Excellent result today. Norwich are one of the best teams at home and haven't lost there since we last beat them last year so it was going to be a tough test. I thought first half we played really well but struggled in the second half. The resilience and personnel off the bench to turn the game in our favour when it was ebbing away from us, just like last week, was really promising. Last season I think we only got a handful of points from losing positions and would completely tank in the final 20 mins of games. Yuki and Gueye are very good players at this level. Gueye's hold up play is excellent, although his fitness is poor, and Yuki seems to have a bit of everything. He's a very good finisher and full of energy. Has to start games from now on. Downsides are that Pears is still absolutely hopeless and nearly cost us a couple of goals with his shoddy play. JRC is rubbish in the wide right role and needs to be moved back into CM where he is very good. We need 5 new players for us to have a good season: GK, LB, CM, 2x pacy wingers.

No Dembele in the Birmingham squad today. I could see that one happening given his Eustace links.

Stoke are going to be bang in trouble this year. They take 3 players who were dreadful for us last season and would have been part of a relegated team if it wasn't for Sammie. Who is picking the players there?!

Congrats to Sammie on his move to the prem and essentially winning the lottery with a huge payday. He fully deserves the move. His individual contribution last season was absolutely incredible and we'd be in league 1 right now without him. The huge issue for us right now is that we are selling our assets far too cheaply and not re-investing the money. Letting Wharton go for £20m given his age and length of contract was criminal. Good players will leave, we all know that. But you have to re-invest the money to keep improving. I guess we're improving as our best players used to run down their contracts and leave for nothing...

Ipswich were always going to stump up the cash in the end sadly. Better now with 2 weeks of the window to go rather than deadline day. Not that we'll spend much of it anyway! His quality is irreplaceable given our tiny budget but hopefully we can strengthen multiple areas of the team with whatever money we do have. I never like relying totally on one player like we did last season. We would have been totally screwed if he had got injured. We will have a better squad by the end of the window than we had this time last year. We have a worse starting 11 though with Wharton and Sammie now gone/going. Mid table finish beckons rather than a relegation battle I would predict. Still not anywhere good enough for a club like ours that we have zero ambition to get back to the top flight.

What a huge drop for Markanday if he goes to Chesterfield. He's certainly not championship standard but I feel he could do well at a top lge 1 club. It would be a great signing for Chesterfield tbf. I'm really impressed by all of our new signings so far. Big Mak and Yuki have transformed our attack and look like absolute bargains.

Ipswich will pay the money and Sammie will go before the window shuts. Pretty confident in predicting that. I'm also confident that our new recruitment team can bring in a few more decent players before the close of the window. I think we've quietly had a good window so far. Way better than last summer. Still, we can't also forget the reality is we have raked in a substantial amount of money from transfer fees and only a tiny fraction has been re-invested.

Tonight showed what a difference having a good bench makes. We were on the ropes and looking like we were going to lose. Last season we would have brought on Markanday, Telalovic, and Leonard - we'd have then lost the match. The last 20 mins of games killed us last season and that was due to the subs. This season we bring on 3 quality players who transformed the game for us and we go onto score 3 goals.

Very clear after tonight where we need new signings. Both wings, a ball playing midfielder, and a GK. Hedges and JRC on the wings doesn't cut it. Hedges is a decent squad player and JRC is more effective in CM.

That was impressive. New signings look very, very good. And we actually have a decent subs bench this season. Derby have a very poor set of players so there will be much tougher tests ahead but we can enjoy tonight.

Fully deserved lead. Gueye has looked very good!

Decent line up. If we can't beat that Derby side at home then we're in for a long season!

If Marseille were in for the Dutch GK then he was never going to choose us realistically. We go into the season with Pears as number 1...

It's a much weaker league this season. There's no doubt about that. I'd say we're currently destined for mid table but could be in the mix if we bring in a couple of quality wide players and CM. Think we'll be very solid this season but lacking goals. That could change though with lots of time still left in the transfer market.

Good news. Our most significant signing of the window so far if it gets over the line.

Very promising. Looks like it's a done deal. That will be our best signing of the window so far. I expect Pears to leave before the end of the window and a loan cover to come in as back up. He will want to be a number 1 somewhere. Which club would see him as a number 1 keeper is another matter though.

We want a Dutch GK and Ruddy on loan. Thankfully that means Eustace is in agreement with all of us that Pears is useless and should not even be second choice. Also, Birmingham are apparently signing another winger so it looks like Dembele will be on his way out. I think he'd be a very good signing for us and it could happen given our need for a tricky winger and his links to Eustace. Question marks over his attitude but he's got that little bit of magic that we are severely lacking.

Weimann is a good signing on a free. We've gone for a couple of foreign gambles up top so we needed a wise head who knows the league inside out to complement them. We've had a very good week in the transfer market. We need to find some players that have a bit of magic in the wide areas though who could be real game changers for us. We can't afford those players so hopefully the loan market could provide that. We severely lacked leaders and championship experience last season. We've rectified that quite significantly. I suspect our Gk signing will be an experienced pro too. I was very concerned we'd be going into the season relying on kids like last season. Those players need experienced pros to learn from. I'd say we've gone from guaranteed relegation fodder to lower-mid table in the space of a week. It's still a very average squad but we've got a good base to build from now for the remainder of the transfer window.

There's still a lot of work to be done in the transfer market, no doubt about that. And I think there will be lots more comings and goings. Nicko posted this yesterday: Need a keeper and a couple of wide types … and midfield He has a good line back in the club these days with with Park being back, so I think that's a good indicator of what we're looking at next. You'd have to think we'd offer Weimann a deal too. No brainer if he's fit. Probably Hill back on loan later in the window to cover full back positions if he's available (which was also a Nicko story).

That departed list is a stark reminder of what a terrible squad we had last season. Awful set of players on that list. Batth is virtually done as well so we can probably count him. Hedges barely kicked a ball last season and we we have a top prospect in Tyjon who will make his mark next season, so they're almost like 2 new players. Still well short, of course, but we have made big strides this week in at least putting a competitive squad together for next season. Last week it looked like we'd be going into the season with our weakest squad ever.

£1.6m for Gally and about 15k per week off the books. Christmas has come early for the new recruitment team.

Gally confirmed. Good luck Stoke next season! Ennis and Gally their striking options after both failing miserably here. They surely have to be one of the strong faves for relegation next season.

John Park

Things are moving! Fadz and Batth close to signing. A mix of experienced championship pros and some gambles from abroad in so far. I like it. Weimann will probably get a deal too to add some championship experience up top. I'd imagine so anyway. Last summer we made the huge mistake of all our signings being gambles and it failed miserably. This feels like a more sensible approach. Still need a GK, cover RB, CM, and pacy winger or 2.

Me neither! Playing well and conceding 3 every week under JDT was dull anyway.