AspRover

Probably not, I meant it more in a they skim through the results in bulk when they are forced to for some reason. They see one name a lot - big price tag.

My current theory is that Venky's look at the results and scorers but nothing else. This is why they keep doing this thing of putting an arbitrary 'won't sell for less than' value on our top goalscorer (£15m for Armstrong, reportedly £20m for BBD and the reports from Ipswich are that they are now doing it with Sammie) but seemingly on no-one else. I also think it's why they sanction selling our keepers so readily - we concede goals most games, so the keepers can't be any good. Also why they won't spend on keepers - they've gone through a bunch and we still conceded so obviously it's a position that doesn't make much difference...

That'd explain six goals conceded

Big Mak did certainly, Ohashi not so much

Tell you what, I'm willing to bet that Big Mak and Ohashi are better than Ennis and Telalovic

you had to say it didn't you

It cannot be overstated, we have made a triple attacking sub and all three of them have scored. I can't think the last time that could have been possible. I still think we are in trouble overall, but credit where it's due. Get a GK and we might be OK.

Ohashi looks to have good movement. All the new lads have looked decent tbf

Sub him off now, no sense risking an injury (not serious)

Wiemann scores goals...

That was predictable 1:1

Triple attacking sub? We haven't been able to do that in a while

I know Trav has said he sees himself as the anchor player, but having an actual anchor player there in Tronstad frees him up so much...

I posted a couple of days back that Sammie on the bench is a good compromise - bring him on if we are chasing the game 2nd half, if we're winning don't risk him.

Another day closer to the season opener and Sammie seems no closer to leaving - do we stick him on the bench? Second half sub if we are losing/drawing and need a goal? I appreciate not starting him to minimise injury risk concerns but after a certain point we can't afford to leave him out of the squad entirely. I'm pretty sure he will have kept himself fit, won't want that to be an issue that hampers his move, and I think a less than match sharp Sammie is still our most potent goal threat.

Realistically Sammie isn't going to refuse to train, he'll want to hit the ground running in the prem and it doesn't look like the club is actually blocking any moves, just doing a bit of haggling. If he's not on the training pitch he'll be doing indoors fitness work or something.

My memory of that game is that he looked an absolute bomb scare for the first five to ten minutes after coming on but then settled down and did quite well. I remember a marauding run down the left after a neat bit of ball control.

There have been a couple of reports that Liverpool will let him go permanently, and potentially for free/a small fee. Honestly if his wages were reasonable I wouldn't object, very raw but big, strong, left footed cb/fb with the potential to develop and sell on for a profit. Some nice touches in the cup game. Plugs a hole.

Loan for a year with an option to buy isn't the end of the world, we basically ended up doing the same thing with Whalstedt just with more steps...

Plenty of good players have come out of the Belgian league - not least the best goalkeeper we have had in recent years in Kaminski. Also calling Sammie a 'proven goalscorer' at the time we signed him is stretching it a bit - he was averaging goal every four games or so in league one in his mid 20s.

If I was going full conspiracy theory I would suggest that for whatever reason the likes of Benson and Lowe etc. seem to have some kind of protection. Even top coaches often won't stick around for three managers in a row if they are part of the first team coaching setup, managers like to bring in their own backroom staff. If JE doesn't fancy Benson as a coach but has been told he has to work with him and can't expressly bring in a second goalkeeping coach then signing Ruddy, a very experienced pro who he knows well, as 'experienced backup' might be a way of circumventing it. If so, no one is replacing big Ben. Honest. on an unrelated note, how does one make a tinfoil hat more comfortable in this heat, anyone got any tips?

Supplementary goalkeeping coach

My long standing take is that Pickering might make a good defensive midfield player - his passing, tackling and all round game are decent and he wouldn't be as exposed for pace. This might be a hangover of too many years playing football manager though - I always used to transition aging fullbacks into DMs because the skillset was similar but they didn't need to be as quick...

Broadly agree with Revs assessment, I'd have a couple more of the greens yellow but I understand where he's coming from. Writing off Garrett is a bit harsh - I'd like to see him get a league 1 loan and see if he kicks on in the manner of JRC and Carter, I think he's good enough to get games there. I think that the left footed CB is a bit of a red herring, if we go with a back three Pickering can play there and I don't think two right footed CBs in a back four is as disastrous as all that. If we have to prioritise I'd want a fullback in first, we're a lot lighter there. Of course if we can find a left footed fullback who can also play in the centre...

100% an in-head translation moment, which suggests his English is decent but not natural yet, props to him for doing the interview honestly. That said I'd have loved it if he'd just gone with Shearer-san in the moment.