Ghost of Clough

Foden is much better in the middle or on the right than he is on the left, even though he does have a free role for Man City. With a defesive LB (Trippier), the left winger needs to be someone with a bit of pace to break past the defensive line. For me, it has to be Eze at this moment in time. Overall the balance wasn't quite there - left wing, fullbacks not offering enough offensively, and midfield all seemed a bit off (despite Rice and Bellingham having good games). I'm not sold on TAA in midfield. Wharton is the player I think we need in there, so we aren't so reliant on Rice mopping up everything in the middle. It'll also free Rice up to drive forward like he does for Arsenal, knowing he has a reliable midfield partner behind him. However, his inexperience at international level, and even above Championship level is defeinitely a factor. Bellingham, Saka and Kane need to be managed carefully. They've had physically tough/long seasons so I think they need to have reduced minutes over the next 2 group games to ensure we get the most out of them in the knockouts.

Add Palmer to that list.

Rice dominating the midfield and Saka beating his man every time he drives forward too.

I've had enough of this commentator already.

The PC consumption would be interesting to see. I often leave my work PC on just in case I may want to do a bit of work a few hours later... and then it stays on over night because I forget. Thanks to smart meters, I've been tracking my gas and electricity usage for a few years now - partly because I find it quite interesting, but also because it helps me estimate how much I'll be paying in the future. With Octopus, I can decide what I'll be paying, rather than going with what they think I'll use (which is always an overestimate) A few things you'll notice: 1. As you'd expect, gas usage is cyclical - high in the winter, very low in the summer (due to more heating) 2. The big dip in electricity in Feb 2022 (I had a large kitchen renovation which meant I wasn't living in my house for 3 weeks) 3. The blue vertical signifies my house move which coincided with the end of my electric car lease. You can see an electric car adds 50-100% on to my electric bill (I did around 12k miles a year). My gas bill has also dropped 40% from now living in a better insulated house.

This is the important part, mostly for any wingers, AMs and forwards we target. Even if we stick with 3 at the back, we'll alternate between a 3412 (AM and 2 CFs) and a 3421 system (2 wingers/AMs and a CF). You could add 352 or the occasional 4231 to the mix too

We know Warne went to Denmark to watch a player and I wouldn't bet against them having a British connection (place of birth, citizenship). The only players I found are: Nathan Trott (GK) Bailey Peacock-Farell (GK) Scott McKenna (CB) Tyrese Francois (CM) Trott is linked with a £1m move and Peacock-Farell is awful. McKenna (Forest) and Francois (Fulham) are both available on frees. Out of these, my money would be on McKenna. The convience of not having to move home would be a factor. He'd be an upgrade on Bradey in the middle of our defence. Others to have played in Britain and available on frees are: Filip Helander (CB) - Rangers 2019-2023 Raul Albentosa (CB) - Derby 2015-2016 Tom Trybull (CM) - Norwich 2017-2021, Blackburn 2020-2021, Blackpool 2023 I can't see it being any of these, as they're all past their best and have a record of injuries

Wasn't that the game Warne said he would have booed if he was a fan? If Warne was to be sacked, after that game was arguably the best time to do it - we were 9th after 14 games. We would have had enough games and points to play for to turn it around. The failure to beat Crewe after 2 attempts rasised concerns too. Unfortunately, when we didn't win, there wasn't much to cheer about. At least when playing more technical football there is more to justify giving a manager more time. After Stevenage, we won the next 5 league games, followed by a draw then 4 more wins, which took us to 2 points off automatics. The management team deserved to at least see the season out to prove they could get us promotion. They succeeded and now deserve to be backed to prove they can meet the objectives in the Championship. The excuse in the past has been along the lines of Warne being restricted to players signed by other managers limiting the style of play. Ignoring academy graduates, there will only be 4 players next season signed by other managers (Rooney, Forsyth, Mendez-Laing and Barkhuizen) and 2 of those were given new contracts by Warne. This is now Warne's squad. I think it's now fair to say the quality of play should also improve as more signings are made to compliment exactly what Warne wants. Management also deserve a bit of time to prove this is the case. Despite a couple of my original concerns from 2022 still being in place (academy and style of play), I'm still looking forward to what Warne can deliver next season.

That's right. Someone like Sangare (signed for £30m but only played more than 45 minutes once in 2024) would have to be sold for more than £24m

No difference. As P&S is judged over a 3 year period (4 during Covid), the Johnson sale would be included in the currnet P&S period whether part of the 22/23 or 23/24 season. The sale being included in the 23/24 season does help them in the 3 years to 2026 though.

£20m PROFIT above book value. It'll be approximately £28m if Mangala's transfer to Lyon doesn't go through by the end of the month.

We'll sign forwards just like we'll sign midfielders. 10 goals is enough from CMs for a 50 goal total

Playing in a similar manner to last season, we would expect to see a similar distribution on goals per position going forward. The point I made was that in an automatic promotion campaign with 55 games in all competitions, our midfielders scored 21 goals. 4 of those were from Sibley playing on the wing. In a midtable Championship side, with fewer Cup games, it's very unlikely we will increase out goal output from midfield. Given Warne's preference for being a threat from set pieces, he'll be looking for 66% of goals from his forwards, 17% from his midfielders and 17% from his defenders and wing backs. Even in a 75 goal season, that's only 13 goals from CMs.

20 goals from midfield!!? In a L1 automatic promotion season, with games in the EFL trophy, our CMs (including Sibley) scored a combined 21 goals. 6 of those were Sibley. Unless you're expecting a Playoff campaign, we won't need 20 goals from midfield

That's an odd age range you've come up with. Only 4 Championship squads had an average age below 25 last season. Peak years are 24-29, so this should be the core squad, and will be the age range for the majority of our signings. We already have 7 players in this range.