Raya has potential. But he also has a lot of flaws. If the manager decides to sell him and buy someone else then that’s fine by me. If we’re going to judge him on his signings and demand promotion...the crack on Tony!

None of them ever played football pal. Perhaps you’re getting forgetful? Showing your age? ????

Have I missed something about the goalkeeper coach? Has anything actually come out about him being no good?

I’m not being obtuse. You made a raft of comments about the goalkeeping coach not being good enough etc and that Raya was likely self taught (which is laughable). I wondered if you had any actual evidence of what you were saying...obviously not. So it’s just your opinion then. Fine ?? Oh and remind me again who José Mourinho played for? Arsene Wenger? Villas Boas? Saachi? Houlier? Seem to have had pretty good carreers in coaching..??‍♂️ Oh, and in the interests of clarity...the saying you are referring to is ‘those who can’t do, teach’. Which kiiiiiind of goes against your theory abit pal ?

A lot of specific calls there. Have you got a source regarding the standard of the goalkeeping coach? Or that Raya is ‘self taught’? Or even that Raya spends a lot of time watching videos?

I think there’s some confusion here. So to clarify, a few (including myself) were critiquing players we’ve been linked with on here last night. But we were judging them on their ability to excel in a top 6 championship team because THAT is the stated aim for next season. @blueboy3333 came in accusing us of being ‘delusional’ for believing that we could go up (whatever). So I just pointed out the the context of this particular conversation which was far from delusional. No one was saying we were going up, just judging players based on their ability to impact a top 6 team. In relation to your points. The ‘club’ (via the manager and chief exec) HAVE stated publicly that they want to achieve promotion and are currently seeking an increased budget from our owners to achieve that. BUT there’s a huge difference between a club wanting to go up and a club being committed to going up. And, the blame for not going up is only squarely at the feet of a manager whose club is committed to going up.

I agree. But he wasn’t pulling up any trees. I feel like Evans could pull off a performance like that in League 1. He is only 22 so he has time but with Travis and Davenport in that position already I thought we were after a more ‘ready made’ option..

No one on here is suggesting that we are going up next season. We’re judging players based upon the manager and clubs expectations of going up. That’s completely different.

Wilks looks class for Donny

I don’t think Whiteman or Aribo are promotion chasing championship players. Bauer looks decent... I retract the Bauer comment. His defending for that goal was shocking!!

I’m not sure any of them look like world beaters tbh

Bauer and Whiteman both playing tonight btw

Think he’s naturally a CB...6ft 6, absolute giant

Is absolutely love us to sign Ajayi from Rotherham btw. Absolute beast.

I didn’t say that fans sing about ‘shit’ players...I said they don’t exclusively sing about players based on how good they are. Fans love players for many reasons. Sometimes it’s because they player is amazing, sometimes it’s because the fan base naturally warm to them (like Chapman) and sometimes they love them because the player cares and this resonates with them (like Bennett and Smallwood).

Yeah I get that. What type of player is he mate? Have to admit I’ve never seen him play. He very technical?

I think the reason was more around his suitability for the style of play they want to adopt. No questioning his ability to screen, work off the ball and play non penetrating passes...and it doesn’t make the management at Rotherham right either. For my money, Smallwood was in top 3 most effective players we had in league 1. I also don’t think clubs lauding a player and making songs up about them is exclusively based on how good they are. Smallwood exceeded our expectations that year and he embodied the honesty, grit and determination that had been sadly lacking at our club for years. We loved him for this.

Sheff Wed going harder. Not great technically apparently? Great engine, lad and leader....maybe we don’t really fancy him as TM said we want technical players in their. He reckons TM really likes Ajayi. Talked about him constantly after both games with Rotherham management team. He also said the keeper they had from Fulham on loan is fantastic and well worth a look at for us.

To be honest I was surprised. I thought they’d be snapping our head off to get him back. Stranger things have happened and it ticks a lot of boxes. But that was direct..

Apparently, plays like the ‘crab’ and they like to ‘get it forward’...also referred to as a ‘strange lad’ (I don’t know why) still lives in Rotherham though.

A current member of coaching staff at Rotherham. ??

Rotherham don’t want Smallwood. Vaulks is a potential but more likely to go to Sheff Wed who are more keen. @Sparks Rover how’s the Whitman thing going?

We don’t know who we’re signing though...

Leutwiler is obv now lined up as 3rd choice keeper should / when we sign our keeper target. If he’s happy with that and we are then great. If he wants to move on and play 1st team football then we might pick up a small fee for him.

This is absolutely what I believe he’s doing. Rodwell and Conway have shown that they can come in and do a decent job. If he’s negotiating with them it’s to be back up players to matchday squad on less money from what I can see. This is why I fully expect at least one of those two to go elsewhere. Gladwin is an odd one from the outside. I’m not sure what the thought is on him. They must think there’s a player in there somewhere that is good enough to make an impact at the right price. Again, I wouldn’t be surprised if he left. As for the contracted players, my feeling is that they will wait and force a move late on based on players who’ve been signed in their position. The key here surely is to improve quality, depth AND maintain the fighting spirit and morale that they have. I don’t think he’s done anything to the contrary in the last week.