49 minutes ago, bwfc4ife said:

If we take the Duberry and Kenny signings assuming they would sign, sure to god its gotta be worth the fee because we'd at least breakeven selling them both in 12 months even if we got relegated?

Duberry is a nailed on championship standard, everyone can see that. Its less obvious with Kenny, if he comes and we got relegated and he scores 6 in 33 games (because we and/or him are struggling), we aren't getting our money back. But presume we'd want him for L1 anyway, different with ACD as he's never playing in L1 again and his fee would be 3 or 4 times Kenny's.

16 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Still a head scratcher that McAtee and Randall are mentioned in the same conversations.

McAtee scored more goals away from home (7, all different games) than anyone else in the last 2 seasons, and he hardly started any last year (Dalby the only one to come close on 6).

We'll be weaker when he goes and we'll probably spend more to replace him.

I like McAtee's character and I do genuinely think he gets what the club is about, he works hard and does tend to make up for his deficiencies with effort, but if his replacement was Cundle from Millwall then it's hard to argue he wouldn't be a significant upgrade.

The lad has never played a professional game below Championship level and is only 24. McAtee is 27 and his best season in football came nearly 6 years ago in non-league.

2 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

That would be great if we sat here with a load of championship standard players in 3 weeks. But the season starts on Saturday and if someone offered us a postponement I'd be tempted! Normally I'd be counting down the hours to KO for the first game of the season in a higher division, buzzing to see the new signings show what they can do.

Could be worse I suppose, a year ago we'd already played 6 league games by the end of August (only won one), at least its only half that this year.

Many of our fans are prone to irrational meltdowns over nothing. And there is still time & games to see how our squad adapts & to make new signings.

But even the most positive amongst us will be concerned now. And if they say they aren’t, they’re lying 😄

34 minutes ago, bwfc4ife said:

I dont agree i'm afraid, i believe Duberry would do enough in the champ next season to justify at least 6 mill

Its risky though, we all know he's talented but he could have another injury and miss 3 or 4 months, and have a few poor games like he did in the winter. He peaked upto 8th November v Port Vale and correct me if I'm wrong but the next game he made an impact in was 4 games from the end, mid April v Stevenage. With the tougher games next season there's no guarantee at all a £5mil transfer fee would be justified, as much as we rate him when he's fit and firing.

1 hour ago, Stig said:

The issue is we went up at our first attempt of really rinsing the loan market. Whereas the first 4 L1 seasons we had 1 or 2 loans we had 6 loans this last season, all involved in the first team. Great for getting us over the line last year, but a nightmare recruiting good enough quality to fill the squad this year.

Is what it is though. We had to take a punt last year to get up, knowing that this would be the trade off.

last season was the most we had (7 in total) but plenty loans every season in L1, most were forgetable though and made fuck all impact

2021/22 - Trafford, Fossey, Amaechi

22/23 - Trafford, Bradley, Beck, Nlundulu, Shoretire, Mbete

23/24 - Ashworth, Maghoma, Ogbeta, Ramsey, Taylor

24/25 - Murphy, Matete, Etete, (though we signed some shite I wish we'd loaned like Gomes, Randall, Lolos and Schon)

25/26 - Kenny, Apter, ACD, Cisokko, Forss, CBT, Burstow

we need to replace 3 or 4 of those (in bold)

Just seen on SSN this Shea Charles has gone to Fulham for £30m.

We really need to stay in this division and get this lucky with a couple of our players, don't we ?

The transfer fees rise to ridiculous amounts.

Be a real game changer for clubs like ours.

7 minutes ago, meanderson93 said:

I like McAtee's character and I do genuinely think he gets what the club is about, he works hard and does tend to make up for his deficiencies with effort, but if his replacement was Cundle from Millwall then it's hard to argue he wouldn't be a significant upgrade.

The lad has never played a professional game below Championship level and is only 24. McAtee is 27 and his best season in football came nearly 6 years ago in non-league.

I've never heard of Cundle, but I wasn't comparing him to championship standard players. They are like gold dust in this squad if they exist at all. I'm questioning how an unproven player for us (Randall) can be compared with a proven goalscorer (11 league goals last time he was given a run of games). Who consistently turns up in away games (and Wembley!) unlike the majority of our squad, and that goes for some players I rate like Sheehan, and Burstow who was perceived to have scored a lot but only got 2 away.

FWIW I'm all for an upgrade on McAtee now that we're in this league, and assumed that's where we'd be at by now, but we aren't, so we need to keep hold of him given that we won't get much of a fee anyway and the 2 strikers we seem to be in for are no more proven at this level than he is (no idea on Cundle, genuinely never heard the name before).

12 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Its risky though, we all know he's talented but he could have another injury and miss 3 or 4 months, and have a few poor games like he did in the winter. He peaked upto 8th November v Port Vale and correct me if I'm wrong but the next game he made an impact in was 4 games from the end, mid April v Stevenage. With the tougher games next season there's no guarantee at all a £5mil transfer fee would be justified, as much as we rate him when he's fit and firing.

Exactly this and why I believe another year on loan with us in the Championship would prove both to ACD and Brighton that he can go up levels.

3 minutes ago, Greg_BWFC said:

Just seen on SSN this Shea Charles has gone to Fulham for £30m.

We really need to stay in this division and get this lucky with a couple of our players, don't we ?

The transfer fees rise to ridiculous amounts.

Be a real game changer for clubs like ours.

yes and no (as in, they won't be homegrown or bargain bin signings)

they signed him from City for £15m (with City having a sell on and buy back option)

bit like Rogers, Trafford, Delap, Sancho, Madueke and others

if you've got the money in the first place, you can find a "bargain" who can't get in the squad at somewhere like City or Chelsea

16 minutes ago, meanderson93 said:

I like McAtee's character and I do genuinely think he gets what the club is about, he works hard and does tend to make up for his deficiencies with effort, but if his replacement was Cundle from Millwall then it's hard to argue he wouldn't be a significant upgrade.

The lad has never played a professional game below Championship level and is only 24. McAtee is 27 and his best season in football came nearly 6 years ago in non-league.

To be fair the same is true of RR and he's doing OK 😄 Kyle Wooten, McAtee and RR played in that play off semi Notts County v Grimsby and probably scored more at that level than in the EFL per season, a pity we didn't sign all 3 a few years ago.

Somewhere along the line we've got to grow a pair though. We can't feasibly move forward without taking some calculated risks. It's the nature of the beast. Taking no risks at all ultimately leads us back to where we came from

50 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Still a head scratcher that McAtee and Randall are mentioned in the same conversations.

McAtee scored more goals away from home (7, all different games) than anyone else in the last 2 seasons, and he hardly started any last year (Dalby the only one to come close on 6).

We'll be weaker when he goes and we'll probably spend more to replace him.

They're in the same bucket as 'players who are clearly miles off being Championship quality'. McAtee might be better, but it's tallest dwarf stuff.

Away goals scored over the past two seasons seems a strange stat to use. Since March last year McAtee has the same number of away goals as Chris Forino (1).

Aaron Collins also has seven away goals for Bolton over the past two seasons and a) he left a year ago and b) I wouldn't want him playing for us in the Championship either.

1 hour ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Still a head scratcher that McAtee and Randall are mentioned in the same conversations.

McAtee scored more goals away from home (7, all different games) than anyone else in the last 2 seasons, and he hardly started any last year (Dalby the only one to come close on 6).

We'll be weaker when he goes and we'll probably spend more to replace him.

No not really a head scratcher,imo both have been very poor.Mcatee has shown glimpse's but I honestly can't remember a good 90 minutes or many game changing moments from him.As for Randel enough has been said about him as it is very poor

34 minutes ago, Zico said:

yes and no (as in, they won't be homegrown or bargain bin signings)

they signed him from City for £15m (with City having a sell on and buy back option)

bit like Rogers, Trafford, Delap, Sancho, Madueke and others

if you've got the money in the first place, you can find a "bargain" who can't get in the squad at somewhere like City or Chelsea

Thanks Zico, I knew there had to be a fee but couldn't see it.

£15m for a lad with one premier appearance, bonkers.

Still goes to show if you can get a decent player at this level, you can get paid.

Surely we are due a bit of luck 😀

1 minute ago, Tombwfc said:

They're in the same bucket as 'players who are clearly miles off being Championship quality'. McAtee might be better, but it's tallest dwarf stuff.

Away goals scored over the past two seasons seems a strange stat to use. Since March last year McAtee has the same number of away goals as Chris Forino (1).

Aaron Collins also has seven away goals for Bolton over the past two seasons and a) he left a year ago and b) I wouldn't want him playing for us in the Championship either.

Why are we comparing L1 standard players (McAtee, Collins) with a player that has failed at that level (Randall).

If we want to dump everyone that is in your words miles off championship quality, who would be left in the squad? As you say, tallest dwarf.

The away goals is a factor for me because we have a history of not turning up in them. Especially last season, it was painful at times. The year before, as bad as it was, we did at least have McAtee and as you say Collins joining in away from home (not always of course), instead of the powder puff stuff of Burstow for eg.

Of course McAtee hasn't scored many in the last year or so, he never starts games. When he did, he was a guaranteed regular scorer/creator in L1, but he was replaced and/or injured/suspended.

Randall has 2 years left on his contract too. What a war crime of a signing haha.

McAtee is a bit of a dick so that counts against him. Randall has no character to speak of so that's a negative too.

McAtee needs that bit of dickishness to his game for him to be successful. Shame he's a dick off the pitch too.

27 minutes ago, 1969 said:

No not really a head scratcher,imo both have been very poor.Mcatee has shown glimpse's but I honestly can't remember a good 90 minutes or many game changing moments from him.As for Randel enough has been said about him as it is very poor

I can't remember a good 90 minutes or many game changing moments from many players, relative to the number of games played. They are few and far between, obviously ACD was an exception but he wasn't our's. RR is good but very rarely does he play 90 minutes, and he does flatter to deceive (imagine if McAtee had missed those at Sheff Wed). We aren't very good up front, we don't have those players and they aren't easy to find, so we go for the next level down like McAtee and Dalby unless we can get a star on loan. Randall is the next level down, L2, he isn't cutting it in L1.

6 minutes ago, deeane Koontz said:

Randall has 2 years left on his contract too. What a war crime of a signing haha.

Although it's been argued earlier (and with reason) that our reliance on loans last season is biting us on the arse, so is the legacy of indulging Evatt with fees and contracts to the degree he was, on the likes of Schon, Randall, Lolos. There's a thread of its own on the pros and cons of McAtee but I'd also include him.

That £2.5m wouldn't necessarily be a game changing amount of course, but it's money spent with next to nil return in terms of contribution to our promotion and a limiting factor to the flexibility and ambition with which SS can currently operate

Edited yesterday at 11:031 day by ianofcleveleys

With our finances and already bloated sqaud we couldn't do anything but play the loan market.

9 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I can't remember a good 90 minutes or many game changing moments from many players, relative to the number of games played. They are few and far between, obviously ACD was an exception but he wasn't our's. RR is good but very rarely does he play 90 minutes, and he does flatter to deceive (imagine if McAtee had missed those at Sheff Wed). We aren't very good up front, we don't have those players and they aren't easy to find, so we go for the next level down like McAtee and Dalby unless we can get a star on loan. Randall is the next level down, L2, he isn't cutting it in L1.

Agree with our forward line needs strengthening but to put RR and Mcatee in the same bracket is mind blowing.RR has shown he has something about him and can put a foot in when needed.Mcatee has shown he can't tackle,head a ball but can throw his arms in the air, blaming others for his mistakes/lack of ability

7 hours ago, jayjayoghani said:

NTT20 podcast has us finishing bottom this season.

Are you on the paid version

McAtee is shit.

End of fucking debate

3 minutes ago, L/H White said:

Well, wasn’t expecting that.

Great if he stays fit.