Has Frase gone yet? Maybe they are still finding his highlight clips and and can't find any? I took into account Kirk with his passing of his Dad but he was a lazy bastar and we were pre-warned by Crewe fans that he went missing at games. I am still unsure, if Fraser is any good. For me he may have had some talent but it got "lost in the post" before he even joined us. I often sat back at games and thought "what dopes he actually do?" In the games I saw, he just coasted them and was happy to pick up his wages. For the last 3 years I have been worried about why so may Ipswich players are let go? And we are the mugs that have signe on loan or perm? Aka Fraser, Lapado, etc. They were all shit. When I saw Fraser had his contract mutually contracted I was so happy. (as though we got 3 points today). Compare him to Aneke, whom he knows despite all his injuries, is still wishing to try and give it a go.
I am very happy with the transfer window but would have preferred for us to have had 2 out and out strikers. Looking forward to Leaburn coming back and hopefully an injury free season but I do worry, as someone said earlier, how many potential good youngsters have had to quit early in their careers through injury or have lost their pace.
That's Alfie fucked as they play with one striker lol
They signed Lyndon Dykes as well from QPR so I would expect them to play 2 strikers, what ever the formation is behind the front two. As they have Alfie, Stansfield, Dykes and Lucas Jutkiewicz and have let Dembele and Roberts go to Oxford and Northampton respectively.
Interesting to see what formation they will play now ?
6.5/10 seems harsh considering we’ve won 3/3 with Berry, Doherty, Adahme, Edwards, Mannion all starting. That’s almost half the side.
Yeah it's been a decent window, and a very decent start, but I still think we could have done more, and as the season goes on we may struggle with fatigue and squad depth. Couple of injuries, and we are a bit bare bones, particularly at the back.
Of course it's subjective, as if we win promotion, I'll say it's a 10. Just a bit of guesswork. I'd lean more towards 7 I guess, which is probably a bit more fair.
5 CB's, 3 LWB's (generous to Edun I know, Edwards can also play LCB) and 3 RWB's (Ramsay played RCB in preseason, Asiimwe has played on the left before) isn't particularly bare bones. Ideally we'd have 1 more natural LCB so we had 2 players for each position but bare bones is a bit of a stretch. In fact across the whole squad the only position that doesn't have 2 set players is the 6 and Doc, REG and Z Mitchell can all cover there
We haven't shipped out Taylor have we? So him for the 6 too
6.5/10 seems harsh considering we’ve won 3/3 with Berry, Doherty, Adahme, Edwards, Mannion all starting. That’s almost half the side.
Yeah it's been a decent window, and a very decent start, but I still think we could have done more, and as the season goes on we may struggle with fatigue and squad depth. Couple of injuries, and we are a bit bare bones, particularly at the back.
Of course it's subjective, as if we win promotion, I'll say it's a 10. Just a bit of guesswork. I'd lean more towards 7 I guess, which is probably a bit more fair.
5 CB's, 3 LWB's (generous to Edun I know, Edwards can also play LCB) and 3 RWB's (Ramsay played RCB in preseason, Asiimwe has played on the left before) isn't particularly bare bones. Ideally we'd have 1 more natural LCB so we had 2 players for each position but bare bones is a bit of a stretch. In fact across the whole squad the only position that doesn't have 2 set players is the 6 and Doc, REG and Z Mitchell can all cover there
We haven't shipped out Taylor have we? So him for the 6 too
Hope not. When he’s up to speed he will be like a new signing.
"If Birmingham confirm the £10m Jay Stansfield signing, they will have spent £24m this summer. That's more than Man City, PSV, Nice, Celtic and Athletic Bilbao."
Who are their new owners ?
Majority stake is a US company which is the subsidiary of an US insurance/pensions company. Tom Brady ex NFL star is CEO and minority stakeholder.
Birmingham have certainly made themselves the team that everyone wants to beat, seeing how they're flashing the cash like an obnoxious 'loadsamoney'. They're not making it easy on themselves. I hope that we stuff them.
Just said this to my son.....even the "loadsamoney" part. Lost on him as he's never heard of the character or the phrase. Kids of today eh 🙄.
6.5/10 seems harsh considering we’ve won 3/3 with Berry, Doherty, Adahme, Edwards, Mannion all starting. That’s almost half the side.
Yeah it's been a decent window, and a very decent start, but I still think we could have done more, and as the season goes on we may struggle with fatigue and squad depth. Couple of injuries, and we are a bit bare bones, particularly at the back.
Of course it's subjective, as if we win promotion, I'll say it's a 10. Just a bit of guesswork. I'd lean more towards 7 I guess, which is probably a bit more fair.
5 CB's, 3 LWB's (generous to Edun I know, Edwards can also play LCB) and 3 RWB's (Ramsay played RCB in preseason, Asiimwe has played on the left before) isn't particularly bare bones. Ideally we'd have 1 more natural LCB so we had 2 players for each position but bare bones is a bit of a stretch. In fact across the whole squad the only position that doesn't have 2 set players is the 6 and Doc, REG and Z Mitchell can all cover there
It is the quality of the replacements though. If Gassan and Godden come off the pitch, Leaburn and Aneke will replace them, that's very strong at this level.
In midfield, Taylor, Campbell and Anderson, as rotation options is very decent.
I don't feel the same way about defense. If we lost Mitchell or Jones, no one is ready to step up and replace what they offer imo, if Kayne gets injured or suspended, Tennai isn't near his level. I felt very comfortable about the left flank, until Edwards got injured, may take a while to get him back up to speed.
The goalie situation, we don't really know enough about Mannion yet. My instinct tells me, he's gonna be good for us, but I genuinely felt MacGillivray would be top drawer, and he obviously wasn't..
If Kayne, Mitchell or Jones come off, their replacements aren't up to much.
It may seem negative, but that's just my honest thoughts. As I've said multiple times about Charlton in league 1, we don't need men for a job, we need men for THE job, and that's promotion.
Hopefully none of this matters and we are lucky with injuries 👍🏻
6.5/10 seems harsh considering we’ve won 3/3 with Berry, Doherty, Adahme, Edwards, Mannion all starting. That’s almost half the side.
Yeah it's been a decent window, and a very decent start, but I still think we could have done more, and as the season goes on we may struggle with fatigue and squad depth. Couple of injuries, and we are a bit bare bones, particularly at the back.
Of course it's subjective, as if we win promotion, I'll say it's a 10. Just a bit of guesswork. I'd lean more towards 7 I guess, which is probably a bit more fair.
5 CB's, 3 LWB's (generous to Edun I know, Edwards can also play LCB) and 3 RWB's (Ramsay played RCB in preseason, Asiimwe has played on the left before) isn't particularly bare bones. Ideally we'd have 1 more natural LCB so we had 2 players for each position but bare bones is a bit of a stretch. In fact across the whole squad the only position that doesn't have 2 set players is the 6 and Doc, REG and Z Mitchell can all cover there
It is the quality of the replacements though. If Gassan and Godden come off the pitch, Leaburn and Aneke will replace them, that's very strong at this level.
In midfield, Taylor, Campbell and Anderson, as rotation options is very decent.
I don't feel the same way about defense. If we lost Mitchell or Jones, no one is ready to step up and replace what they offer imo, if Kayne gets injured or suspended, Tennai isn't near his level. I felt very comfortable about the left flank, until Edwards got injured, may take a while to get him back up to speed.
The goalie situation, we don't really know enough about Mannion yet. My instinct tells me, he's gonna be good for us, but I genuinely felt MacGillivray would be top drawer, and he obviously wasn't..
If Kayne, Mitchell or Jones come off, their replacements aren't up to much.
It may seem negative, but that's just my honest thoughts. As I've said multiple times about Charlton in league 1, we don't need men for a job, we need men for THE job, and that's promotion.
Hopefully none of this matters and we are lucky with injuries 👍🏻
Tbh though I seriously doubt any side in League has 11 top drawer players and another 11 of equal quality to step in if need be, even Birmingham and all their millions.
If we sign Potts and have to rely on an emergency keeper loan, so be it, but our squad overall is in a better place than it has been in arguably a decade
You need fewer potential replacements / backs ups in the building for defenders than you do attackers. You’re far more likely to bring on attacking players from the bench to either chase a game if you’re behind, or to hold up the ball and relieve pressure if you’re ahead.
That’s surely part of the thinking in why we’re perhaps a little more stocked in forward areas than others.
What resale value is there on Stansfield at £20m ?
They'll be lucky to get 5% back.
Yet more owners who think "football is easy"
You never know. They clearly have aspirations of doing what Ipswich did and he's obviously a talented player. He scored 12 goals last year as a kid in a poor side that got relegated.
If they do well and he scores goals then in 2-3 years time they're either a PL club or a top championship club with a young striker scoring goals and he'll still have at least 4 years left on his contract. With the fees around today who knows what he'll be worth by then.
It's an absolutely crazy fee right now though and it'll be pretty funny if he gets injured and they don't go up.
The madness at Chelsea continues. They're now paying more in wages for Sterling to play for Arsenal than Arsenal are paying!
A club who employs Mudryk deciding they didn't need Sterling have now loaned him to a rival for no loan fee, no obligation to buy at the end of it, and are covering more than 50% of his wages.
And then they went and signed Sancho who has been poor since 2021.
Even if the owners are writing off all the summer spending and not burdening the club with giant debt, I feel very uneasy with the amount Birmingham have just spent. Sad that those kind of transfer fees have now made it in to League One, even if it's only one club doing it currently.
6.5/10 seems harsh considering we’ve won 3/3 with Berry, Doherty, Adahme, Edwards, Mannion all starting. That’s almost half the side.
Yeah it's been a decent window, and a very decent start, but I still think we could have done more, and as the season goes on we may struggle with fatigue and squad depth. Couple of injuries, and we are a bit bare bones, particularly at the back.
Of course it's subjective, as if we win promotion, I'll say it's a 10. Just a bit of guesswork. I'd lean more towards 7 I guess, which is probably a bit more fair.
5 CB's, 3 LWB's (generous to Edun I know, Edwards can also play LCB) and 3 RWB's (Ramsay played RCB in preseason, Asiimwe has played on the left before) isn't particularly bare bones. Ideally we'd have 1 more natural LCB so we had 2 players for each position but bare bones is a bit of a stretch. In fact across the whole squad the only position that doesn't have 2 set players is the 6 and Doc, REG and Z Mitchell can all cover there
It is the quality of the replacements though. If Gassan and Godden come off the pitch, Leaburn and Aneke will replace them, that's very strong at this level.
In midfield, Taylor, Campbell and Anderson, as rotation options is very decent.
I don't feel the same way about defense. If we lost Mitchell or Jones, no one is ready to step up and replace what they offer imo, if Kayne gets injured or suspended, Tennai isn't near his level. I felt very comfortable about the left flank, until Edwards got injured, may take a while to get him back up to speed.
The goalie situation, we don't really know enough about Mannion yet. My instinct tells me, he's gonna be good for us, but I genuinely felt MacGillivray would be top drawer, and he obviously wasn't..
If Kayne, Mitchell or Jones come off, their replacements aren't up to much.
It may seem negative, but that's just my honest thoughts. As I've said multiple times about Charlton in league 1, we don't need men for a job, we need men for THE job, and that's promotion.
Hopefully none of this matters and we are lucky with injuries 👍🏻
Tbh though I seriously doubt any side in League has 11 top drawer players and another 11 of equal quality to step in if need be, even Birmingham and all their millions.
If we sign Potts and have to rely on an emergency keeper loan, so be it, but our squad overall is in a better place than it has been in arguably a decade
It's not about them being top drawer though, it's about them being good enough to be rotation options. I believe some of our squad would struggle to look good in poor league1 sides.
Similar to Hector, Terell, Fiorini etc, when they leave us, they'll struggle to make an impact at a league 1 side, or even struggle to land a contract at one.
Of course the squad is in a better place than the majority of seasons, that's not that difficult if we are honest though. I don't think there is an argument to be made that it's as good as the 18/19 squad, not yet anyway. That team was championship ready except maybe 2 or 3 players, I don't see that in this squad yet. That squad got 88 points, arguably would have got more had we kept Grant. If this team can replicate that, then there is an argument for it, until then, it's all guess work and theories.
It's definitely a decent window, but it could have been better, so a 6.5/7 is about right for me imo. Subject to change of course, similar to being compared to the 18/19 squad.
I understand that Birmingham spending £10m on 1 player has no impact on FFP rules if the owners can put that money in themselves (ie not loaned) but if I was the EFL I'd be pulling them in & questioning this. 6 months ago they were closing a stand as it was falling apart. I know they have new owners but spending £10m as a League One club is tantamount to mismanagement and it wouldm't take much for the club to be in serious trouble again.
Their owners have got planning permission for a brand new ground moving the club away from St Andrews and building a campus style like Man City. In the meantime time, even though they are planning on moving out of their ground, their owners have also invested £15M into St Andrews to stop it falling apart. This is an ownership with very, very deep pockets whom have owned and run sports clubs in the States. I think if the EFL called them in then the Brummie fans would go mental.
Birmingham best get promoted this season or they’re bang in trouble with FFP I’d imagine. Huge gamble.
No, they won't be.
They risked it even more than Ipswich did. i can’t see how they won’t be. They’ve far exceeded thei revenue multiple times I’d imagine. They’ve spent close to 20 million
I understand that Birmingham spending £10m on 1 player has no impact on FFP rules if the owners can put that money in themselves (ie not loaned) but if I was the EFL I'd be pulling them in & questioning this. 6 months ago they were closing a stand as it was falling apart. I know they have new owners but spending £10m as a League One club is tantamount to mismanagement and it wouldm't take much for the club to be in serious trouble again.
Their owners have got planning permission for a brand new ground moving the club away from St Andrews and building a campus style like Man City. In the meantime time, even though they are planning on moving out of their ground, their owners have also invested £15M into St Andrews to stop it falling apart. This is an ownership with very, very deep pockets whom have owned and run sports clubs in the States. I think if the EFL called them in then the Brummie fans would go mental.
Birmingham best get promoted this season or they’re bang in trouble with FFP I’d imagine. Huge gamble.
No, they won't be.
They risked it even more than Ipswich did. i can’t see how they won’t be. They’ve far exceeded thei revenue multiple times I’d imagine. They’ve spent close to 20 million
I think it's £29m on fees this summer including yesterday's players coming in. Anything but automatic promotion will be a failure for them this season.
Birmingham have certainly made themselves the team that everyone wants to beat, seeing how they're flashing the cash like an obnoxious 'loadsamoney'. They're not making it easy on themselves. I hope that we stuff them.
I understand that Birmingham spending £10m on 1 player has no impact on FFP rules if the owners can put that money in themselves (ie not loaned) but if I was the EFL I'd be pulling them in & questioning this. 6 months ago they were closing a stand as it was falling apart. I know they have new owners but spending £10m as a League One club is tantamount to mismanagement and it wouldm't take much for the club to be in serious trouble again.
Their owners have got planning permission for a brand new ground moving the club away from St Andrews and building a campus style like Man City. In the meantime time, even though they are planning on moving out of their ground, their owners have also invested £15M into St Andrews to stop it falling apart. This is an ownership with very, very deep pockets whom have owned and run sports clubs in the States. I think if the EFL called them in then the Brummie fans would go mental.
Birmingham best get promoted this season or they’re bang in trouble with FFP I’d imagine. Huge gamble.
No, they won't be.
They risked it even more than Ipswich did. i can’t see how they won’t be. They’ve far exceeded thei revenue multiple times I’d imagine. They’ve spent close to 20 million
You can get away with anything in league 1 as long as the owner is happy to put the money in as equity.
Still absolutely ridiculous when you think we were bought for £12.5m last year and they’ve just paid more than that for a player at this level
I just hope what Birmingham are doing is an anomaly and not a bad sign for the future of League 1.
It's normally 6-7 loanees (5 of them you will never have heard of but YouTube convinces you they're the next big thing from a PL Academy) , a bunch of random free agents who might have been good 4 years ago in the Championship but have had injuries since and maybe someone spends £500-800k on one player. This Birmingham strategy is crazy even if it is all legal and within the rules, if Davies doesn't get them promoted then what happens?
6.5/10 seems harsh considering we’ve won 3/3 with Berry, Doherty, Adahme, Edwards, Mannion all starting. That’s almost half the side.
Yeah it's been a decent window, and a very decent start, but I still think we could have done more, and as the season goes on we may struggle with fatigue and squad depth. Couple of injuries, and we are a bit bare bones, particularly at the back.
Of course it's subjective, as if we win promotion, I'll say it's a 10. Just a bit of guesswork. I'd lean more towards 7 I guess, which is probably a bit more fair.
5 CB's, 3 LWB's (generous to Edun I know, Edwards can also play LCB) and 3 RWB's (Ramsay played RCB in preseason, Asiimwe has played on the left before) isn't particularly bare bones. Ideally we'd have 1 more natural LCB so we had 2 players for each position but bare bones is a bit of a stretch. In fact across the whole squad the only position that doesn't have 2 set players is the 6 and Doc, REG and Z Mitchell can all cover there
It is the quality of the replacements though. If Gassan and Godden come off the pitch, Leaburn and Aneke will replace them, that's very strong at this level.
In midfield, Taylor, Campbell and Anderson, as rotation options is very decent.
I don't feel the same way about defense. If we lost Mitchell or Jones, no one is ready to step up and replace what they offer imo, if Kayne gets injured or suspended, Tennai isn't near his level. I felt very comfortable about the left flank, until Edwards got injured, may take a while to get him back up to speed.
The goalie situation, we don't really know enough about Mannion yet. My instinct tells me, he's gonna be good for us, but I genuinely felt MacGillivray would be top drawer, and he obviously wasn't..
If Kayne, Mitchell or Jones come off, their replacements aren't up to much.
It may seem negative, but that's just my honest thoughts. As I've said multiple times about Charlton in league 1, we don't need men for a job, we need men for THE job, and that's promotion.
Hopefully none of this matters and we are lucky with injuries 👍🏻
Tbh though I seriously doubt any side in League has 11 top drawer players and another 11 of equal quality to step in if need be, even Birmingham and all their millions.
If we sign Potts and have to rely on an emergency keeper loan, so be it, but our squad overall is in a better place than it has been in arguably a decade
It's not about them being top drawer though, it's about them being good enough to be rotation options. I believe some of our squad would struggle to look good in poor league1 sides.
Similar to Hector, Terell, Fiorini etc, when they leave us, they'll struggle to make an impact at a league 1 side, or even struggle to land a contract at one.
Of course the squad is in a better place than the majority of seasons, that's not that difficult if we are honest though. I don't think there is an argument to be made that it's as good as the 18/19 squad, not yet anyway. That team was championship ready except maybe 2 or 3 players, I don't see that in this squad yet. That squad got 88 points, arguably would have got more had we kept Grant. If this team can replicate that, then there is an argument for it, until then, it's all guess work and theories.
It's definitely a decent window, but it could have been better, so a 6.5/7 is about right for me imo. Subject to change of course, similar to being compared to the 18/19 squad.
Our 18/19 team was great. How is it we didn't go up through the autos? Excuse me, my memory is pitiful
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I am very happy with the transfer window but would have preferred for us to have had 2 out and out strikers. Looking forward to Leaburn coming back and hopefully an injury free season but I do worry, as someone said earlier, how many potential good youngsters have had to quit early in their careers through injury or have lost their pace.
Not a very Millwall like signing
They signed Lyndon Dykes as well from QPR so I would expect them to play 2 strikers, what ever the formation is behind the front two.
As they have Alfie, Stansfield, Dykes and Lucas Jutkiewicz and have let Dembele and Roberts go to Oxford and Northampton respectively.
Interesting to see what formation they will play now ?
In midfield, Taylor, Campbell and Anderson, as rotation options is very decent.
I don't feel the same way about defense. If we lost Mitchell or Jones, no one is ready to step up and replace what they offer imo, if Kayne gets injured or suspended, Tennai isn't near his level. I felt very comfortable about the left flank, until Edwards got injured, may take a while to get him back up to speed.
The goalie situation, we don't really know enough about Mannion yet. My instinct tells me, he's gonna be good for us, but I genuinely felt MacGillivray would be top drawer, and he obviously wasn't..
If Kayne, Mitchell or Jones come off, their replacements aren't up to much.
It may seem negative, but that's just my honest thoughts. As I've said multiple times about Charlton in league 1, we don't need men for a job, we need men for THE job, and that's promotion.
Hopefully none of this matters and we are lucky with injuries 👍🏻
Good summer window though. Great start, endless middle and then anti-climatic finish.
7.5/10 for me.
If we sign Potts and have to rely on an emergency keeper loan, so be it, but our squad overall is in a better place than it has been in arguably a decade
That’s surely part of the thinking in why we’re perhaps a little more stocked in forward areas than others.
If they do well and he scores goals then in 2-3 years time they're either a PL club or a top championship club with a young striker scoring goals and he'll still have at least 4 years left on his contract. With the fees around today who knows what he'll be worth by then.
It's an absolutely crazy fee right now though and it'll be pretty funny if he gets injured and they don't go up.
A club who employs Mudryk deciding they didn't need Sterling have now loaned him to a rival for no loan fee, no obligation to buy at the end of it, and are covering more than 50% of his wages.
And then they went and signed Sancho who has been poor since 2021.
Similar to Hector, Terell, Fiorini etc, when they leave us, they'll struggle to make an impact at a league 1 side, or even struggle to land a contract at one.
Of course the squad is in a better place than the majority of seasons, that's not that difficult if we are honest though. I don't think there is an argument to be made that it's as good as the 18/19 squad, not yet anyway. That team was championship ready except maybe 2 or 3 players, I don't see that in this squad yet. That squad got 88 points, arguably would have got more had we kept Grant. If this team can replicate that, then there is an argument for it, until then, it's all guess work and theories.
It's definitely a decent window, but it could have been better, so a 6.5/7 is about right for me imo. Subject to change of course, similar to being compared to the 18/19 squad.
i can’t see how they won’t be. They’ve far exceeded thei revenue multiple times I’d imagine. They’ve spent close to 20 million
It's normally 6-7 loanees (5 of them you will never have heard of but YouTube convinces you they're the next big thing from a PL Academy) , a bunch of random free agents who might have been good 4 years ago in the Championship but have had injuries since and maybe someone spends £500-800k on one player. This Birmingham strategy is crazy even if it is all legal and within the rules, if Davies doesn't get them promoted then what happens?