Hodgey

That bench is pretty shocking. Needs to be much stronger to navigate a 50 game season

To be top 2, even as things stand, we need a better gk and 2* quality big powerful players - one cb and one dm. I’m not convinced we’re looking at any of these positions though. We’ll also need a rb and st if KWP and Che leave (looking likely). So a lot to do but quite possible if the recruitment team are competent and given money

He was excellent, no ball aside he was instrumental in their win. Begs the question why the Brave didn’t get him

Let’s be honest - Caicedo is the finished product already, with improvement to come, he’s much better than Lavia currently. It’s a move that makes sense for a Chelsea / Liverpool - it’s gamble free (bar injury) on a player who will have immediate impact and it’s an investment they can make as it’s probably the difference of silverware/champs league or not. It also means Lavia is worth £50-£60m as if he progresses as expected in the next 2 years he’ll be a £100m player too. But that remains a bit of a gamble.

Massive shame as he would have absolutely thrived under Martin. Think he’ll do well at West Ham though - great signing for them at a good price. We’re going to need a lot more than Smallbone and Charles in midfield - that’s if Smallbone stays. Also everyone knows we have cash so expect massively inflated prices. Stephens captain - let’s see if there is a marked improvement for on field captaincy given most on here felt JWP couldn’t do that job.

Manji I think is suggesting that SR will continue to back us financially so we are ‘strong’ in this division irrelevant of our huge drop in income (ie we don’t need to fire sell our talent to survive). But yes I struggle to see how anyone could suggest relegation hasn’t massively weakened our finances (plus removed opportunity costs - ie we are not exactly shop window for attracting the best young talent in the championship). As per the original post - most annoying when the Prem this year looks really weak - but no point going over all that again.

Norwich look interesting - people will see a last minute winner but by all accounts they battered Hull and played with some style. Think Sat will be a good indicator of if we can bully a good Championship side - also looks like it’ll be an entertaining one to watch.

Very happy with that - clear intent and fantastic execution. Of course there are worries - Jwp / KWP / Alcaraz / Adams made a huge difference - will they be here come Sep ?. Also that team us far too small for any long ball merchants - we look incredibly weak at corners. But let’s enjoy it whilst it lasts - statement win and a really enjoyable watch.

Think there is a general consensus with Bazunu that he is good at passing / sweeping, has potential but makes high profile positional and keeping errors. He’s still really young so it’s going to be the same story this year. If we are genuinely going for top spot you would solve this clear issue / mitigate the risk - and unlike a striker finding a high quality gk isn’t that difficult. So feels a bit like our strategy remains trying to improve young (City) players of high potential we know will make mistakes (Charles may be same category). This cost us big time last year, so I share the concerns. I don’t get the international thing either - playing well for ROI or N Ireland is not a good indicator of quality required to win the championship.

Good question - anyone know the answer to this. I’ve read in player biographies that when they leave they get their contract paid off, unless they put in a transfer request - which is why nobody does it. But equally that seems mad ie do players really get effectively two salaries for a couple of years ?, would make it extremely unattractive to sign anyone on a long contract. Think the answer lies somewhere in between where they get a ‘loyalty bonus’ which is maybe a % of their remaining contract ?

If we do have replacements lined up - may as well play them until they leave, unless they don’t want to play and will phone it in. Lavia seems closest to leaving (ie agree terms with another club) so I’d be tempted to leave him out, but play the rest.

Hidden within the gloom was another fantastic bowling spell by Turner. Hope he stays injury free and with us as he looks like an incredible prospect across all formats. Middletons inexperience has I think caught up with him a bit. But he’s still better than Organ/Weatherly/Holland as an opener which in itself is an issue. Gubbins is having a decent season, Brown is doing in the champs what Wheatley did in the T20 - both good players, both totally off form. Vince again looking a bit off form but with t20 captaincy previously and t16.4 nonsence upcoming I can see why he’d be distracted. Good to see Albert get a decent knock in for Kent. Can see why we would hold off on a batsman with Albert and Prest around, and both opened for the 2nds last game with high scores. But don’t see either of those as 1st team openers which we need.

With Hampshire I’ve learnt it’s too early to tell. They are really bad in first innings, better in second, and have a good bowling line up. 50/50 here whether the tail wags and we get them out cheaply. Or Essex amass a huge score and we lose by an innings. Plus we can’t play Harmer at all - he’s already got a wicket maiden in the first session….. Probably a few of them prepping/thinking about the t16.4

It speaks volumes that our team is now down to 3 specialist batsmen - kind of makes sense when an all rounder is just as likely to make runs but it’s a bit damming on our batters. Is this just a reflection that more players need to be all rounders or that we can’t coach out and out batters ? talking of which, two of our all rounders now pulling the game away from Notts. Seems like we always score more in the second innings, it’s like they use the first just to get used to it.

Think they were unlucky, but they would have known rain was coming so arguably, with 4 wickets spare, should have gone harder - 10 more runs I think would have done it. That said without Weatherly we would have posted a dreadful score - outside of McD he was the only one who really took to the surface. Problem we had as stated is with 9 wickets spare in a shortened game Essex could risk wacking it. Whitely really did have a stinker - average of 16 and strike rate of 94. Prest was also pretty unconvincing (av 18, sr 116) so our problem was pretty obvious. Fuller also poor with the bat but as an all rounder he did ok (just nowhere near as good as last year) Both Howells and Turner really did add something more this year.

Yeah this is a problem as next 3 in are striikerate of just over 1 a ball, Got to hope for fireworks from Fuller or Howell. Maybe Whitely might do something ? He’s capable just horribly out of form. These 2 in now need to pick the pace up though

They need to do something about reduced games - far too much advantage for the chasers. Looks like Hampshire know it may be reduced so going hard at it.

Good on them for fighting out a draw, would have been easy to throw the towel. Dawson is having another good season, bowlers not on it this match but you can’t blame them for that given how many games they have carried us. Another frustrating season as in reality we were only a couple of quality batsmen short of being possibly double champions - think that time has passed as there’ll be chinks in the bowling shortly. Onwards to the t20 - looking fwd to that, and hopefully the one day comp will give the young players more exposure and chance to break into the first (recall that Turner had a good run in it last year)

It does feel like they have given up here - knowing they can’t win the game - interesting that they are continuing the win or lose trend rather that try for a draw. This looks like zero batting points yet again which isn’t too clever - especially as they didn’t get full bowling points. Really can’t use the T20 excuse - Somerset are in the exact same boat and only 3 of the players here will be involved. This batting issue has gone on far too long, was an issue last season too. We do need to be careful as the bowlers are ageing and struggle once wickets are worn in / sun is shining. Hopefully the likes of Turner and Currie will break through, plus Prest and Albert. Not sure you can realistically look to win a championship with only 4 specialist batsmen (one of those being very suspect, another being a rookie)

Is the pitch totally flat or are Hampshire bowling filth ? Can’t tell but it looks like they hit 50 runs for the last batting point with 9 down in about 4 overs….

Excellent bowling again, couple of scares but comfortable chase. Turner looked excellent again - what a player to burst in the scenes like he has. All the teams in the South group through which will make it a bit interesting with teams who know each other. If I recall we hammered Essex and Surrey, beat Essex and Somerset, lost to Surrey and got hammered by Somerset. So overall you would take that as positive with nothing to fear. Also shows how well Hampshire have done to get there - playing all the finalists twice in the group stages.

My understanding is that we wanted rid last summer - ironic really given he was (and still is) clearly our best striker. I think they thought our recruitment geniuses were going to find someone better, plus for some reason Ralf really didn’t fancy him pre-season (and indeed in the first few games) I’d take him this year and lose him on a free next. I don’t see us spending the £12m or so on anyone better, and that £12m is utterly insignificant if it is the difference in us going up or not.

Guess you mean because Coventry and Boro were bottom 5. However Burnley, Shef Utd, and Luton were 1 to 3 points off top spot. Its certainly a league you can still finish in the play offs if you have a terrible start - but odds on you going up are much lower…

Funnily enough when I saw an article on Toon selling Fraser I thought we’d be in for him. Not sure why, did Russel play with him for Scotland ? I guess we don’t really have any right sided players now Theo has gone, and he can play in the middle which if the Athletic article is to be believed is something Martin encourages of his wide players. If that’s true, then £15m plus say £5m wage subsidy would be closer to our £30m I can see this happening, journalists reporting this generally have some inside knowledge, and Tino will be on for a massive wage increase and can be eased back into action as Trippiers back up / ultimate replacement. Plus aren’t they in Europe - so he’ll get plenty of games.

Also we’re playing other teams equally unsettled in the first 10 games - Leicester, Leeds and Wednesday - good time to play them. On the earlier question, I’d be fine with us having 13 points or so after 10 games. You’ve got to think if we are going to finally get things right we will improve as the season progresses. With 46 games I’d be happy enough to get through the first ten with a few wins and draws. Hopefully those wins at home, as after the last 2 years things could turn sour if we don’t start winning at home.