There has to be and I still think we need a proper addition up top, if there isn't I don't think we'll be bothering the top 6. But nobody will be happier then me if I'm wrong
I did hear a name a few weeks ago, but suspect we'd need to receive a significant fee beforehand to make it happen.
Wingers are miles off, the forwards aren’t exactly sorted either as Tetteh’s going and Óscar could still go, could do with another keeper and midfield needs some physicality and aggression. Defence looks sorted for now. A back-four of Christie A. Jones Greaves Vinagre is arguably top 6 and McLoughlin is a solid centre-half at this level too. I watched Brentford vs Brighton in that pre-season tournament last night and I can see how Rosenior wants us to play like that but we are miles off from replicating it even to a Championship top 6 standard. Brighton controlled possession, played out from the back etc. but their passes had some zip and purpose to them. And the difference between their wingers and ours is night and day. Mitoma and Adingra were direct, pacy and played without fear. The only winger we have who plays in a similar way is Vaughan. Allahyar I think can still come good but his muscle injuries are starting to become a concern and he needs to improve his end product.
What's your take on reducing senior squad numbers to 23/24? We're about 26/27 now and we're bringing 3-4 in. Woods we know can leave and I'd be surprised if we didn't accept decent loan offers for Longman, Fleming, Doc if he's fit, but there's been a suggestion we might listen to offers for Allahyar - and it still sounds like we're willing to field offers for Greaves and Oscar if the price is right. There's potentially a lot of outs before deadline day.
I wonder if its 23/24 plus youth like Smith/Jarvis who dont have to be registered. Massive benches with 5 subs allowed and the normal champ schedule will stretch the squad but I get why Rosenior wants it as opposed to the supposed 30 we had last year. You're always letting about 10 players down potentially in a squad of 30. Lampard talked about it really well in that podcast he did about the last couple months at chelsea. It's hard to motivate those fringe guys
It doesn't feel like we're at 26/27. We've been struggling to field 2 XIs without using the kids. It's whether you count the likes of Jarvis, Smith and TLT in that 26/27
I'm sure doc would have probably gone if injury hadn't hit, longman/woods/Fleming we would happily let leave if there was takers. Ally I'd also personally let move on, I'm just not sure he suits English football Oscar & graves have a price and if that price is met they will go, if it's the prices I'm hearing then I wouldn't be to upset to see them go and I suspect if the price I'm hearing is true it's the reason they are here still and not due to lack of interest
Standard negotiating that though. If there's multiple interest then take it to the brink but hopefully with the time left to reinvest. That's the gamble.
I know this has probably been done to death, forgive me but we are hamstrung because two (?] of the last three years were under Allam and their zero investment? So each season, the FFP situation should improve quite dramatically ?
I think Allahyar’s issue is the injuries. Seems really prone to muscle injuries and I’m not sure if it’s how he trains and plays or something else. He arrived on loan to us injured and we had to wait a month for his debut. It’s a shame really because he’s physically developed early for his age. He’s quick and strong and his pace is his biggest asset but when he makes one of those lung-bursting sprints to beat a player, you’re flipping a coin as to whether he knackers his hamstring. I think he knows this as well because he plays more cautiously than he did before his injury. He can’t really improve the technical aspects of his game consistently if he doesn’t get an uninterrupted run in the team. It really is a shame when you see a player who has all the physical attributes to be a good footballer and has potential to develop the technical parts but struggles to stay injury-free.
Interesting poking my head out of the doom and gloom bubble of this thread to listen to The Second Tier predictions for the season and the hosts are calling us a dark horse for top 6 because they believe we have the most attacking wing back combination in the league in Vinagre and Christie, so it's not all thunderclouds when we take a step back and consider how we're viewed externally.
Under the last 2 seasons under the Allams you can look up online and see what the profit (loss) was. There wasn't a lot of profit until they wrote down the Allam house loan as part of the sale agreement. That doesn't count towards FFP. The disinvestment also reduced our turnover to that of a league 1 club. No sponsors, pissed off the fans. We are lucky we aren't currently experiencing the same as the 90s in L2 as we would have been if Ehab was still around.
There are some who are hedging their bets as dark horses. Gab Sutton and the second tier podcast to name but 2.
If Allahyar and Longman were to leave this summer, we’d need a huge overhaul to our wingers. Sinik isn’t even fit to get 20 minutes in pre-season so that leaves Vaughan and Lokilo as our only first-team wingers. We do need more wingers but I wouldn’t get rid of Allahyar just yet. Let Longman leave if we get someone else in, if anyone would take him.
Believe Vaughan is a no10 by trade, but he's certainly a option. If either Oscar or Greaves are sold though, we're going to need another 2 strikers and good quality centre-half and another good left back additionally to the 3/4 we need now.
A little of column A, a little of column B. In the 19/20 season when we were relegated, we made a 2.6m profit thanks to the sale of Bowen, but in 20/21 getting promoted from League One we made an 8.2m loss (arguably that was due to their investment to get us back out). This scaled back to a 6.1m loss last season, meaning over that three year period we made a net loss of 11.7m, well under the 39m allowable limit. Then the 2.6m profit year drops off and whatever craziness happened last season gets added on to the rolling calculation meaning we're sitting at 14.3m + whatever we lost last season. As long as we lost less than 25m (and I'd bloody hope we lost a lot less than that) we're fine for FFP, and then that bigger loss of 8.2m loss drops off for what we can then lose this season, and so on. Much like Newcastle under Ashley, the Allams profligacy was actually attractive to a new owner as it meant much more scope to invest quickly, it's just a shame a lot of it was wasted on loan fees/wages and Turkish wunderkinds.
