S-Clarke

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.

There's a few things that make me feel it could be a goer, I guess financially we'll see how Spurs want to play it. He's their asset at the end of the day and they want to protect that and potentially get the most value they can in the summer, if they decide to move him on. Him sitting on his arse for 6 months at Spurs is not good for anyone, so he'll go somewhere in the next week - will be interesting to see how it pans out. I mentioned in the other thread that another personal choice from his point of view is that his best mate plays here. I know that's not really important in the world of football transfers generally, but for a 6 month loan deal it may swing it.

I too feel this thread is a tiny bit premature, but it's not as far fetched as some are saying I don't think. If you look at the clubs interested in him, they're below us in the league. Everton don't even have a manager, so you can't really call those more glamorous options in the here and now. Financially no one can make any difference to him either way as it's a loan deal, Spurs will decide how they want to play it. He might just want to play football for 6 months in an environment which best suits him and then see what the summer brings in terms of 'bigger' options, as there doesn't seem to be a huge queue of elite clubs for his signature at the moment.

It's not as far fetched as some may think, he is best mates with KWP for a start. We wouldn't pay all the wages but I'm sure we could handle 50%. If he can sort his mind out then he's exactly the sort of goal scoring 'number 10' who'd be perfect for us.

I don't see a problem with the buy-back/first refusal in our model to be honest. We may sell a tiny bit below going rates at the time of the buy back, but we'd still gain money from our initial outlay 2 years prior. (that's if the selling club are interested in having them back) At the end of the day anyone decent we sign outright is here for 2 seasons max. Mane, VVD etc, so it probably doesn't make a huge difference. With the buy back approach we put ourselves at the front of the queue in grabbing really good youngsters from the top clubs.

I did wonder that, they were supposed to be installed in the Sept international break, then the November one...but they're still not there. Given the current climate of tech chip shortages etc I wonder if it's just caught up in that can of worms.

I can only assume the Watford owners are trolling their fan base. Where's Buzzin 'Orn these days?

That is such a pointless football club. Their fans have been conditioned to want the manager gone if he loses a few as well. It's a poisoned chalice for anyone, and no one is ever going to be able to build anything there. That must be a horrific club to support. Pointless.

Their approach is incredibly slap dash, it's embarrassing really. They should have been planning throughout December. I really hope there is a massive meltdown this time next week when they haven't actually signed anyone else.

Livramento will be back after the break according to Ralph, so not as bad after-all thankfully. Let's hope there's not flareups over the break. Personally I don't see us being in a position of desperation for anyone new, more of a position of 'nice to have' and getting 'nice to have' signings in January is probably not the best idea. Might as well wait until the summer to sort the GK and number 10 situation out, we should have enough for the remainder of this season without having to panic in the next week.

I don't buy that ''best team that's ever existed' mantra. The Barca team with Messi, Villa, Pedro, Xavi, Inesita, Mascherano Alves, Busquets, Pique. That was on another planet. The one with Neymar and Suarez wasn't too bad either. I don't see City on the same planet as those sides to be honest.

Why do people get in a tizz about Garth every week? Just take his opinion with a pinch of salt as he's only employed for his comedy value, he isn't a professional pundit. I don't take anything he says seriously and I don't think anyone in the world of sport does.

Sadly he was always a bit of a broken player, as others have said it's a waste as technically he had all the tools. His attitude and professionalism is why he'll never make it at the level his talent should be seen at. A modern day nothing-footballer who is all about the $$$ and celebrity. Our due-diligence went to sleep when we signed him.

Goalkeepers can probably be an exception to that rule though, they can go on much longer than an outfield player. Sam Johnstone, rumoured target, is actually 29 himself.

Bartłomiej Drągowski is someone the club has tracked, there were links to him in the summer and maybe before that. Plays for Foirentina, seems to have been injured a fair bit this season to be fair.

There is similar rhetoric if we lose 3 on the bounce as well, certain posters bump this thread and 'the cult of Ralph' gets trotted out etc. For a club like us I've always said that you're not going to get a better fit than Ralph, no chance. It's a bit old school in the sense that he's not just the 'first team coach', he's involved in all areas of the club and across all age-groups. Some people may be a bit uncomfortable with that, but if the club and the manager believe in the approach then I don't see what's wrong with it. The lack of a squad was always looked at as an excuse last season, but it very clearly wasn't an excuse. When you have to include the likes of Watts, Vokins, Ramsay, Jankewtiz, N'Lundulu in the squad on a regular basis in PL games then you really have no chance. The fact they're all now playing at a much lower level says it all. His approach is absolutely spot on for modern football. High press, intensity, counter pressing. You never really get bored watching us and we are always on it, I certainly don't miss the days of watching us under Puel where we'd just pass it around the back four for approx 85 mins. Or Pellligrino where we'd have no idea where we were actually passing it. I like a club with a philosophy and a style to get behind and he's 100% created that. There will be bumps in the road, but it was always a daft idea to do away with him.

That was his last goal for us, think he only scored 2 or 3 so he'd definitely got at least one before that game. I'm sure he scored a header.

Yep, that's the winner for me. That was outrageous.

A very tenacious little player. Doesn't have much in his locker technically from what I've seen, but he doesn't half get stuck in and isn't afraid of the battle. Bit of a warrior/fighter and you need players like him in and around the squad.