Chez

cheers. A seamless transition then...maybe.

Has Derrick Abu signed for us yet?

he's worth absolutely nothing. He will be on £100k a week. Who else in the right mind is going to pay him that? No one is paying a fee for him.

I'd be more than happy with £30m.

I thought the little fat fuck had signed for Norwich. He will be on a fortune at Newcastle. No chance he plays in the championship unless Newcastle pay him millions to go away.

You sure? He wasn't even as good as KWP and he won't be departing for £40m.

It could be that in the opening game or two we have lots of former Premiership players in the starting line up, that, although less motivated, will still offer the quality to help us beat maybe the likes of Sheff Wednesday. As these players depart at end of August, we might then slump, before eventually finding our feet again.

Wow. I don't remember that. Was it part of the Premiership rebranding/promotion etc?

The author must have spent all of about ten minutes trawling the internet to out that story together. Doesn't mean it won't all be near the mark.

welcome dude. 1992, was that a Branfoot season? Tough initiation. Well done for sticking with us.

not sure free kick records are all that high on JWPs list of priorities.

get the £70m or whatever in for Lavia and JWP and the finances look a lot better, helping us to be a little stronger in the negotiations for those other players. If Lavia and JWP drag on, then it may force our hand to accept (lower) bids for them. We also don't want to miss out on opportunities to loan players etc. - especially in that CM area where we could be thin.

probably covered this already, but Salisu linked to Galatasary. Text also says that United, Villa and Palace are interested, so probably agent placed bollocks. https://africafootunited.com/mercato-mohammed-salisu-dans-le-viseur-dun-club-turc/

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2023/06/26/southamptons-14m-duo-could-join-same-team-as-club-make-progress/

I wish these clubs would hurry the fuck up. Ideally, we need to get the Lavia and maybe JWP deals done as soon as possible, helping us to understand a little better as to our budget and allowing us to press ahead with CM replacements. Other transfers can and will drag on, but get those done and we will know roughly where we stand.

What exactly is being done if a club like Arsenal is "working on the deal" for 15 days but hasn't actually made a bid? Would that just be negotiating terms with the players agent?

Last cup game I watched, he came on against Grimsby and completely dominated and ran the game. Id take jwp over Paul Wotton in any game against any level of opponent.

That's the move I suggested a week or so ago. IMO it makes more sense for West Ham to sign him, a potential world class player and a genuine holding midfielder, than JWP, who is a quality player himself, but his best work, last season at least, was in a box to box role. Lavia would start and no reason why he can't then move to the bog sides a couple of years later.

Bets of luck to him. Hope he plays better than he raps. This doesn't feel like the Livramento signing, where Chelsea were keen to retain him. On this occasion Chelsea have simply released him. that doesn't mean he won't be a good signing for us. They and Arsenal seem to swallow up almost every single quality youngster south of the Watford gap these days, and they can't keep them all. There is bound to be a few let go that subsequently shine. Hope we pick up the right ones.

I'd like that to be true. He's a really good player, much better than Grimes. However, despite the obvious link to Martin, he started to get playing time at West Ham towards the end of the season so seems doubtful they would give up on him this summer.

and if you are a quality player with a brilliant first touch then opponents often won't get close enough to you for physicality to be a major factor. Not saying having power is not useful, but I'll take quality on the ball every time. I don't recall JWP being brushed aside by big powerful CMs.

Have Arsenal still got that £200m slush fund or whatever it was sat in the bank? If so, they would have nerve playing the `poor' card. Wonder if they will pay us that way for Lavia.

Why would he get outmuscled? The championship players are not faster and stronger than the Prem players. His quality of first touch means he would have more time to play in that division than most CMs.

I guess the other option is to continue paying him £60-70k a week in the championship for the next three years. Is that affordable?

If Arsenal are spending £65m on Hazertz and £100m on Rice, will they still have funds to spent on Lavia? CL money to come I guess.