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This was probably tactical. Some teams at Osijek’s level will have a far higher chance of getting a goal from winning possession high up the pitch than from breaking us down with the ball. I think Gerrard deserves the benefit of the doubt on that one, a clever move that naive managers before him like Warburton and Caixinha didn’t understand.

Anyone know anything about Bryan? Seems a strange one because he was thought to be an option for 3rd choice centre back but appears to be much more of a centre mid than a centre back. For me our 3rd choice centre back should be a proper centre back and not someone who’s primarily a midfielder.

Doesn’t bode well. Reminds me of Pena last season.

Either the Geranet or Heart & Hand podcast said there was no sell on clause.

I wasn't impressed with the Youtube compilations of him. We need a natural goalscorer who's good in the air because Morelos and Umar Sadiq don't provide that.

I'd missed that he'd leaked that he was dropped actually. I just worry we'll have another Waghorn situation on our hands if he's used better at his new team. Anyway if we get £3m that could certainly be well used. I'm still adamant we lack a creative attacking midfielder who has a great touch, low centre of gravity and can unlock defences at will. Ejaria appears to be Gerrard's answer but I'm not so sure.

With regards to Windass I would have liked to see him tried up front before selling. Like Lovenkrands he just isn't natural as a midfielder, but has the pace and finishing to flourish up front. The irony is that Morelos is his perfect partner. Morelos can't finish and isn't that fast but he's strong and good at challenging in the air from long balls. I'd like to see us play two up front with Morelos doing the bullying and Windass always on the last man and making those off the ball runs which he's very good at.

The instability has been hugely damaging to the club, but Gerrard's 4 year contract is the sign that the board acknowledge that. For all the complaining about the lack of transfers in the east end, they've got real stability which allows them to take their time finding targets and sell their players for the highest possible price. You'd have thought we could have found a move for Foderingham before publicising that he's third choice.

Hibs seem to have got a pretty favourable draw with Asteras Tripolis followed by Molde. They'll be serious underdogs for both but they dodged Sevilla, Rapid Vienna and AZ Alkmaar. Won't be a popular opinion on here but I'd like to see us both go through. I didn't realise that we had to play another round before the groups, though apparently we'll be seeded so should dodge the toughest teams.

Time to combine the transfer strategies of previous regimes. Go McCoist by bolstering the attack with Kris Boyd, go Warburton by announcing this Beever chap who's proven at League 1 level and combine Gerrard with Advocaat by snapping up Liverpool youngster Harry Wilson on a 5 year EBT.

If true it would indicate a re-allocating of the remaining budget to the frontline, which I think most would support. I’m still skeptical of Katic as a starter though.

I largely based my division on their transfer values over the past few years and transfermarket’s valuation of their squads. Bordeaux were well ahead but it’s not the most solid criteria. Anyway, fantastic draw, the ball is in our court!

IMO here's the order from easiest to hardest (and I've assumed some teams will go through); Maribor (SVN) København (DEN) Olympiacos (GRE) Feyenoord (NED)Bordeaux (FRA) It's a very tough draw. I'd say we'd only be slight favourites for Maribor and underdogs for the rest. And even then, Maribor's squad are far more experienced in Europe than us. I hadn't realised what a huge task qualifying for the group would be. Not to be presumtous, but fingers crossed for Maribor or Copenhagen because the other 3 present an enormous challenge for us just now. The fact we're a bit worried about Osijek is the proof of that.

I've only seen brief youtube videos of Kent but he seemed another cutting inside type. I was very impressed with the ease at which Barker could get past defenders use his pace and dribbling ability. I think we need to be using width and getting to the byline far more he'd bring that. Hopefully Kent will too but who knows.

Disappointed if this ends Brandon Barker link because with Barker you know what you're getting. He has blistering pace and dribbling ability that simply doesn't exist in our current squad. Kent may offer this but he may not, it looks like another risk. Hope I'm wrong.

The point clearly applies whether you count the Belgium game or not, it’s not that important whether it was once or twice. And Belgium was still another drab performance in the system Southgate adopted so does add to the point of the sides performance in the tournament. Anyway we are off the topic of this thread.

That doesn’t matter I just listed all the games, of course it wasn’t an important game.

I actually think the pundits were unbearable purely because of the repetition of the delusion that they had a fantastic world cup and they'd done everyone proud. You'd have thought they'd knocked out Argentina, Germany or Spain. In the real world, they beat Tunisia (21st) (who were terrible) with a last gasp header, Panama (55th) who were the worst team in the competition, Sweden (24th) with their only 2 shots on target and scraped past Colombia (16th) on penalties who were far better than them for the last 50 minutes or so. And again with only 2 shots on target with the goal being a gift wrapped penalty. They lost the only times they came up against decent opposition Croatia (20th) and Belgium (3rd). I'm not anti-England but the combination of their drab performances and the delusion of how great they'd been made me anti-England.

I know everyone is being guarded because of last season, but lets not kid ourselves tonight should be a walkover and anything less will be a disappointment. We should see high intensity and a bombardment of their back line. Let's just hope Morelos has found his shooting boots because we'll need to put away our chances to put ourselves at ease.

We always assume leagues like the Portuguese league are streets ahead of ours, but Belenses are a solid mid table side. And they have just signed Dalcio. Dalcio. Hamilton wouldn't touch him with a barge-pole.

Firstly, the usual hyperbole from the tabloids. This "World Cup star" played about 55 minutes in the world cup in total. He was backup to the unremarkable Ehsan Hajsafi. So I'd say there's no chance we're paying £2m for him, especially with a year left on his deal. Looks a player with a decent pedigree and decent potential though. I agree Flanagan is no1 at left back. Wallace and Hodson will surely be leaving which leaves us with Tavernier, Flanagan and Declan John. I wouldn't add another senior full back to the squad when we have Ryan Jack who could easily slot in at RB too, especially considering our glut of centre mids. We also have Beerman to call on if we're desperate.

Comments regarding Rossiter were very interesting. Best player in pre-season and just bad luck with his knock rather than injury proneness. We’ve been here before but let’s hope he’ll be like a new signing in a few weeks time. What a squad we could have for this season!

Hopefully. Cash plus player is another possible option you’d think. Surely we’re not bidding blind anyway, you’d think after an initial bid there would have been at least some kind of dialogue so we know we’re not wasting our time. The hard talk from Millwall was surely just to keep their fans on side.

It’s very impressive from the club. I’m not getting my hopes up yet because Millwall fans seem adamant he’s a £5m player at least, which isn’t unbelievable at all given Millwall finished 8th in the Championship and considering he’s only 23.

Yeh I’m not sure that Football Insider have a particularly good track record, but if this was true it would be huge for the club. Not going to get myself excited about it at this stage.