Ex Lion Tamer

To be fair, Pelle looked rubbish at first

Diallo seems a bit like a low rent Pogba in that he's only effective in a midfield 3

Quite hard to work out what happened based on the short clip I've seen on Twitter, but KWP does have license to attack, so if the break is quick then other players need to cover him

I'm willing to be corrected but I thought Romano was a very credible journalist? It is ridiculous if true though. Any inkling that we're selling him and City will be on the phone to exercise their buyback clause, which the player doesn't want at this stage, so we're back to square one. City would also be furious and would never sell us a young talent again

This is a fair point - it's good to have some model pros in the dressing room who aren't "the teachers", ie the coaches. Not sure Barkley fits the mould though

Where experience has some value is in a crisis situation in the pitch, like at the end of the Chelsea game when we kept lumping it out deep rather than getting up the pitch and keeping hold of it. An older head can calm everyone down and get them focused. I seem to also remember JWP giving the ball away in a silly position for a late goal last season in a way an older player wouldn't. Or Peter Crouch trying to score instead of take it to the corner during our relegation season. But the idea that Ross Barkley will mentor the youth is not one I go along with

I think I read that West Ham were in for him a while back but he was holding out for a Champions League club. That has clearly not transpired!

We'll need to sign another centre back if that happens

I'm not aware of any attitude but he's just not an intelligent player IMO. Will never be able to fulfill his potential for that reason

It's clearly part of our strategy to find value by courting players who are running down their contracts or at clubs with financial problems. We've done really well at that this summer. By contrast, we failed with players like Delap, Broja and Gakpo because they're all tied down to their clubs

Plenty of people on here said he would be mad to turn down "life-changing money" but sometimes you've got to trust in your ability and do what's right for you. If he's good enough and hard-working enough then the rewards will come

He's a player we don't want anymore and who has never been a world beater in the first place. Who cares what he says?

Does RVN mean that they wouldn't sell Gakpo to Ajax, only to a club in another country?

Not getting Gakpo took us back to where I thought we were two weeks ago, which is that this season might be a bit of struggle with so many young players, but if we can get through it then we'll really reap the benefits in years 2 and 3

I thought Che and Salisu might leave this summer to maximise their value. With the transfer window now shut, the focus surely turns to giving them new contracts

That tweet says to me that we're not signing him

Yeah I'm going to change my mind slightly as he's turning 20 in January, so he ought to be able to contribute. But he does look pretty raw on that video at least

I'm not sure how much he'll offer this season but he certainly looks like he has plenty of potential

Medube seems like the kind of player that we would sign when the opportunity arises, regardless of any other movement in the squad

I enjoyed the way he skipped passed the player in the build up to the second goal. Allowed the move to happen

In a way I'm surprised that anyone is surprised. Ralph always turns it around and takes us on a really good run. Then we'll go on an awful run. We just have to hope that this season we'll have better players so that our bad run isn't quite so bad

It's true that although we feel like we're spending loads this summer, there are actually plenty of clubs spending similar and we're only mid table on net spend

If we push the boat out for him then i wouldn't be surprised if it's because we can't get the marquee striker we were after and are having to settle for a loan instead, so are hoping to make up for it in the wing position

It's a shame he wants to be close to his family because Celtic or Rangers would be great for him

I wonder if putting together a formal bid is actually a bit more work than sending an email that says "we'll pay £30m", so the club isn't going to do it unless it has put out the feelers and thinks the transfer is a realistic proposition