S-Clarke

Totally different types of player. If we lost Broja, we'd lose a key component of our game which none of our forwards provide. When the inevitable happens in the summer we will need to buy a replacement type centre forward, as having someone with his pace and power has really taken our game up a level. It's not just what he does as such, it's how he allows the rest of the team to alter their style.

Yeah, 11pm tomorrow. I'm not ITK, this is just my take on the links we've had. Anjorin is going out on loan to the Championship, so that's not a goer for us. Carvalho is going to Liverpool, pretty much done and dusted. I think he'll be loaned back to Fulham for the remainder. The Broja situation isn't going to budge, the summer will decide that and sadly I think it'll probably be game over for us by then if he carries on his form. Dele Ali is still rumbling in the background for a few clubs, he needs to leave and has been told he won't play at Spurs...so he'll end up somewhere tomorrow. This is based on nothing by the way, but we usually operate like cloak and daggers and we're experts at not leaking stuff - maybe that's why all the Ali talk in the media re: all other clubs has died a death as we're the ones trying? Who knows. Not expecting anything though, truth be told. We're in an unusual position of not really requiring anything and we're in more of a 'nice to have' position.

I wonder if we have a sell on? I imagine he wouldn't be less than £15m, so we may get a tiny % of the fee if we did a sell on.

It's Charlie, I don't think he knows.

Optimistic people may say he'll get chances/start at Liverpool, but it will be few and far between. As said above, he has 5 or 6 internationals and premier league champions in front of him. He's at risk here of totally stagnating his career when he didn't need to, he'd have been better off moving to someone like us for a couple of years, getting a first team place every week to prove himself at the top level, and then getting his move to Liverpool once they're looking to evolve from Mane/Salah etc in a couple of years time. If it happens I think he's moved there too quickly.

Can't disagree with the GK, think he's an upgrade for them for sure. Not confirmed yet, but apparently going to happen. Not sure if Coady was one of their scattergun approaches when they were looking at CB, but with them now signing Burn you wonder if they'll still get him? Dembele was a great player at Dortmund, clearly has huge fitness issues though. Definitely a match winner on form. Don't think they'll get him though, Chelsea is my guess.

Dean Henderson off to Newcastle on loan. Looks like they'll wrap up Dan Burn for £15m as well. They're also sniffing around Conor Cody for £35m. Newcastle one of the clubs in for Ousmane Dembele. Pretty scattergun to say the least.

The social media is very damming (I didn't expect it to be that shocking, tbh) and given that Utd have come out in response already demonstrates that it's not just chatter, obviously needs to be an investigation to find the full facts, but it feels pretty inevitable that his career is over. Anyone doing what he's accused of needs to be locked up for a very long time.

Yeah, we've been mentioned in passing before. So have Brighton. Seems like a Brighton sort of signing, could follow the same pathway as Solly March.

Ah, looks like someone uncovered a load of previous tweets and that's done for him.

See no reason why the club can't get this over the line pretty quickly.

Everton were sniffing, they're looking at Loftus-Cheek too. Obviously Newcastle, given that he's got legs they're sniffing. There's certainly not been any 'solid' rumours though, no genuine links from club sources/local journos etc. I'm fairly sure he'll go somewhere by Monday....which makes you wonder if someone is doing a great job of keeping it under wraps.

Mourinho effect I think. He has that impact on players, he'll come into a club and pick on a certain individual and then cut them out of the team. Sometimes they recover, yet other times they have to move on. He did similar to Shaw and it took him a few years to get back to where he was after some tlc from Ole.

I think I read that the players were being given 4 or so days off, and Ralph was going back to Austria to see his family for a couple of days. That's kinda what the purpose of the break 'was' in the first place. Then we'll be back in training next week for the FA Cup game. Meanwhile, Newcastle who couldn't play against us a few weeks ago as they had no players/weren't fit enough, jet off to Dubai for some dick swinging friendly matches which surprisingly they have enough players to play in.

Apparently Zagreb didn't want to sell in the end. Sounds like Burnley weren't offering what they wanted to me! They're going to be busy on Monday at this rate! Weghorst would be a top replacement for Wood though if they can get that over the line.

This is why patience in football with an aligned strategy is so important, but weirdly it's so rare. I rate Martin Semmens and our board for sticking with Ralph when all around them were out with the knives. I'm absolutely positive that the patience we have shown with Ralph will reap so many rewards.

Money will talk for sure. I'm sure if the player was unsure the club would even buy him a mansion or something, they have all the money in the world to do whatever they want with. As has been said, 70-100m is probably our sweet spot in terms of what we'd accept. My hunch is that they won't be clever enough to look at him and they'll chase all the sexy European named signings from elsewhere. (no offence to James). In terms of England, Rice and Philips are probably of more interest to the top teams at the moment anyway.

As a fan that's what you dream of to be honest, but sadly that's never going to be the reality. We'll spend some $$ on established players to fit around the likes of Salisu, Tino etc - and then continue to try and snare some Chelsea and City prospects. You'd hope that we'd use the academy to baulk out the squad once there's more quality coming through, which it does seem to have now. I like Ballard, think he'll turn into an AMC rather than a striker.

There was the trial in 19/20, when it was exactly that - half one week, half the next etc. For whatever reason the powers that be have decided to have a full 15 day break for everyone. Probably pressure from the big six and Newcastle, so they can get all their signings in and integrated with the squad. You'd think this would be the perfect gap to play all of the re-arranged fixtures, daft really. Weirdly I notice an exception has been made for Burnley v Watford which is played next weekend, one of the re-arranged fixtures. That Newcastle postponement stinks even more.

It's the 'Winter Break', i.e Newcastle's chance to fly of to Dubai and dine with their new family.

Not sure how this impacts things, but Liverpool signing Luis Diaz may cool their Carvalho interest? Or at least block any pathway for him? I think that one will happen in the summer, hope we're still in the equation.

Yeah I agree, a lot is down to geography and players desire to be in the right location. But a lot of the time money will talk to be honest, and they have a lot of it. I don't see a strategy either to be honest, but when you have the unlimited funds they have it's inevitable they will bump into a strategy at some point. It's certainly going to be interesting to watch the next 2 or 3 years.

One we were linked with - Spurs fans having a meltdown as they think this is the alternative to Luis Diaz. Quite funny watching.

I think my theory is that if we do it right then we won't be a lower PL club, players may want to hang around as we're doing a good thing. I'm not naiave to think we'll always keep the best players, it's inevitable we will always be a form of a selling club....but if we do it right then we can get back to being a club that sells to Liverpool, Utd etc rather than Everton or Villa. I thought we were very close to a Dortmund type strategy years ago, but sadly consecutive horrendous transfer windows meant that we wasted all of that fortune that should have allowed us to 'go again'.

I don't think you can compare Everton and Newcastle, totally different animals. Newcastle are the equivalent of Man City, they will be going after the best players in the world in the next couple of years. They won't be signing the likes of Iwobi or Daccoure from Premier League clubs. How this is going to play out with FFP I don't know, but given that whole thing is flawed it'll probably be worked to their benefit.