Saint_clark

Yeah, honestly it won't take much for Perraud to exceed Bertrand's level for the last few years.

Not sure we need two, we'd have A.N Other, Bednarek, Salisu, Stephens, Simeu and Lancashire (lol). There must be other youth players getting close to first team age, not sure a club like us can afford to have 6 centrebacks in and around the first team squad vying for starts.

Well if you aren't prepared to do anything about it then stop preaching to everyone else. Pretty sure there are signs everywhere that say "let your thumb do the pointing" or something where you can text to a number completely anonymously.

£20million for him would be excellent with a year left. We need to replace with another centreback 25+ with plenty of game time in their past though.

If you're saying there is homophobic abuse being shouted I'm shocked that they're still so blatant about it and/or allowed in after you've challenged them on it, made it clear that it's not OK and pointed them out to the nearest steward. I assume you've done that anyway, otherwise complaining about it on here is just as empty and meaningless as a football club wearing a rainbow shirt in a warm up session without actually making any proper effort to change anything.

How offensive, what about the LGBT colours are so amusing to you?

Only during the warm up, thank god. Nothing against being inclusive but I'm sick of being punched in the face with virtue signalling when I'm trying to just forget about how shit life is for an hour and a half at the weekend.

I seriously hope he is on the bench from the start of this season. When is his contract up?

I'm wondering if Long is going to be in the reserves as a player coach like Lancashire. I don't see any circumstance where we sign this guy at the end of the season. He'd only leave to be first choice here and if he's good enough for us to guarantee him starts ahead of Adams, Armstrong and Tella then he'll be out of our price range.

I think Armstrong will definitely play as one of the two up top.

I didn't even clock that Vest is already 29, I wonder if no club comes in for him if he can be convinced to sign an extension.

Still not so sure. Only one team conceded more than us last season, but we scored more goals than 8 others and even the same amount as Everton up in 8th.

Generally when funds are limited it's a good idea to focus on where you are weakest, I too am surprised that having conceded 66 goals last season we haven't gone for a keeper and a centreback.

Very few clubs in the top leagues produce their own quality keepers. Most drop down the leagues and then work their way back up, making it back to the Prem once they have a decent chunk of experience.

At the time, possibly. Granted they were league winners but if we'd got in early enough we might have been able to swing it.

Not signing Evans was criminal, we should have been all over that. Available for less than £10million if I remember correctly.

Scratch that then, only just read the Armstrong thread and seen the interview with Mowbray. Fair enough.

A lot of reports of other teams coming in for Armstrong recently and then this transfer comes up out of nowhere. I hope I'm wrong, just all seems a little coincidental.

Anyone else get the feeling this guy is signing INSTEAD of Armstrong instead of alongside him?

I really, really hope we don't take a short term small influx of cash for him. Extend his contract, loan him out for first team football for a season and even if he doesn't progress to where we need him he has the talent to score goals lower leagues and so will be worth more after that. There is real talent and ability there, I really hope we stick with him.

I know the loan with no option to buy is a bit of a disappointment sometimes, but I think this is the last summer where we will be shackled by the terrible signings made over the last few years. After a full season with the wage bill cut right down we can look to invest more into the first team next season, with the likes of Simeu and Livramento* closer to first team action. *People need to prepare themselves for KWP potentially being cashed in on next summer...

They were at the time. We were testing the waters paying bigger fees, got burnt and so went back to paying smaller amounts. If Carillo had worked out and got us 20 goals a season for the next two years we'd have been more willing to spend £20-30million on the right player. Conversely, those £69million in combined fees mean we could have splashed on one £30-40million proven prem player if we'd had the balls, and it certainly would have worked out better for us.

We showed a willingness to spend big fees but we just fucked up with who we were signing. Hoedt, Vestergaard, carillo, Lemina cost about £70million between them, essentially all of the Van Dijk money pissed away.

In fairness Adams scored 3 goals more than Werner in the Prem last season.

Never heard of Sorloth, but Whoscored.com - a site I trust quite a bit on their analysis of players - clearly rate him.