S-Clarke

It's impossible not to look at Newcastle with a tiny bit of jealousy, it must be exciting for their fans, but it's a short-term fix geared to getting instant success. It's not particularly being earnt. Whilst I'd love a tycoon owner....I get much more satisfaction by watching a club diligently scout and develop players and a team over a period of time. We might get picked off from time to time, but as long as we're setup right we can go and start the development process again. Getting success doing it the way we do will feel much more rewarding in my opinion. As supporters we need patience (which in the world of football is rare) but my opinion is that we could be heading towards good times with this current model we're pursuing.

That was the injury that ruined him, he was never the same after that. Shame really, he was probably in the peak of his powers then as he'd come off the back of a 20 goal season before that. Bloody knee injuries.

I'm just waiting for the Alex Crook seal of approval before I get excited.

''Southampton hero'' - gutter press.

Combination of a lot of things I guess. Generally it's a quiet window up to now, media need to drum up stories especially as we're coming to the end. (Newcastle being linked with every player who has played football being an example of that!) Agents and clubs know we have new ownership, there have been snippets shared in the sense that we're now in a position to act quicker, we've had an injection of cash etc...so you'll see our names dropped in the hat I guess. Whereas before everyone just automatically assumed we were skint beyond our wildest dreams, so they didn't even use our name.

Ah ok, fair enough. Transfermkt still says 2022 so obviously not been updated yet! Certainly a very highly rated target though, I remember in the summer when we got Livramento, Chelsea were saying on one of their forums ''I hope they don't come after the other Tino, he's one of our best'

Out of contract in the summer too, so he's probably available for a very small fee - couple of mill tops.

Two Tinos at one club, what are the chances. He's another of their really highly rated young players for what it's worth. First team ready, not a Simeu type. Attacking/number 10 type I believe.

I guess for me, someone like Dean Henderson is a level above. It may be fanciful, not sure...but could be gettable. Couple of keepers we've looked at in Italy are highly regarded. I don't think Johnstone is a bad keeper and is probably a little bit better than what we have...but still on the average side for me. We'll see what happens.

I wouldn't disagree to be fair. There's better out there than him, IMO.

Interestingly, Sam Johnstone wasn't involved for West Brom tonight and there's no reason as to why. He's not suspended or injured. West Brom fans have noticed that he's now removed all references to them from his social media pages. Looks like he's on his way somewhere. From a supposed ITK West Brom Fan

I think they can recall him, but we'd need to be paid to break the loan (possibly pay back the loan fee, whatever it was). It's not out of the question that he could be recalled and then sold to another club, but I'd say it's incredibly unlikely this late on.

I can't believe anything the media are saying with regards to Newcastle at the moment, it's prime circus. Must be entertaining for their fans in terms of the pantomime but they're being played on a lot of things to generate stories/get clicks etc. You read any rumour for any player and every single time you'll read ''Newcastle are also monitoring the situation' stapled somewhere in the article. I reckon that Bruno one is legit to a point, but a few sources jumped the gun earlier.

He was a decent name back in the 12's/13's, but since he relegated 1860 Munich (they still haven't returned, now in tier 3 of Germany) his name has been badly tarnished. He's been giving weird media interviews today about the Everton Interview process, he sounds a bit of a nutter all told.

They string it on longer now though! Don't forget the 'DEAL SHEETS'! !! My favourite deadline day moment is this -

Everton making themselves look absolute mentalists at the moment, not just the club/board it's self but the fans as well. Fair enough they don't want Vitor Pereria, but it's a bit of an own goal to graffiti 'Pereria out' across the stadium when he hasn't even been appointed yet. Granted, he sounds like an absolutely horrific choice but still they're not helping themselves.

Transfer deadline day used to be a laugh, but I can't deal with it anymore. Not sure if it's because I've got older or not, but it's just cringey hearing them cling to stuff to make stories. Gutter journalism at best.

I must admit, the media are making their transfer interest an absolute show. They don't need to, but they are. It's probably not half as dramatic as the media are painting, but it's making it look like it's all a bit inept from Newcastles side. It feels like it's the media who are stiring it though and then having to backtrack. I reckon this will happen, but the media have just jumped the gun and are now saving face. SSN's Bevis and Buthead transfer guys are part of the problem with their sensationalized twitter regurgitated bollocks.

Newcastle are using their money to good effect here, obviously substantial money has been put into the players and agents face, but they're about to sign Bruno Guimarães. One hell of an upgrade on Jon Jo Shelvey. Not getting him for a bad price either given his undoubted potential, £25-30m.

Any buy back isn't going to be the same cost as we pay them today, it will be more - that's how they work. Chelsea are cash rich so an extra £20m or so 2 years down the line probably won't bother them a great deal. Lots of clubs do these sort of things, City do it a lot on their young players. I think, amazingly, Angus Gunn came with a buy back in his deal when we bought him from City. Douglas Luiz at Villa has a £30m buy back as well. One of the things with buy backs is that they can expire, so if after 2 or 3 years the player isn't on Chelsea's radar then their opportunity to buy back expires and he's then on the open market if we decide to sell. I think there's a lot of millage in these sort of deals because it opens the door to players that are probably not gettable otherwise.

We're not like Newcastle, so we wouldn't put down that amount of cash in an offer for a situation that may not even happen. We've clearly been given the right indicators by Broja and his reps, Chelsea probably haven't been shut off to the idea either (they are known for selling their young players). It's a business at the end of the day, so if they can get a big fee up front now with the potential to re-buy him for £40-50m in a few years it's probably a good deal for them. Still not a bad deal for us as there's still profit to be made if it goes that way. Hard to see how this pans out at the moment, always felt a 2nd loan was more possible but we'll see.

I feel the Carvalho ship has sailed to be honest, feels like Liverpool are all over that for the summer. Might be wrong, but it just feels a longshot now. Shame we didn't have any finances 18 months ago, we could have pushed harder then.

I did think he'd be closer to the first team this season though, that was the talk when we signed him ''He'd be part of the 1st team'' - but he's not been too close, never looked likely to play. Think he was in the squad over a few games at Christmas, but I thought he may get a go at Swansea but never did. Not sure if it's panned out exactly how we all thought it would, as I doubt he moved here to clog up our B Team and then go to Carlisle...!

Surprising move that one, I guess that kind of confirms the move for the Cheltnham player who will take his spot in the B Team for the rest of the season. There's certainly good depth now at all levels.

It's not like MLG to ruin yet another thread with his pedantic nonsense is it.