MarkSFC

Yeah they'll do

I agree we need creativity. Aribo is certainly going to help in that sense, as will Mara but obviously as a frontman. We need a striker who will be first choice. I'm an optimistic man and so I'm hoping for Ramos, Maduake, Garner, Holding and a LB!!

This is sad to hear. He was a fantastic player for us in arguably our best era.

Based on?

One swallow does make a summer not. Get rid.

I thought I'd hears Semmens or Steele say the 80m loan was for cash flow because of covid, which I took to mean operational costs (salaries etc) and not investments (new players). Oh well, I guess we'll find out eventually. Maybe!

You may be right on the loan and tv money, in which case previous years would of been similar wouldn't they? IF the owners put a loan on the club it doesn't automatically mean that it needs to be servicable aspecially at the rate you suggest. They can decide how they recoup it.

It's great!!!

It seems fairly clear that part of their (SR) strategy is to provide funds into the cash flow to allow us to be more active and competitive in the market. This may just be this summer, it may include the next window or two as well. What is also certain (and what seems likely to me) is that this initial investment will over time be reduced / recouped as sales are inevitably made. But by investing additional funds (assuming this is actually the case) now it moves the team and business forward. Self-sustainability inevitably comes from revenues above expenditure. By adding half a dozen or more new young players this hopefully sets us up where we probably sell one or even two each summer for a decent number without really hitting the squad overall. Having said that, we do need a striker of note, another forward type, Garner? in (OR or ID out), a CB and FB cover/loan to resemble a proper good window!

Clearly that went in one ear and out the other one very quickly.

Ali Dia? A bit of a fraud...

Just get him in!!!

It may be the case that we are looking to sell whilst also buying but it's probably just a such a case of wanting to make sure enough players leave before some more come in to avoid having too many players on the wage bill and on the training pitch. Clearing some stale minds will also be great.

Hes been brilliant for us so would be a shame to lose him this year a Stoughton he'd be perfect as a bit of mentor for Lavia, but who can refuse him this move back to his home country if he wants it.

I dont see it so much as loss of form more that he raises his game for very short periods and returns to his "norm" the longer he plays. I think the opponent (although I get what you're saying) doesn't make much of a difference. Either was, not good enough for us but a proper professional footballer.

On his best form I think Stephens is decent. At his worst makes too many mistakes. Unfortunately he's far more the latter than the former. He seem only to maintain his best form for a very small number of games in succession, which ultimately is the reason some players are highly coveted; because they can maintain high standards for tens of games rather than just 3 or 4. I hope he goes to Watford or wherever and does well.

Is he still here?

I agree. Not a bad signing, just not good enough for me now. He might be a good squad player to have (more like the role Long played towards the end) but I would of thought of all those players we'd be happy to shift he be up there in terms of best fee.

Either imminent?

You could argue that because of this upcoming run it's the best time to make the change of manager as we don't expect many or any points anyway.

I don't see how he can stay once these type of stories come out, however true, and on the back of the run we are on there is just too much division in the fanbase. It felt like something wasn't right with him last night. I suspect he senses time is coming to the end. I hope that's the case now.

👋👋👋Che...good luck.

When Semmens said we should be celebrating 10 years in tbe PL it was a sad thing for our CEO to say. Weak mindset. A pragmatist is not a bad thing for a CEO but in sporting organisations when dealing with the public that kind of me tality is poor and ill-judged. Sports fans live on hope (well the vast majority do). That type of mindset at the top will eventually flow down the entire club. Contrast with Corteses (at least public) mindset. A balance of the two is probably best. Hes not the leader I thought he was.

Semmens mentioned that the PL is officially the toughest sporting league to be in. This by nature of football being all about the money at every level, it makes me compare the PL to something like F1. What I mean by that is that the team owners need to be extremely rich / have huge sponsorship in order to even consider competing. The PL is now more expensive than ever for owners and is not looking like slowing down anytime soon, so our owners need to put up to make sure we stay up (and not continually or only rely on "over performing" and "players developing") by rasing the standard of the team NOW to allow the manager and coaches a bit of breathing space. Without more investment and possibly a slight change of model we are only going one way; down. The pace of improvement in our players and therfore the collective of the team needs to stay ahead of level of quality our opponents are purchasing. More and more clubs are spending more on players and slowly but surely the overall quality is getting deeper in numbers. Thus us the curve we need to stay ahead of. What we have done so far this summer is not keeping us ahead of the curve.

Listening to the forum was interesting and probably some of the best questions we've heard at these things. I am still of the opinion the Ralph should move on but I cannot question his dedication and passion for our club. I am hopeful but less convinced than I was before this forum that we will get players good enough despite the fact they alluded to "still being in the market". There seemed to be a strange tension at least to start with between Ralph and Martin and Ralph looked quite uncomfortable for much of it. Confidence lowered.