saintwbu

Leicester should never have gone down anyway, criminal that Rodgers allowed them to end up in that position. Not bothered about them, hope they take points off Ipswich and Leeds when they play them. Second is well and truly on.

Not sure why so many people are hammering Mara for what I thought was a decent cameo. A few nice touches, nice turns and a good run for a chance that yes he should have scored. Also not sure why there’s a narrative that we were lucky, we should’ve been about 4 up before Stoke caused us any issues at all - not sure what Russell could do tactically that would make Stu, Charly or Sulemana score what were relatively simple chances. We probably created about as much as we did against Leeds, the difference was against Leeds we were unusually clinical.

Thought overall atmosphere was pretty flat even at 3-0 today, but the Chapel were consistently good again throughout - it is making a difference.

Assuming he doesn’t get a late move to Saudi or Turkey, it looks like he’s staying. He’s played every minute of every game so far, no sign of agent planted stories trying to get him a move to any Prem club that would take him. Just got on with things. What a fantastic signing he’s been, and what a great player/person to have at the club. If anyone needs their own chant it’s him. Hope he gets a great reception at the next home game.

Another sign of the clubs change in approach is to keep a player in Che who is out of contract in 12 months. Normally it’s been a case of getting whatever we can for whoever we can. An exciting season ahead hopefully.

Haha he actually does seem to be, on the Sunderland end.

Surely any Che loan/contract extension will just be a FFP workaround - can’t see why he, us or Wolves would want this for anything other than that. If we were that desperate to get rid we’d have taken the 12mil from Everton or whatever Bournemouth offered. Imagine this will ensure us a decent fee, just deferred until next summer - seems to be all the rage this window.

I know it’s short term thinking, but wonder if Mara staying is largely down to the fact we’d have no proper centre forward tomorrow at this rate. It’s looking very unlikely we’ll have someone in by the cut-off for tomorrow (12/1pm i think?) and Arma was much better when moved deeper last weekend.

I think ABK will be a top player, but equally I think it was clear when he arrived he wouldn’t be here long - getting relegated has clearly accelerated his desire to move on. I am surprised he hasn’t had more Prem interest, Spurs would be well advised to sign him imo, and it’d be a good move for him.

I have faith we’re going to end the window strong, my only concern is what will be or won’t be done by midday to allow anyone to play tomorrow…

Drameh off to Birmingham on loan by the sounds of it. The RB slot for us really is a bit of a mystery - almost no links to KWP all window, yet still feels like he’s going to go, and all our linked replacements/reinforcements are ending up elsewhere. Also wonder if ABK not leaving impacts the Harwood-Bellis loan? Would give us 5 CB’s who would all expect to start, if ABK didn’t leave.

I don’t think that Sacha guy (if that’s the journalist from Belgium you’re referring to) is overly reliable - he was changing with the wind when it came to Lavia, always seemed a step behind everyone else despite sounding like he had a close contact.

There was talk of them extending it for a year so they still own him - can’t see them loaning out a good prospect and letting him go for free next year. Imagine announcement of his departure will be accompanied by a contract extension.

Don’t reckon Bournemouth could’ve given Solanke away the summer they got relegated

I can’t really blame Sulemana for not wanting to be playing in the Championship tbh. He came in January to a new league and new country, starts one game and the manager gets the boot. Then he got hooked after an hour the first two Selles games just to ‘maintain the press’ and from then on was in and out the team. Never given a real chance to bed in, can’t imagine he feels particularly responsible for the shit show of last season, so don’t blame him for thinking he deserves more.

Sounds like no fee at all this year for Beto, so presume that was a big factor - can’t imagine we’d entertain anything like that considering we seemingly don’t want Che to go.

I thought he only had a year left! That makes more sense why he’s not being linked anywhere near as much as I expected.

That Forest season was the one standout season in his whole career. Either side of that has been nothing to write home about. I guess not too dissimilar to Holgate getting Everton’s player of the season one time, albeit that was at a higher level.

Our home atmosphere has been crap for years, this doesn’t make it worse, arguably it makes it better because people carry on making noise for a bit after the goal celebration.

The thing that Che brings that none of our other attacking options bring is his physicality. He’s a big powerful forward, he holds the ball up really well and plays with his back to goal brilliantly at times. That is something we really need to replace if he goes imo.

ABK definitely had his shirt on ready to come on at one point, I think it was when Manning (i think) looked like he picked up a knock. Wasn’t a massive surprise that he didn’t come on for Stephens, he’d only played 45 mins midweek against Brentford so it’s a big ask to come on for 80 or so minutes in the league straight away. On a separate note Shea Charles was absolutely class at CB I thought, aerially dominant as well.

A shame to see him go because he’s the sort of lad you like to have at your club, seems a really good guy and has an infectious energy. On a footballing level i’m not too disappointed - the loan worked out for everybody imo, I don’t think he’d have made a great difference to us last year, but it’s turned him into a £20mil player when we’d probably have been lucky to get £5mil for him last summer. It’s a great move for him, really glad he’s going there rather than Burnley. For me, SAA and Edozie are both more technically gifted, and have 4+ years each to get to the level of Tella overall and i’m confident they both will do.

Just gone on loan to St Mirren, confirmed. Maybe a sign..

In a complete pipe dream world, Broja on loan?

With his record, and only one year left on his deal, the fact Piroe went to Leeds without much fuss maybe suggests people don’t think he’s worth a punt in the top league. In which case, maybe we weren’t that bothered either? At £12mil he’d have been a steal if people thought he was good enough for the Prem. As mentioned earlier, we don’t seem to be paying for players that we don’t fancy to be worth having in the PL, given the only money we’ve spent is on Shea Charles, who I guess we’re hoping is another Lavia type purchase. There’s a week left, let’s see how it plays out.