James

Haha fuck off Boro.

Also wish our first game wasn’t a feature game on Sky. The droning on about Spygate is going to be so tiresome.

Agreed that if we have to sell THB then this guy is a very decent replacement.

I think this sums it up well. Obviously we need to wait and see what happens but, as of today, it’s hard to find our transfer business overly inspiring. This season, more so than others, we’ve got to get off to a good start to avoid getting cut adrift - especially if we get some bad news re the manager in the September break.

True but he’s not always right. He was peddling Yan Diomande to Liverpool as a formality all summer and it turned out to be wrong. Clearly Benfica have bid and, let’s be honest, there’s no way THB doesn’t fancy that move. Whether it gets done at the right valuation though, who knows although the mood music sounds a bit like he will be off.

Losing THB this late in the window will be a real sickener but if we get £30m then that is impossible for a championship club to refuse in reality. Bit disappointed in our transfer business this summer, especially after what happened at the end of last season and Dragan’s promises. We are unquestionably weaker than last year (Stewart, Charles and THB will collectively be a big loss), are starting on -4 and will inevitably have to deal with some kind of Tonda ban/situation in mid-September. Frustrating.

I have a vague recollection of us being interested in that Anel guy last summer but could be misremembering that.

Who could have predicted that?

The article that linked him to us made it sound like Lazio needed to sell him to raise funds so would assume a buy.

Yeah, he got a bad ankle injury.

Agree. Tbh this is as good a signing as we can hope for really. Even better if we get an option on him if he is amazing for us.

Mubama on loan would be great. He looks very good. Ideal if we can get an option on him so we can sign him permanently if he does well and we go up.

Not keen on a Che reunion. Too many memories of horrific misses 😂

Romeo looks a good player.

Surely the BBD experiment is over after tonight. I wanted to buy into the idea of him being ok as cover but he’s just crap.

Thought he was injured?

THB is playing?

Pretty much summarises my feelings too.

Yep. Ross was our first choice striker in my view. He started most of the key games in the run in.

I think you’re underestimating the quality of the teams that came down. Leeds and Leicester were decent but West Ham with Bowen and £100m of transfer fees to strengthen and Wolves with Jiminez who was causing high class opposition problems at the WC is a different gravy. If we really expect to keep up with them, when we are already 4 points behind, with Larin as a starter and BBD backing him up then we are going to be disappointed. My view is we need a starting quality striker to rotate with Larin to have a realistic shot of dislodging either WH or Wolves.

Fair. I was just thinking that if six goals is “par” for Jebbison last season then either Preston created a ridiculously low number of chances for him or he wasn’t in positions to score. Azon, by contrast, seems to have had plenty of chances but was a poor finisher. Now, clearly Ipswich were a better side than Preston, so maybe that’s to be expected but I thought I’d read somewhere that Ipswich fans thought his movement and positioning were great but that his finishing needed improvement. That’s why I was more excited by Azon than I am by Jebbison. Agree every striker that we could get is a gamble but, if we are going for Autos, I’d be surprised if the best we can do is a striker like Jebbison who, whilst still very young, has quite a poor record of scoring goals at this level.

His goal record in general is pretty poor. No goals at Watford, 6 at Preston (although someone on here said his xG was good so either he’s not getting in positions to score or Preston don’t create any chances).

I am pretty sure the striker signing is going to be Jebbison on loan with an option. No intel, just feels like the kind of thing we’d be into.

Shame we missed out on Lankshear. Well taken goal last night, think we will regret not going for him to be honest.

Someone on the Not606 Forum saying that Spors told fans in the bar after the Forum last night that we are close to signing a striker, hopefully before Watford. Not Vipotnik.