Ben Forman

It's a weird one. I think that we'll be less defensively frail, but we won't score as many goals. My genuine thought is if we sign no one else we'll have a middle table finish and probably a League Cup run that ends in the quarter finals.

Son, Maddison and Kulusevski scored a combined tally of over 60 goals. Solanke by himself is not going to get even half of that. It's looking like Johnson won't be a starter, so now we're talking bout losing something around 80 goals per season. Solanke, Tel/Odobert and Kudus are not producing that.

I texted some friends this morning, but if we don't bring in someone to score goals this club is finishing midtable. Doesn't matter how much we've improved our defense, you cannot go into a season with a forward line this lackluster and expect anything higher than 10th.

I'm honestly not worried about not creativity, because we have no goalscorers right now outside of Johnson (and he's being replaced by Kudus). We need a goalscorer BADLY.

My point still stands. This is technically his 6th total knee injury. No, none have required surgery, but this many injuries add up and two in such quick succession is worrying. Maybe I’m being over dramatic?

It dawned on me this morning that even though a 10 feels like the position we need to cover, what we actually need is a proven goal scorer more than anything. Doesn’t matter which position. With Maddison and Kulusevski out and Son gone, that’s over 60 goals we’ve lost.

Very concerned.

He didn’t require surgery on the last injury, but it was still that same knee. My guess is it was a sprain and not a tear (or maybe his MCL).

My biggest fear is Maddison is looking at a career ending injury. He cannot risk a third ACL injury unless he’s happy being in a wheelchair by 60.

The truth is we should just give him the entire season and drop major money on a permanent replacement.

Tottenham report: €100m bid lodged for Rodrygo in serious statement of intent Tottenham look to heavily upgrade their squad with the acquisition of Rodrygo

www.fourfourtwo.com/news/tottenh...

Perhaps the sarcasm wasn’t quite dripping enough.

Out of 10 I’d rate our chances of singing him a 4.

Even putting in a request for Rodrygo is the embodiment of "we have set our sights so high that even failure will have an echo of glory to it." And some of you want Levy out? #COYS

That's Hong Kong 100%.

BREAKING: Chirpy to be replaced next season with anthropomorphic Hot Dog called Frank’s Frank.

[Himothy] 🥇🏅👑

Really hope he comes good.

Whenever Levy finally leaves and writes his book, I hope there's a portion dedicated to what the hell actually happened with this one.

Every single summer we wind up bringing in a player or two later in the window. It's not ideal, but I'm sure we bring in some more.

Alex on twitter writes: "Someone on Twitter writes: "You’re a menswear writer. You don’t know anything about manufacturing in America, or steel mills, or metallurgy, or CNC machining, or how anything is produced from raw material into a finished product in this country or anywhere. Stick to writing about “men’s fashion."" I reply: "i actually had a career in knifemaking before this. the reason why you can't avoid tariffs in knifemaking is because everyone relies on Gobelin machinery. are you aware of this?" Alex replies: "Gobelin machinery? What exactly are you referring to?" I reply: "you Gobelin DEEZ NUTS!"

"stick to menswear"

Alvilda tonight at Soda Bar.

After slowing down on my constant shows the past few years, it’s pretty wild to be out twice in one weekend for live music.

My daughter and I are SDFC STH's and she's absolutely heartbroken he's going to LA.

Losing elite 10 like Madders is going to be hard to replace unless we drop an obscene amount of money to pry Xavi away from Chelsea (unproven in PL, but still my preference) or somehow hijack the Eze deal. Grealish comes with niggling injury concerns and is probably 3rd on my list but would take him

Dude would’ve been starting Champion’s League matches, bathing in adoration from a fanbase five times the size of Forest’s and he wouldn’t have the looming fear of that Greek blimp fingering his holes in the night.

Absolutely, and apologies if I came off harsh. I know you put a ton of work into what you do, and I genuinely look forward to reading critiques of the season from your perspective. If you ever find yourself in San Diego hit me up we can have a laugh and hopefully watch a match together.

It’s obviously a horrible injury and I’m well aware. I’m just trying to find a glimmer of hope during a disastrous period. Which is, we have a chance to possibly fix this vs it happening after the window has closed.

The bright side of the Maddison injury is that it happened in early August and we COULD bring in a replacement. Lot better than it happening in September.

This a dig or just self reflection?

Nah. You can make the exact opposite argument that ENIC/Levy kept Son for a decade. His production last season had seen a noticeable drop and it was time for Son to move on anyway, his wages were 200k/week and this frees up bringing in someone young that can improve the team.

Genuinely astonishing how often the tone of your posts suggests that the real goal isn't dialogue, its self-congratulation. You might be right sometimes, but the way you frame it makes it feel less like analysis and more like a need to remind everyone that you need to be the smartest guy in the room

Everyone is saying it, but we've now got a really big problem with no Maddison.

Xavi Simons would be incredibly difficult if Chelsea are serious, but would be my number one pick. Eze would be my next one.

Either way a 10 has now gone from a very nice to have to an absolute must.

I guarantee there are contractual issues with something like this.

Mono Neon opening for Primus. Fun way to spend a Saturday night in August.