S-Clarke

As expected, a pointless statement by Brighton. Made themselves look very daft, and Chelsea have bantered them too. Fail.

Yeah, FFP too - that is a bit of a sham though, I think. Some clubs are taken to the cleaners because of it, meanwhile Barca are able to do what they're doing. But as we're an honest club then yeah, we'd need to increase our marketing a hell of a lot to be operating in that wage budget. And as soon as you offer that to one new player, agents of any new potential addition will get a sniff and will want some of that for their own client too. A single player on that wage would throw our model out of the window.

I can't see us ever offering a player 200k per week, it would create such an odd wage gap in the squad to everyone else. Our highest earner is on 100k p/w which is JWP, not really sure we'll ever go above that on new players - maybe renewing existing, but certainly not new players. Much the same way we'll never be spending £40m-50m on transfer fee's on single players either.

It'll be interesting to see how he does in the PL, but the fact that it's a straight loan with no option is probably suggestive that Chelsea are valuing him at silly levels. He's perfect for the back 3 they adopt at Brighton and will fill that void left by Burn. It's probably going to be a Broja situation for Brighton at the end of the season though - as I think he'll do well there.

What we're seeing now is the typical lull before a busy couple of weeks transfer wise. Focus switches to coaching what 'you have' for the first couple of games, preparation for the start of the season etc. Plus...this is often the time when clubs of our level are looking at players who may also have their sights elsewhere, i.e more established players. As the window creeps on and moves to 'bigger' clubs don't materialise, we're in a decent position to grab them. Loan situations often come out of nowhere at the back end of the window, clubs play the first few games, players realise they're not getting the games so they'll push to leave. Could be situations we see evolving with the likes of Hudson-Odoi or even someone like Elanga if Utd sign some additions (as I remember an ITK link to him). It's the same with players who we want to shift. If they realise they're not going to get games here, then they may then be open to moves and start pushing themselves which will help us remove some deadwood. Sports Republic know what they're doing, they've come in and they've not settled with the status quo. They're challenging all aspects and for the first season in some while it feels as if Ralph is actually under some real pressure to deliver.

£62m for Cucarella, the world has gone bonkers. He's a good player, but he's not that good a player. Brighton already have the £15 bleeding a hole in their pocket from Dann, and £35m from Bissouma. They've not got long, but they've potentially got £100m to play with.

It wasn't called 'LOL' yesterday, it was called Fabrizo Romanos (note the S on the end). Really sad that people do that tbh.

And at which point, Tino will be back. So whilst he would still be a big loss, we can replace him knowing that we already have Tino there who could make that position his own. As i mentioned on another thread, I'm all for our strategy and I accept our place, but it's all about selling at the right time so it doesn't work in a negative way to the club.

The predictions in the media seem to be ignoring a lot of the changes we've made in the summer, not just on player additions but also backroom staff. Once we get our Broja replacement I think we'll surprise a few, as we have had a total reset this summer. Whilst there is always a fear that last seasons form can carry over, due to the amount of changes we've made at the club this summer it does feel like we're starting on a clean slate for all. I personally really rate the signings we've made because they align with how we want to play. Yes, they're young and don't have huge experience, but neither did Shaw or Tino when we threw them in. My mantra has always been if you're good enough you're old enough and I think the 'media' will be surprised at the impact some of these young lads make this season. They'll be quick to sell them off to the Top 6 before long, as god forbid anyone outside the big clubs can have good players.

You only have to look at Barcelona to see that FFP is a load of utter bilge.

If he chooses to go to Everton then as a player you can see exactly the sort he is, and West Ham will probably have dodged a bullet. Seemingly motivated by money and money alone. Obviously footballers will always be motivated by money to a point, but there are players who are a little more switched on to the footballing reasons as it will benefit their career at the end of the day. Maybe the dugouts have made all the difference.

Sadly that's another saddo on twitter who is trying to pretend they are a 'verified' account.

DT doesn't need good sources in order to have a meltdown.

Not sure what the point of that statement is, it's obvious he will be a Chelsea player very soon.

They were loosely linked with Lewandowski before he left Bayern, and they've been linked with Ronaldo too.

Only a matter of time until Chelsea change their FM Search filter to 'Striker'.

Interesting article that, really good to hear the detail of all that's gone on. It's clear that he recognises the need for a good striker though, like he said our best time last year came with Broja on top and our best time the seasons before that came with Ings on top - it's no coincidence really, good strikers/attackers make all the difference. One of my criticisms over the last year is that we hardly ever seem to sneak a win or a point when we don't play well, if we play bad we lose 9 times out of 10. Having an exceptional attacker, as Ralph alludes to, gives you an opportunity to snatch a goal on the break when you don't deserve it. I don't trust Adams, Armstrong or Tella to be able to do that. They all fluff their lines too often and seem to need 3 or 4 chances a game to actually get a goal, which doesn't often happen in the PL and certainly not in a game you're playing poorly in. It'll be interesting to see who our targets are, by the wording of 'game-changing' and 'exceptional' you wouldn't expect it to be a kid who has never played pro football. The guy from Stuggart is a key target imo, he's not young enough to be unproven but he's also not old enough to lack future sell-on.

I wish. I don't think we'll be anywhere near this one, talk of £35m +. He's off to an elite club.

I'd say the reason we haven't seen that for a while is because the quality has eroded around him. He was forming a decentish partnership with Broja, but there was something that never really clicked with those two. He was in his fore with Danny Ings, who used to run in behind which allowed Che to play the balls in behind. We haven't had a player like Ings since he left, so he's not going to be seen as that effective. This isn't a slight on Che as he's decent, but without top quality alongside him he struggles. I know people laugh at the term 'Support Striker', but that's exactly what he is. If the quality he's supporting isn't great then he's equally not going to look great as he's never going to be prolific himself.

Bella-Kotchap and Mara weren't to be fair.

Totally agree. He had a great pre-season last year, I thought it would be the season he broke through in the PL but it never happened, he had his worst season for us. Needs a loan like you say, as he's stagnating here and if we're not careful he'll go the way of Gallagher/Reed/Sims etc. He also needs to work out his best position, personally I see him as a winger. Not a 10 or a striker.

There is an element of some posters looking for this as a reason to bash Ralph, he made him unhappy by dropping him etc. I think Ralph has coached him brilliantly, he wouldn't be in line for any of these moves if Ralph hadn't been a great coach for him. Adding left back to his list of positions has if anything increased his value, interest from other clubs and his recent England inclusions.

Che obviously wants to be first choice here, my hunch is that the club are pushing for a new striker which will in fact demote him down the pecking order, so he's looking for options and the agents are busy at work. You don't sell him until we have that new striker though, as that leaves us with nothing.

Looks like Ryan Finnagan suffered a bad injury tonight in the Totton game, stretched off after a long spell on the ground

Saw that mentioned elsewhere, talk is that it will be a loan deal with WHU covering all wages, with an option at the end of the loan.