ponsaelius

He has played right wing back loads for us though, with mixed results. It's hardly a huge jump for him to be doing ok filling in there.

Also really vindicates getting rid of both Wood and Shelvey when we did, even if it weakened the squad on paper. Don't think it's unreasonable at all to suggest we could have been in a similar situation with both of them, particularly Shelvey.

Yep it'll be right at the end of the window. Nobody wants/can afford to buy them and also know we just want them gone. Clubs will also have other priorities first. It'll be a case of waiting right to the end of the window and see which club gives the most favourable deal, even if this in terms of % wage contribution on loan.

Also a striker from Argentina and still linked with the Leverkusen defender on top of the one from Wolfsburg. Their spending will go behind 200 million, easily. Can't see them doing that unless Kane is definitely leaving. It's a rebuild job like 2013.

Both because of wagebill and squad size a lot of signings going forward will definitely be dependent on trading out as well. We wouldn't carry 3 LBs + Dummett/Ritchie. So we'd only sign a leftback if Targett was to go for £10-15 million and we bring in a new first choice.

I still think a left back could happen on top of a CB but that would only be if there are any takers for Targett.

Yeah the wage thing is very true, it's just as important to look at that as it is the transfer fee. Livramento is reported to be only on 7k a week at Southampton. He'll be getting a big pay rise coming here but will still be very clearly within our wage structure.

I think they might be, but if they do they'll not announce until very late to maximise ticket sales. Was the same for the Bilbao/Atalanta games last year.

People just aren't used to us being a proper club in terms of long term squad planning. This is how serious clubs operate. You are anticipating when players are going to be sold or have their contracts expire, so you have replacements lined up either already on the books or ready to be signed from elsewhere. Yes we have a glut of peak age right backs (of varying quality) right now but we absolutely won't in 2 years. Clubs will always have multiple irons in the fire in case certain players don't develop as expected. Ashby might be a long term player, he might not. Same goes for the likes of Minteh, Kuol and the host of kids we've added at youth level this summer. In the past the club was always just reactive with no real plan. Sell a player, don't bother to replace. Scramble around for loans in January to keep us ticking over and stay up. Extend a player's contract into 30s rather than sell because it's easier than signing a replacement. Etc. All that is changing now.

Ashby seems very similar to Trippier stylistically. I think he looks a good footballer. Just not at PL standard currently and needs a load of football at a good level to kick on. Don't see why he can't still have a future. Manquillo and Krafth are both out of contract next summer and aren't in the club's long term plans. Trippier will be 33 come the end of the season. 1-2 years out on loan and Ashby could come back into the fold. If he doesn't - then hopefully at very least he can be flipped at a profit to a bottom half PL side.

We reckon Manq will be off once this is confirmed?

To be fair we've probably spent about that net once you deduct £40-45m for Wood and ASM...

Presume if they were to get past Molde to the play off as well then that would guarentee Europa groups.

For CL yeah, and then a play off round too after that. But this guarantees they at least drop into Conference League groups I think?

Scenes

Damn

Unbelievable sleuthing that mind.

They clearly should have just held off a year until they had the system fully set up the way it needs to be. Or even just introduce it mid-season if need be.

The system they have is obviously archaic and shit. Ideally it should have an algorithm in place where you pick a price point you're willing to pay and then it ballots you all those areas, ideally with a preference of where to sit or a subsequent option to then pick seat once balloted. The current system isn't intuitive enough so what we now appear to have is just separate ballots for each category. Obviously this creates a conundrum of where to go - creates the thought process of trying to game it based on how many tickets you think are in these areas, how many existing ST holders there are, how many do you think will apply etc. In the limitations of the system I can kind of see why they thought a fairer/easier way to do it was to just have one big ballot for all available seats. It's a big misjudgement that people would be happy to accept a lottery over price in the current climate, and tbh generally a massive misjudgement of general consumer behaviour. But now I see the alternative I can see why they made that call.

I can go to 10 Whitley games for that price. It's just hard to justify on my budget tbh.

Quite like .com's little ode to him, which is overall just about bang on.

Rico Lewis played quite a lot of footy last year at 18.

Was a very good Championship keeper. A good penalty stopper, I think, although probably more that he just faced a lot of them. Remember the two against Forest obviously but also one from Cabaye against Palace. Always been little more than a reserve ability wise at PL level however. And the fact he's been here 9 year says a lot about the club. Nevertheless a good lad and wish him all the best.

He was obviously talking about the back 5, howay

I think Theo, great player though he is, is too attacking for our system and current defensive line personally. Not sure we could get away with both him and Trippier in the same side.