Chez

One year left on his contract. Brentford demanding £60m. Newcastle desperate for a striker, Brentford desperate to keep theirs. Talk about supply and demand dictating pricing.

They sold Vlachodimas to Newcastle last year, for about £20m, not this year. it was part of the Anderson sale that sorted out both Newcastle and Forest's PSR issues. They don't have the sane issues this year with the Elanga and Danilo sales.

Midsummers's night cream? [borrowed from the interweb]

I'd expect any loans to happen in the last week of the window, once permanent transfers are pretty much in place and clubs know what they have to work with. I'd be surprised if we signed a winger (or two) until there were some departures. That's out of our control. Not overly concerned. It's pretty standard pace/activity. It's a long season. The 4 points from 2 games means we have not lost too much ground.

Europe's statistically best manager

His value probably won't go up over the next two years, but the price offered between now and the window closing might. I see Everton returning with a larger bid.

He wins some headers. He attempts to win headers. I worry who will do that when it's Stephens and THB.

I am fully aware of what's the real world. But if the highest bid is way below the clubs (not my) valuation, why should they sell?

Never thought you were.

If the add ons are £25m in hard cash and a 20% sell on fee, then we might be interested.

Chelsea spent more than that on Lavia after 26 starts for us.

Armstrong is starting ahead of Archer and Sugawara gets in our squad ahead if Bree.

Shudder. Jus took a look at his wiki page and he's cored 19 goals in 61 league games for Copenhagen since he departed. Remove his period at Saints and he's scored 99 goals in 300 league games.

Really? Seems strange for us to be bidding for a player that has no intention of leaving.

Not sure anyone can blame him for waiting until the 11th hour to sign for a championship club. We're not exactly the most desirable destination. Second flight football and quite a lot of foreign signings that have not worked out terribly well. I don't think it's clear either who is stalling, him or his club. One thing is clear though, he does want a move to a European side. He has been very open about that.

Rudoni is presumably the plan B.

We've bought Downs to do this job. He may not work out, but we aren't getting anther striker in this window.

May I suggest you pop along to the Burnley forum. They can probably give you some tips about freeing hostages.

Not surprising. Some are disappointed he hasn't signed a new contract, some think he is pushing for the move and even though many understand this is just football business, it's hard to think lik that when you have travelled to support the side. I absolutely love watching him in a Saints shirt. He's a rare talent.

IMO he worked his socks off, unselfishly for the side. He was a pain in the arse for them and won possession back a couple of times. He gave his all and I don't have any complaints about his performance today.

didn't Gakpo score a hat full of goals while we were on the verge of agreeing a fee?

Fellows might be the ones, but Downs and Quarshie didn't have that experience We have Baz, MaCarthy, Manning, Stephens, Wood, Edwards, THB, Fraser, Downes, Charles, Armstrong and Archer...as first team players with plenty of Championship experience. I think we can afford to add one or two flair players without it.

To be honest, I think he has looked much more comfortable on the ball than he did in the Hoffenheim game I watched. In that game he looked very ungainly. His accuracy and quality of passing though has been pretty poor.

Don't think he played there for Sheff United (first time around). Less sure about Blackburn. They have a habit of playing centre forwards out wide. I think Gallagher also was played out there too for periods. Weird. How the hell to do you hit teams on the break with slow wide players?

He made a few mistakes under pressure, but they all do. He's not a rolls royce of a player, but I think the other centre backs are pretty shit in the air - which should be a fundamental element of a Cbs game - so sacrificing a little bit of football ability is worthwhile. Whether he can improve (that's not a given) to be effective this year and beyond we will see. If we are going to ask him to play out from the back, even when pressed, then it may be tough.