S-Clarke

He was key when Frankfurt one the Europa League a few seasons back. I'm fairly sure we were strongly linked to him when he was at Gronigen, but we went for Djuricic at the time. (and Elia), so he's probably be on the clubs list for a while and our reports should date back to a time when we scouted properly.

Be interesting how that's worked out. i.e if we get the registration of Hugo and loan him, or Goztepe take ownership directly between themselves and Flamengo. How does this victor hugo guy look on FM?

It's all to do with budgets/money I imagine. I can't see Valenciennes having £800k ready to put down, they're in the third tier of French football. We've got more money to our name than both, so it makes sense for us to do the heavy lifting initially and then get these clubs to train them up/progress them. We then benefit with a good player for PL/Champ football, or we sell for a profit that benefits us in PSR terms.

Probably a good signing for you guys given the level he's previously played at. We come in handy as we can lay down the $$$ and then you benefit for free, in the hope that he becomes PL level at some point.

Isn't Cornet chronically injury prone? I'd mark that as likely in that case. It couldn't be a loan though if we aim for Ramsdale to take that slot.

The whole thing is a bit odd, to not even travel to Spain for pre-season rang alarm bells for me. We were given excuses to do with the grass in Spain not being right for him and all sorts of shit. There's almost certainly more to this than is being let on, he's obviously got some sort of chorionic long-term condition that he's having to manage. He'll be advised to retire in the next year, I'm sure of it.

Not sure Lallana will be fit enough to start. It'll probably be Edozie for Lallana.

I thought we were selling JWP to Spurs anyway? Oh wait.

It is cringe and is far away from what football was once about, even as recently as 10 years ago, but I think it's a sad indication of what clubs have to do now with PSR/FFP or whatever bollocks it's called these days. Football is now primarily all about commercials and a financial manipulation game as a first priority, any success on the pitch is a secondary to that. If it works over a long-term then obviously both things go hand in hand and it fuels the football side, but initially it looks like nonsense. All revenue streams they can create will help the club and provide more income. That's one of the reasons they're doing all these changes and fan zones, lots of opportunities to sell more merch food/drink to a captive audience.

That is a ridiculous amount of money for someone who is over 30.

Had we kept Che and signed him up, the club would have had pelters from the fans. He needed to move on from us and we needed to move on from him. The same should have happened with McCarthy really. We've already brought in BBD and Archer who will score more goals between them than Che would have managed on his own. At this level he's good for 5-6 goals a season.

Hull are about to sign Carl Rushworth on loan from Brighton, which has a knock on to our interest in Steele (if it's still there) as Brighton will have to keep him to compete for the Number 1. So that's Steele, Johnstone and Bijow off the table. At this stage I can't see anyone bar Ramsdale, it's either him or none in my opinion. None would be a disaster so let's hope it's not that.

It's been picked up by a journo or two as well that we're back at the table. Already spoken to Ramsdale etc. (and sold him the project, or equal nonsense )

He's got a year left on his contract at Juve, that's why he's valued so low. This is why we got Suguwara fairly cheap as he was into his final year. I'd argue that the £10-15m signings are out there, but for the level we need, they're only going to be at that value if they are 1) into their contract rundown or 2) have injury history. In general terms, signing an established player with no injuries and a few years on his contract, like Mane or Tadic in this market today would be £25-30m easily.

Welcome to modern football, all about 'projects' and fluff words like that. It doesn't really mean anything. I wonder what project Koeman sold Pelle/Mane/Tadic? ''Just win games and create goals'' I'd guess.

All in we've made about £20m, if you factor in the £5m loan fee to Juventus in January. That £40m future buy clause was always a funny joke, we were never getting that. Half at best, which is what we've done really.

Strike me a bit confused, but how are Leicester doing this - what with all the financial restrictions around them? Leicester set to sign El Khannouss in £19m deal from Genk Latest from Sky Sports News' Lyall Thomas: Bilal El Khannouss is expected to have a medical with Leicester today. The Foxes have agreed a deal at just over £19m to sign the attacking midfielder from Genk.

He's come on leaps and bounds at Lens, one of the better players in France. I agree with you, we arsed around with him at left full back for some reason - never gave him a chance at CB.

The Burnley meltdown at the moment is quite something. They're selling anyone who moves. Of the team that started against Luton, they've lost or are going to lose 7 of that (most in the last week too)

Probably equal priority, but at a push GK. We won't score many goals this season no matter who is up top, so clean sheets/GK performances are going to be key. If we can get a point winning GK in, then we could potentially nick games by the odd goal. We do have goals in the side in BBD, Archer, Armstrong, Stewart (lol) - but in GK, we only have Lumley and McCarthy which is a shocking state to be in.

Of the names we have been linked with, the only ones still seemingly obtainable are Mark Travers at Bournemouth, Aaron Ramsdale, Patterson (Sunderland), Christos Mandas (Lazio), Martin Dubravka. Ramsdale's options are diminishing, with Borunemouth signing Kepa and Wolves going for Johnstone. Come deadline day he will want to move, so it could well be ourselves and Ajax as the last ones standing. I'd expect Arsenal's demands to soften significantly. Obviously there may be a left field option from nowhere. We will get a GK though, we let Lis go so we have a gap. The club know we can't go into a PL season with just two senior GK's.

The Rooney effect still going strong I see. Plymouth losing again. Haven't won a game this season yet, 4 in.

That is true, Toby was another one we got over the line on deadline day from seemingly nowhere (same day as Mane). THB last season was a great addition from nowhere. Equally we've jumped at some shockers like Onuachu and Sulemana in the january window. I hope we've learnt though.

He was in tears being carried off - got to feel for him, that's a pretty bad start. That tackle was a shocker.

Thankfully we were thorough then and didn't do another Stewart. We only have 2 senior keepers - McCarthy and Lumley. Lis has gone. Bazunu is out for the season. The club will get a new GK in, but who that is will be anyone's guess at this point.