Dusic

We aren't suddenly going to find a spare £15m unless we sell a key player. I don't know how that isn't clear by now! Anyway, Sky saying we are probably done, with loan the only possibility for us now. In terms of incomings, I like what we have done. We needed to freshen things up and have done that. Losing Ings was a blow, not bothered about Bertrand and Vestergaard. If Lyanco turns out good then its probably been our best window for a while.

Would imagine we might leave our PL loan spot open for January as if not we surely would have very little wiggle room to do anything without selling a first team player. Would be stupid to loan in a 4th choice centre mid and then be constrained in Jan because of it. If we get anyone I expect it will be a young player like Livramento or Small. No links though at this stage, and there are less than 48hrs to go...

Whoever we sign isnt going to be a starting player I wouldn't have thought. Besides, isn't Romeu statistically one of the best ball winners in the PL? I think we are more lacking a creative passer in that area than a ball winner.

Judging by Ralph's comments in the press conference today I get the impression that he hasn't seen a huge amount of Lyanco. Not saying that is a problem at all, just an observation. He essentially said he didn't want to comment too much on his qualities as he has only done one session with half the squad so hasn't really seen yet what he can do.

I guess there are two ways to look at it. One is that the player will probably not get much league game time unless there are a lot of injuries so an established player is unlikely to want to move to us. Another is that JWP could easily go next summer so would be great to be able to test someone out as a potential replacement. Ideal IMO would be a Livramento/Small type buy.

Big game for reasons Benji says. I would bring in Redmond for Walcott as the only change.

Young, hungry and per SWF guarenteed to be shit. Welcome lad.

Interesting that two of our recent POTS's in McCarthy and Redmond are now viewed as utter dross. Overreaction? Highlighting how our squad has actually improved? Highlighting how bad it was? Or poor judgement from fans in voting for them?

Whilst we have a free PL loan spot, it might be worth saving that til January, as otherwise our ability to do anything then would be severely restricted, as unlikely we are going to be in a position to buy anyone should we need to. Clearly keeper is on the backburner til Forster's contract finishes. A #10 would be ideal but we don't need numbers so it would have to be a player who is a step up from what we have and again that will be nigh on impossible financially aside from maybe a loan. I feel we have quite a few quick dribblers but could do with a more technical option, and I would take Minamino on loan again if the opportunity arose. Otherwise hopefully we can sign Kerr Smith for the 23s. As an aside, astonished Harry Lewis hasn't been loaned out, he appears to want to be the next Stuart Taylor.

Apologies for the long post... The flawed part of it is best highlighted by Salisu and Diallo: They signed on four year contracts, so the times to sell where you can really make a big profit is after one or two seasons. Wait til after season three and we will basically just get our money back as the players have a year to go, won't want to extend and the club won't want them to run down their contracts. Salisu and Diallo are young, inexperienced and need time to settle into English football and to get into our team more regularly. Basically they need a season. So essentially in order to sell for a profit it has to be after season two, i.e this season. IMO for both those players it would take more than this season for them to show the consistent quality that would make a big club want them. That means they will probably become desired in the dreaded season three when we cannot make a real profit on them. It seems very unlikely to be that at the end of this season anyone will be making £30m+ offers for Saliau or Diallo. So hopefully we are already thinking of contract extensions if we rate them because if not they will end up being sold for £15m. Of course there will be exceptions like Ben White, or maybe Livramento, who move for big money after one season - but those are exceptions and not what you build a policy around. To do this buy young and sell for profit and do it well we need to do two things: 1. Either consistently find exceptional talents like Livramento every year (nigh on impossible), or spend more on the young players and get better ones who are able to come straight into our team and not waste a year of their contract essentially adding nothing to their market value. These days those players are probably starting at £20m. 2. Have faith in our scouting and value proposition to the players and give them 5 yr contracts (like Livramento) instead of four (like most of our recent signings, obviously a policy after the failures of various players from the Reed era). This means even if they take a year to settle we should be able to have two years of them being a regular starter before their price drops due to contract status. If they happen to be great from the start and are desired sooner than that then fine, we would be well compensated for it. IMO under our current approach we will only make big profit on exceptional players who are clearly excellent from their first season - and in our price range its too difficult to find enough of those to build a policy around it.

Brand new pitch, likely to be problematic. I wouldn't play JWP considering his injury but he always seems to play so imagine he will alongside Diallo. Surely front 4 is Redmond, Moi, Tella and either Long or Broja.

He won't be going anywhere. We know he is a bit injury prone so no reason to doubt that he is injured, and he signed a new deal only six months ago. Will be a key player this season for sure.

Imagine Livramento might only be here for a season so lets just enjoy the fact it was an insane signing for £5m and whatever happens we stand to make a major profit. No point being worried about what Chelsea do as we cannot influence it. Would imagine his involvement has also made a lot of promising talents take notice (Thierry Small perhaps). Clubs talk about pathways, Saints have given Tino one after two weeks.

I think this might be a good option against the better teams, but not one we should play all the time. Attacking wise its too predictable IMO and its harder to press as opposition full backs get a lot of time on the ball. Good option against the top 6 though.

Usually a well informed Twitter account, says it will say the team once given approval to (probably from Small himself). Has obviously been linked with Saints but also Villa and he is from the Midlands. ----------- Re Armstrong, didnt come on in first game, not in latest training pics (I don't think). Might be nothing in it, or perhaps he wants to play central midfield? Either way he signed a new contract last year so Saints would be in a strong position. Personally doubt there is anything in it.

Any sign of Stuart Armstrong in the latest training pics? Wonder if he might have some kind of knock/injury as was strange he didnt get on the pitch vs Everton and I couldn't spot him in the latest pictures that covered everyone else.

Quite a few high scores as Villa scored 10 vs Norwich who we beat last week. Ajani Burchill eho made his Championship debut for Bmth last season aged 16 got a hatrrick. Hopefully we can at least keep Doyle til he signs a pro contract! Also seems like we did sign one of the U18 triallists from end of last season, Johnly Yfeko, was on the bench for us today. LB I think.

I know nothing of Lyanco but if he is good on the ball then that makes a lot of sense as both Bednarek & Salisu are awkward in that respect and whilst defending is clearly the primary aspect, it would certainly be a useful option to have a more technical player in that position.

Plus, without extending his contract, we will only be able to sell Salisu for a big fee if we do so at the end of this season. He is surely nailed on to start the majority of games. Defensive stats are hit and miss. Would assume the scouts see someone we can work with as there are some decent options around and we must feel he is amongst the best.

Ralph guarenteed we will sign a CB. Nothing more said, possible some stuff in the written press section that will be released at 10.30pm.

Just to save anyone waiting til tomorrow's press conference, I have seen Ralph's notes: "Its clear we need to do something. We will have a look and if something fits to us we will do it."

We wouldn't be though, we already signed Perraud to be the first choice LB. If we could sign Small then IMO that is exactly the type of signing we should be making in that position as a 2nd full back, like Livramento.

Anyway. In terms of the CBs that have been mentioned I would lean towards Tosin. Experience of the PL, 6'5 but also mobile. Its so important to be physically capable in the PL both in terms of strength but also pace and he can cope with both. Would be peak Saints though to not be able to agree a fee for a player who had a £10m release clause valid until mid July! Strange Sheldon said we might be keen on Phillips on loan but seemingly not on a perm deal. The £12m-£15m Liverpool want is within our range and either we think he is the one for us or not, loan vs perm shouldn't change that. Shame the Small link is from FI as sounds like he would be an ideal 2nd LB. I did wonder if Ralph putting Livramento straight in was also a way of sending a message to other, similar transfer targets...

League starts last 3 years for Newcastle: 22, 18, 13 (last season) Aged 29, poor injury record. No chance we go after him and nor should we.