AspRover

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.

Presumably Batth and Fadz are the 'Leadership' component of Swags shopping list. Pace and a GK incoming? Please?

We might be waiting to see if Sammie goes before making a decision on Siggy? I could see a 'keep one of them' situation - they are two of our most senior and probably best paid players and they both really should be playing in the same position, can't afford that.

Would we get compensation if he went to an SPL team, Scotland technically being a move abroad? Genuinely don't know off the top of my head, but that would have to be a possibility as he's played all his senior football there. You're right with the rest of it, but if we are effectively being funded by sales from the academy and the academy has produced a player of SPL standard at least this seems an odd way to let them go. Surely it'd be worth the gamble of a contract extension, even if we loan him out for another season and try to sell him for more next summer. 200k isn't going far.

If they are shipping Gent out permanently after the season he's just had and considering he plays in a position we are not exactly stacked in then I can only assume someone has really ballsed up his contract renewal negotiations and they know he's walking next summer. If we were so hard up that we have to accept whatever Barnsley can offer we wouldn't have signed Big Mak for a fee.

I have no doubt that he'd take any premier league move (any player would lets be fair) so his agent probably shopped him around to any and all that might take the bait. Looks like Ipswich are the ones that did. If the move materialises he'll be off in a heartbeat and counting his money and fair play to him for it, but I doubt that Ipswich specifically is his 'dream move' so to speak. I also don't get the impression that if it falls through he'd be the type to kick off about it or down tools or whatever. The move might not be all it's cracked up to be - Ipswich might be low balling him wage-wise in an attempt to keep a low overall wage structure. One of the benefits of going from league 1 to the prem is that most of their squad won't have massive prem wage hike clauses or the likes, so they might genuinely be attempting to keep a championship wage structure, planning for relegation and banking the TV money. We don't know, it does seem to be dragging on a bit. I still 100% expect him to go to be fair.

I mean I'm 90% sure that Brereton Diaz is a golden retriever in heavy disguise

McFadz surely wouldn't need a medical, unless the physios are worried he's picked up an injury on holiday - he's basically a contract extension if he signs up. If it's three medicals tomorrow I can't see him being one of them.

Always a bit wary of dealing with stereotypes but the one thing you can say about Japan's national teams is that they do not seem to be at all bothered by other teams supposed physicality.

I thought Batth had signed a contract with Solihull Moors in non league? Surely we wouldn't pay them a transfer fee for him?

In a competently run club on a free and with low wages/realistic playing time expectations Dack would still be worth a gamble. He'd score a few goals over the course of the season, even if he was basically an impact sub. The problem is that A. if we were to sign him we then wouldn't sign someone else who doesn't have significant fitness issues and B. we don't have the squad depth to cover him - if we sign him he's going to end up in the team more often than not regardless of whether he is still capable of playing that many games in the season. We couldn't afford to sign him and then not play him. Ennis, on paper, was a cheap low risk gamble but once the budget was cut the fact that we had signed him prevented us from signing a proven forward. We took a punt on another 'low risk' gamble in Telelovic who possibly prevented us signing someone in January. It's an opportunity cost. We'd basically need Dack to agree to play for free, or a nominal amount on a six month contract to use our facilities etc. in order to prove he is worth a contract, either with us or another club, and he isn't going to do that.