Chez

Ah. Maybe Palace did fractionally better then.

is he injured again or are you suggesting he might be going out on loan?

Wasn't Edouard the alternative option (similar price range at least) when we signed Che? Both turned out to very average. Sometimes you can't even blame the club...there simply aren't good options available at certain times in certain price brackets

I starting to think that might not happen. I can only make recommendations to SFC, they don't have to listen to them. 😉 At 28, he's probably too old for us to be making a serious investment/gamble.

I'd prefer he left.

He looked very sharp at Cardiff. Similarly in the Villa pre season games. That gives me great hope. What I saw of him at Sheffield United, he simply didn't get many chances to score. He would get into the right areas (or they looked like them to me), but he was never found. He scored goals at Boro, so we know he isn't completely shite. Whether he has that top talent, electric pace and sharpness that gets him Prem goals, is to be seen. It's hard to say. Will we create any more than United did? What he isn't is a target man and that's what Che offered us last season...and we looked poor when we didn't have it. I think that is a concern. We didn't sign a powerful, fast, skillful target man that can play with his back to goal and threaten when facing it. The number 9 holy grail, so to speak.

Instead of taking the easy route and just blaming the keeper for every goal we concede, we can look at all the little errors (and big) made in front of him that lead to goals and chances. We are going to concede goals though.

Feels like a while since we signed a really good solid Premiership player. Exactly the kind of thing Turkish has been going on about for a few years. Perhaps not young with lots of potential, perhaps not foreign, mysterious and somewhat exciting, but certainly someone that does the job, you can almost forgot about and very much start building a proper side on that can win games and stay in this league. I really hope it turns out that way.

The BBD signing confuses me a bit. I thought he would play as a CF. Is he really what we need at left wing?

were we actually looking for another CF after the Archer signing?

I think the time for man management skills was last summer. I suspect Russ would like to clean house.

Unless we play ABK this season, he will pushing hard for a move. I am not sure RM is keen on ABK. The fact we signed three young center backs this summer suggests he has well and truely moved on from him.

I really hope RM assessed him correctly last season (and this) - otherwise that decision, and him not being played, last season especially, has led directly to him wanting out and leaving us.

I get your point, but selling a genuine talent (which is what Brentford think he is) for just £10m isn't something I want to celebrate. Better than him departing for nothing thouugh.

No market for Larios. real shame to lose Jaydon, but we obviously didn't feel he was good enough yet (not last season and not this) and time/contract has run out.

That was Joe Shields. At that point we were spending serious money on academy players, not just on fees, but on wages too. It sounds like it didn't continue though after his departure and our relegation etc. hence some young talent departing. Not every penny spent on youth back then has realised a similar profit. Some you win, some you don't I suppose. I wonder how much we have spent on his wages the last two years. Do Spurs get a percentage? Some off that eat into the profit, but still looks a decent chunk of change.

Looks like an AI-generated photo of a man jogging towards a mountain range. Man...running...Manning. Too easy? Or how about a long distance runner. Let's say Samuel Wanjiru, the Kenyan Olympic marathon gold medalist. He shares a first name with our friend Edozie. I wonder if I can create a link for every Saints player that might depart? Let's try Jaydon Meghoma, as he is probably on his way having turned down a contract. The mountains could be the Pyranees, which the commune Ade is located in. Megahoma's middle name is Ade. Good clue this one. Might need to circle back.

Might well be. Spending a £1m in League 1 on Lambert was a pretty big statement, as was paying Fonte an absolutely massive championship wage to get him to drop down a division and similar to retain Lallana. I honestly don't how good Ramsdale is, but I hope he lives up to our sky high expectations.

about as much as I am about a yoghurt in my fridge going past its' sell by date.

That's `De Blob' in Eindhoven. If it's another "born just around the corner" type clue, like you used to link Rooney Mara to Sekou Mara's departure (Bedford is nowhere near Shea stadium by the way), then the player could share the name of almost anyone from anywhere in the Netherlands. De Blog was designed by Massimiliano Fuksas, who has designed buildings in pretty much every city, so that opens the field a lot. Tough one. How about, Eindhoven is in Holland, there is a pastor called Maxwell Holland and that links you to Maxwell Cornet?

Maybe McCarthy on the rumoured £90k+ a week prevented that?

they rate Pope?

Makes sense. He couldn't get in the side toward the end of last season. Anyone with that kind of description would have been available all summer.

They already broke the league 1 transfer record, twice, when they spent £4m each on Klara and Willumson. Spending £10m at that level would be monstrous. At least they would be spending it on proven talent. It's been a very tough few years for bluenoses, so personally I hope they do well.

Trabzonspor President seems pretty confident they have us over a barrel and will get a deal done at the price they want or a loan. It's going to be a game of chicken. They need him, we want to get rid, but they don't have a lot funds and we don't want to let him go cheaply. Their advantage is that they know what their maximum budget is and nothing is going to change that. They may have something like £8m available, but they won't find another £5m down the back of a sofa. They also may have other options, although Weghorst joining Ajax certainly ain't one of them. That said they seem all in on Onuachu...and I think they probably are. A deal will get done at some point.