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Couldn't give him away so gave him a new contract instead. Rather him than Walcott, to be fair. No Salisu news, then...

I don't think he's the kind of player some people seem to think he is. As a replacement for Lavia, he doesn't have the ball winning ability. He'd just be a like for like swap with Diallo - a good athlete who is pretty average on the ball but a willing runner. After letting Romeu go, we have noone else in the squad who can play the holding role aside from Lavia. Wouldn't surprise me if - out of desperation - we see Lyanco have a go at it at some point. Villa won't find our lightweight midfield much of an obstacle to get past, IMHO.

Burnout probably. Their pressing game for the last five or so seasons has been immense. We can't keep it up over the course of one 38 game season - they've been playing 60+ games a year. I also think you're going to see a lot of top sides attempting to get by doing the bare minimum through the first half of the season. Players don't want to get injured before the World Cup, subconsciously or otherwise.

"The grass is not always greener." Have you seen our pitch?

Thought Ryan Finnigan was rated as a midfield prospect - made his first team debut against Shrewsbury in the FA Cup in 2021. And Jack Turner is supposed to be decent. Never heard anything about Bragg. Lewis Payne, also training with the first team, can play in midfield too FWIW.

Not sure. Alexander Isak left Dortmund after a rough time to join Sociedad with a buy back clause inserted into his contract, but when Dortmund were rumoured to be planning to exercise it, he made it clear he had no intention of returning - ever. The two clubs reached an agreement to remove the £30m clause for about a £5m settlement.

Don't think he's ready. Still got a boy's physique. No chance he can play a lone striker in men's football. He'll get eaten alive.

I think I read City's buy back clause isn't active until after two seasons, but they have a first refusal option in the meantime - if, say, a club makes us a tempting offer in the summer, City are given the opportunity to match the offer and agree terms with the player ahead of anyone else. Who knows the precise details? I suspect we'll find out sooner rather than later - if Lavia continues to play at the level he's shown so far, his stay here is going to be extremely brief.

A starting striker was priority number one and we failed - the most important player in the team, and we're stuck with Adams and Armstrong, who the manager has historically not rated at all. Letting Romeu go when we knew Lavia was injured isn't the smartest thing we've ever done either. No-one else in the senior squad can fill the physical, ball winning role in the centre of the park. How can they have not noted that Diallo and Ward-Prowse as a pair are lightweight and defensively hopeless? They've failed to work as a partnership literally every time. Who thought today would be different? Lots of promising incomings, but some glaring gaps in key positions remain - and to have ignored them this long is pretty negligent.

Maitland-Niles is no more a ball winning, physical defensive midfielder than anyone else in the squad. Selling Romeu when we knew our only other alternative in that role was quite seriously injured won't prove be a masterstroke. Still not convinced by Bazunu. Seems very small in the goal and easy to beat - don't think he's made anything more than regulation saves for us so far. Nothing McCarthy wouldn't have. Take a point here.

Very successful in refreshing a stale squad headed out of the division with some pretty exciting but mostly unproven talent. They've already added energy and spirit that was in short supply during last season's appalling run in. Priority one, though, was a starting striker, and we objectively fucked that. There might be a bit of revisionism after Adams scored his first goals since February, but the manager didn't really rate him - and he absolutely didn't rate Armstrong. We'd have listened to bids for both. And yet they're now our starting front line. Our striker chase - at least that was reported on - was pretty weird all in all. Apparently, we had a bid in for Broja all this time, yet whenever the manager spoke publicly about him, he wasn't exactly gushing in his assessments. As wooing goes, it was pretty cold. And then we went all in on a striker who has never scored a league goal and is currently shooting blanks in the championship. Yet, we were going to break our record transfer fee for him - presumably installing him as our number one goal getter. And then it was onto Ramos at Benfica, which never sounded real and we'll probably never hear about it again. Then we seemingly abandoned all hope of "priority one" and threw all our eggs into the basket of a winger who didn't really want to join us. And didn't. No-one can say a transfer window under our new ownership is boring, I guess. Look forward to more madness in January.

Fake images. All fairly pointless as it seems to be a done deal and only a matter of time before being announced, but internet weirdos will do anything for clicks.

All too much giddiness and chicken counting going on yesterday. Remember, a pessimist is never disappointed... We'll probably get a midfield loan (Maitland-Niles) in and try and muddle through to January - the league shuts down for the world cup in 10 weeks.

Immediately after coming on he went on a powerful run down the flank that we saw plenty of last season, with Salisu trailing in his wake, but we got bodies back and the danger was averted. And he got a not very strong header on goal that Bazunu made a bit of a meal saving (to be fair it bounced up a lot higher than he was expecting off our weird pitch). Aside from that, he did nothing of note. But we were in a low block by that point, so was entirely dependent on his teammates creating something for him, which they didn't.

Good game. Weird game. Started quite well for 10 minutes, then got absolutely pulverised and looked like we might go in 3 or 4 down. Then Lavia comes up with an equaliser from nowhere, and it's been fairly even since - before we put together our best move of the match to edge into the lead. No idea which way this is headed. When Chelsea went through the gears it was men against boys. Have they shot their bolt, or will we come out as dozy as we did after HT against United? Come on, lads, dig deep, bring it home.

I'd take Solanke, and Lloyd Kelly's got some promise. Re: Brownhill - his name came up about a month ago and has lingered, Harry Winks style. If there's any substance to it, then Romeu must be gone. Tidy but unexceptional midfielder. Hope he's cheap.

Were we supposed to be? He's an important first team player, under contract for another year. Make a decent offer, or wait until next summer and pick him up on a free. Pretty simple, I'd have thought.

That's not reassuring at all.

Lost that in the first ten minutes of the second half when we didn't get out of the dressing room. Poor mentality to half ass it until pricked into action. Aside from that we competed really well. Desperate lack of quality going forward though. That we're throwing on Lyanco to play centre forward and playing hit and hope sums it up. I think a creative player is even more important to bring in than a striker. Having Elyounoussi and an out of position Adam Armstrong trying to open up defences is not a sustainable approach. Aribo might be an awkward set of limbs, but I've seen nothing to suggest he's a creator. Defended well generally. There's a good partnership to be developed between Bella-Kotchap and Salisu. Djenepo put in another manful shift. Lavia is a brilliant player - he's outshone Ward-Prowse in midfield every week so far. Disappointed not to get a point, but not a total disaster.

Was coming. We haven't come out after half time. Good finish, to be fair. Don't see how we're scoring. Not a lot of quality going forward.

Bit of a sense of inevitability about this. We have no threat at all going forward. Going to have to be perfect in defence to get a point. Why is the pitch so terrible? Oh, of course the stickied match thread isn't the match thread.

Sounding like Atalanta have wrapped up Rasmus Hojlund for €17m. Only moved to Graz in January for €1.5m - people getting rather excited about a young Scandinavian 6'4" left footed striker with electric pace. For some reason. Shame we weren't all over this. Or if we were, it's a shame we couldn't play the Danish card and get it over the line.

This is true. He's wildly overrated on account of having one really good attribute - his ability to drive through the midfield in transition. Unfortunately the rest of his attributes aren't at the same level. The end product after an impressive drive isn't there - he's a mediocre passer, his decision making is ponderous and muddled, his finishing ratio is about two bangers per season to a hundred shanks. Being somewhat versatile, he'd be a decent squad option in normal times. But I don't think he's anything special at all. Doesn't start for Scotland - not a team blessed with creative riches. That said, I'd start him all day every day ahead of Elyounoussi.

Not really. Slow. Clumsy. If he wasn't English and prone to showing that "passion" (shouting and badge fucking) that pundits get weirdly in a froth over no-one would rate him at all.

They finished 3rd last season. Qualified direct to the Champions League group stage.