Chez

£30.5m with £5m of add ons was my understanding, but its irrelevant as West Ham are a far more attractive proposition than us. Hopefully we can get a striker that can do a great job for us for a little less.

With Sports Republic completing the Goztepe acquisition (70% of it), will Lis now go out on loan or do we think the McCarthy links were genuine and he will be the one to depart? Four keepers seems one too many.

Is everyone making him out to be that good? The reports from those that watched him during the week said he scored, which is obviously great but did fuck all else. Personally, I'd like to see more footage. However, he does seem to have some good attributes. Dribbles and seems to get in the danger area. First time finishing in the six yard box. If we have £30m to spare, we should have signed Scamacca. Bigger, stronger and a both threat in the air and on the ground. Liked his goal last night.

ha. Ones that do this certainly grab my eye. Very Broja-esque. I love a player that can create something out of absolutely nothing, even if the end result isnt always there.

Don't recall Pelle ever dribbling the ball like Ramos does in the Youtube videos, but the first time finishing in the box feels similar. Pelle had much more of a back to goal, target man presence. If we get Ramos, will the other three remain at the club?

a decent season for Benfica - which is much more likely as its easier to score goals for them than us - and he can get a move to a top club in Europe. I'd say a move to us has a risk to it. I guess we'd up his wages a fair bit though. Preferred Scamacca, but that ship has left the station. The way Nicolas Jackson ran past our defence attracts me to him, but this guy may be the one to acaully score goals. A new £25m striker certainly looks on the cards.

When Ralph said difference maker, I took that as being a Broja type that could turn and then have the pace (and balls dribbling skills) to drive into areas and cause defenders problems. Nicolas Jackson seems to offer exactly that, and might be the one we are really after. he's raw and inexperienced though. If difference maker was more related to someone with top draw finishing, like Ings, scoring goals due to sharp control and finishing, then maybe Ramos is more the type - although his youtube video doesn't show that type of goal, just one touch six yard box goals. I struggle to see him coming to us though. Right age, but why make the move to SFC when a year later Athletico Madrid or suchlike might be an option.

I just watched his youtube video, and it paints a different picture. it loos like he dribbles pretty well, with some tricks and composure. He seems to be OK with his back to goal too, with quite a lot of nice turns. All the goals seem pretty basic fox in the box type. Not too many Ings type finishes where he creates space for himself and smashes it into the top corner. Youtube videos are not ideal, but not sure you can fully trust that article either. Have to wonder. Why would a Benfica striker come to us. He could stay there, score 25 goals this season and then get a move to big club.

Not sure he's the complete opposite of Che. Does Che run around a lot or dribble well? Che tends to shoot relatively early too, all be it only using his right peg. It says Ramos has a left peg too, so an obvious difference there, and maybe he's more clinical, but its a different league and maybe tougher chances. He's a bit taller, and maybe offers a bit more arial threat? The biggest takeaway for me was that he doesn't play with his back to goal. He's therefore not a `hold the ball up' kind of striker. So if he doesn't have electric pace ether, is he the guy we need? Perhaps finishing ability trumps all other facets, but we don't create a lot of chances.

...and maybe 5 will work against Leicester? Vardey is still a menace and we need to prevent him and Maddison getting into spaces that hurt us. Maybe we try and hit them on the break rather than the other way around. Quite like the idea that we come on strong second half rather than fade like has been the case so often in recent years.

I'm with you on not disrupting the midfield. I don't want to see JWP moved back there to RB ever again. He did an excellent job against Zaha, no doubt about it, but his tactic of dropping off ten yards or so, preventing him ever beating him round the outside for pace (which he would, easily) is one that simply allows the winger loads of time to pick a cross. It didn't hurt us in that game, Zaha was always looking to beat him so fell into JWPs trap, but it could easily do so in another game. I'd only play Valery to allow us to go to four at the back. But maybe 5 at the back, and playing deep, will stifle Vardey?

I'd play Valery at right back. If we sign a decent left back, he could easily be first choice for the next few years. Perraud ain't all that. Or are we looking for right back cover? If so, is livramento going to be fit by boxing day?

Firstly, Maldini was playing CB, and secondly Maldini was Maldini.

35 year CB to play at left back. I'll pass.

I'm not sure I agree with any of that. He's not £45m. He's not average. They haven't been cobbled together, its called scouting. Why are the signings all just financially motivated? Take Lingard. He has a one year deal. There's a world cup coming up. If he doesn't perform he does go to the world cup and the next contract is going to be worse not better than the current one. Pretty good motivation to play well. Whats so average about Henderson? He was outstanding on loan at Sheffield. Again, he wants to impress to show United what they could have had. He is pretty annoyed with them. Excellent motivation. Do you know anything about the other signings? Why is Williams or Richards or Toffolo or O'Brien any different to the Aribo signing? Is Aribo not financially motivated?

They played them four times last season. He took them apart in the second play off leg. They have very first hand experience of his ability. Best player on the pitch. Why would you not want to sign him if he is better than all your own players? I felt the same about Zaha when we played Palace in the Championship all those years back. Head and shoulders the best player, and we basically played two players on him to negate him. The prices were different, he went for £15m to united, but its relative. If you see talent, you have to back your eye. I think we tried to signing him but just didn't have the funds. In the end he's cost them £25m. Which is standard for the best Championship players these days. The extra £7-10m will depend on him being successful in the Prem and the stuff on top will be about Forest making Europe/him winning stuff.

Henderson and Lingard wages would not be carried over to the Championship, but others certainly would. Marinakas. Hmmm. Not sure what to say about him. Best people google him.

I think Garner wasn't for sale when Forest asked earlier in the summer and they have signed one/two CMs since, so it might just be about timing.

It was. But covid cash flow worries are long gone, and £28m was left unspent in teh bank when the takeover happened. You either pay that sum back to the bank or use it.

now that's a `go big or go home' transfer fee for a promoted club, assuming its accurate. I suspect the up front amount is a lot lower, but who knows.

who knows, but you have to keep refreshing the squad and to cover that cost you need to sell a star now and then.

Certainly will, although to be fair, you need to look at activities over a two or three year period. Making a huge loss over one financial year looks bad, but if you sell a player for tens of millions shortly after the accounts come out, the financial situation is completely different. Personally I would be happy to see us continue to spend what we earn and debt be kept low in case we get relegated. £100m of debt feels high to me for a club of our size. Right now though, it seems we are at least gaining some assets. It would be brilliant if we could have a better tan 50% success rate with these young players we are bringing in. Lavia starting well is a real boost. Lets hope Mara flies too.

The £28m cash in bank left over from the `covid' loan was in the end of year accounts. So no maybe about it. Thats the one thing I am unsure about - when the TV payments are made. Is it one lump sum in June or spread across the year? Key though is that this £100m+is already assigned to wages and operating costs for the forthcoming year, so even though we'd have a big sum in the bank, say in June, you can't just spend it all as you'd not have money left to pay wages ten months later. However, it would mean you wouldn't have cash flow problems in July/Aug when you are trying to buy players - so why have we used that excuse for missing out on players? I am guessing payments are spread across the year. The club probably made a decision not to spend on players until they were sure that another player sales was going through. The £28m has prevented that being a problem this year. The interest on that loan/debt, which is now about £80m is about £7m a year and rising. So to stop the overall debt increasing in size we would need to pay at least that interest amount each year. We don't actually need to pay anything until year 5, but by then the loan/debt would be over £100m and the interest on that pushing £10m. Some have suggested that the owners have paid the loan off. There is zero evidence of this. You are right, any additional funds inserted (loaned) into the club by the owners on top of that existing loan could be provided at 0% interest rate should they choose.

Does it? We had £28m in the bank remaining from the loan (not to mention the £100m+ Prem/TV money from 2021 should that be paid in June - I honestly dont know). SR may not have had to put a penny into the club to pay the first tranche of those transfer fees. I am not saying they won't invest/loan the club money, but maybe we wait and see what the accounts show next summer before concluding they have added funds to the cash flow. It's worth noting that spending what you don't earn just adds debt, and cost of debt to the club, which reduces budgets in the future. A £100m debt is going to costs us £10m+ to service each year. And that's £10m less we have to spend on transfer fees and wages.

Fall out, overruled, embarrassed...and you got all this from the MOTD footage? Maybe it was more along the lines of manager discusses changes with his team, listens to ideas, shares his own, he makes the decision, and then we get the reward for it. Isn't that what management is about? Teamwork makes the dream work.