Ken Tone

Stephen's is a broadly competent CB, third best at the club IMO, or maybe 4th best if ABK is back in the fold. However Stephens is NOT a competent midfielder or LB at this level. He should be the one we take off to bring on subs. He should not be moved to other positions while we take off others.

Agree. But needs must I suppose. We have enough left backs,especially if KWP stays, and we need cash to pay for other priorities.

It would be good to see the official announcement before noon nonetheless, so he can play on Saturday --- and there ain't much time left. Wonder if he's been around our training this morning?

Don't worry. The delay is just because our doctor's guide dog needed a walk first. 😉

Delighted with this signing. Had thought a permanent move wasn't on because of his wages. Could have fiddled that on loan but can't think how we've got round it long term. If he's taken a pay cut to be able to play, then good for him

Structure it so we don't pay huge wage ...arsenal do, but we pay them a bigger loan fee.

OR..... he allowed himself to be sold so the club could get in a transfer fee and stop paying him £100k a week, so we could avoid going broke. He's not like Lallana or Van Dijk, agitating to leave ...... as far as we fans can tell.

Guessing here, but maybe you can't transfer before the actual QR code comes through? ie 24 hours before the game.

Message from an acquaintance who's Geordie fan, and was at the match . "Yes. You were the better team. It was a red card. We only scored from the goal keepers mistake. How did you not score several times..? Eddie will not be happy with it all. But…. Joelinton was excellent."

So was the deal last year that Sheffield United bought Archer but Villa had to buy him back if sheff were relegated? That's the first deal like that I've heard of. Interesting alternative to a year's loan with option or requirement to buy. Certainly implies Villa don't rate him much.

That's encouraging. Thanks Trouble is though, before "in a few weeks' we may well have lost the first few games and a bad start is hard to overcome at this level.

It used to be standard for footballers to be paid less in the summer. Story is that Tommy Docherty once complained to his manager that the was being paid less than another player at his club. He was told it was because the other fella was a better player. To which Docherty replied, "not in the summer he isn't "

I think maybe we have improved our options. Edwards especially looks like he'll live up to my Peterborough fan relative's top rating, and anyway we have Bednarek and THB. It's just that Russel seems to want to play Stephens anyway!

You're right in that I doubt we'd keep everyone, but presumably we wouldn't be as bad a financial position as last time, so wouldn't have the same pressure to offload expensive players.

There's often confusion in such social media rumours between pounds and euros, which makes it hard to tell how informed they are. There's quite a difference. Why would a bid from an English club to a Scottish one be in euros?

"Come on you pinks" doesn't sound quite right does it!

Thank goodness. Sorry!

Well mostly yes, but it does actually say they've signed Dom Ballard for £4m. If that's true, it seems a real shame as he's a promising player (assuming h he's recovered from his injury) and what's more he's a goalscorer !

So I can't go to the first home game and want to transfer my ticket to my son. I understand I can just email it to him, BUT my ticket is for an over 65 and he of course is under 65. Anyone know what I'm supposed to do?

Are we playing 3 CBs? Looks depressingly like RM still sees Stephens as a first choice defender, not just back up.

Personally I'd be sorry to see Charles go permanently, although a loan would be good for him. I think he'll develop into a genuine PL standard player. Only 19 isn't he?

I am rhe only person who clicked on this link thinking "Never heard of him, but I hope he's a striker " 😉

Re Ramsdale wages and loan fee etc. Genuine question ..... isn't a loan fee often just a way of a club paying the player's wages? So if we paid all his 120k a week would there necessarily be a loan fee on top? Whereas paying a loan fee then covering say 'only' 75k of his wages would effectively still pay all of arsenal's costs but not appear to break our wage structure.

Weren't we paying Forster around 100k - and JWP? So a similar amount for a top keeper like Ramsdale now we're back in the Premier doesn't seem out of the question, especially if there's no transfer fee.

So he seems, as you say, to play from the left rather like AA did last season from the right. Either/both of them will benefit from a central striker surely? With Stewart suspiciously left at home so presumably still not fit, we need to make finding a target man type of player a priority. I worry that we're goingg to end up with AA playing in the middle. He just didn't seem to do as well there.