Saint_clark

If we were a London based club who had just been given a huge new stadium for bare minimum cost then it would make it a hell of a lot easier to pay players higher wages and keep hold of them, but we've managed to get Van Dijk, Forster, Bertrand, Tadic to stay on after fantastic seasons. Interestingly Payet scored 9 goals and got 12 assists last season in 30 starts, Tadic got 7 goals and 12 assists in 27 starts. And Tadic is younger.

You can't sell a player without their consent, if they don't want to go then they don't sign a new contract. You're possibly thinking of NFL if they trade a player without their consent although I must confess I'm not even sure that's how it works there. Anyway, the long term contracts a lot of players signed will cost a lot of money (think about it - they've potentially signed away any chance of them or their agent getting a signing on bonus for the next 5/6 years, they'd only do so for a lot of money here and now or through wages). Also I don't think we're going to spend everything we bring in, i.e if we have £50million we'll spend that much. We'll probably keep a good chunk of our incomings as a reserve in case things go tits up, or we could even be saving up for some big investment like ground redevelopment instead of taking out a loan to do it.

********, so someone could offer us a quid and him more money and we'd have to accept?

The two CMs either side of Romeu are supposed to cover but we didn't see much of that today. Clasie would be good to put in for his tenacity and the ground he covers, as would a certain Harrison Reed.

With this formation it does look as if we'd look a lot better with Hojbjerg and Clasie in place of Davis and JWP.

I can't even figure out what he's singing...claude is summery?

He over commits when tackling and as the sole DM he has to cut that out. Still think he can adapt to the role we require from him though.

Frustrating as hell. Our current players would thrive in last seasons formation IMO.

Only fair to point out that was being sung in small parts last season, before the Will Griggs on fire chant took off.

Oh well, there's always next season.

In Manchester?

Does the transfer window close tonight then?

Absolutely outstanding news. A fantastic player who is criminally underrated at times.

It's certainly phrased a little strangely, it reads like he's looking back at the end of his time here. It's only the we march on bit that talks in future tense but that could just be dodgy use of a club slogan.

I have to agree I think the players we have really suit the 4-2-3-1 formation. Fingers crossed the diamond works...two up top isn't something you see often in the Prem anymore.

Yes, but I think he was referring to after we sold Bale.

So much for the club wanting to play a certain way.

By the sounds of it we have two players left we want to sign, and we already have the funds in place to sign them. This means that we don't NEED to sell Fonte, so any offer that would be worth us losing our captain and mainstay of a solid defence would be in the territory of "record for his age" kind of deals. Anything over £15million and we'd probably sell...and would have enough to get a young replacement who can learn alongside VVD. I can't see anyone offering that amount of money for a 32 year old centreback.

Well no we won't replace like for like as we are aiming to be self sustaining and player sales helps with that. Nothing wrong with our MO right now...every £30million player was an unknown at some point, we just have to find them then.

Well it all depends how Redmond gets on doesn't it. If he can step up, be an effective player and replace Manes contribution then there's not THAT much difference...and from what I've seen I think our CM is stronger.

I have no concerns over Fonte and Cedric stepping straight into the team, they played in the Euros for most of the summer.

The draw feels so far away. Really hope the first game is a home one, need more time to organise a trip away with work.

If he's back today they'll be filming and editing an interview today...don't expect one to go up until later tonight, possibly tomorrow.

Feel free to drop me a PM then good sir!

2 more signings before the end of the window, both attacking players which means they will be more expensive and take a little longer. Haven't we signed VVD, Mane and Aldeweireld on transfer deadline day the last couple of seasons...?