Chez

Everton have provided a decent pathway to the big clubs (maybe even more than us in the last five or six years). Lukaku to United Gueye to PSG Barkely to Chelsea Stones to City Delefue to Barca Back a little further, then we obviously win that one hands down with Nivea boy, Shaw, Clyne, Morgan, Mane etc.

Broja aint coming here. Not sure Ings will be either. Out of interest, how much would you pay for Ings, knowing he's probably on £120k a week or whatever now.

WBA took Lukaka on loan, then Everton followed up the year after and bought him. Impressing there got him his mega move to United. That path seems quite a good one. Everton might have been shit last season but they still have a lot more pulling power than we do.

Brojas goal against Brentford perhaps.

yeah, or LA Gear.

how about Travel Fox?

I agree, if anyone is worth us spending big, then he might be it. However, I don't think Broja would want to come back here. I'd of thought he'd be looking at the likes of West Ham or Everton has his next step. I cant actually see us spending £30m on one player this summer. I don't think SR will be investing (loaning/gifting) those kind of sums, and I think overall we `relatively' hard up. The money spent so far is the cash in the bank left over from the loan. If we spend another £30m on top of that, then IMO it will have to be offset with a player sale, maybe Salisu... we shall see though. Maybe we spend £60m this summer and then sell Salisu for £40m next summer, although not sure who will pay that unless he (and we) has an amazing season

Similar colours, but completely different designs IMO. What was the blurb for them both?

Aribo is not pacey, he's a ball player, nice touch, good feet, tricks and dribbles. I really liked him at Charlton and suggested we take him on a free. I'm not sure his game has progressed much. He's good to watch, will help us retain the ball, but I'm not sure there is the pace, power and end product you might be after.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62024199 BBC report the same. Shame. He looks a talented player. It will be interesting to compare him and, if we sign him, Lavia, over the next couple of seasons.

and landed at the right club.

Its not quite the Great Wave off Kanagawa, but Hokusai might still like it. Me? Yeah, I think it's pretty cool actually. It's great to have something that feels like it has been designed specifically for us. It has the hallmarks of a single designers work and not put together by committee. I am willing to bet the home shirt design was `wound back' by a non designer, perhaps at Saints, which contributed to it looking so poor. It's a lot better than the home kit. Kind of a shame the pattern wasn't used in white of the home kit (instead of the geometric shape) to tie then together a bit. The goal keeping shirts, which I think look great, don't tie in at all, which is a shame. A subtle link between GK and outfield shirts might have been nice.

you could argue that they go hand in hand. With the contract in place, you don't have to sell as urgently to secure some transfer value - and thus you get an extra year or more (see Zaha) of them at your club if your valuation is not met.

Apologies, I'll pull my socks up and word my questions better in future.

https://www.90min.com/posts/mohammed-salisu-why-his-january-move-newcastle-fell-through

What's the largest transfer fee paid for a player without a senior game under his belt?

are you saying the £40m bid by Newcastle in January and turned down by saints didn't happen and was just `speculation'?

Like our umbro pinstripe kit in 2012/23. Simple retro classic. I eeally liked our white away kit that season. One of my favourite ever kits. As a rule, I think home kits should be like this. Classic, simple, not over fussy. Maybe away kits too. Third kits should be bold unorthodox creations.

the blue kit is tremendous, except for the tacked badges, which look terrible. Thats what I call `bold', and in the same mould as their (hummel's) goalkeeping shirts,

Who's the Dutch player that took his place? Can we sign him instead? That price sounds in our ball park. Wasn't a £10m bid already mentioned?

It's desperate and I'm not even sure this kit is `bold'. Slightly different perhaps, but bold? Like the previous Hummel kit, it looks cheap and a bit tacky if you ask me. I am really disappointed in the kits so far. I thought Hummel would bring a touch of class, and solid, but inventive design, but like Under Armour, they have created a dogs dinner of a home kit. I don't know where its going wrong, maybe its design by committee, but its poor design.

I'd argue that the 78-80 is the best and every shirt afterwards is an overfussy and poorer imitation. Some of the non striped shirts are absolutely horrible. Variety for sure, and the changing styles are of their moment, but shown like that, they all look pretty crap in comparison. Barca lost something as an entity when they put a sponsor on their shirt. They were something a little different and better in my eyes...

I have never rated him. He's simply not a very good striker. However, there were a couple of periods when we were on our knees and we turned to a more defensive approach with him running around a lot up front, and that approach helped us get out of our funk and turned our season around. Those two shirt periods showed the value of a guy that had pace to burn and could turn horrible hoofed clearances into decent out balls. Pace is so important and reduces the reliance of skill. I was at Anfield for the semi final, and it was without question one of the greatest nights in my football watching life. It was a great finish to a great move. That joy and relief will live in my memory forever. I hope we find a striker that can create a few more moments like that.

He is pretty `average' (and I don't mean he is the 10 or 11th best left in the league). He lacks pace and on the ball he is pretty limited. That doesn't mean he can't do a job, he is busy and gives his all (why we dropped him when the side was flowing I will never know) but there is so much room for improvement in that position. I have no issue with him being in our squad, but we ought to have two left backs and two right backs not 3 players covering both positions.

With fullback such an important position in Ralphs formation, we simply can't afford to go into the season with just Perraud and KWP. Vokins, Ramsey, Small and Valery just don't cut it. However, £10m bid turned down...we only have so much money to play with. Good to see we haven't sent all our scouts to Chelsea/City youth team games.