hypochondriac

That's true. Not sure Sulemana will be here at the conclusion of the window but we will see. Remains to be seen if AA can translate his success last year into success this year and Edozie will have a bit part role if that. So definite scope to strengthen on the wings. Need Aribo and smallbone upgrades and obviously options up front

We can dream. Sadly with his value to us as an asset being what it is, I'm not certain we'd be able to keep him and strengthen adequately across the rest of the team. Sadly.

How are we looking so far then? Potentially if we count people almost signed or rumoured: McCarthy Sugawara Edwards THB Taylor Downes? Smallbone Armstrong Fraser/Lallana Aribo Stewart States the obvious but it's midfield and attack that need looking at. Very light on the wings for me, need another AM for definite and obviously a striker or two.

That makes a change. We've had plenty of supposedly very good but very expensive players who turn out to just be very expensive. If he's a flop- and no reason at all to think he will be- we can at least take comfort in the fact he hasn't been a Carillo, Onuachu or Sulemana.

I know. Read my reply prior to the one you were responding to...

Wonder what the starting lineup will be. Sugawara THB Edwards Taylor Oh Sugawara THB Edwards Stephens/bednarek Taylor

Let's see how good he is first before calling it excellent

Well obviously but it's still a really great price. I can caveat every response to a signing with "these opinions are subject to change if his performances for saints are either great or crap" if you like?

Replaces kwp And he eats sushi.

That's a real coup if true.

Brilliant.

Good call. Positive that we've managed to attract him as it seems there was interest from Brighton.

What is the leak? Unchanged?

"I don't mind Steele being on the teamsheet especially in a game where build-up and accurate passing from our keeper is going to be crucial." "I dont think there's currently much between the 2 keepers, they both have strong and weak areas" "Steele's ability to hold onto the ball until the very last second and make the pass, to beat the press, is exactly what RDZ wants him to do." That's just the first few pages but there's a few positive posts about him and it sounds like a lot of the critical posts are in comparison to their other keeper who they prefer, not necessarily saying Steele is awful just not as good as their other keeper.

Plenty of posters on that link you posted deemed him to be a solid backup keeper, just not as good as their first choice. Like I said I've got no idea about him but the fact we are looking at a keeper is a positive for me. At the very least we will have some competition. Obviously I'd prefer some proven quality but we don't seem to be going down that route. Perhaps we don't have the available funds with everything else that needs strengthening or maybe Martin believes that passing ability is the most important attribute.

Seems quite interesting that hull fans seemingly love Delap. I think 20 million, is too much but I hope he doesn't become a bit of a gem and we've missed out.

I don't really know much about him. I was just taking it as a decent sign that we were looking to sign another keeper. For me that's a recognition that McCarthy is not good enough to be first choice.

I was saying they won't ask for anything ridiculous but they have no reason not to put a high valuation on him given that firstly we don't know if they want to keep him or not and secondly we are very keen to sign him and they know that. How is that difficult to understand?

OK you don't agree. Will have to agree to disagree on this one.

Like I said let's see in a couple of years. There won't be perpetual war for eternity. My bet is that my scenario will be a lot closer to what happens than what you've described.

No you said that there should be no bombing and we should try to get ISIS round the table to talk as if you could negotiate with a medieval death cult. There was no negotiation, they were largely just destroyed. By force. This situation is very different of course because ISIS is not a country.

I think you're missing my point. They know the fans are desperate for him, he was superb for us last year, we clearly have a strong preference to sign him this season. Yes there will be a limit and yes they can't just say we can have him for an insane amount but imo we will pay more for him than an alternative and they have more negotiating power in this scenario than if the situation had been different.

Does it look like that? Weren't we linked with steele this week?

Yes but it doesn't take columbo to figure out that we want him quite a lot.

That's the point though. We don't know. They know how much we want him.