S-Clarke

Think we'll agree to disagree on this one. WHU have a truly terrible record of getting the best out of any strikers they sign, so I wouldn't read too much into his failings at WHU. I know why some people may question us going for him, but I do see the attraction in this crazy market of inflated prices and not being able to spend money.

Just reading around some Leicester forums, they seem convinced it's more than -10 - not sure why, might have some more background info. When you think of the fine margins to stay up, for a newly promoted club to be hit by any minus points is a bit of a hammer. This is another reason why we have to be so careful with spending ourselves. Annoyingly we probably have more money than we have ever had in the PL, but we can't spend it out of fear. It's such a screwed up system.

You need to look at that in context though. When he hit over 10 goals at this level he was playing every week, his seasons at Villa and WHU have been really bitty and he's never held down a place and has been a sub quite a lot of the time. (he's rubbish as a sub). He's the sort of striker who needs a run in the team and I'm convinced as a main man up top he'd score goals and get to those double figures. I don't trust our scouting to find any usable alternatives, so going back to what we know has worked before in such a critical position seems low risk.

So did Ross Stewart, another more expensive striker yet to get off the mark. Ings might be on 120k or whatever, but he won't be on that with us. If it happens I see it being a loan anyway, some sort of deal in place where they cough up majority of the wage - or we pay a bigger chunk of his wage, and they knock a few mill off of Flynn. Who knows. Potential stuff to be done there though if we're creative.

Leicester fans are absolutely devastated by the appointment and are all but resigned to their fate now. That might be more the Forest connection though, as that's kinda a derby for them. They were dangled the opportunity of Potter and ended up with ex-Forest Cooper on a potential -12 start, so I can kind of see why they feel that way.

This is where I sit with Ings. He's not going to be the Ings of 2019-2020, I think we all appreciate that - but he can and will score goals. I'd trust him 1-on-1 more than I would Adams or Mara, so automatically that has to be an upgrade on anything we have today. It's notoriously hard to find goal scorers as a club, I lose count of how much money teams have spent over the years to try and find that ''10-15 goal a season striker'' (us with Carillo, Onuachu to name a couple - that's £40m down the drain on two who didn't even score). It would be daft to turn your nose up to a player at the price he is at and with the record he has of scoring goals at this level, international level and for us. No brainer for me if he's available for £6m. I fail to see who we could sign with the pedigree within the budget we're working to.

Really good game, my favourite so far. Georgia may be seen as the minnows, but they have some decent players. Like you say above, their keeper is of a high level playing at Valencia. Kvaratskhelia is also one of the best attackers in the world right now.

Two goals of the tournament in one game! Great game this. Guler is some player, hope he doesn't lose his potential by rotting away at Madrid.

Nonsense, the PL shouldn't have given two shits to that. Just let them deal with whatever the draw handed them. ''Oh, i didn't fancy playing Arsenal on the final day - can we move that?''

My argument to that would be that he hasn't played much, he's always been in and out of the side at both clubs. Ings has always struggled when it's like that, not just through form but he then becomes more susceptible to injury. His time at Liverpool was proof of that. Once he moved to us, played regularly, the rest was history. I do think we saw the best of Ings back in 2019-2020....but there are still goals in him if he plays every week imo. If you want a 'proven PL' goal scorer for under £10m, then you'll not get any better than Ings.

The opposite often happens - we'll drop points against the teams we shouldn't, yet pickup the odd surprise result against the 'tough' games. Those end of season games are potentially a nightmare for those 'bigger' sides, especially if we're fighting for everything. If i was in their shoe I'd prefer not to be facing a 'relegation' side at the end of the season. Look at us in our last season, we were pathetically bad - one of the worst ever PL teams, but still drew at Arsenal, beat Chelsea and drew against Utd. Be interesting to see how we shape up next season, all a bit unknown at the moment. The other 2 promoted sides will be saying the same.

Which I always found odd as he was clearly one of his picks, given he came from Germany and was Austrian - someone Ralph would have vetted more than any of our scouts. We used to paly him as a LB though which didn't help, he used to fly into challenges at LB and was a bit of a loose cannon. We never gave him the chance to develop at CB.

Wow, we overspent on him.

Not sure we could have realistically expected anything more. I think we paid £7.5m for him? We were never making that back as he was a big let down for us at this level. Great enthusiasm but rubbish when it came to the football side of it.

I cannot imagine what you are going through Noodles. That is no age what so ever and is a tragedy. My thoughts are with you and your family.

I think it was announced at 5pm on the Sunday of our playoff final win. From the horses mouth and also from Phil Parsons the following day. Probably feel it doesn't need an announcement as they announced it themselves.

Decent fixture list really, pretty balanced as others have said. May looks somewhat tough, but I've seen tougher.

Belgium flattered to deceive really, a lot of huff and puff from them (although they can count themselves a bit unlucky with two disallowed goal). First kinda shock of the tournament.

It is, but FFS you can't disallow goals for something as trivial as that. Nonsense.

Agreed, but Foden does have the numbers in the league to back him up too. I have a feeling that Foden is this generations 'club player' who cannot ever transfer it to International level.

Alright for 30, but utter horse shit in that second half. Such a hard watch! Kane had a stinker. Foden ditto, shocker - we seem to struggle to accommodate him into the side. Guehi, Rice, Bellingham and Saka the best 4 for us. A win's a win, but no one is going to be quaking in their boots after that. Serbia unlucky not to get a 1-1.

I'd put Saka as excellent as well, probably our best attacking outlet. Guehi the best defender. As the first half came to a close the gaps were being shown in CM, Rice having to do two mens work in there really. Need a proper CM in there next to him to get some real control in there.

Looks like they've sacrificed him to go with an extra defender, looks like a containment job being setup by Serbia here. Could be a very hard watch if there isn't an early goal by us.

The media must be paid to salivate over this guy. He was the best right back in the world, but is now seemingly not good enough for full back (As has been obvious since for ever) and is shunted into midfield where he can be the best passer in the world. He is probably one of the most unnecessarily overhyped footballers I've ever come across in my life, and most of us lived through the 2002-2006 era.

The forums I looked at had him as one of their best players at the start of last season, through to Christmas. Some comments suggesting they should have kept him on for this year. Depends where you read I guess, there will always be a mixture - even if it was a somewhat star player. My feeling is that he's an experienced player, a good egg and will be a genuine positive addition to the club and the playing squad. We needed to fill the hole left by Stu and Rothwell and we've done it on a free. More money for the other first 11 positions.