S-Clarke

I know it's just speculation, but that's so believable. I wouldn't have expected anything less from him. He's a totally flawed individual. A complete journeyman who will forever have an unfilled career in the sense of being a footballer, but I'm sure his bank balance and brands are strong.

I think last season was a fine example that their 'B Team' experiment was nothing short of a disaster. Much happier with more of a reserve team approach to be honest, might give some of the talented youngsters more of a chance to shine.

People calling for Svensson or Perry don't get the concept. As others, I read the post earlier this week and it's quite clear what the intention is. Sign a 'current' professional football player to play for the B Team. I'd say in the context we've done well to get Ollie in, someone who played quite regular in L1 last season - and this is just a B team player. That 'team' needed some added experience to it, the concept of 'reserve' football has been lost and I think there needs to be more of a hybrid model between experienced and 'up and coming' players in these 'B' teams. Otherwise you get in the mess we did last year. A squad full of underage players, 16's, 17 year olds, absolutely out of their depth with no experience around them.

The injuries and his fitness are the one big concern and worry about this 'possibility'. But we shouldn't turn our noses up to experience. That's what this squad lacks to be honest. It may not seem a sexy signing on the outset, but a lot can be said for a bit of old fashioned experience being added to a group. I don't think West Ham fans were doing cart wheels when Dawson signed, but he turned out to be excellent and added that knowhow and experience.

The only person who knows that is Yan himself. This is probably not the right place for that sort of speculation.

This is the sort of signing fans turn their noses up to, but then proclaim 6 months later that ''they wished we were Leicester'' ''We wish we were West Ham'' - who both have Jonny Evans and Craig Dawson shoring up their defence. I have no idea what the status is with his injuries, it seems chronic to me - or has it just been a case that he's lost his place? But as other's have said he would be our 'Johnny Evans' or 'Craig Dawson' - someone to add that bit of English league experience and knowhow to our ridiculously naive defence. Honestly, you'd struggle to make our defence worse than it was last year.

Milan seem the front runners. I'm sure we can compete with them. 😳 Chelsea play waiting game after ruling out flop's sale on specific terms (teamtalk.com)

Anyone fancy another #Ziyechwatch? Fully expect that the ship has long sailed in the respect of us, but Chelsea are seemingly open to loaning him out according to reports. Who knows what could happen if we suddenly sell Ings/Vestergaard.

Oh yeah for sure, the price tag will immediately raise everyone's expectations. It was certainly too much for him, 30-40m player tops in my opinion. This doesn't compare with the Carillo transfer though, as at least Pepe has done something for Arsenal, albeit only from a bit of last season. We basically opened the Kingsland concourse doors and threw £19m + whatever wages in the air.

It'll be interesting to see how he does, but there has been a talk of his 'attitude' being a problem for a few years now (i.e, he thought he'd made it etc). Talent and ability can only get you so far, if you have a shit attitude then you never really fulfil the technical promise you may have. Lemina is a fair example of that too.

Probably only from last season to be honest, last season was when he finally started to score goals and look a threat. Before that he has been a mess, close to being shipped out. He's not even come close to meeting the demands of that price tag, they've overpaid for him and then some.

Vlahovic would be an interesting replacement for Kane. Kind of similar in that sense that he'd still provide them that focal point up top and allow them to build off him. I think Ings would still come into the equation though, if I was Spurs I'd look for someone like Vlahovic and invest in the future but to cover the here and now I'd see what's out there in terms of proven PL - Ings, at £20-30m, no brainer for any club with a bit of money and a hole to fill up top. I think he'd be a player they'd sign if Kane did go, as technically they'd be down two players with Vinicius and Kane leaving. The Kane transfer will start a cascade, let's see if it happens.

To be fair to Palace they have no choice but to add to the squad, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to field an 11. I imagine they've saved enormous wages with the likes of Townsend, Sakho, Cahill, Van-Arnoholt all gone. That's probably given them this flexibility in attracting these players. They seem to be trying to make the right moves though, Olsie in particular is a great addition in light of Eze being out. Be interesting to see what else they do, as they're still a fair bit short.

There were moves to bring in that cover at full back when we let Valery go, but we couldn't move forward with that until we had a loan fee/% of wages off the bill from the Valery move. That's what I heard anyway. So we had to sanction the depature first, then move forward on our moves, which then didn't come to fruition. Always a risk. Similar happened with KWP, we had to shift on Cedric first...before we had the funds to bring him in on a loan. It's all very frustrating and you cannot run a PL club in this way. Miracle we're still here. I think Ralph, under the circumstances he's in, has been excellent and the only bit of stability we have. Some fans seem keen to throw the only positive thing about us in the bin and I don't understand that.

I think that's exactly it. I'm not seeing anyone calling for Man City levels of investment here, all I'm seeing are fans who'd like the club to be able to bring in the odd loan or a couple of £10-15m signings to 'improve' the squad without having to make strategic sales first. We don't know for sure, but it does feel like we are strangled a lot more than many clubs in this league and it feels like we cannot do anything until we sell first. The only way we move forward without a struggle every year is a change of ownership, but seeing that happen in this current climate is hard.

Vaguely remember something like that! If we can get good funds for Vestergaard, in a weird way I think it can make us stronger.

I find it really odd that a thread about our two average goalkeepers, who the club have given decent money to and don't have the finances to replace right now, has turned into a blame game on Ralph - the goalkeeping situation is his fault, the lack of finances is his fault. Huh? I don't follow. If we had money we'd get a new goalie, I'm not doubting that what so ever. Sadly we don't have any money so we have to prioritise elsewhere. Whilst Alex and Fraser aren't great, they're not total calamities let's be fair. Apart from Ralph getting out his own personal loan to either pay off Fraser, or buy a new GK, I fail to see what he can do. And 'making Frasers life hell' so he leaves isn't what I'd call an approach. Completely out of touch.

It's probably a package which 'could', but is incredibly unlikely to reach those levels. 4-5m is prob what we can expect staged over two payments I reckon. And that alone is a bonus as I thought we'd end up loaning him. So...#unsellables wise....we have sold Hoedt (kind of), Lemina (almost), Carillo (Given away), Boufal (given away). Not sure if I've missed any, but that's some decent wedge off the wage bill over the last year or so - just a shame about the £50m+ loss we've had to make in the process. Cheers Les. Just Elyonoussi from that group....but I think he's going to be given a first team chance.

So you'd rather run the risk of Stephens or Salisu at full back, maybe a young kid coming into CM, or Long starting up top as a regular just so we get a decent goalie? I get we need a new goalie and in an ideal world we'd sort it, but it's not an ideal world and we have no money so there are just more pressing concerns.

Nothing wrong with Antwerp per-say! I just see Chelsea youngsters going back on loan there season after season, then eventually leaving on a free and never fulfilling thier potential. I wouldn't imagine he's coming here thinking he's going to be first choice, but in and around the first team for sure would be an expectation.

Or better value from their attackers. They didn't get any value from Jahanbakhsh, I imagine they'd have expected a decent haul from him. I'd also expect more from Trossard tbh. I think they could do with someone better than Maupay, but they also need to be better in all attacking areas. They look great up until the box (well, they did last season).

I wouldn't even say he's working to a budget, he's working with nothing. The club are working in the background to generate the funds to enable the movement in the squad. I guess the question is - would you consider an Ings replacement less important than a new goalkeeper? I personally wouldn't. Goalkeeper is a position that would be nice to upgrade, without question, but there are many other pressing areas that take my attention long before the goal keepers. If we had stacks of money it wouldn't be a question, but we have no money what so ever...so we've got to be very clever with what we do. Shelling out any fee on a goal keeper when we already have two well paid ones on the books, and leaving gaps at full back, up front and midfield would be utter lunacy in my eyes.

These sorts of signings are sound. It seems as if these Chelsea youngers have got fed up with stagnating in the Chelsea Reserves or away on loan deals at Antwerp. I agree with a previous post above - I think this will allow Salisu to become a starter, Vestergaard to leave. Simeu and Stephens as number 3 and 4 Centre backs. That allows us to sell Vestergaard for a decent fee and reinvest that money in other areas of the squad. Could be a sound move and the bit of business that finally allows us to fill some holes in CM/wing back and maybe even up front.

I don't disagree, I'd love to sort the situation right now. I think it's crap, two pretty average keepers who are backup not first choice. But I don't see how we can put the finance towards that when we have more pressing issues - such as full back, CM depth and attacking depth (including an Ings replacement if rqd). I think those are the more pressing areas in this window in my opinion.

I think clubs are monitoring him, but he's just not their first choice in my opinion. They'll see how the market shifts, look at what happens with the likes of Kane, Halland, maybe Mbappe etc and then see where they are. If Ings goes it will be right at the back end of the window when clubs are clear on player availability, and that could be dangerous for us. We could refuse it and potentially upset Ings, or we could accept it and have absolutely no time to replace. Ideally we get in someone like Armstrong whilst Ings is still here...then we have that safety net. But who knows if that's possible without a sale first.