This transfer window has been overall fantastic .
We have picked up some of the brightest young talent in the country and let’s not forget

WE ARE PREMIER LEAGUE

I’m sure there are a few freebie strikers out there

So we failed to get a striker on deadline day.It’s not a disaster as we have enough firepower throughout the team.With Hurst and co back very soon the squad will be strong enough to get us to January and transfer day.For whatever the reasons we failed to improve the squad we must have faith in the powers to be.We have spent 102 million which is unbelievable for a club like ours so let’s enjoy the ride get behind the team and make as much noise as possible at PR.

We have had an impressive transfer window, with some promising talents incoming. However, there is no doubt the management felt we needed more firepower up front. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get that for whatever reasons. Yes, I'm disappointed, but there is no football journey without some setbacks. This will test the patience of our much lauded support. We go with what we've got. Every match from now on is a cup-tie. COYB!

That is.a real bummer, honestly expected we would get a decent striker in gutted, .Very worried.

We just need our new players to gel /assimilate for the borgs out there, and we can start climbing the table ,top 10 finish this year I reckon, this division is less competitive than the 2nd division as the 4 or 5 big mostly blood money teams have purchased the top 5 places..only position that concer s me is goalie

I really hope we can stay up this season but in all honesty we should of made a striker our first option , took to long with Brojia . I don’t think we are strong enough , we are not going to win 10 games this season . , I hate to say it but we will probably do a Sheffield united or Burnley , should of gone for that Denkey guy , last year we did the same and didn’t get a striker. . Gonna be a very long and hard season . Well enjoy our one season , we will need a miracle

Len Brennan. What are you on about? I've never said we didnt need to sign Hirst. Must be mixing mexuo with some1 else. Maybe you should stop making stuff up. Get ur facts right. I certainly wouldn't have,said we had john jules who could play up front bcse I dint really rate him . So next time you wanna have a go at some1zfor something , make sure you get the right person

Didn't get a striker last year.......
It didn't turn out badly though!

I think many have started to forget that if the new investment had not happened we wouldn’t have signed anybody. Other clubs who have spent a similar amount have also sold players for big money. We have only made 1.4M from sales. We have 28 players. None of them qualify as under 21 (Delap is just one month too old. Hutchinson and Slicker also don’t qualify. So three players get left out. Assume three keepers in squad. We assume Donacien will become free agent. Two get left out. Harry Clarke will rehab in the U21 team. One more and that’s a massive decision. A senior player will be left out. Whoever it is, we will be left with a lack of cover in that area. That would mean under 21s being used at some point. Al-Hamadi now definitely has to be in the squad. So it could be Taylor, which leaves us with just four centre mid. Or perhaps Luongo might be left out. If not, it’s another defender. And that means Woolfenden or Burgess. Almost certainly Burgess?

Leejames99 - you still won't engage with the point & rely on name calling. If you can't label someone as a moaner, & elevate yourself as the 'true fan', you lose the basis of whatever argument you are trying to make.
You say trust McKenna & Ashton; I have, that's why I have already pointed to all the efforts they have made in previous windows & particularly in this one, to sign the best centre forward available to fill that role.
You just ignore that element time & try to suggest that we find ourselves without our main CF - Delap is brilliant, I love Delap, was delighted we signed him & was accepting of the fee we paid, but he was not intended to be the leading centre forward at the club going into the PL proper. He is a young work in progress, who gets better each time we see him, but needs plenty of time to develop, without this pressure solely on his shoulders for now, and possibly until January - as though this is part of the McKenna/Ashton plan. Tell me, who has been allocated the #9 shirt in the squad?
You of course handpick Delap, Hutchinson & Szmodics, as the 2 or 3 to put up against the choice CF, but what about O'Shea (thus keeping Edmundson), Ogbene and/or Townsend? Yes we wanted those players, but were they are collectively important as getting in our primary centre forward?
You again talk about Broja's lack of goals, ignoring his PL goals for Southampton when he was only 20, while missing the point that George Hirst was told by McKenna not to focus on his goals tally when he first came in, because the CF role here is not all about being a striker, it is about providing a focal point for the other attackers. In the PL it will be even more of a requirement as we won't have so much possession & will need to retain as much of the ball that goes forward, in order to relieve pressure at the back as much as for our own chance creation.
I'm sorry that you don't want to hear this, but it is the reality & given their efforts to keep the prospect of signing Broja alive up to yesterday, despite him likely to be unavailable to play for a while, very much demonstrates that McKenna & Ashton are of that view too.
Yes Cole Palmer stepped up last season; how much did cost again? And how did he get on at Chelsea last time out? There is no guarantee that a player will 'step up', not immediately anywhere. For every Cole Palmer, the PL graveyard is filled with an abundance of Rob Earnshaws.
You are the putting pressure on the players, not me, how do you not see that?
I like Delap, but he has a lot of pressure on him now without someone to share the burden. Hirst is coming back from injury & is unproven at this level, so even when he is back, we are asking a lot of him.
Finally, Al Hamadi should be gone out on loan for the season, but couldn't be let go ... because we don't have someone with the #9 shirt; this is very unfortunate for his development. For now he will contunue to be our 'finishing' centre forward. Against Liverpool & Man City, where we were expected to lose, missing chances, losing possession, running offside & poor/slow decision making can be overlooked somewhat; but from here on, when we need to salvage a point, see out a game, or get a win with a chance late on, errors & poor touches will not be so easily forgiven.
I really like his energy, strength, directness & honesty, but I don't think he is ready, & I fear for confidence when the pressure comes from the fans after a couple of misses; it's not fair on him. I truely hope he proves me wrong & a section of the fans don't turn on him, but it's a long time to January, and Hirst isn't fit just yet. A season playing regularly in the Championship would be great for him.
I l8k

(I keep forgetting that Donacien was already released)

Just shows how crazy the transfer window is with Stansfield going from Fulham to Birmingham in the. 1st Division for 10 mil. We go with what we have and get behind the team…..lucky not to have signed an injury prone Broja, interested to see how he gets on with Everton. Also pointless to spend ridiculous amounts of money with no comeback

A message to the 'Thought Police', McKenna isn't hanging on every word that's written on here and neither are the players who probably don't even know it exists.
And there are some pretty wild assumptions that this group of totally inexperienced Premier League players are somehow going to step up and succeed. Apart from Philips, nobody has played at the highest level in winning teams and please don't suggest Delap's 2 appearances for Man City somehow count.
We just don't know what the Manager and Chief Executive relationship is about transfers. McKenna might be spitting feathers that they haven't found him a striker, he might be saying that was the biggest priority and you failed. We don't know.
Also this idea we score goals from all over the pitch might have rung true in the Championship and League 1 but not in the most competitive league in the world.
The Nelson pursuit sounds like last minute panic to me, why wasn't he on the radar earlier and sorted? Broja, a player who would have been out for 7 weeks, was on, off and was wasted time. And the idea there's an unattached 20 goals a season striker just waiting to sign up is laughable, along with Martial - whose wage demands would break the Fire Brigade's pension fund.
Overconfidence doesn't help, realism does.

Blues1, it was you. You didn't think we needed a Centre Forward type, were very happy with Freddie & thought with John-Jules that we'd be perfectly fine by rotating the forwards, weren't concerned by the prospect of an injury to Freddie in the 4 months to the next window, sure we had started off well & were scoring goals. You even questioned whether we had been interested in signing Hirst at all.
Shortly after that of course we signed the imposing figure of Ahadme.
I can't be held responsible for you not remembering your own life.

But enough of this arguing for me now; I'm letting the disappointment of deadline day affect me too much, when of course the transfer window as a whole has been incredible, and we have an important game ahead of us today.
Maybe Leejames will be right, & we manage to pick up a decent out of contract centre forward, who will do a short term job for us, over the coming days.

More coffee and walnut cake anyone?

For goodness sake let’s stop all this bickering and concentrate on the season ahead.I’m sure everything will be fine with the excitement squad we have.Today is a big game so let’s shout our heads off and get a big result.COYB.

Play Szmodics up front - no brainer.

Time to stop arguing with each other on a topic which has valid opinions on both sides. Let the crowd be the 12th man today.

Stevan Jovatic - Free Transfer, loads of experience most goals for country, played at highest level including the Premiership, one year deal on free transfer

I can’t see that we could have approached the window in any other way. With around £100 million to spent we were never going to get a couple a top players, and they wouldnt come anyway. We needed numbers so generally top Championship players or decently priced foreign players were the only answer. We also got two decent players and two good young players from PL Clubs.Plus one player from a European club. I feel that missing out on another striker could cost us. It will take time for them all to gel, but when things are settled l think they should be able to make a decent fist of it.

Not bothered about Nelson as I don't think we needed him anyway. Not bothered about Broja either because of his fitness issues. Not signing another centre forward is a big disappointment though. We rely on having a strong and skillful player up top, holding the ball up and bringing other players into the game. Hirst does this well and Delap has the attributes to do it too but neither are proven at this level. It's good to learn that Hirst should be back in a few weeks but if Delap is injured before that we have no suitable deputy. We needed a third player of that type to allow Al Hamadi to go out on loan and play regularly.