Obviously we need a good Championship quality keeper. Iversen fits that bill. Ruddy definitely doesnt and I dont think Krul does.

Selling key players repeatedly and then links to players that dont fix the problem positions we need doesnt really lend itself to positivity.

Absolutely no chance of Stansfield. Germain is a striker who doesnt solve our issue of needing a winger. And we cant afford to sell Travis. We are past the point of looking at 4 keepes, just sign 1 and definitely not Krul or in particular Ruddy.

Regarding Poku, he wouldnt leave for free either way due to his age, and their bell end chairman said earlier in the summer that he wouldnt be going either way.

Its impossible to get a dead cert either way, a veteran isnt a dead cert. You look at the veterans we have been linked with, Ruddy relegated and released with the fans blessing after a poor season, Begovic released by QPR after a poor season and Krul who has barely played in years. If anything, it is more risky because the clock is ticking on their career.

It just kicks the can down the road, we arent as desperate for older heads now, we need a number 1 that can do the job for a number of years. We cant be put off because of one poor signing otherwise we would only sign steady heads in every position. With the older keepers mentioned, they tend to have shown signs of decline which will only worsen so it comes with its own risks.

I think their fans from what I have read dont like the fact that they play 3 at the back.

A second frustrated manager within a year demanding reinvestment from the owners. And a second likely to be let down. Will he be a second to walk?

Seemingly not true. If he indeed said it which we dont know.

Its not about directly replacing players because other players may have changed positions since, or be better suited. Ohashi plays as a striker whereas Brereton played on the left anyway. Ultimately its about how we are covered now. We have Dolan and Weimann best suited to playing centrally . We have Gueye and Ohashi with Leonard behind them to play in that one striking role. We have only really Hedges and Sigurdsson as natural wide men and neither are fast. Get 2 in there and we look well covered.

Why do need 2 more strikers when weve already signed 2 and play 1 up front? Keeper, left back, midfielder and 2 wingers are needed. I think a right back too although JRC is best there.

You could sign an olympic sprinter and use the same argument. But surely we would go for someone who has displayed resonable end product, seeing as Dembele has struggled to kick on over a number of years.

There are question marks about his work rate which has been publically questioned. He has pace and trickery but even beyond attitude, his end product is usually non existent. I watched Birmingham last week and he was hooked at half time.

Dembele was left out purely due to selection, as he was on a few occasions last season. So he is a player who struggles to make an 18-20 man squad for a now League 1 club.

Not the best performance and quite fortunate to take a point but showed good spirit in doing so. We looked absolutely knackered worryingly early (even allowing for it being early in the season) with everyone blowing throughout a very submissive second half. We are devoid of any speed and looked so slow and tired. Gueye does a lot of good work as a focal point in the first half but doesnt offer much goal threat. Whereas Ohashi does barely anything yet seems to have a knack of popping up with a crucial goal already. Weve upgraded in this position clearly and its still early days as to how good they will be, but promise in both. The JRC on the wing experiment needs to end, he isnt suited to playing there. We badly need a couple of quick wingers before the window ends. Pears is a terrible, terrible keeper. I remember people saying that he is at least good with his feet. Clearly untrue. And its not people going looking for mistakes when they are so blatant.

What does he think about Dembele as a player?

Is that based on this? As it seems a very dodgy source. He has scored 2 today and is in a similar position to Dembele where he is young and highly rated without the years and years of underachievement and failure to kick on afterwards.

I feel like I have been clear on my thoughts on why Dembele being an underwhelming signing. His decision making is poor and his end product more often than not is lacking. There are also big questions about his application especially running back which was a reason mentioned by Rowett (I think) as to why he couldnt even make the bench. He hasnt really built on his early promise at Peterborough. It might just be a selection decision. Birmingham have a number of attacking options and have changed all 3 behind the striker, and still have their big money signing from Go Ahead Eagles and Miyoshi on the bench. So again, he may just not be seen as good enough to make their squad. In League 1. Which tells you alot.

Dembele isnt in the Birmingham squad today. He didnt make the squad at times last year so might be selection based. Would be an underwhelming addition if 2 plus 2 equals 4.

I like Carter but I think he is still a bit off attracting massive interest. He comes off the back of a very poor and injury punctuated season. He is 25 in December so he is not a young talent that Premier League clubs will see as a raw talent. If he gets back to and beyond the levels of 22/23 then he could potentially get a move to a top end Championship club but I dont think for massive money.

I dont get how anyone could be anything other than seriously pissed off should it only transpire that we sign 1 further permanent player considering that we have nearly brought in £40m in sales across a year. I dont think we will sign a flurry of permanent signings but I cant yet lower my standards to in any way be content with how these bastard owners run this football club with such disregard. Im not one to dismiss the loan market but we are so short across the team that we need a few permanent additions and a couple of loans on top.

Moran was certainly a disappointment of a signing but he wasnt one of our very worst players nor as bad as @Paul Mani is suggested. He never played in his best position and for a few months contributed when we were dominating teams before we fell off a cliff and he really went into his shell and out of the team. It wouldnt totally shock me if, especially playing in his best position, he mirrored Morton in having an underwhelming loan spell here and then a much more productive one elsewhere. Hirst definitely did not offer more than Gallagher in a Rovers shirt, he offered absolutely nothing. Gallagher had his worst season by far last season, often being injured, and hes never been great, but he tended to score 7/8/9 goals in every season prior and offered other things even if he will never be a natural goalscorer nor better than a low end striker at this level.

Of course, I wouldnt be gutted and he would add pace but he has proven over a number of years that he has failed to really progress especially in terms of his end product. Dembele didnt particularly flourish under Eustace so its hardly like Warnock taking players like Paddy Kenny everywhere to run the dressing room. Although football in general sees much less of that nowadays and such a policy hasnt done Ten Hag much good.

Really poor game to start the season and based on skys coverage, you wouldnt know that Fulham were playing. Hard to look past City for the title and the 3 promoted teams tumbling back down. Who says money has made English football predictable?

Its always a stupid argument when someone questions or criticises a suggested target, to say well who would you sign then. We dont have access to or knowledge of players across Europe and beyond. I hadnt heard of Gueye or Ohashi. So we arent in a position to be suggesting potential targets. We can only comment on the limited pool of domestic targets that we know and have seen. I agree with you @islander200 in terms of IF, and its a big if, Eustace prefers to pick out players like that from Birmingham, it would be really underwhelming. It would be lazy to just go back to his Birmingham side. We can comment on Dembele as we know him and I agree, end product is poor.