I know this thread as moved on at pace, but just wanted to go back the left back Haitam Aleesami. A couple of Norwegians have said that he wouldn't be a good signing, but surely would be a marked upgrade on Bell? Full international has played the top division in France and Italy, full international with 30 caps. Bell looked out of place in league 1 at times. Plus it is a free xfer and turned 29 couple months ago so should be in the peak of his career?

Considering the conditions and the fact we have come up against a good/ well organised side, take the point and move on-probably not a game to overtly analyse. One that won't live long in the memory, I guess that's the beauty of the championship season, there are so many games that a result like this doesn't matter. Still 124 points to play for!

They would probably have made a better go of the Prem then fulham due to the surprise factor. Either way, happy for them to keep messing around in the league cup with all these extra midweek games..

Cocu is doing a media conference this morning (about now I think) with an update about the injuries to Marriott and Jozwiak from their last game. Looking like one if not both won't be fit.

Do we have any idea on the length. You'd assume it was a 2 year deal?

What contact is he actually on currently?

Would Manning want to come here? I assume he hasn't signed a contract cos qpr are an average mid table championship club. We're a mid table championship club... might just be up rooting his family moving to the other side of the country for a similar situation to what he currently has? The Prem title win doesn't hold so well for these players born after it even happened!!

Hasn't happened yet, could all be BS. I'd far rather Josh King got on his bike ffs.

Seems like a great signing and at 29 the perfect age for CB. Does anyone know what happened at Boro, some kind of bust up? Judging by his apps for Boro petty much ever present for the last 5 seasons. Half a season in the Prem too (don't know if only half due to being out of favour or injured). On to sat. So do we chuck him in or give him 10 days of training and a u23 game or the like?

I know it is only first day of the season, but the kipre situation does seem a tad strange. 3 centre backs played and hes not in the match day squad. Absolutely battered today and barely had the quality to get out of the championship. As many of us said at the time they need to be aiming a little higher than lower midtable champ defenders to progress.. just seems an all round strange signing to me. Anyway moving on, rumours of a CB, which is great but the massive and immediate prority is a LB. We should be under self imposed embargo until one is signed.

Any decent left back in the academy?

I feel that 'man like Swag' and TM are waiting for the King and Raya transfers to happen before making any movements in the market due to their sell on fees. However what odds on King seeing out his contract and Raya not actually having a sell on % (Shebby forgot to put it in), just a promotion %, which makes his proposed xfer to Arsenal irrelevant. Would sum up the whole situation and then we of course end up back at square 1 with the season already started..

Interesting to note some of the fees that a number championship players have gone or been quoted for to go to the Prem. Watkins at Brentford is close to a £28m (rising to £33m) move to Villa. How many players do we have that are even sellable assets. Dack and Armstrong? A couple of others like Travis and RN based on potential? Shows how far we have fallen. And yet a centre back and a left back and I think we're competitive!

The frustrating part about all of this is that we're only a centre back and left away from a pretty competitive squad for this division. Looking unlikely however that we'll have them for the first day of the season!

I wish bloody Josh King would bugger off and put a few more pennies in the kitty..

Assuming his new signing is a centre back..A new left back is imperative to us having any kind of notable season in this division.. Anything else is a bonus!

Yes that was my thought too. From a wba point of view seems a strange signing. You've £100m in the bank from getting promoted and you just limped over the line with one one of the lowest auto promoted points tally in the last 30 years, one would think you'd need to strengthen significantly. And then turn around and buy a mid table champ centre back for £800k or whatever the 6 figure is.

I live in Christchurch Nz now having been here for just under 6 years. Was an article this weekend in our press about 2 championship clubs sniffing around Wellington Phoenix's 19 year old left back Liberto Cacace. I'd love for one of them to be us.. He's a brilliant young player, a winger almost, but also tough in the tackle. Any other kiwis or kiwi based peeps around? What do you think of the standard, would he be good enough to cut it? Of course all of this would require actual scouting..

I still sing the king of Ewood song to my 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 yr old in New Zealand here. Agree with all the previous sentiments, excellent league 1 players, can do a job bottom third of championship and should have gone last season. All the best to him

We're still waiting for Josh King to be sold. Might have a big contribution in what the final budget might be..

I'd prefer Brentford to go up out of the 4. Partially because they are well run and would be a huge threat next season, but also because it would be a new interesting club in the Prem. Also the other 3 are relatively recently ex Prem so still operating on parachute payments, so must be getting to the point of having to cut their cloth differently. Surely players like Ayew and Mitrovic aren't gonna have another year in the champ?

I'm not saying that he wasn't a good appointment or anything, but Leeds also have the highest wage bill and xfer spending in the division-which kinda helps!! Surely Brentford would be the model that we would be looking to replicate..

Yes almost 15 years ago having spent a load of money on old United pals. Certainly deserves credit for that for the championship title win. But didn't Lambert also record back to back promotions a while ago? Keane's last year at Sunderland was a farce, before a shambolic reign at Ipswich led to him being sacked. Oh and he's been out of the manager game for the best part of a decade. With regards to Samuel, I think that he has a bit of pace and can be a handful on his day. Has got into better goal scoring positions then before lock down. Also how do we replace? DG is done, so only leaves us with 3 other strikers if Samuel goes.

Are People serious with Keane? Has anyone seen his managerial record, couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag. Anyways with regards to summer signings, I think it needs to be kept simple. We need a LB, a CB and a GK. No other position. Retain as much of the current squad as possible except for those whose contracts are expiring and also get rid of Mulgrew and Bennet if poss. I'd only keep Samuel of the frees.

EB seems like a nice enough bloke and I do admire his openness & honestly on Twitter. However he is patiently not good enough for a promotion aspiring team in any position. One could easily argue that he didn't even particularly stand out in league 1 either. This RN/EB debacle was the final straw for me with TM, who I've generally been very supportive of. Dropping our best right back to shoe horn the useless club captain into the team on a pretext of 'understanding the game/system' waffle (what was that? Loose and don't have a shot on target?) is one step too far. Get rid of the pair of them.