25/26 Season

Well the transfer window is officially closed. I don't see us dipping into the loan or bosman market so I think it's safe to say our business is done until January at least.

There's been a lot of changes, which if you asked me after last season I would've probably said you're a mad man. We just got a new head coach and coaching staff. They did really well too, walking the league leaving nothing but dust for the opposition behind them.

Any normal person would've looked at last season and said the only places we needed reinforcements was RB because most of us accepted Trent was gone. LB because Robbo is done. Striker because both Jota RIP and Nunez both contributed minimally to our title win. After that you were probably looking at competition at CB and a DM to cover the midfield that was gassed by the time we reached Feb.

After that you were probably saying the coach needed to use his squad more. The flip side of that argument is, we may have never won the league as early as we did, if we did rotate more.

Those were the obvious improvements that I think most would agree was needed to kick-on this season.

The club had other ideas though. I mean the immediate improvements were addressed. We targeted our new striker and laid the foundations to land one of the best strikers in the league and in Europe. We bought a new RB that provided us with a different skillset to the one we just lost but a dangerous player in his own right. We bought one of the best LBs in the league. Game, set, match. Even with just those 3 signings, I would still have us as favourites for the league.

But then there was an opportunity to sign one of the best young talents in Europe. Wirtz imo is the cherry on this transfer window cake.

Ekitike has already shown signs of promise and they'll be less pressure on him going forward with Isak to help manage his workload.

Now we've moved on players who weren't exactly pulling their weight or they weren't exactly rated by the manager for whatever reasons.

Everything is being setup for Slot to be successful although...

My only worry is, tactically what worked so well last season needs to be torn up and thrown away so that we can integrate our new signings into a system that plays to all of their strengths. This is where Slot will earn his salary this season.

So far so good. 3 wins from 3...but the performances have not been at the high quality we're used too.

5 new starters in the first 11. It will take time for them to gel and for our pressing and counter-pressing systems to click again. Dare I say it...I'm not a fan of how this systems utilises Salah but we also need to start thinking about life without him.

Gonna be an interesting season no doubt. I still have us as favourites. I really really really want us to go back-to-back.