CSA96

He didn't say that he'd have a stronger squad than the PL squad. He said he felt we would be in a stronger position than we were with 12 days or so of the window to go. How he qualifies that, I don't know as he wasn't pressed on it, but we will certainly have more clarity and more confirmed and committed depth rather than 'does that guy want to play for us this season?' hanging about.

That's Everton out of the running.

Everton get their striker

Led to this memorable tweet, too...

He has definitely been angling to go for a while behind the scenes. His agent was already trying to line up moves (to Bundesliga/Ligue 1) before our season had ended. She also represents Djenepo, so let's hope she's got him something in the pipeline too...

Sunderland in a bit of an injury crisis? I saw they had 10 or 11 players out for the Rotherham game and their main men going forward, Patrick Roberts and Ross Stewart, are both sidelined for this one too.

Palace seem the obvious ones currently, with Bournemouth lurking too. Wolves (if Nunes goes) and Forest (if Johnson goes to Spurs) will also have money burning a hole in their pockets. And then there's Fulham with the Mitrovic cash. He's probably not #1 option for anyone, but he will be on a few shortlists this week.

Medical with Nice in the morning - loan deal with a purchase option.

Thank fuck for that. Tell me it's permanent?

Kicks in at 1:55

God help Adam Blackmore if our strikers are Stewart and Armstrong with Stuart Armstrong in behind.

Flynniesta

Our transfer policy is not confusing. There are three main ‘buckets’ of players we are signing from. (Exc. free agents) 1. It’s pretty obvious that we’re prepared to spend £10m+ on players who we think are viable long-term (Shea Charles and seemingly Nathan Wood) because we think they will grow into starting calibre PL players over time and/or be a saleable asset with a strong profit. 2. However, we are not prepared to shell out on jobbers who might not be useful in 1yrs time, and then be stuck with them on long-term deals bloating the squad and soaking up the payroll. We will acquire these players on loan because they are handy to good at this level but past record suggests they’re not suitable PL starters and don’t warrant the long-term commitment at this point. 3. We can also acquire some rising talents that PL clubs have no interest in selling, but can be talked into loaning: ex. Downes. They’re too good for the Championship but are stuck in a backlog at their club. All of the above is perfectly sensible business and means the ownership have acknowledged the error of last season bloating the squad by just signing a mish-mash of different profiles for millions and millions each time and not moving anyone out. What they simply must get right - and this is the crux of it all - is that those who don’t want to stay and tell Martin they prefer to go are adequately replaced and that we end up with a dressing room that is both talented enough for the task at hand and also has grit and attitude to get stuck into the challenge ahead, something that has been sorely missing for too long.

You can just press the reject bid button cos that’s what they do on FIFA 👍🏻 Virtual world is a nice delusion because you don’t have to worry about important things like the team dynamics and the players being people rather than a stack of ratings

Has the window closed already? You’d think so based on some of the hysteria tonight.

Can somebody check on the Burnley chairman and his daughter please #FreeTella

Meanwhile, at Leeds... Sold: Tyler Adams, Rodrigo, Tyler Roberts Loaned out: Robin Koch, Max Wober, Jack Harrison, Brenden Aaronson, Marc Roca, Rasmus Kristensen Released/returned: Adam Forshaw, Weston McKennie, Joel Robles

Russell Martin on Ché Adams: 'The conversation is ongoing. The one thing I am 100 per cent sure of is the character of Ché and how good a professional he is. I really hope we can continue with him, we've rejected a couple of bids - one recently and one a couple of weeks ago - and we have offered him a new contract. There's not a bid on the table that meets the club's valuation, so nothing will change from us. It will be down to how Ché feels about it. As it stands, the situation has not changed and he'll be in the team tomorrow and if he isn't it's because something developed in these 24 hours.' Finished by saying that he hopes Ché is giving the new contract some proper thought because despite gripes he may have with previous regimes at the club, it's a different chapter now and he's somebody that is really valued as a player and as a person.