Dman

Why have we wasted our time on this fella? Have we not learned from last summer? Its been clearly for nearly 2 weeks he doesn't want to come here. His agent is messing a few clubs around by the look of things. At this point, I can't believe many fans will even want him here. Move on.. ASAP.

Martin himself said too much gets out of the club. Its why we only allow in the trusted. some things are too juicy to share publicly

Spoken to my source and all I'm saying is he made an Eagle on the 4th. Make of that what you will.

Not still pretending to be ITK, are you? You know you had your application for the CoT rejected due to false information.

I hate to go all MLG on you, but we've not been in the 'premiership' since 2001 😉

Does anyone blame Sulamana for wanting out / handing in a transfer request? We've sold everything that has not been nailed down, given his reputation and fee we paid for him, he probably see's himself as a top flight player, thought that he would be and backside is starting to twitch now its so late in the window with limited interest in him.

Literally took 2 seconds to disprove this, you plank https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1109553/West-Ham-transfer-news-Aleksandar-Mitrovic-Fulham So looks like, yeah, I might know better 😀

Ahhh so the point your making is in the history of relegated clubs its not just us that lack ambition - Got you, agreed. Off the top of my head, a few clubs have managed to dig their feet in. Fulham kept Mitrovic, Villa kept Grealish, Bournemouth kept Solanke. The list could probably go on if I decided to look deeper. All match winners and goal scorers btw... Everything we're just letting go because we don't have a backbone to stand up.

To be fair, I couldn't care less about the other relegated sides, although I do think we're currently the weakest of the lot. I'd be interested to see if Leeds lose Gnonto & Sinisterra.

simply put, because we lack ambition. If we had an ounce of ambition, we'd have persuaded a number of players to stick around, get us promoted and we'd be back in the PL next season (or they can leave).

It'll be Che if he's still here, which he wont be, so it'll be S.Armstrong.

So what - he had a (long) contract with us. Our problem has been that ew've allowed player power to kick in - anyone who fancied a move got it rather than us actually standing firm for anyone. At some point we need to learn that its not always about what the player wants, it needs to be what we want as well.

QPR's right back was terrible though. He had a horrid time all throughout the game. Their left back on the other hand looked really handy defensively.

I suspect that Fraser is Sulamana's replacement and the bloke from Genk we've spent all window chasing, who doesn't want to come here, is the suggested replacement for Tella. Of all the links to date, I like the look of Patrick Roberts most. Diallo from united would be the best, but he's suffering a long term injury, I think.

He looks and sounds exactly like the type of player we need. I think if he can stay fit, he'll be a big hit here. However, he's not played since January, had no pre-season and no one really knows how he'll return (thankfully his game doesn't look to rely on pace, so he wont lose that). If he is our Che replacement, we need another to cover / mitigate the risk and start straight away, as well. Perhaps that lad from Aberdeen?

Correct, but it was probably the least low risk and most obvious (with the ability to hit the ground running). This Stewart might be just as good or even better, but its a gamble and he's injured until October, which is a massive worry.

I wonder if we could try him out on the right, especially given we wont have a tella replacement ready for Saturday, I wouldn't think.

One I'e been really disappointed with - fallen behind A.Armstrong in that 8/10 role imo.

No, not imo.

Sounds like a good bye round, to be honest. Why wasn't he training? Why is he in the right frame of mind to play golf but not for us? His agent is dotting the I's and crossing the T's whilst he finishes his round then heads down to Bournemouth for the medical.

I fear you're right. He's a Martin man, much like Bree was a Jones man. We'll have to agree to disagree on his performances, I'm not yet sold and I think hes a weak link at the back for us. Perhaps Fraser will offer more protection in front, time will tell. Agree on Bree, not suited to this style unfortunately.

defensively he is a weak link. I'm not sold on him. No an upgrade on RP, imo.

I wouldn't be against it. I think it'd make a lot of sense and would give us a lot more cover defensively for Mannings weakness. However, based on his interview when joining the club, it sounds like he's here to play CB.

I meant KWP could shift across to left back, should he not leave. I think we need an additional RB even if we keep KWP. As I said, its a long season. I'm actually not sold on Spence, to be honest - I think we missed out on Aarons by not moving quicker - the above about KWP playing LB is an example of how you could accommodate both.

What point are you trying to make here? Still not sure other than just random ramblings. What relevance does how much I saw of Manning last season, or how many goals Swansea conceded have to do with anything. I've already said 'from what i've seen' i.e 4 games and pre-season this season.