Chez

French clubs with money don't want Mara. French clubs without money probably interested. Doesn't help us much. I wonder if ABK's reputation in Germany still stands. Sully is going to come good. I think the likes Fraser, that lack that yard of pace, may struggle to make an impact in the Prem and there will be times when we are crying out for an injection of pace.

You are probably right, but dDon't underestimate how important the fullbacks are to the way we play. These guys need to have a brilliant first touch and the confidence to drop their shoulder and dribble inside to beat any press. This is something KWP has been doing brilliantly. If we lose quality in the fullback area, we are not going to ever get out of our own third. Hopefully Sugawara can do exactly the same job. Really excited to see him play, assuming that deal goes through.

Most reports have it as €4.5m for Lyanco, so about £3.8m, but certainly good to actually get some money back for some of these guys as it all adds up.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/c4ngen37kwyo BBC reporting the swap deal. For accounting purposes, I guess both players are probably going to have `as big as they can get away with it' price tags announced. So maybe £25m Downes and £30m KWP (or vis versa), but ultimately very little cash moving between clubs.

West Ham have to...for one more year anyway. He wont be taking a wage cut this year. Either West Ham pay him, a new club pays him or the two combine. If he was offered a three year deal on less wages, he might look at the long term gain, but he ain't taking a 50% cut on a two year deal. He could sit tight and earn that in a year.

Puma logo shows up better on white, so that seems more likely.

it would be nice if we had a period of buying guys better than what we have and the current guys all becoming reserves and/or departing. For far too long we seemed to buy guys that we hoped would develop and be the replacement when the better player was sold on.

Interesting thought. Does he fit their style? Doesn't feel like a perfect match. Who is buying Doherty?

Harrison Burrows. Heavily linked with Sheff United. Good young player. Two division jump perhaps improbable.

Yes. That explains it.

Yeah, not a bad word on there. Although not too many words full stop. The only description I saw was `grafter', which doesn't sound overly thrilling, as we had that already with Perraud. Kompany played him at left back all season and he played 28 out of 38 Prem games. He didn't play left back in their promotion season or nearly as regularly. Did they have a left back out injured last season so that he got games?

Is he decent? Dunno, as I have not watched him. He's available on a free and if the best offer he has is Saints, that's not exactly a ringing endorsement. Is it low risk or low cost? Even with a free transfer there is risk. Maybe less financially, but the risk is we sign him and not someone else. He turns out to be no good and the other fella we should have signed turns out to be great. Manning was available on a free last summer and that seemed to be a sensible move, but he turned out to be pretty average to say the least and now we are stuck with hm for another three years. It's annoying there never seem to be highlights videos of Prem players. Wold be good to see how good he is on the ball.

who did he decide to join Athletico-MG or Botafogo? I read €4.5m fee, which is handy.

I've seen £35m mentioned. No idea who is paying that.

In general, the players happy to renew contracts at SFC are probably players we shoudn't be offering new contracts to.

to be fair Walker offered zero going forward and we weren't exactly being tested at the back. Part of Englands problem is we get nothing from either fullback. One decent cross apart, Trippier gave us nothing. Walker is limited, which is OK, but we cant have that on both sides.

compared to the absolute shit show of the last game he's right. One or two passes actually went to a team mate tonight.

Palmer has looked bright.

Is Guehi really better than Konza?

suspect a little insight into your menu would be about as interesting as the evening gets for most on here.

Hmmm, not sure about your Bellingham conclusion, but he's been terrible in this tournament so far. He had some poor games for Real towards the end of the season too. He appears to have a completely free role, a bit like at Real, so you can't even point to him being played out of position. Think Foden has looked extremely bright in this game.. Easily our best player in the first half.

Good sub. Gallagher ain't good enough.

that seems to be the housewives favourite move, but when is the last time he played in that deeper role?

one day we will hand out a contract to a keeper we rate. Gunn McCarthy Bazunu Lis Lumley Lumley McCarthy

Lots of talk of Matty Cash going to Milan, so maybe an opening.