Simon bristol

A good target man doesnt have to mean chris martin, someone who is strong and quick and can score goals would be welcomed with open arms, luton had 2 of them last season. Ellis simms looks pretty strong and powerful, and coventry have gotten him in for when gyorkes leaves and he also is a big lad. If we could have gotten simms in to pair with conway they would have been a real handful!

It seems to me conway has to be the starting forward next season, and will be a star,, and we still have wells cornick and weimann, plus bell. This might change if anything happens to conway, id be surprised if another striker was brought in at this point?! The money would be better spent on a good keeper!

Agreed, it didnt matter if we signed a top defender for 8 million if we were also signing marley watkins and 50 others who probably werent up to it! the finances for the kalas signing were stupid, 2 million a year losses in the accounts plus the salary would only have been worth it if we got promoted, and for most if not all of his time weve barely been in the top half of the table.

Im not sure he was ever going to make the difference between us getting up and not,, he might have when he was at fulham or boro, but we just havent been good enough at every level to make a sustained charge for the top 6.

Have to agree, we just arent in a position to be able to either lose that potential transfer fee,, or find any other way to generate that level of transfer fee, we have to do it,,, and for his career,, he needs to do it too?!

Im sure most prem scouts know exactly who conway is already, but not sure pring would be geting that much interest, hes a hell of an athlete, but not as good offensively as bryan was when he got his move, which will make clubs take notice. i dont think he has bryans goals output and quality on the ball, not that he isnt a good defender.

Nice one, id agree the faith shown in scott conway and bell have been absolute game changers for us. I dont think that at this point any of them have had the impact of webster or brownhill, but there are several listed who are either new signings this summer or from january, so we will have to see how they work out!

As an aside, without wishing to sound controversial , but i think the bristol post confirmed today pearson has now brought in 15 players since he arrived, whats your view on how successful the signings have been,, this is with an eye on if scott goes, are we happy to trust pearson and tinnion (who i love and is a legend) with a 10 million war chest? im sure I remember you had a spreadsheet of johnson/ ashton signings and only 2/3 out of 50 or so were recognised as really successful. It is early days for some of them, but i dont see many who would command a big fee out of the players more recently bought in? Atkinson might have but he’s obviously out, the next most valuable after scott is conway and probably vyner and pring who all came through the academy. james and king have their places, simpson kane wilson and haikin basically contributed nothing, cornick isnt in anyones predicted starting 11, bajic was sent off to france and is nowhere near a starting spot, tanner looks like hes being replaced but is a good lad and loves a tackle, mehmeti looks talented but no one is really sure exactly where he fits in. Naysmith can pick a pass but was brought in as a top centre back but most people are identifying him as a midfielder cause he is susceptible to major mistakes getting caught in possession. Sykes has scored a few goals and done better than i thought and played a lot of games, might be worth a million to someone? Hopefully the 3 new lads come in and do well, but we dont want to be signing more players to replace the ones that pearson had already bought in but are stuck here on decent contracts!

I think theres a pinch of salt needed with the last season counts for nothing comment,, if james is fit, we all know nige loves him and he will start,, if scott is still here he will start too, plus weve only got 1 keeper who has ever played a game in the english pro league! As it stands pring is almost a guaranteed starter too, and probably conway? Im also inclined to think we wouldnt have spent several million on mccrorie and dickie without them being lined up to start! It wouldn’t be a good look for the manager to be backed with that much money when we aren’t exactly flush with cash and not start them? how the rest fit in, who knows! i would go with mol mccrorie vyner dickie pring james scott naysmith weimann conway bell

Yes,, rejecting a bid from bournemouth is one thing, but inter are one of the worlds great clubs,, that is dream land for a young footballer!!

Yes,,, im sure something would be worked out… if he is keen to make that move,,, wow, what an opportunity that is, if we turn it down i cant see he will be particularly happy?! As well as declining him the opportunity of being a millionaire over night?!

Watching him for england under 20s, i felt he was having to curb his natural game by having to hold a defensive midfielder position? Those runs into the penalty area are where hes most dangerous?!

Yeah, unless theres a top striker coming through why would you spend that much on a striker at that age,,, a free transfer like gundogan is low risk though!

Yes, its not pretty, but we might as well not bother playing that game at luton, luckily next season we wont be!

Sounds like me,, been over to watch games etc, obviously the “economic leavers” allowed the last round of signings, but presumably thats now spent? But selling off future tv and image rights to sign raphinia? How could that ever have been reasonable!! They have to get back to the best youth system around,, and there’s currently 4 future world stars playing, and if they are going to sign players then make it world class players, like lewandowski, not 70 million on a leeds player or 50 million on ferran torres.. kimmich could have been an option for that kind of money, or alphonso davies?? Or haaland? i can only see this being resolved by being bought out by an oil state or billionaire to allow them to wipe the debts?

Not really,,, tebas is cracking down with an iron fist, certainly on barcelona, thats why they couldn’t resign messi, and gavi was re regeistered as a youth player because they didnt have enough headroom to pay his salary. With several high level leavers and retirements like busquets, alba, pique, some salaries should be freed up, but theres still a couple of big contracts around, such as for de jong. This got out of control when some idiot starting throwing money like confetti,,, which sounds broadly familar! Doesnt stop them from securing another 1.5bn of borrowing to redo the stadium though,,, which to be fair while it is iconic, was pretty old and knackered!

Sorry pal, i caused you a load of ball ache!

This is exactly the type of club I suspected he would end up going to! When rice is confirmed this is going to get very interesting!

Yes, though i doubt we have the appetite to go into the 20k per week salary range,,, and neither should we!

Yeah i guess,,, though west brom are in trouble… perhaps if scott leaves that might be a plan b option

He was certainly playing further forward than james or Williams, or at least should have been if those 2 were fit! i wonder what we could get wallace or swift out of west brom for?

Hes that good at ball carrying and through balls that he was named championship young player of the season.. didnt nige come out and say we want more goals from other areas of the pitch? Scott ought to have been getting at least 5 last season anyway,, and if he stays, as a creative midfielder as talented as he is, he should be getting 10 next season!

Im not exactly convinced about this deal, if we are looking for goals from midfield, then spending 2 million on a lad with 3 goals last season in a strong team in league 1 doesn’t exactly meet that criteria, regardless of whether his work rate is great or not?! Obviously if he signs we wish him all the best and hopefully he comes in and tears it up!

The extra million or so obviously comes in handy,, do you think if burnley was to be the club we have any power to add a sell on clause as part of the negotiations?? It would make sense that brighton did this with the roberts transfer, ie free transfer but with a clause on future sale? id be surprised if we spent anymore money on fees now unless some more money comes in,,, do you think theres still some left in the pot?

I guess if he goes to burnley and we get 1 million, that will make a big impact on our ability to get someone in, compared to the 300k we get if he goes abroad.