KegCity

Shades of Smith v United.

He’ll spend at least this season and next there. Doubt he’ll be signing anything less than a 4 year deal.

Based on what? Them being less successful than us in the past? They seem to have some good money behind them now, think they’ll be there to stay for the foreseeable future unfortunately.

Could be 20 plus 5 million in add ons.

Need to invest in a midfielder badly then.

That’s the point though, we don’t have lots of depth through the middle unless Weimann covers or we move Bell over. If Weimann moves over the midfield starts looking very thin. Not convinced Bell can do that job but I’d love him to prove me wrong. I don’t think we need to panic until the window closes and we know where we are as a squad. We really need one more for depth in midfield but we can cope barring complete disaster on the injury front.

Weimann currently covering Scott in midfield, so if/when he leaves we’ll need another body in midfield for Weimann to provide depth through the middle. We don’t have 6 strikers do we? Conway, Wells, Weimann and who? Can Bell play regularly in the championship as the striker and perform? I agree we don’t need another striker but this does exacerbate the need for one more player (minimum) in midfield otherwise we’re trying to cover multiple positions with the same player.

Got to get the injury excuses in early if we end up having a tough season.

Defended well. Dickie looks solid to me. Negatives are we were very predictable when we chose to build through the midfield and most of the time chose to bypass them entirely.

Ran out of Goat Curry before half time as well. Been looking forward to that all pre season and after that first half I needed a pick me up!

Agree with others, knocking it long to Wells, Bell and Cornick is atrocious to watch and only going to result in Preston winning the ball back. Will be interesting what adjustments Pearson makes for Milwall.

Long season ahead if we don’t invest in some creativity in midfield when Scott goes.

A very dreary reality check. If we play like that every week we won’t progress from last season.

Can anyone give any improvements from last season based on today?

Very lethargic again. Not much urgency going forward and dopey at the back. Hope city prove me wrong last few minutes

Knocking it long to Wells is an interesting tactic.

They won’t.

Does it? Looks as it does every year to me: competitive. I completely understand the context of Pearson’s time here and fully appreciate the progress we’ve made off the field but it’s not a massive ask to finish above 14 sides given we’re now into his third season at the club. The squad is perfectly capable of finishing in the top ten and I can’t really think of an excuse for us not to. Happy to be convinced otherwise though.

Anything below 10th would be failure, Pearson has had plenty of time and we look more than capable of being in the mix.

We're in a better position as a club if we have that money, bring in the last few players we need and then have a solid, balanced squad to take on the season. Means we can then spend money for the next few transfer windows too. If we just sit on the money and go into the new season as we are then I agree.

They wouldn’t be bidding for him if he wasn’t willing to go.

Judging anyone other than a forward by goals and assists is moronic. Makes me cringe whenever someone makes a judgement on Scott or any other centre mid by their goal contributions. Matty James has scored once for City. Nobody sensible is using that to form a judgement around his ability.

If he has to play for any length of time in midfield we’re then very light at Right back. He can cover matches but can’t be a long term option.