Chief Keef

If Nelson/Okoli/Faes are also set to leave then centre back becomes the biggest priority for recruitment. Wilson-Brown and Gray will be involved it seems but we will need 2/3 players in the position who are top end of the league in terms of quality.

If we’re that broke I’d rather take a punt on a younger striker with a decent record in a much weaker league. Let Ings fill the quota of 30+ free agent and leave it at that. Some names I’d be looking at: Roman Čerepkai Mario Ilievski Sory Diarra Lee Ho Jae Admittedly they’d all be big risks and could look like competition winners if we did sign one. But would like if the club could go back to unearthing gems rather than the same tired names we get each summer. As others have mentioned, Danny Ormerod also looks really exciting. I’d be happy to bring him in too, even if the plan was to loan him straight out to League Two for a season.

Two loans loans which I think would be both achievable and interesting - Tommi O’Reilly from Villa and Kian Best from Chelsea. O’Reilly has done well this season on loan at Crewe with good numbers. Plays as a winger/attacking midfielder. Kian best looked really promising couple years back when he broke through at Preston couple years ago. Got released by them though so not sure what went wrong there. Picked up by Chelsea on a free and seems to have had a couple good games in the EFL trophy.

Bit of a risky one maybe but Berkan Taz from SC Verl in the German 3rd tier. Attacking midfielder with 53 g/a in the last two seasons. Leo Scienza who’s been great for Southampton was playing well at a similar level couple seasons ago which I think is a decent indicator the standard translates well over here. Fairly sure his contract is up and is available on a free. Not many highlights on YouTube but looks to have a good strike on him, at least based on this video.

Hope he’s one of the few we can keep around given his injury issues. Tonight showed he’d probably be the best defender in that league by some distance.

Harvey Knibbs hasn’t played much for Charlton this year, had 2 strong seasons in league one for Reading. 6ft 2 midfielder who hit 20+ g/a back to back before this year, will be 27 when the new season starts so seems the right sort of profile to supplement the younger players in the squad.

Don’t want to throw too much negativity in the way of Ben Nelson as I do like him and think he has the qualities to do well for us in the right system. But our average goals conceded per game before he came into the team was 1.08, and has gone up to 1.86 with him in the team. There are many other factors at play and it’s not all down to him. But he is definitely a part of the problem at the moment.

Statistically the best CB and third best player in the league this season according to Sofascore btw. Not saying I would necessarily agree with that but he must be doing something that our other defenders aren’t.

I think the club will need some stability in the championship for a couple of seasons before thinking about promotion, unless we max out our luck on the next manager. That’s assuming we even stay up this season, and I fear the implications of going down will be severe and takes years upon years to recover from.

Always been better going forward than defending, makes a better Wing back than out and out fullback. We needed to bring Aluko and Kristensen on early in the second half. Thomas and Pereira simply cannot handle direct wingers running at them.

Which is why it’s so important we bring in the right coach/technical director asap to convince him of a longer term project. I think he would sign as he’s building a name for himself here but only if he’s given some reassurances the club was now heading in the right direction. We’ve actually managed to secure a great deal here if we can get it over the line. A potentially £20m+ asset for less than a quarter of that.

I can see Begovic staying for another year even if as 3rd choice. Nelson as well, I’ll be surprised if we get a big offer for him at this stage, probably more likely to sign a new deal as he hasn’t overly stood out. As for Monga again I’d be surprised if the club put him in the first team this season if there wasn’t some sort of agreement for him to sign a professional contract in the summer when he turns 17. In which case it would make sense for him to play a bigger role next season with an aim to make a big move summer 2027.

I do think 3 centre backs suits the characteristics of the squad better than the 4-2-3-1 we’ve been playing. That or a 4-3-3 with two 8s given the players we’ve brought in.

What I do like about the 4 coming in is that they add some height and size to the team. Whether that actually translates to being able to compete physically remains to be seen as 2 are youngsters and 2 have struggled with fitness recently. But I hope this is the first step towards a team that doesn’t get bullied out of games.

Tomas Bobcek Jamie Roche Daylam Meddah Hwang Jae Won Fares Ghedjemis Will Ferry I thought Myles Peart Harris looked useful for Oxford too and available on a free this summer if we are quick enough. Given the extent of the rebuild required I think it’s the right time to integrate the likes of Braybrooke, Alves and even Tom Wilson Brown even if they are just squad players.