S-Clarke

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.

Be good to see how he does in the Championship, must have been tricky to do in this window for whatever reason.

It's true and that is the downside....but if you do it right, and I look at examples of RB Lipzig and Dortmund then you can keep going again with the next generation. I think we'll have a slightly different situation now in the sense that we can move for replacements before we sell, that was the problem for us before. I'm sure we said we'd have liked to have got Armstrong in the year before we sold Ings to integrate him, but we couldn't buy him before selling first at the end of the day. There's also a lot to be said of having players buying into a team and a project, if we make an environment here and they're suitably well paid...then they might not be running to get out of the door at the first opportunity.

I think the expectation in L1 was that we'd get promoted from that level, but the Championship promotion was exciting because we didn't just spend money to get that promotion. We had Leicster throwing the cash around at that point with £5m on Maynard etc, so we certainly didn't throw the money around as such in our Championship season. Do most of the large clubs scout correctly with patience over the development, or do they knee-jerk on a lot of signings? Chelsea have splurged over £150m on two forwards who don't look at odds with this league, whilst at the same time casting Broja out on loan twice. Man City went and spent £100m on Grealish when they had players like MacAtee in and around the squad who could have done his job this season, as he's not been great. Newcastle gave up on Armstrong and let him go to L1, I'd say most of his development came at Coventry and then Blackburn. I like the way we do it now, getting the best young players and building a young team that will grow together. It's kind the avenue we were going under Poch with the likes of Morgan, Jay, Lallana, Wanyama, Clyne, Shaw etc.

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.