It hasn't been at play since the midpoint of last season and it's unlikely we will ever see it again. Keep up!

That's a lot of switching around and I am not sure about Downing and Davenport fulfilling their roles in the defensive set up. We will definitely need to be more adaptable and flexible than last season and more importantly, the players need to look like they bloody understand what they are meant to be doing if we do switch to 3 at the back. The confusion last season at times when we changed things was frustrating to watch. At times Mowbray was to blame for this, but other times the switches weren't so radical that it should have led to players becoming so flustered.

100% I agree with that.

Raya Nyambe Lenihan Magloire Bell Travis Downing Chapman Dack Rothwell Graham Subs: Evans, Davenport, Brereton, Mulgrew, Butterworth, Armstrong, Leutwiler As things stand , that would be my starting 11 and subs for the first day. Obviously in real life Bennett and Williams will at least be on the bench. We definitely need a striker and centre back, but we aren't looking too bad when you take into account the young lads coming though. I haven't even included Buckley or Rankin-Costello.

Would have to be 3 at the back with that midfield though and you have no wing backs. Unless you aren't going to play a striker

Leadership takes different forms. Wanting to take responsibility and get on the ball when defending or chasing a lead is a type of leadership. I would hope Downing will give us this.

Both might be good. We lacked that experience at times last season.

It's true that Mowbray has no honour in the job? Well, he says differently. Always speaks very highly of the club. Along with the "hes a lier" stuff, this is another nasty angle to take on things. I just don't get it

Not a lump, but I would take James Morrison!

Nasty!

Jaysus he is about 5 years older than Brereton. More like their Vince Grella. I know he is highly rated and he looked decent when I saw him play a couple of times for Northern Ireland, but that injury record is concerning to me.

Had a quick look at his stats there. This is mad and correct me if I am wrong, but it looks like in his entire career he has never played more than 16 games in a season. That's a bit worrying...

Jesus, my apologies , he is! I completely missed that. I thought he was still at Sunderland! I will delete my previous post as I don't need every smart alec who sees it telling me I was wrong

Would be a bit of a coup to get McNair. I would imagine there will be interest and we would certainly be looking at a fee

The inevitable canning of Lampard will be one that Abrahmovic will need to be careful with. I read that he said he will be given 2 seasons regardless. Lets see how that works out. Previous managers there have done well to make 2 seasons.

Absolutely crazy. I wonder what is going on there. I am sure they have received bids for him. Does he not want to go, do they not want to let him go? His career history is mad looking, on loan for 8 seasons i think it is

I think morris is nearly the most important part of the deal for Chelsea. He had huge success as their under age coach/manager. They just need to recall the 789 players they have out on loan now and start having a look at them. Todd Kane will die of old age out on loan. Must be weird for him every pre-season, first team players who signed a year ago asking "who are you?"

Ya, I agree about Butterworth for sure. He looks like a raw talent. If we sign Payne, Butterworth absolutely must go on loan.

Ya jesus hopefully he is and I am sure he probably is, but I am also pretty sure it won't be as intense as what the squad do in Austria.

I disagree. As a back up to Dack as a number 10 specialist, I think he would be a nice little signing on a free. You watch much of him during his poor season?

Do we have lots of players though? I would say he is a more natural back up for Dack than anyone else we currently have I would sign him up, I don't see why it would or should impact on filling the gaps elsewhere!

Us, Birmingham Oxford, Milton Keynes Dons, Bolton Wanderers and Lincoln City Random list, but at least we would probably be favourites!

Hillarious. He lost his mind

He couldn't do pre-season with us as I am pretty sure his contract is up the 30th of this month. I find it bad that he hasn't signed up and is letting things run to the wire, meaning he misses out on a very important part of pre-season. Just make your mind up.

Lampard and Morris are probably a good choice for Chelsea at this time. They know the club and young players, so with the transfer ban, they will need to utilise those avenues. Looking at it objectively though, he didn't set the world alight at Derby. They finished 6 the season before he took over, he spent a fair bit, plus got some top young talent from Chelsea and he finished 6 again. I wouldn't go as far as style over substance, but it seemed he was shielded from any criticism there.