Transfer goss and rumours, Summer 2016.

I just wish we'd pursued Nahki Wells as was heavily rumoured at one stage.
More of an AN type front man than a poacher like Rhodes.
Dear Santa.....

 

Strikers will be twice as expensive in January.

 

You mean Ipswich?

 

Interestingly, our price has come right down after the window closed. We're now as short as 7-2 to win the league, whereas a couple of weeks ago we were around 5-1 and a couple of months ago about 9-1.
Top 6:
Newcastle 7-4
Norwich 7-2
Brighton 5-1
Huddersfield 14-1
Villa 18-1
Wolves 20-1

So, the doom and gloom amongst the majority on here is not shared by the bookies.

 

I don't feel a sense of doom, or indeed, gloom.

We're where we deserve to be based on performances. I've never been interested in the bookies, all I can do is hope for improvement on what I've seen so far.

 

Yes they do the Mars bars as well, but that's the sweet course!

 

Fair enough, just pointing out that in fact the objective and neutral observers have deemed us to have had a very successful window.

 

I'm pleasantly surprised that the bookies rate us much as I do. It isn't just about comparing strikers, it's the squads that count and I agree with Dorset that we have a squad that is near the top in this division. We lost only one player from our PL squad, as well as the loan players we had. We've added quality in Pritchard and Canos to replace Redmond and Oliveira to replace Mbokani. If we add Chamakh as well, we will, IMO, have a stronger squad than we had in the PL. I'm with the bookies (and Dorset) on this one.

 

You are always a 51% half full kinda guy Rick .

 

I work hard to insure that my glass is always at least half full, DD!

 

I'm like, 49%. Nobody's perfect!

 

Perhaps you need a bigger glass then Gandy!

 

The squad is ok it's just who gets selected and the effort they put in.
Sheffield Wednesday was boring Ipswich was worse and Birmingham was embarrassing.
For a side 2nd faves to go up someone needs to tell Neil and his players that.

 

Of the 88 goals we scored in the 2014-2015 season, if I remember rightly, around 50 came from midfielders - #whoneedsstrikers

 

I'm HOPING that that's exactly what they'll be working on during this international break - unfortunately Naismith is with the Scotland squad!!!

 

Supernorwich, I mean SN, I mean Nathan, I mean Duncan has a point.

We've been getting progressively worse so far. Not encouraging.

 

I'm not quite at the stage of giving up hope, but unless we can amass around 9 or more points this month, then AN needs to take a long hard look at what he's done so differently from what he was saying pre-season (playing youff and attacking football for starters) and either put it right or step down and let someone else do it for the sake of the club and its fans.
I'm not totally convinced Steve Bruce is the answer, but don't have any other suggestions.

 

If we are looking for trends, we should look at the whole picture. Impressive win over a weak Blackburn team was followed by a hard fought draw with a SW team that beat Villa in their opening match. I didn't find it boring, but in any case that isn't the criterion where form is concerned. For some reason our 1-0 win over Bristol City was ignored. Didn't fit the trend? Ipswich away was reminiscient of the play-off game at PR and a reasonable result considering. Yes the match at Brum was awful, but it's the only one of our first 5 games that I would put in that category. Cardiff at home will tell us whether there is any trend or not, but I still fancy our chances.

 

Agreed. I don't like the idea of Bruce either.

I was happy with what we have, I saw him as a tough, but good man-manager who could do a good job here after the previous no-shows. I still want that to be the case, but he needs to start doing it.

 

Like it Rick. I'll be buying that bigger glass tomorrow!