CB Fry

It's a great achievement. Feels like England are peaking at the right time.

Just listened to it, I think they all came across well. Downes is happening so nothing to worry about, good signing. Absolutely unequivocal about Bazunu. He's the goalkeeper and that's that. Let's hope he repays the faith. They were a bit vague about whether they need a bit of height, Martin was a solid no, Wilcox a bit more even handed. Wilcox pretty scathing about last year, our victories were mainly luck, and when you think about Leicester or Chelsea away he's absolutely right, just to think of two examples. And its pretty clear that Phil the new CEO is definitely "moving forward". I don't think he is ever going to stop moving forward.

Well, they won’t all need replacing as the squad is too big.

I'd have thought Chelsea are spending £100m on players because what they want to do it win the league and champions league themselves multiple times, rather than as some kind of incubator club to sell on for a profit later on. They're buying him now so they have a player worth £200m in 3 years time, not to sell him but to stop them needing to buy one. Saudi League is a different thing and not quite relevant and even now would interpret that unless peak players really want to play their peak years in Saudi league I don't see it as a reason to overly worry about sell-ons.

Not sure i will ever really understand this forum's absolute obsession wirh sell-on fees for our players. Honestly, it barely matters, it's money that supporters never see. If we're relying on that kind of thing in two years time we really are fucked. In the case of Lavia to Chelsea for £50-60m it's not a priority is it? Once you're at Chelsea as a £60m signing, the clubs available to us for sell on benefits is about four in the entire world: Barcelona (skint), Real, PSG and Man City. The same for Livramento to be honest, who else are Newcastle going to sell him to for a profit that we benefit from? Maybe, maybe add Chelsea and Man U to the list. So 6 clubs. Chelsea (and now, Newcastle) are pretty much "final destination" clubs, they're not stepping stones to further fortune later on. They are the fortune. I'd much prefer we got £5m on the fee now than a promise of something else on the off chance that PSG come in in two years time. Lastly even at a moral level, Lavia was with us five minutes, and Livramento basically one season. It's not like we've invested that much time and energy in their development. If the bloody sell-on fee is zero for both honestly fine by me.

A bit more than "chatter" to be honest, in that Martin pretty much said it was happening back on Saturday, and Sky/others reporting he was having a medical yesterday. The only risk is if a Premier League team tries to hijack it, or Downes changes his mind and says he wants to "fight for his place" or something. The only "concrete" thing is the club actually announcing it, which of course they haven't done yet.

A sell on clause sounds pretty pointless for a player you sell for one hundred million pounds.

There's nothing actually on that Daily Mail journalist's twitter feed about Lavia though.

Is this the same Harwood Bellis who spent last season on loan in the Championship or a different one?

We've already signed Charles so that's not "dreamworld". Downes is far enough along for the manager to say publicly that it's 48 hours away (so tomorrow) so that's not "dreamworld". Selling Che is likely but everyone running the club have indicated there would be a replacement, so spending 10-15m on replacement doesn't sound like "dreamworld". ABK definitely is going and we will need a front line CB to challenge Jack and Bednarek so a few mill on a replacement doesn't sound like "dreamworld" either. Let's remember you have spent the entire summer, the entire summer, arguing and arguing that JWP wouldn't go when it was the single most obvious and predictable event of the close season. Everyone knew it would happen but on and on you went. Dream. World. You're in absolutely no position to criticise anyone else's predictions.

In other words you've misrepresented what was in the post match interview and then got yourself upset about it. Literally said he was annoyed and frustrated but carry on making shit up if it gets you through the day

Is Kane actually playing today? That's mad.

He was playing for West Ham last season.

RM seems a bit looser on transfer business gossip than we've been used to. Presumably he's totally sure.

Well, you could place one opening day set of fixtures versus last year's 38 game season where all three promoted teams stayed up.

Keep it tight lads

You can't move for Downes "noise" so no idea what you're on about.

Happy with that.

Seems even less qualified to comment on Premier League games than Karen Cairney.

There's no broadcaster in the world showing English Championship matches at 3pm surely, so not a lot of chances for streaming. Only if the streaming sites are getting access to the iFollow paid for streams and putting those up for free. Sounds possible but harder to find.

Maybe a song about how there used to be a Zoo at The Common?

"Everyone" is never going to "join in" because as above, no one cares and it's fucking shit. Just a clever-clever idea that is never, ever going to be a "thing". People were going on about "come on everyone let's make this our song" back in the days of the printed fanzines pre St Mary's, so more than 30 years ago. It's a bit of a shame we haven't got a Glad All Over or Mull of Kintyre or Annie's Song but Woolston Ferry is never ever going to be it.

Could well be all to good to be true. He's a childhood WHU fan, he probably doesn't really want to go anywhere.

£50+ million for Lavia truly is insane. We're pretty much getting double parachute payments this summer off the back of these sales. Well done Saints