Crazy money, but he's young and quick so they fall over themselves for players like that.

That's a tough argument to make. At the start of last season nobody expected Szmodics to score 30+ goals. Ohashi and Gueye already look a damn sight better than Ennis, Telalovic and Gallagher. Weimann looks a very useful addition too. The big loss is A. Wharton, we simply cannot replace him, but otherwise I'd say the squad is about on par with last season. If we sign a few wingers / a LB / a GK it'll be a much better balanced squad than last season.

Tronstad.

£18m kept us afloat for 8 months? Jesus.

It's not about replacing like for like. His finishing is nowhere near as good if you're making a comparison. I'm just saying that Dolan has something to offer at this level as a #10 - he was excellent there against Derby. He disappeared when we switched him out wide after the 3 substitutions were made. I think Sigurdsson could offer a lot as a #10 too and he's a much better finisher than Dolan.

Pretty much. A starting GK, a LB to push Pickering (I'd love someone to replace him, but I wonder whether they'll seriously target a player like that), CM depth and a couple of quick wingers. Move Sigurdsson and Dolan central to the #10 role and groom Gilsenan for that position too. We'd be a better team than we were last year with those additions / changes.

What happened to the Wharton money?

If the Nixon scuttlebutt is true and we were offering him £22k a week, someone needs to man up, pay Leicester their asking price for Iverson and offer him the same contract. A good GK will have as much of an impact on our final points tally as Szmodics would this season.

I'm one of his biggest critics, but he clearly has something to offer playing centrally as a #10.

See if they want to swap GKs.

I'd happily buy Ayari if they quoted us a fair price, I think there's a quality player in there.

The only game that annoyed me was the Sheffield Wednesday one, and that was all about Pears throwing two into his own net, heads going down and Wednesday absolutely flying. The Plymouth draw was credible after we went down to 10 men.

Two games a week w/ injuries and suspensions. We'd be playing unblooded Academy kids before we knew it.

Apparently Everton were quoted a £3m loan fee and over £7m in wages for a Phillips loan last year.

The Szmodics transfer would pay for loan fees and wages. That said it's starting to look like the PL boys have a firm valuation on Szmodics (assume he doesn't tick the right boxes in their analytics - but worse 21 year olds do) and this transfer might not come off.

I still think any reinforcements are tied into us selling Szmodics. So it's Szmodics or a new GK / LB / LW.

We paid £500k for him. If you watch the players warm up he's actually the best finisher in the first team - he's just crap at everything else.

Just signed a new contract at Wigan.

He's 22 and poor L2 clubs are after him on loan. Tell me again how he's a good player.

Has he? Started well and has then been injured or a disappointing substitute ever since. He doesn't change the game when he comes on. There's a player in there, but I don't think he'll shine in the Championship. He's too soft.

Oh wow, he's dropped down the pecking order then. He was labelled as the next big thing less than 12 months ago.

He's been here 3 years and you've got a 1 game sample of him being somewhat useful. He's not good enough, end of. Nothing vindictive, he just needs moving on to his natural level - L2.

Every club does that for the unused subs - evidently he also thought the used subs didn't get enough work in.

He was linked to QPR and a team in Greece recently.

Markanday is shite - you wave the white flag when you bring him on.