S-Clarke

I don't have any concerns with signing Bazanu, as I think he's really talented. My concern is that he's likely to be be the only GK signing we make, and for a position that is in such a mess and in need of a starter today, signing a young and for the future player as the only GK is a huge, huge, huge risk. The club are basically rolling the dice if he is the only addition in goal. McCarthy has proven time and time again that he is horrific, look at what happened when he came back into the side at the end of the season. Goals, goals, goals everywhere. He shouldn't and cannot be in our squad next season, let alone in the starting 11, but sadly I think we all know that he'll start as number 1 and that is a huge (pardon the pun) own goal by the club in a summer that needs to signify a change.

He'd have had to! I can't see anyone paying what we were paying him to be a 'backup'. Absolute madness, upwards of 85k p/w I believe.

No doubting he has technical ability, but he's just horrendously slow and weak. He'll stand out technically in a lesser league, because he is decent in that sense, but his lack of pace and strength will always hinder him at the top levels.

All the best Fraser, was more than decent for us during the Koeman years. The first contract he signed in 2016 made some sense, but the next one he signed in 2017 made zero sense and that painted him and the club into a corner and tarnished his time here. He was never the same after that weirdly. Glad he came back this season and had a final crack, but we do need to move on from both Forster and McCarthy and this will free up a considerable chunk of wages. He was one of our highest earners, maybe top 2.

This was the argument put to the Theo signing, but if at over 30 he can't play regularly due to injuries and is infact quite poor nowadays then it's another squad place wasted on total crap - as he won't be cheap.

I wouldn't have got rid of him this summer myself, as we need the depth and won't be able to do everything in one window. But I wouldn't be giving him a new contract, I'd let it expire next summer and then replace him with better then. I guess we're trying to protect our investment.

Mount really seems to struggle at International level, maybe it's just a step too far for him. Always seems a bit lost. Not sure what the Saka hype is all about either, never seen much from him. Maybe it's just me.

Bellingham on.

I think Channel 4 won the rights to show England internationals. Not sure if it covers friendly's, but certainly all the qualifiers and competitive stuff.

Hopefully it's announced at 1pm on Friday afternoon 😉 Holy-grail time for any announcement.

Henderson is all but done to Newcastle I think. On paper you'd say Chamberlain is a no brainer, but it's a massive risk. The guy has always been incredibly injury prone and his knees are shot to pieces, his most recent injury was a potential career ender as he damaged every single knee ligament and cartilage. He won't be the player we remember bursting through with us, or at the start of his Liverpool career. He could still add something, but there is almost a guarantee he'll become best friends with the physios. It is a shame because he had all the tools, but injuries have destroyed any progress.

Kept our heads above water and hasn't made any stupid decisions. Seems a very sensible and trustworthy guy. He was pretty much our owner under Gao, with no money himself, so we were creative in how we could do things - which he was able to manufacture. He's a sensible and non-reactive CEO. We used to have Ralf Kruger and Les Reed pulling the strings, look at the mess they left us with (and they had money to play with).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he's a bad player...he obviously 'could' improve us and on form he's still light years ahead of anyone we have, but 'could' is the question mark I have. When you sign a player however good they are you want them to be committed to the cause, otherwise it's a bit pointless. I just cannot see how he'd be committed to club football, he'll use it as a vehicle for wales - no more than that. We play an intense front foot style of football, pressing high up etc - is he going to risk himself being hacked down by getting involved in the high press, or will he just become a passenger stood in space waiting for Redmond to give him the ball? The latter I suspect. He'd never get the ball in that case. He'd have retired from football had Wales failed yesterday, that probably tells you all you need to know about his club priorities. I'd definitely stay clear, no matter how good a bit of PR it would be.

If anything it makes slightly more sense if we're loaning him to Goztepe. They will soon be part of the Sport Republic wheel, so we're just moving him around within the group. It seems relativity low risk in the sense that it's free, we've obviously seen something in him and we'll see how he gets on. We will still sign another GK without question. These 'group' clubs often do this a lot, in some cases they never play for the club who 'own them'. City do it for sure.

It's a big conundrum to whoever gets Bale. You have to be realistic and say that the club will be his training ground for the World Cup, no more than that. He'll do enough to keep fit, but I can't imagine him pulling up any trees at the fear of missing his 'last hurrah' through an injury. Potentially a lot of money to be spent on someone who will always put the club 2nd.

I don't rate him, he can cross a ball and play a pass, but in terms of in-game defending he is dreadful. That should be his primary job, or maybe he should just become a winger.

I remember having a season ticket around a group of old blokes who absolutely despised Tadic. I started to wonder if he was sleeping with all their wives or something. If he miss controlled it he had all sorts of insults thrown at him, if a keeper saved a really tricky shot he was shit, if he did something well it was a case of ''well, he's paid well enough he should be doing that'' etc. Similar bile was thrown Pele's way, most of his first season. Not sure why he divided opinions. He was on a level above anyone else we've seen for years. We've had to put up with Redmond and Moussa running around and doing nothing ever since.

It was very disjointed to be honest. The midfield two just didn't work at all. The full backs were dross, even after the subs. Mount kept giving the ball away, Kane was isolated and wasn't holding it up. Bowen ran around a lot, a committed player but very low in quality. We had absolutely no one to really stretch it, it was very one dimensional and one-paced.

Hungary are a good team, they can more than hold their own against anyone. The guy who scored against us is a big talent, he's been moved between the RB clubs and is at Lipzig now. Probably odds on for a big money move in the next 18 months. Will Orban I've always been a huge fan of, a no-nonsense centre back who just does his job. He was captain for Ralph in his RB team. The other centre back Szalai was someone we were linked with last year, plays in Turkey now.

It's just like watching Southampton.

Yeah that's a fair view, lots of attributes to help our game but that only works if there are better players around him (as we had when Mane/Tadic etc were about) The prob with Long in recent seasons is that he's sort of been hung out to dry. The quality around the squad (attack specifically) has subsided enormously so work rate and 'running' no longer gets the plaudits as it's not equating to the wins. He's then put into the position to finish the few chances we do create and more often than not fluffs it, with no better quality to dig him out. Not discrediting his contribution to us, but players like him for all their effort and commitment to the cause need better players around them to really be a success, otherwise it's all a bit pointless. You could argue that's probably why the likes of Armstrong haven't ever got going here.

Once Sevilla wanted him it was game over.

That's a pretty dated view in my eyes. It should be filed in the ''We have to play 4-4-2'' and the ''Just get it in the box'' category.

Yep, good points - if he's ambitious enough he may feel he can jump straight into other teams too though. Hopefully we start to see more concrete links in the coming weeks, all a bit vague at the moment!

Highly rated player that guy. Spurs were looking at him too, as well as AC Milan. Not sure we stand a chance, although he'll be affordable to us because he's out of contract next year.