AspRover

It depends how wedded we are to the current formation. If we are committing to the current 3-5-2 then we need cover for Alebiosu, and probably another CB, but to be fair if we get an injury to either Alebiosu or one of our central defenders right now then we for sure just default back to the 4-5-1 with eg. Miller at RB if needed. I think that the 451 looked suspect this season due to the midfield players not being up to speed, but it worked fine last season. Honestly it's the first time in ages we've actually had cover in all positions (quality is arguable, but we have the bodies) - the squad doesn't have any massively gaping holes in it so the answer to 'what should we sign in January' is 'Anyone we can bring in who would improve the strongest starting 11, any position'

Old fashioned centre forward is Gudjohnsen - no build up, no tippy tappy, just goal

We've kind of assembled a team of 'almost pretty good' players - Yuki, Henriksson, De Neve, Gudjohnson, Morishita (and probably a few more) all look like they could be genuinely decent but then they miss a sitter/aren't in the right area/fluff a pass/give a silly foul (delete as appropriate). If one or two of them clicks and finds a run of form we could suddenly be a much stronger prospect.

We will need Pickering over the course of the season, if we have identified this Charlton side as having eg. a slower than average right flank then playing him in this game makes sense - keep him fit etc. Does De Neve also play left back or am I imagining that?

BBC reporting that the Manchester utd. v Chelsea match is at risk of a waterlogged pitch and that the wet surface is 'really affecting play' - This will be interesting, it's a game with a team 2-0 up and a couple of red cards, in favour of Mu. If that game gets called off you can bet that Mu will heavily lobby to be awarded the win - we might be able to tack on to that.

Three at the back with Hedges left wing back?

We aren't as bad relative to the rest of the league as many of us feared, I think.

He's done his job, get fresh legs on in attack before he tires

Surely time to give Henriksson and Morishita a free hit for Hedges and Kargbo...

This is where you need a Big Sam type manager, he'd 100% have a backup plan involving Gueye and Miller etc. ready to go for just this sort of situation

I think ideally we want to get to a point where Kargbo is coming off the bench when the opposition are tiring, he doesn't have the skill to back up the pace as a starter.

For squad registration rules, sure, but he wouldn't have had any work permit issues.

One of the things you can say about the recruitment this summer is that they are trying to avoid leaving a position hanging out to dry due to outgoings - When a player is sold we generally have a player lined up for the position, Britain wasn't sold until Alebiosu was sorted, Travis for Baradji, it now looks like Leonard was allowed to go once the deal for Gudjohnsen was sorted out. Pears is the backup to Toth, if Pears is sold I expect that a new keeper will be signed. It might well be that they are actively not selling Pears until they can find a keeper they like where they can turn an overall profit/wage reduction on both transfers. I am worried about the overall quality/whether all of these new players will prove good enough, but as I have said before for the first time in yonks there does seem to be some semblance of joined up thinking behind the transfer policy this year.

JRC widely reported as £1m, which would be €1.15m - if it were reversed and he'd gone for €1m then it would be £870k so I think you have them backwards, and I think you might have done it a couple of times in that list.

It very much remains to be seen whether the new players are good enough/up for it over the course of a season, but someone (or someones) behind the scenes seems to be actually trying, and other than the managers it's been a damn long time since we were able to see that. I expected us to add a couple of freebees and a bunch of loans to a very depleted squad and call it a day, this level of wheeling and dealing and seemingly attempting to scrape together a coherent squad with a tactical plan is unheard of in post-Venky rovers. I don't think that there is any way a random Saudi club came in for Buckley without someone here actively trying to find a way to move him on and actually make some money off the deal at the same time - in previous seasons we'd have just paid him off to get him off the wage bill. Someone is doing some leg work. It feels a lot more like the transfer strategy of back when we were a serious club. I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that I think this all comes from a decision made at some point after we had re-signed Forshaw. I think that at that point freebees and loans was absolutely the order of the day. We've seen this extremely late and sudden decision making before in reverse - when Ennis went from being a speculative punt early in the window to our marquee signing as the taps were abruptly shut off (not that they have been particularly opened now, but you get my meaning). This of course does beg the question why now, why not for JDT or Eustace? Who or what has actually prompted this? When are they going to get fired? How are Venkys and Pasha going to screw it up this time? It's shaping up to be the first season in a very long time that I am, idk excited seems strong but lets say intrigued, actually quite interested in how we are going to look rather than just my default of 'oh god we're definitely going down this year....' Venkys out, Pasha out etc. etc.

I doubt the goodbye video is a contractual obligation, Travis may simply not want to do one. We shall see.

McLoughlin is one of those rare transfers where the squad has a round hole in it so you buy a round peg and everything just carries on as normal.

If Michalski has a good head on his shoulders he learns from this and doesn't crumble. I'm not sure why Montgomery is being played at right back when we have just signed two actual right backs, you have to feel that this won't do him any good. De Neve is going to be polarising, I think he'll score a few goals and run around a lot whilst also just not being that good in general. Green shoots from some of the others though.

lol, sure

I didn't say it was the line up I would pick...

I normally like to see the youngsters get a run out, but realistically we need to get the new signings up to speed and bedded in. Wouldn't be surprised to see something like Michalski Alebiosu Miller Wharton Pickering Tavares (idk, maybe Forshaw) Hedges Henriksson Kargbo Gueye And then plan to bring Tyjon, Montgomery etc. off the bench for some minutes

I've said it before but Cantwell's issue last season was that teams found it too easy to isolate him and push him off the ball - I used to think that the answer was to drop him deeper so he could be covered by the midfield a bit more, now I'm hopeful that the seeming drive to get the rest of the team looking bigger, fitter, stronger in general will help protect him. We also need another player on the pitch with that 'aura' that the opposition are a bit scared of, so that the markers get split up rather than just seeming to having three on Cantwell at all times. Maybe that can be Kargbo or Henriksson. Still think he'll work out fine.

Looking forward to reading far too much into the starting 11 and whatever the BBC guesses is our formation at half two.

Steven Nzonzi signing for stoke after being released by an Iranian team was not on my bingo card this morning.

who could possibly have predicted