances, ridicule his appearance (childish as it may be) or whatever, but that other stuff is just peak hypocrisy.

But is it? Have the 'happy clappers' been singing 'Rudkin out'? Obviously they haven't.

For the record - I never wanted Vestergaard. I always thought he was quite rubbish or useful in niche circumstances at best. He had a decent career in Germany, but the signs were already obvious then. As a person, he seems fine. I actually think he's a better egg than what people particularly on here seem to think, but he is a flawed player who we overpaid in fees and wages by a massive amount. And frankly, I never felt he was good enough for us. Signing him absolutely signaled to the world that we were on the decline and that our transfer dealings were completely off the mark. But by the same token as the image above insinuates, I think Vestergaard gets far more criticism leveled at him compared to English/British players who in some cases have contributed the square root of nothing (i.e. Bertrand and Souttar) or been arguably worse than Vestergaard (Coady, Ward, Choudhury, Thomas) and cost the club dearly doing so. I suppose that's the crux of it. If you level criticism at Vestergaard for earning too much compared to his quality on the pitch, why single him out when the squad is full of these players? And for the record, since my nationality is brought into this, Kristiansen can sod off as well.

He's been awful this season, like everyone else really. That play you describe was particularly galling. If it wasn't because Okoli and Nelson were as dreadful or worse, then he wouldn't have come back into the side.

I didn't say he was 'good', I said he 'contributed meaningfully'. In Maresca's system, he was quite effective in setting up the play. His weakness was often exposed by us pushing up so high and as it played out in front of us, it looked even worse. The reality was that he and his teammates recovered most of the time, stats will back this up. It was calculated risk from Maresca I suppose, but to us fans, it messes with our heart rhythms! Vestergaard doesn't get a free pass, nor am I writing off Nelson. The point I'm making is that we needed cover in defense after promotion as we couldn't afford to get someone of decent quality. A one-year extension would have been fine. In hindsight, how do you think an even younger Nelson, without his Oxford experience, would've fared in that PL backline after you've seen his performances this season? That said, we've often overstated how good our academy prospects are only to mostly be League 1 level at best. Barnes, KDH and Chilwell are exceptions. Choudhury, Thomas, McAteer et al have been more like the norm. So jury is still out on Nelson, but he needs to start showing what he's supposedly capable of soon. Otherwise he's only going to hold us back further. And finally, being fit and available is absolutely a factor. We've absolutely pi$$ed away money at Bertrand, Praet and Souttar, even Ricardo to an extent. If they're not on the pitch, their value to us is less than zero. At least Vestergaard has kept fit for the most part so our managers had choices. They never did with the aforementioned players. Huge difference in my book.

Yeah, maybe that's the best hope. That he'll want to move back with his family to Denmark. Not unrealistic, but it would definitely cost is in severance pay of sorts.

Enzo was already gone or on his way out when Vestergaard was extended. Tbf he was good in our promotion season and we had little or no money to get a quality centerback in anyway. Nelson has proved this season he wasn't the answer - and that's in a division lower. The issue was extending Vestergaard's deal by three years which was insane and proves the club have learnt nothing from their past mistakes. He wasn't the reason we started to decline. It might've coincided with our downturn in fortunes, but he rarely figured under Rodgers anyway which was bizarre as he was the manager that wanted him. We signed Faes as Fofana's replacement and we paid a king's salary to Bertrand who was never available, so effectively deadwood during his entire stay. At least Vestergaard has been available and contributed meaningfully to our promotion back to the PL. Like all the other players on astronomical wages - is it really their fault for negotiating good deals for themselves? In a cutthroat business and short career paths like elite football usually is, that's what any reasonable person would do. If were tarring Vestergaard with this, then we might do the same to Thomas and Choudhury (whose careers were enabled by this club) and all the other overpaid players over the last ten years.

Slowly?!

So we're stuck with: Stolarczyk Vieites? Kristiansen Thomas Vestergaard Souttar Okoli Choudhury Coulibaly BDCR Mavididi Fatawu Winks Skipp Dear me... I hope we can shift most of these on astronomical wages.

I think he improved under Rowett compared to under Cifuentes and those before him. Still poor overall, but then we can say that of every player bar Jordan James.

Good luck escaping relegation. Would be wild if you did a Leicester here Not even virtual football giving a reprieve!

I couldn't offer them a playing role, only a staff role, so my guess is that he has retired and the numbers are actually his new staff stats - but they've somehow been put in his player profile. I was browsing released players and noticed several after Icardi, also older players, with the same bug.

And this is where he and his surroundings should have known better and not let pride, hubris, overconfidence or whatever get in the way. Still, he could've saved himself by identifying this early (why didn't he?) and acted accordingly. Instead he has stubbornly chosen to 'stay loyal' and 'committed', while promoting failures within the club and not addressing the glaring issues.