S-Clarke

I guess i've just been blinded by the stats on this one, as Perreria had more goals etc. But i take those points on his creation numbers, forgot about those.

Even that's probably a bit too far 'east' for him.

Might be a controversial view, but in Beuendia's time in the PL I don't think he did much? The Perreria guy at West Brom had more impact at this level than Beundia did in my opinion. I haven't seen any stats, but it 'felt' like that anyway. The 35m+ price tag is insanity for someone who has only really done it in the NPC. Not sure why people aren't piling over Perreria at half the price.

Give it 6 months or so and he'll be back at Bournemouth in another emotional return. He's like a homesick puppy.

Sadly, there are people being impacted - still. It's fortunate if you are able to continue in a job, have family/friends close etc - but not everyone has that. I know people who have lost jobs and even recently a couple of friends in hospitality have lost their job because they're unable to re-open fully, due to the uncertainty over the 21st - and when the 21st doesn't happen you'll end up with more staff being let go. They can't have full attendances, so they can't make their expected profits so they can't keep all their staff. Jobs are changing to home working on a permanent basis for a lot of companies. For some people that's great, for other's it's terrible because they've lost what was their only method of social interaction if they live alone. Some people have friends who have been fear-driven and still won't even step out of their houses to cross the road whilst the government continue this one foot in one foot out approach. So I don't buy that lives aren't being impacted, they still are and in a big way. Life is not back to normal for a lot of people.

Been told no to Firpo then I guess? Perraud is a great alternative though, highly rated. Good attacking left back. Leeds baulked at the price though.

I think Semedo has done ok really, Wolves fans seem to like him. Don't think he was worth that £35m fee, but he's clearly a very good PL right back imo. If Firpo is half as capable then we're sorted.

Nice move by the club, probably the least we can do really. Hopefully he can gain a career at a lower level at some point, but it is looking tough tbh.

Standard Crook trying to sound informed but not actually saying anything.

I think it was always a pipe dream to expect anything in place for this summer. We just have to do as well as we can to scrape by this summer and try, where possible, to be very clever and creative in the market with the loose change we have

She has a point though.

Conte to Spurs is an interesting one and a huge coup in my opinion. Something that could even tempt Kane to stay.

Totally different sorts of players, but the main difference is that Kane has performed consistently over a prolonged period of time. Guaranteed 20 goals a year every singe year, international goal scorer, European goal scorer. He's on a different level to Ings if we're honest. I don't agree with the £150m valuation myself, but for a player with his record and top level exposure it's probably the going price nowadays (which makes a mockery of the so called COVID football finance crash)

If we use this opportunity to provide Salisu his first team birth and then use the funds to improve on Bednarek then it's probably a win-win. Being in a defence that conceded 68 goals isn't something to ignore, all of our defenders have glaring weaknesses.

So you're saying that after a few years at West Ham, not managing to get into their team, he'll move to us? 😉

Depends how it's structured I guess, we wouldn't pay all of that in one window anyway. Spread over 3 and you're looking at around 5m euro initial outlay.

If it was me and I had a choice between West Ham and ourselves it would be an easy choice at this moment in time tbh. He'll be confident enough in himself to oust Cresswell. I guess we'll find out but if clubs like West Ham go in on the same players as ourselves then I don't really rate our chances.

I wouldn't compare him with Mount tbh, different type of player. Certainly worth comparing like for like with Phillips though, that's the one which irks me. I'm not sure why he's as highly rated as he is.

Looks like he's allowed to leave Barca on a perm deal, he has solid offers on the table (Which sound like they've been accepted by Barca) from ourselves and West Ham. I think we know how this is going to end...

But what people are trying to say is that there will always be variants, that will never stop. It won't magically stop evolving after 1 year, it will always be there. So, for that reason alone, do we continue this one foot out....one foot in...approach to life for the rest of our lives? I don't really fancy that if I'm honest. The Indian variant, in my opinion, is being blown out of all proportion. What we are seeing are increased cases because of increased testing, including self-administered testing, thus many more false positives than usual. If you test on the scale we test then you will always pickup infection rates and you will forever pickup new variants and new spikes of infection as it progresses around, it's how viruses have worked and how they have evolved throughout man kind. I'll go back to what I said before - the only stats worth listening to are deaths and hospital admissions, if they continue at the very, very, very low rates they currently are at then there is absolutely no need to restrict anything anymore and there shouldn't be any consideration about it. All this 'not enough data' line is a bit odd, how long is long enough to gather that data? It's been weeks and weeks now of this 'Indian' variant and as yet there are no spikes in the stats that matter. At the end of the day It's been almost 18 months of one foot in, one foot out, toes dipped in and dipped out, it feels like it's created a frightened culture scared to look at their own shadows. We need to live our lives and accept that every day comes with a new risk, none of us are infallible and none of us ever were. You don't catch people not driving their cars in case they hit someone or have an accident. People still eat processed foods and lots of processed meats, even due to the increased links with cancer etc. People still smoke, even though they know the risks. Every day is a risk, everything we do is a risk...but we live with it and we evolve around it. All we're doing is stopping a generation from evolving, we're stopping businesses in their traps, we're creating a generation of people who are scared to cross a road. I've lost people I know through the fear of lockdowns, being isolated and being made to stay away form friends and family and it's not nice. And on the flip side I know people have died from COVID as well, but there comes a point where the risk factors are negligible and for me it then becomes a case of the cure becoming worse than the effect.

I'd say probably in the ball-park of £25m-30m, something like that? We'd have to give Liverpool a % of that as well, so we'd prob only make £20m, maybe less, from that. In the grand scheme of things it's not worth it and is why we won't allow that to happen, in my opinion. However...if a club get desperate and offer us the top end of what we value him as (35-40m+) then we will snap that up, in my opinion.

Lots of reading into the full backs, but there are a couple in there who can play either side, there are a couple who can play CB as well. The choice was between Kalvin and JWP in my opinion.

What you say is true, but should what is happening in other countries be reason enough to keep killing our own economy and peoples livelihoods? I don't think so. We're on top of it through vaccinations and treatment in our hospitals. The death figures today of 0 should send a sigh of relief to everyone and for me should be even more strength to June 21st still happening. Death figures haven't been in double figures for weeks now, they've been dropping and dropping. That shows that vaccinations are working, and so far the perceived panic over this Indian variant isn't translating into the figures that really do matter and what any decisions should be based on. I don't see any reason to panic anymore and come June 21st we should be free to live our lives as we wish and use our own common sense as we see fit. I'm fed up of living in a world full of people who require a rule book before they step across a road.

That escalated quickly. There were only a few random rumours on the weekend and now he's gone. Everton and Howe is all but done, apparently. That makes me think this has been rumbling in the background for some time, hence Howe's withdrawal from the Celtic role.

With tournament squads you often pick specialists who play a specific role at some stage, not to necessarily be a set figure in an 11. JWP gives you dead ball delivery from either side, corners, last min free kicks on the edge of the box - I know who I'd pick to come on for those specific skills and it isn't Kalvin Phillips. I think Southgate has missed a trick, but maybe that's me being biased. I know there is talk of a lack of call ups may prompt them to leave the club etc, but we lost Lallana, Lambert, Shaw on the back of them being selected for the 2014 World Cup. The crux is that players will want to leave us if a bigger club comes calling, whether they get called up for England or not. But from our point of view it's good news as our lot can all get a well needed summer holiday.