Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Allan C]

We seem to do a good job of trying to sell our own better players and I just don't get it.
When the media (tv, newspapers) are so stacked against us holding onto ours stars, we then also add to this speculation by saying such and such a player will have their heads turned by one of the sky 6.
As a club we are going places. It won't happen overnight and if our stars believe in the project they won't want to go anywhere.
I just think we need to be focussing on the next Rashford, Foden, Salah coming here and let desperate story writers come up with their own versions of what's happening at VP without adding to their diatribe.

Exactly this. If the owners and manager have sold a future to Grealish then there’s no reason to doubt that they won’t do that with Konsa and Mings. I don’t think we’ll finish mid table either, I’m thinking 8th or better

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Letting your best players leave nearly always leads to failure.
Danny Blanchflower going off to double winning Spurs.
Tony Hateley sold to Liverpool for £100k and we then got relegated.
Yorke going to Manyoo. Probably the most pivotal transfer moment for us in the premier league era.
Barry, Milner, Young leaving to get silverware elsewhere.
The only exception was Platt leaving to Italy for a massive profit on what we had paid Crewe. Luckily Big Ron arrived and invested the proceeds in Dalian Atkinson, Steve Staunton, Kevin Richardson,  Shaun Teale, and Garry Parker which still left change for a few cases of champagne.

[brian green]

Agree Andy 100%. To make matters worse some of our very best players were jettisoned for discipinary rather than football reasons.

[SoccerHQ]

We need a really good wide player. Don't think we'll get an already there one so will be someone early 20s with potential to improve.

First choice would be Lookman if Fulham go down. I'd also look at Dan James from Man. United if they finally sign Sancho, incredibly fast and chips in with goals, needs to improve his composure but potential there.

Sell Trez for 10m.

[cdbearsfan]

I'd be looking to spend £50 million on some dead amazing winger. No "oh he looked alright for Bournemouth" bollocks. Someone who is going to be as good as Messi, please. Not too much to ask.

[OCD]

When concerns start to arise about our best players leaving, it's worth re-visiting who our owners are. Any Basketball fans out there will be better versed than me but I gather Edens' team has a star player who Edens has done everything within his powers to keep and as a result, they've challenged for championships.

Sawiris is worth a fortune. From what Ads said recently, he's just sold a stake in a private jet company where one of the other owners was Bill Gates. Whatever Sawiris said to Jack last summer it was enough to take him from a position of not opening contract negotiations to having signed a new deal within 24 hours. That's not something you hear happening often at elite level.

I think our past experiences as fans are still influencing our expectations of what will happen. Maybe at some point our resolve will be really tested but these days its not easy to pull a player away from many Premier League sides. Prices are just too high. When Leicester are able to refuse to sell a centre back for anything less than £80m, you realise things have changed a bit. The TV money means nobody has to take big money when its offered.

As far as spending £50m on one player, we're obviously playing ball with FFP. We're looking to be a well run club that's capable of self-sustaining itself. A lot of work has gone into the recruitment department and by looking at certain age brackets, we're probably looking at identifying players that we can buy for less but who can go on to become £50m (or higher) players. We're still short of a few players too so I suspect one big signing like that would be more likely once the squad is more or less there in terms of being candidates for Champions League qualification and we don't need to spread our investment across several players.

[Rudy65]

Just noticed of the last 21 games we have won 8, drawn 3 and lost 10. That’s poor

[N'ZMAV]

Just noticed of the last 21 games we have won 8, drawn 3 and lost 10. That’s poor

almost mid-table form.

[N'ZMAV]

Just noticed of the last 21 games we have won 8, drawn 3 and lost 10. That’s poor

where did you expect/predict we would finish at the end of the season?

[Lastfootstamper]

49 points, good enough for 8th in two of the last five seasons, no worse than 12th in the other three.

[Dave P]

Just noticed of the last 21 games we have won 8, drawn 3 and lost 10. That’s poor

Average of about 49 points over a season. I’d have took that all day long this season.

[Toronto Villa]

We’ve been scouted so we don’t have the surprise factor that we had early on. Teams know what we like to do and we don’t have enough really good players to elevate ourselves consistently back to that level. That’s the challenge as we go forward as a club. Continue to invest in the types of players that make us a solid top 8 side initially and then top 6. We will have moments where we look great, especially when Jack plays and moments where we drop below the heights of earlier in the campaign. It’s just where we are.

[SheffieldVillain]

Just noticed of the last 21 games we have won 8, drawn 3 and lost 10. That’s poor

Depends to which standards you're comparing it.

Last season we won 9 games out of all 38 we played. Now that was poor.

If you're comparing it to the form of the first 4 games of the season, then I suppose it is.

It's somewhere in the middle really - a big improvement but with room still to improve further. If we can get someone in midfield /a wide position who gives us the same degree of improvement in our attacking play as Martinez/Cash have had on the defence it really will be happy days. Looking forward to it - it's been one hell of a ride so far!

[paul_e]

I predicted 8-11 and had a target of 50 points and 50-60 goals in mind as proof we were progressing, I think we'll make all of those but will be on the lower end in the goals for column because we haven't taken out chances as well as I'd have liked.

[Mister E]

When concerns start to arise about our best players leaving ... in terms of being candidates for Champions League qualification and we don't need to spread our investment across several players.

I think we have already started the process of being smart about recruitment. When you look at the options we have for central midfield, for example, there's Luiz, McGinn, Sanson, Ramsey, Chukwuemeka and - perhaps - JG as well (question about whether the latter is MF or left-side). None of these are slouches although obviously a couple are young and inexperienced. And, we may add Barkley or an equivalent there as well. And, Nakamba is not out of it either.
We've spent some dosh upfront with Traore and Watkins but also have Barry to come in and maybe also Archer. Another sizeable spend to bring in another class striker would be good.
At the back, we will have to bring in reinforcements, both because of departures (Taylor, Elmo and probably Engels) and because we surely will not go through another season without a significant defender injury.
For a work-in-progress, we're doing pretty well; with plenty to build on.