S-Clarke

The sub situation is really odd, would love to hear the explanation around that.

Cracking goal that, really good break from the back, through the middle.

They're doing what we did when we sold Lallana, Lambert, Lovren, Chambers, Shaw etc and are reinvesting quickly in players who will arguably add more quality to their entire squad, rather than just going ahead and looking for a straight replacement for Grealish. The reinvestment of the fee before it's even confirmed is showing ambition.

We're not spending £30m on a striker. £15m tops.

We might be able to move now though, unless this one has sadly got too advanced.

Sounds like Dean Hammond. He's been on busy saints duty today, what with the star studied Calshot kit unveiling this morning.

31st Aug. About 3 and bit weeks left. I reckon we've got Vestergaard to ship out as well.

It was okay, as above. Nothing special really. I think Levante have had the better chances, bit boring all in.

How would we have moved in on our primary targets in 2020 when we clearly have to sell before we can even come close to signing another player? The 'board' and the 'scouting (recent scouting)' is being thrown under a bus, when it's the ownership that's the problem. I see it as two separate elements - Board doing as well as they can out of a shit situation, and ownership who have in essence dumped and run and aren't providing any support. That makes it very hard for us to plan or to even proactively prepare for departures.

I don't think many people are saying it won't make us weaker, he was our stand out player. His goals kept us up last season, they kept us out of a relegation battle the season before. But one player doesn't make a club. It didn't when we had Lambert, Shaw, Lallana, Chambers, Lovren etc. We'll miss him but we owe it to the club to try and evolve from this situation. There are other players out there, and maybe we can use this fee to also improve other aspects of our game so we don't concede as many goals. I'd be interested to bounce this thread in January just to see how it's all panned out.

That comes down to money though doesn't it.

Been our best player so far, absolutely.

Not a clown club, but clown ownership - yes. The club are having to make the best of this shity ownership situation in order to try to remain competitive. Not sure what you expect us to do to be honest. £30m for someone with a year left is just a no brainer in my eyes. Letting him go for free would have been 100 times worse. I have more confidence in the scouting now than I did under Wilson, we've picked up some gems like Diallo, KWP, Salisu who are more in line with what we used to buy....

It's like people feel we've sold someone and automatically won't replace. I always thought this was the best move and probably the only move we could make. We keep him a year, he goes on a free, we then have £0 to replace him with. Or we bit the bullet now, get a decent fee, and get the player we want. And we've done the latter. I think it's all we can do in our situation and we just need to make sure we can make ourselves somewhat stronger.

Not sure how legit that source is, but I personally wouldn't be surprised to see this one happen almost as quick.

Bigger history, trophies, size etc. But finances play a big part in the here and now. And they, as well as pretty much 18 other clubs in this league, are bigger than us financially and can do more financially. That's why our scouting has got to be shit hot so we can continue to compete until we get new ownership.

Maybe we could sell MLG. £20m?

Not sure what everyone is panicking about. We've still got Long.

Not sure why I see these comments now. Think we're still scared by the Reed and Wilson years, but I honestly think the scouting has gone up notches now. This is the first time they've had genuine money to play with, so let's see if my optimism is justified!

As i said the other day on Villa, Smith should be out of the door if they're not in and around Top 6 - with or without Grealish. It's a shame that a club only just recently promoted, and one we done 6-1 only a few seasons back, have managed to get the right investment to propel them into a Universe we can only dream of. This is where it's hard to compete in this league when you have clubs like Villa operating at these levels now.

Two of the three I think, but not all 3. Would need another sale to do that. Maybe Vestergaard.

20% of the profit apparently, which was £10m as we bought him for £20m. So around £2m owed to pool.

The Ings deal has shown exactly what we'd do - if the bid is good enough, we will accept it as we need the money.

And that would explain it. £30m for someone with 1 year left is too good for a club with no pot to piss in to turn down. This needs to be reinvested well.

Maybe they've all been sold to Villa?