Chez

The Gunn signing and all that money down the drain has left quite a scar on all of us. Lets hope this works out a lot better.

What is the competition like? I honestly am unsure what other keepers Ireland have right now.

I've watched most of the videos of him online and there is not a huge amount in those that suggest he is something special (not that there is much to suggest he is not), but there was one outstanding save low to his right, that was a proper `worldy' where the keeper `pulls a rabbit out of a hat', so to speak, to save it. Top class keepers make very few mistakes AND can pull off dream saves (we would need to combine our two keepers to get that). Not just good saves, but ones you thought were in. I'm hoping that save is the tip of the iceberg. However, there is a fuck up in one the games early games for the skates where he drops s simple ball on the edge of the area, that leads directly to a goal, that would have you seething. I'm hoping that is the `one in a season' calamity, and not the tip of a different iceberg.

maybe, but who knows how much United really want (they asked for a £16.5m loan fee from Newcastle for Lingaard, so your guess is as good as mine) and Henderson may want £120k+ a week wages, which could be a stumbling block. He may not want to come here on a permanent deal. Hard to say.

Only seen him live a couple of times, so haven't got an opinion on his ability, but if DT is happy with him, then I am. Boy do we need a (potential world class) agile keeper that is safe as houses and decent with the ball. Good luck to him. I hope he is the next Niemi - and totally knocks all our socks off.

£20m isn't peanuts to us though. That would be our transfer record. OK, so that isn't high compared to others, but it's still a sizeable amount of money if you are a self-financing football business. Not saying he's not worth it or we should not spend it. But is the money even there?

When he was fit in that first season, he absolutely flew, with almost everything he touched turning to gold. Less so second season and he didn't seem to hit the heights again at Villa either. If we could get that one touch-goal guy back, then its a no brainer. Will we though? If his wage is now bigger than what we a) were paying him b) were willing to offer him in new contract Do we now have to match that? I honestly can't see him coming back. What do we offer him now that we didn't last summer? He wanted more money and/or a bigger side perhaps with greater ambitions. Not sure Villa

Whenever I see "Oxford" and "CB", Mark Wright immediately springs to mind. I wonder if he is as classy.

Absolutely, but that was over 25 years ago and it feels like its only the last few years where players are turning down the `no brainer' extensions (that wouldn't stop them moving if they wanted anyway) to give them greater flexibility. Zaha being stuck behind a £70m transfer fee request typifies why players are not signing those deals as often. Clubs like ours need to be very careful as this escalates. I know we as fans don't want to hear it, but a massive bid for one of our players could be a good thing. We do need that cash and if we don't sell players at their peak they are increasingly going to walk on frees.

Absolutely this. Watch Salisu walk for a fee much smaller than the £40m Newcastle offered. And of course we ought to be buying players towards the end of their contracts elsewhere too. Everyone is starting to do this.

I thought that. Perhaps was seeing out his contract, so Ajax didn't have a strong hand. Player power was strong, but it feels like it is getting stronger, with many seeing out contracts and not putting themselves in situations were the current club can demand a fee so big they can't get a move. This could well happen with Salisu and others, and without that big transfer fee maybe every two or three years, it becomes impossible to balance the books. The only other option is to cut the wage bill significantly, so as to not overspend in the first place.

A lot of Burnley fans think he is the real gem at the club and are thankful that he hasn't had quite enough time to build a huge reputation, so they may be able to keep him as no one will bid enough for him yet for them to consider selling. Maybe our version of KWP, although perhaps even he's forged a bigger reputation.

Crook is stealing a living.

Family settled in London. Spurs or Brentford seems likely.

No he wasn't.

Remain keen? What does this even mean? If we want to sign him, won't we just put in a bid? If we don't, we won't? This kind of story feels agent placed. If it was during the season and we continually sent scouts to watch him, it would make sense. It ain't, so it doesn't.

Saints had a pretty short list of errors while Dave Merrington was the youth team manager. Wise wasn't really one of them, as Merrington recommended he get a pro contract, but McMenemy wouldn't give Wise the money he wanted in 1985. Kevin Phillips wasn't released as a schoolboy. He did his apprenticeship (well, it was a YTS back then) but wasn't offered a professional contract in 1991. He was a good player, but he was moved to right back during those two years, which didn't suit him. He'd been a centre midfielder as an associate schoolboy, a bloody talented player and he was one of those you thought would just become a pro. Under the current system, I think Philips would have got a pro deal.

if we are talking Mr 50p heads, then I raise you a Darren Powell aka Mr Shit Footballer.

oh dear god I had forgotten about that game. Horrible, but not sure who to pick out for special treatment. Utter utter shite.

Like you plan. This is the way to treat fellow Prem sides. Don't ever give any of them an easy `out'. If they don't rate one of their own players, then drive the hardest of bargains not offer a nice big fee and pay all the wages. Who else is paying him £120k a week. Offer buttons and let them eat a large chunk of his wages.

isn't that what was said about allowing Ings to leave? "We'd go down". They weren't far off the mark mind you, but you can sell your best player and improve.

The PR team seem to have a feel for how signing relatively unpopular players to new extended deals will go down with the fans. So Ralph gives a player a new deal, the PR team is not impressed, or know any announcement will draw a negative response, so they don't bother announcing it.

We apparently turned down the £40m move to Newcastle in January. No noises since, Burn obviously signed and Botman seems to be their target now. Lets hope he has a stormer of a season, but he'll be down to one year on his contract next summer, so might not be the big sale we will need at some point.

Good point, but have we got a young player's path to be blocked? If we sign one, like we loaned Broja, Long ain't getting in the way.

If we don't sell, we'll probably need to sell someone else (that we'd prefer to keep) this or next summer to balance the books. Salisu or KWP for example.