Saint Matty 76

Don't disagree. I think Che's contract situation and PL will force us into this sale, rather than Arma.

If we can get £15m and that's also Swansea's asking price for Piroe... nothing lost.

Downes/Charles Grimes/Smallbone - Alcaraz/Armstrong Doesn't feel particularly overkill to me across a 46 game season.

Jack Stephens confirmed new captain.

Yeah. I imagine realistically we've been quite open with Lavia and let him know that £50m does it. I can't see us going back on that if it's the case, even if it could've with the circumstances.

Well then, fingers crossed that we're willing to tell Liverpool that it's no longer just £50m.

You’d assume so. Not sure why anyone would think this changes him leaving. £110m for Caicedo in the end. £50m on Lavia will end up being the better deal in my opinion.

Aribo was fine off the bench against Sheffield Wednesday I thought. I also imagine that SAA is firmly ahead of Djenepo in the impact sub list at this stage. Che/AA, SAA, Stu and Aribo is a brilliant list of bench options, if you want to look at it in a more positive light.

Could end up being a really well timed injury if it keeps him here and he's fit around September time. ABK, Stephens, Bednarek, Lyanco & Awe would be absolutely fine for this season. Obviously I'm hoping Lyanco goes and we'd replace him, but I can't see that as too likely with the 3 in front of him, unless anything changes with ABK of course.

It would be about right that the loan would fall through after JWP is announced.

Ornstein saying Chelsea have bid £48m. I'd lose the £2m just to piss off Liverpool after how long it's taken them.

It all depends on the context, really. Has he given more to the club than all but a select few in the last 35 years? Yes. Does he scratch the surface of the top 5 players we've had in even the last 10 years? Not for me.

Does certainly look worse when probably our best player in Alcaraz is left out. The big question will be if we go for Charles/Smallbone/Alcaraz, or something a bit more attacking in Smallbone/Stu/Alcaraz this weekend. Realistically I doubt Stu is ready for a start, so it'll probably be the former.

Unbelievably that is a genuine name and he is a legitimate reporter, must have been a tough upbringing.

Disappointed as the lack of movement until this point had me slightly hopeful that he'd have ended up staying for the year to get us back up, and be considered an actual legend of this era. A good move for him. European football and gives himself the opportunity to play for the chance of a spot in the Euros, however unlikely I may think that really is. Hope his career doesn't somewhat peter out like Ings' has, but at least he'll have the PL free-kick record in hand. Overall a bit disappointed, but nothing against JWP who always gave it his all, where so many others haven't over the past few years.

Confirms we were in for him then, to no real surprise.

100%. The idea we were getting to the point where we didn't need to rely on loans to help us out was nice, but now we're back in the Championship we'd be handicapping ourselves by not doing so. Burnley had 4 players in on loan last year who were regular starters. I think they've only bought one of them permanently, and gone on to replace the others with different options potentially better suited for the Prem.

This would be great news and make me a lot more calm about JWP right away.

A nice 90th minute 3 week injury wouldn’t be the end of the world on Saturday.

Didn't care for this game and I'm happy/hopeful this shows RM that certain fringe players need to be gone/nowhere near the team without risking them in the league. 3-0 is embarrassing though, and a legitimate waste of time for the sold-out away end.

Mara hooked at HT. Matt Holland saying RM looked visibly frustrated at him a few times.

Find it really difficult to have any interest in the result of this one, to be honest.

McCarthy Bree - Lyanco - Charles - Perraud SAA - S. Armstrong - Meghoma - Djenepo Mara - Adams My best guess at it. SAA played a few times at 8 in pre-season but I have no real idea about Meghoma.

They posted and deleted it.

Extremely hard to tell how we're going to lineup from that!