S-Clarke

They got him last summer.

How the fuck has he ended up as TalkSports 'Transfer Guru'? He's almost as bad as the chuckle brothers on Sky Sports news with their constant ''It's our understanding that we're making it up as we go a long, but we will endevour to use big words and look important in our suits so that it sounds ligitimate''

Interesting news around Stu and Elyounoussi. I remember we were keen to offer Elyounoussi a new contract a few months back, so he's obviously rejected that and we're looking to cash in. If we lose him, Stu and Redmond then we can look forward to a nice revamp of our number 10 positions in the next 6 days....! We'd be giving ourselves a lot to do in a short space of time though. Recap on who we are looking to dump - Bednarek (we'd need to replace him) Romeu (we'd need to replace him) Redmond, Elyounussi, Theo, Stu (We'd need to replace them) So that would mean potentially 5 or 6 new additions in 6 days, as we need full back cover and a striker before anyone leaves as it is. Can't see it.

Good draw all round, home game for us against lower league oppo - although it will be a tricky one. Lots of PL and PL sides which will open an avenue for teams like us.

Rangers through to the Champions League groups. Won 0-1 away at PSV.

Along the lines of.....''You could see how much of a difference it made when we had someone up top who made a difference, was direct. Why he stopped doing those things in the second half of the season is unknown to me'' - Smirks from both him and Semmens.

It makes our effort look even better, we made it look easy last night. Just as we did against Newport last year.

The only thing which makes me doubt that is Ralph's comments from the fans forum. He was pretty scathing on how he downed tools in the 2nd half of last season for us.

I do think any new signing we make needs to be better than what we have, otherwise you get yourself in the same mess as we did when we baulked out the squad with Bednareks and McCarthy's. I'm confident Maitland-Niles is better than we have in terms of a versatile option and extra CM (better than Diallo for a start). I think any new signing we make needs to have the ultimate aim to play first team football for us, otherwise what's the point. I get the odd emergency loan every now and then, but we need to get away from the idea of baulking the squad out with average. The way you do it is evolve the team by buying better so the likes of Redmond/Bednarek/Romeu/Stephens/Diallo drop to the bench.

I would be happy with this one, he's a good player and needs a chance.

17 the season before that to be fair. He's clearly got pedigree, got pace, got power. Really enjoyed watching him for Sweden at the Euros.

Out of interest, who would you rate as higher who would come here? I don't think he's a bad player, plenty of PL experience. The 'utility' element of his game is probably right up Ralph's street as well, RB/LB and CM covered with one player. You need players like him in a squad imo. The striker will be our big one I think. I have a hunch we will break our transfer record.

Sounds like plenty of things are ramping up now. £60m for Isak is a huge fee, but he's a really good striker. Newcastle saving their dollar under the final weeks. The next level down from the likes of Nunez, he will be brilliant in this league I think. Big fan of him. Paquetta to WHU will also be very good. But I'll wait on that one as they've been close a few times to players.

Rumour has it he's still blaming Bertrand now, and he's not even here anymore.

Kills a few birds this one. I know he wants to play in CM, but he gives us versitility at wing back if required. It does sound like Romeu is off though sadly.

I didn't think we'd ever see levels of £60m for Antony Gordon. Who knows what craziness awaits in the last week!

You make some good points. We're not activley looking to sell Che, I'm sure of it, but there is more to a transfer than just us not wanting to sell. Maximising player values and re-investing is our moto, so if we have a situation whereby he doesn't want to sign a new contract and we get an offer of £35-40m then I'd say we'd probably be tempted. We could re-invest that in a number 10 type and an out and out striker, but I do get the nervousness as he's quite easily the only trusted goal scorer we have right now.

The prob is that none of these teams could afford him, 60-70k per week he's on here. We'd probably accept a nominal fee, but he's going to have to take on hell of a pay cut, at least 50% - probably more, for clubs to even consider him. It's clubs of that level that are the only ones who'd be interested in my opinion. I don't like getting into situations with players whereby we cover a portion of their wages, even after they've left. Best to just cut ties.

The poor guy has another long-term injury, he won't be going anywhere anytime soon! Will be up for a freebie next summer though, if anyone wants to take the risk.

You've got to hope it'll be a case of after the lord mayors show for Man Utd. They got themselves up for the Liverpool game, but they have a bunch of horrible complacent players who could easily forget to turn up against little old Southampton.

He's another one we've kept around for too long imo. In the same vein as Hesketh, Sims, Ramsay etc. Never going to make it at any decent level, yet we keep them around just in case. I expect he'll be off for free on his contract expiry.

Didn't he struggle with a miniscus problem around Christmas last year? The club were debating an op at that point, but wanted to see how he went. Maybe they took this oppertunity to clean up the miniscus issue too.

Positives from tonight are Payne and Ballard for me. Always love seeing academy kids get a run out, one got an assist, one got a goal. Couldn't have gone much better to be honest. A relatively easy and comfortable evening, nice bit of fitness for the squad players too. Probably telling that Theo, Redmond and Stephens are nowhere near.

😃 I'm itk! in all seriousness it came up on Sky Sports thing, but it didn't copy particularly well!

Chelsea forward Callum Hudson-Odoi is close to finalising a loan move to Bayer Leverkusen.