Darlow is last season FFS and is now a Leeds player. Vinagre is a decent signing of he stays fit and consistent. Connolly is a 50/50 gamble who was also here last season. When the season starts Saturday do you ( if we sign nobody else by then ) really think we are stronger then when we finished last season? I'm really not sure we are ( yet ) unfortunately
In terms of showing ambition: This summer - Delap, Vinagre and Connolly Last summer - Oscar, Seri, Tufan and Sinik I know Sinik hasn't worked out yet, but at the time many were excited about the signing. The above and others have been a step up on what we had before them, like Christie for example and Tetteh too. You could even argue Vale and Salah showed ambition for a club in our position, but it never worked out, not all deals do. If we don't get those others this window I'll still feel like we've improved on paper, and hopefully in practice. It's time to get behind the team now. Admittedly I'd be a bit disappointed if we didn't get a keeper that's comfortable playing the way Rosenior wants, but I won't be tearing up my season pass.
I always hate this because we really don't know. Watford and Norwich were amongst the favourites to go up last year but neither finished inside the top 10. I think most expected West Brom to do better than 9th too. You can make an argument for all of the PL relegated sides to do well and also badly and similar with the 3 who came up from L1
Significantly stronger is a tad strong... We've lost darlow, yes Ingram is good enough but we need 2 good keepers. Half our attack back from injury.... Do you think Oscar and Connolly will be involved sat? ( I hope they are but not sure ) We didn't actively look to sell tetteh but agreed to let him go, he's not been replaced with anyone so we are (currently) weaker up top. I'm hoping we will be stronger come the end of the window, but I don't think we are starting the season stronger LB on paper we should be stronger, but again no cover as Fleming really doesn't cut it, are we relying on Greaves again?
Exactly this. Who would have honestly had Luton going up last season? Who would have had Burnely running away with it in quite the way they did with clubs like Norwich and West Brom in the league? A mate of mine was dead certain Coventry were getting relegated a few games into the season... When they'd only played away games. Anything can happen.
We're significantly stronger as a side in that we're miles fitter than we were. I think on paper we're stronger but there's a month to go of the window so it's still a bit unknown
Delap is a gamble, could go either way and look at his last 2 loans. Connolly is a 50/50 who has to keep his fitness and mentality tip top LB, is an improvement, but he wasn't inundated with offers, again it's a gamble and if he gets a long term injury we are still weak in that position. If the stars align and we have a massive good luck Streak with injuries etc then those gambles have the potential to pay off, but it's a lot of ifs buts and maybes. We are starting the season no stronger and could argue slightly weaker due to no #2 keeper, potentially not having Oscar and Connolly involved and losing tetteh. Hopefully ( and I think we will )we end the window stronger.
Surely Delap is the Tetteh replacement? The fact he's fit and available for Norwich means we're already stronger then we finished last year
The league is top heavy and whilst the 3 promoted teams all come up with stature there will be some surprises. Not to mention QPR are in the genuine ****. West Brom are struggling. Cardiff's best player is a past it Aaron Ramsey. Sheff Wed's manager has openly said they're not ready. Rotherham are Rotherham and Huddersfield have signed 1 player so far. Every team has a potential weakness and it wouldn't surprise me a team like Coventry, Bristol or Stoke for all their spending end up being bobbins unexpectedly
If Greaves or Oscar's valuations are met then they won't be here by the time the 5th league game of the season kicks off. If Greaves goes we will need to reinvest the fee into a second left back - note Rosey said about Cox 'not at the moment' when asked about offering a contract - and someone who can push Macca at LCH. We know we're in for most likely a prem loan keeper regardless by deadline day. We haven't replaced Darlows bit of the budget yet and will have to see who it is. If Oscar goes then I think there'll be a like for like replacement also. There's Pelkas' bit of the budget not used yet also, but that ties in with us targeting a twine type as a replacement. We look to be replacing Woods and Longman like for like and I think it all comes down to having to create space in the FFP cap before we move for a player. I hope we're not scrambling last minute on lost targets immediately before deadline day though.
I really dislike the fact the window stays open beyond the start of the season if I'm honest. If last minute good offers come in then we, as you say could be scrambling around. The club imo set a deadline for the likes of Oscar/greaves going and stick to it for the good of the team, but In the real world money talks
Before we consider new signings, We have nothing to suggest the defence wont be as solid as last season Traore could be the new several million new signing Tufan is probably a much better player than this time last season Younger players have had an extra seasons experience, Vaughan, Slater, Simons, Slater, Ally Foreign players know what to expect and have had a better pre season Oscar, Ally, Traore, Sinik, Ofan, LR has had time (including a pre season) to get his message across. New signings will only add to this, with I suspect a few more to come in. It depends on expectations, I am reasonably confident that we will finish top half. And who knows if we are there at Christmas and have an opportunity to invest…
From what I've seen of Delap so far I honestly think he improves us. A lot more happens in and around the box with him playing. He just needs to bag a couple to settle into a goal scoring rhythm. Either way, it's a signing that shows ambition. Connolly, I agree with what you say, but having seen what he can do in our side already I think bringing him back in also shows ambition. Vinagre definitely shows ambition. To be fair, and I said this a couple of weeks back in another comment, our entire season last season was defined by injuries. Mitigating that this time around is going to be crucial. I've no idea if we've signed a bunch of sick notes or if we were just stupidly unlucky. Hopefully this season will shed some light on that. At the moment other than a couple of minor injuries in the squad (which you'll always have) we look alright in that area. In reality we're a club who recently got back into this league having previously been asset stripped and plummeted. There's a rebuild going on whilst trying to maintain even loftier ambitions. It's not an easy job when everyone else is trying to get promoted too. Some of the squad have been league 1 standard. Some of them are still here. Some of our league 1 stalwarts have really upped their game, and I think we've added better players into that mix.
One worry is if Ingram picks up a bad injury on Saturday who will replace him as none of our young keepers are up to it at the moment.
When you talk about whether we're stronger now than the end of last season then yes, but mainly because the fitness situation has improved with existing players. If I ask myself whether we're better prepared going into this season as opposed to this time a year ago, then I'd say yes, immeasurably so.
