S-Clarke

Really demoralising for anyone having to sit through that 20 mins, as worst as I've ever seen. The biggest problem in this half has been that diabolical midfield. Diallo being Diallo, not good enough. JWP trying to play high up, but getting caught. Alcaraz terrible on the ball, looks just like you'd expect a 20 year old kid to look in a game like this. Lyanco though, holy jesus. How can he still get picked? The guy is beyond bad. Bednarek being Bednarek as well, ball watching, getting done by pace and turned. Terrible player as we all knew. Bree, hmm - wtf? Anyway....2nd half, keep the score down?

Everton apparently.

Let's not count our chickens just yet, plenty of work to do. Still very difficult to stay up.

This guy is someone I remember having my eye on in the summer, along with Sesko. (that ship sailed). He is a massive lump of a CF, cracking goal record, experienced (not a kid). Exactly bang on what we need in a number 9 position. Someone else on here was flogging his name around as well in that he'd be a great shout for us. 17 in 22 this year, 23 in 43 last year. Guy knows where the goal is. I'd say this ticks more boxes that Vitinha in the sense he's more proven, costs less and has much better physicality.

Do you know what this transfer is missing? Sydney to provide us some insight from his Rennes supporting friends.

Good move for him to get some game time at least, I have no real opinion on him as I've never seen him. He could be a superstar, or he could be another Vokins. Let's see how he does.

Awkward! I doubt that's really how it played out though, so much nonseense gets spouted today - makes for entertainment though!

So based on that alone they seem to have a very good eye for wide attackers.

Watford have been quoted as wanting £40m upwards for Sarr, and the main concern around him is his injury proneess for that figure.

I think they were overseeing it, but to me it looks like most of what we did was influenced by Joe Shields. 4 Man City kids and Joe Aribo, pretty much personally done by Shields. DCC and AMN were club signings and had been on our list for some time.

Seems like we're all in agreement in that this isn't a bad signing on it's own, we need pace and unpredictability across the front 3. I know it looks like a lot of money (which it is to the normal world!) but in football terms it's a pretty average fee, which is crazy to say. But.....it would feel incredibly frustrating if we don't get a number 9 in conjunction with this, because it would almost make it null and void. I'd have personally put all effort and finance into securing a number 9, and leave the winger as a nice to have, but there we go.

Yeah, I think the Vitinha one can be firmly put in the Gakpo realm now. Not happening, shows what nonsense comes up on twitter in days like this. Ojogo are a very solid source in Portugal, they had an article up earlier this morning saying he'd chosen Marseille - then took it down quickly, obviously not confirmed at that point, but it's back up there now. He's going there, on a plane now. Vitinha in Marseille in a transfer that goes into the history of Braga (ojogo.pt)

Absolutley, very strange if that comes to fruition. But even though we did spend a good chunk, I don't think we have executed it right. Lots of unproven kids who are wilting at the pressure, which was always the risk. Would have been good to see some more seasoned players signed in the summer with more than youth football as their background, in addition to a striker as we never replaced Broja - can't underestimate how important a forward is for any team, no matter how much you spend elsewhere. So spending alone isn't the problem, it's how it was spent and the positions we have (so far) neglected to fix. That's why we are where we are.

Sulemna at the WC, but no more that. But it's obvious to see that he's quick, and attribute wise we lack quick players in that final third - so straight away it would be a win on pace alone. I have seen Vitinha for Braga a couple of times, proper number 9 type, good runner with the ball. Not overally glamerous or technically amazing, I wouldn't say, but he's a bit of a presence - which we lack at the mo.

Nah, I'm fully primed for the ''We tried so hard, but couldn't do it in time'' article from the Athletic tomorrow. This does all feel a bit Gakpo-esqe if I'm honest, but something to follow for the day at least.

I'm not getting my hopes up at all....but...Sulemana and Vitinha is EXACTLY what we need, more pace and ability on the flanks and across the front, and a proper number 9 with a physical presence in the Broja mould. That would likely be a £50m+ outlay, which would be unheard of for us and it would take our total season spend to well over £100m. It would be a very unusual day if we do this, part of me thinks it’s 1 or the other though. – and if I had a choice, it would be Vitinha as that’s what we need more of.

This is very true, so much nonsense gets spouted in the next 24 hrs. It's on, off, on, off. It was never on, but it's off anyway. etc. No point getting worked up over every single random tweet development there is, just see where we are come this time tomorrow.

We'll spend the next 3 weeks haggling over that one, until we realise he's free and then Bolton will nip in and grab him.

My cynical view is that the stuff coming out today are all the players we've 'tried' to sign over the course of the entire window, just so we look active in the final 24 hrs and can play the ''we tried so hard'' card tomorrow. Let's see what happens.

Bid in for Vitinha of Braga (£26m). Bid in for Paul Onatchu of Genk (not sure how much, probably £15-20m). Attempted to get Dembele, may still have legs but not sure. Interested in Ayew on a free.

Just saw that Chelsea are going to break the British transfer record on that Argentina fella, how are they able to do this? That's around £600m spent in 7 months. There are uneven playing fields and then there's that.

Would be more sensible to do a loan, but I don't think Lyon wanted that. At the end of the day though I reckon the player isn't interested.

When do we think this paragraph will be published? I'm going for 4pm tomorrow. ''Southampton were keen on Vitinha, and were prepared to break their transfer record to get their man, but whilst the player was keen it became apparent that there was simply not enough time to conclude a deal of such complexity and high value. Southampton head into the rest of the season with their current options and are understood to be relaxed and have belief in the talent already at the club. The club rejected several approaches for Che Adams and Sekou Mara this window which the club believe illustrates that they already have top quality options at their disposal, which meant adding better than those was always going to be incredibly difficult''. *For context, I've made this up - but it's very believable!*

That's a good draw, I didn't realise how few PL teams there are left. Decent chance for a minnow to win a cup this year, it needed to happen at some point for Spurs I guess.