CSA96

And that's why you never say never I am still a bit surprised they are considering him as a serious option to be honest, but good luck to him if it happens

12 months is a long time in football. THB was a bad influence, negative moaner and not good enough last summer, with many fans happy to move on from him and leave him on the bench / sell him on while giving more opportunities to Ronnie Edwards and the other defenders who hadn’t been so involved in our PL relegation A year later and you have people saying he should be for sale at no price or we should be aiming for a huge fee. I like him, he’s a bit fiery and passionate and his attitude gets him into trouble at times but overall he’s been a good player to have and it’ll be interesting to see what the view on him is in another 12 months

That was my initial reaction too

Yeah, very fair I share the concerns about gelling the team but it is what it is and other teams are dealing with the same. Wolves are getting going on business now, Burnley have been focused on outgoings and will surely move onto incomings any time now, West Ham are getting busier with AWB to Villa and Piroe coming in (both on loans), Boro are trying to bed in about 7 new players (I think?) and we'll be trying to settle in maybe two, or three perhaps Personally I just hate the window being open once the league games have started but nature of the beast and can't ever see all of the different parties getting round a table and sorting out a convenient alternative that works for all. Until then it's always going to be until after the September international breaks that team lineups actually start to settle down

Seriously? Danny Rohl who already messed us about once because he wasn't sure he wanted the job, and is managing Salzburg who are in the Europa League and much closer to his family. And Thomas Frank who was just managing Tottenham after getting Brentford to a top half PL finish and said he wants to take a break from football You know we're in the second division now right?

Sorry, I am probably projecting a bit here where it's more levelled than Twitter (I know, I know...) where there are people suggesting we'll just try and replace with academy lads / do nothing with the incoming fees / spent the money already on Dobbin Still, the principle stands that there will have been an allocated amount of budget from ownership of what could be spent on the alternative player who can play behind a striker and it would've been worked out on the basis of transfer business in previous years, inbound sell-on clauses (Fernandes and Ballard) and not against speculative outgoings such as Charles etc I really don't see it being an either/or situation where we're all lamenting that our budget for the CM (and any other players we sign) being too small because we spent £9m on Dobbin

Less expensive than raising a child

I’m not worried about the CM situation and don’t understand why some are pitching replacing Charles and buying Dobbin as an either/or scenario The club have been very, very clear all summer that the plan for the summer was to sign Dobbin (one of the best for G/A last season) to give us another option in the area behind the striker and then replace any of the genuine first team contributors if they go, while needing to bring in some money via sales to plug the gap as our financial support decreases and we continue to eliminate the Covid loan Charles will get replaced appropriately. No part of me thinks the midfielder money has been spent on Dobbin and it’s an either/or scenario As recently as Friday, the manager himself confirmed they will replace Charles with a new signing rather than an internal solution and we’ve also had the owner speaking publicly to say the same. Alfie House has said a matter of hours ago that it’s the top priority for Johannes Spors. Can only presume that people are just getting restless for a transfer fix because the league games have started and the end of the window is coming into sight

Yeah, exactly. We are stuck in our part of the chain waiting on the clubs before us in the chain to make decisions and be willing to do business or willing to agree to different terms from their previous stance, in the same way that the likes of Derby, Preston, WBA are waiting on us to see if they can sign Archer / BBD in the last few days of the window on terms that work for them

When have they said this? Certainly not last summer when Azaz, Jander, Fellows and Scienza were all signed in the final week of the window

Champions League Aston Villa who already have Pau Torres, Lindelof and Mings? I doubt that THB is on their shortlist, but never say never I guess

German media now reporting that PSV Eindhoven and Celtic also keen on Sugawara, in addition to Werder Bremen and a couple of other Bundesliga clubs. Saints asking for €7m apparently

Jordan James having medical at Wolves

Holding on for their top target vs taking someone else who is further down the list, I guess. Probably waiting for another club to get their replacement lined up or to allow the player out in the final week of the window. It's a bit annoying the window works in this way when the league games are already underway but it's the reality of things

Transfer update from Alfie House on the Echo site just now: - Celtic and Dinamo Zagreb looking at a move for Gavin Bazunu - Damion Downs has two clubs in MLS who want him, most likely he moves to the USA - Yuki Sugawara wanted by Werder Bremen and two other Bundesliga clubs - No active interest or offers for Harwood-Bellis since the rejected Benfica bid, but club expects further interest - Central midfielder is top priority for Spors and Eckert but nothing is imminent - Unlikely that they make another expensive attacking signing but they are open to using the loan market

Red Star's club record transfer was approx. £4.7m a couple of years ago

They signed him in January for £11m from Salzburg, so I suspect this would be a loan with an obligation on promotion or a straight loan if they just intend to protect his value and not commit strongly either way on him yet

Sky Italia seem pretty adamant there's still life in this story. 6ft4in Serbian striker who did well for Red Bull Salzburg but hasn't really got a look in at Lazio

Blimey

I assumed it was a sort of hint at Harrison Armstrong, who is somebody I've thought we might take a run at this summer. Did really well at this level last time out and Moyes called him back to play for Everton in the second half of the season

I remember back when they used to disclose it, there used to be a graphic that came out alongside the pricing graphics to show the rates and who was categorised as what. Sort of thing the FAB should be raising with the club really as there's no need for there to be a lack of transparency on the categories

Do they actually disclose anywhere which teams/games fall into each of the categories? Tried looking the other day but couldn't find it...

Yeah true, I think at the time I was saying how maddening it was that we were attempting another season just flip-flopping between Bazunu and McCarthy and people felt that would be just fine. A new GK should've been a priority last summer. That said, we tried for Peretz then and he went to Hamburg, only to end up with us in January, so it kind of worked out... The striker position was a bit more of a muddled mess. We actually did spend a decent fee for the level (£7m) we just unfortunately spent it on Damion Downs. Then Still kept playing Armstrong as a lone striker, stumbled onto a solution with Stewart as the lone striker and overplayed him to the point he was back in the treatment room