S-Clarke

Agreed, I think that's a fair view. He needs to make a name for himself elsewhere and then maybe potentially become a PL player, being loaned out or playing for us as a bit part will never aid his development. Could end up being a case of right player, wrong time for him.

I saw that article and I think Sky have got very confused. They seem to be suggesting we only spent £15m, which isn't true. We certainly don't have a net spend that large. Not surprised though, we seem entirely irrelevant to Sky. They were talking yesterday about us not replacing Ings or Vestergaard. Rating Evertons business as good, but worrying about us because we didn't replace the players we lost. They're paid money to have views like that!

Not sure why you have Villa down there and Arsenal up there, swap those around! I think Arsenal have done a 'pick and mix' transfer window. Doesn't seem to be any sense or joined up thinking in their additions. And for all of that they've spent £160m and their quality is no better whatsoever. They spent £30m on Ramsdale who is no matter, maybe even a tad worse than Leno. It's bonkers. So I think they've had a terrible window which may haunt them for a good few years to come. Brighton have had a poor one - they didn't get that striker they needed. They're still in the same boat as they were last year really, relying on Maupay staying fit and even he is erratic. They'll hit the same troubles. Everton - terrible window. They've not managed to get rid of James, who is someone that clearly wants out and has said as much. Lost all the support. Not great to have him stinking out the place. Freebies, Gray is decent, but the rest not at all. They've done similar to us and loaned out their full back on deadline day and didn't replace, so they've only got 3 full backs I think and no cover at LB. I think Benitez will make them hard to beat, but once injuries hit you'll see the results take a massive slump. Let's not forget they also lost 'him who shall not be named' - and he was guaranteed a few goals a year. Newcastle - Had it not been for them getting Willock it would have been really bad, but at least they've add him. They lack quality at CB or full back though, their success will be purely down to keeping Wilson and ASM fit. Otherwise they have no chance. Wolves - seems like they've hit the similar Chinese closed door as we have. No investment coming their way anymore. They've kept Traore and Neves but haven't really got much cover beyond that 11. Best windows: Leicester - again, doing the right things. Make the sensible signings. Daka will be quality and will eventually replace Vardy, good forward planning that one. Somaore was brilliant last year, one of the best CM in France - so they've improved their depth there. CB is stronger with Vestergaard, although he probably won't play every week having someone like him for depth is great. West Ham - Started late, but they've done some interesting business. Not sure yet on Vlasic, this is the guy who failed at Everton - but he may well have matured since then. Krul is a good CM and it's only a loan, gives them more depth in that area. Zouma will inject quality straight away into their back 4. Only area they haven't really addressed is striker, they're relying on Antonio staying fit. Jury's out: Palace - so many changes, impossible to judge yet. They've brought in some decent players and spent some money, so it'll be interesting to see what Viera can do. I think they'll take a few months to settle down though and they may need patience. Us - Similar to palace, lots of substantial changes and a change away from where we are as a squad (age wise). It's hard to judge yet, especially as we haven't seen Lyanco in action - the success of that could potentially make or break it. Lots of exciting young signings but I fear we may get lots of inconsistency whilst they bed in. If we can keep our head above water this year then I can only see good things in the future. Just need to make sure we survive by whatever means.

Huh? I've given him 3 whole games where I've said he's been involved in all our goals so far, he looks positive. I have no problem with him. All I said is that i'm not sure if he's at the Ings level...is that unfair? I think it would be amazing if he's as good as Ings, that's why I'm hoping other players pop up with goals this year as well so the burden just isn't on him.

I agree that we have more depth, there will be less shoe-horning of players etc - so that's a massive positive. My fear is the removal of quality and goals with Ings. His goals kept us up last season and the season before that. We are basically asking for Armstrong to replace his numbers, or at least get Redmond, Moussa, Theo etc hitting 5+ each themselves. We don't seem to have any player who can do something out of nothing like Ings. He pulled us out of the mire against Burnley at home last season, pressured Mee, beat him to the ball and from nowhere it was 1-1. Or the audacious flick over the Liverpool keeper when we won 1-0. It's those moments I don't think we've replaced or can really for the money we have available, and that will probably cost us around 5-10 points. That's why maybe we should have gone a bit harder on an established centre back to strengthen one of our biggest weaknesses last season, so we don't have to rely on scoring 2 or 3 goals a game. Not judging Lyanco myself until I've seen him, but I don't believe he's been brought as an immediate starter.

I think we've undoubtedly improved depth in the striking positions and full back, but the question marks are around the quality and experience now missing. We can't go out and replace an Ings with an ings, otherwise we'd have kept Ings - so we had to be shrewd with that one and hope that Armstrong can hit similar levels in time. I think it's clear he has a similar playing style, but the jury is out on the quality. He has been good though, involved in every goal we've scored this season more or less. Lyanco is one I'd have liked us to have gone a bit bigger on, used the opportunity to upgrade on Bednarek - but I think we've gone a bit cheap and just filled a hole in the squad. I think we missed a trick there. Maybe we didn't have the funds, who knows. Would have loved a new goalie, but I think the reasons are pretty clear on why that's not a goer. Overall - a 6/10. Definitely added more depth, but reduced the immediate experience and replaced with potential. It's a huge, huge gamble. Personally I predict a big, big struggle. I think we'll see some really good displays but you'll see us come up short in the key moments due to a lack of experience. Financially we are in a bad place and I think the model the club has followed this window is all we can do, and they deserve credit for getting some of the young talents over the line.

To be fair it would be just like Southampton to go from 1 right back, to 4 of the buggers.

Barcelona about to lose their next star - Antoine Griezmann back off to Atletico Madrid. Barca are bringing in Luuk De Jong as a replacement. Their front line is going to be Braithwaite and De Jong. Unbelievable what's happened there really.

Nothing happening with that one. I think it was a random twitter rumour that just spiralled.

Football is still broken.

If we're just about to pocket £5m from Obafemi, that may give us a little to play with in terms of a loan fee.

Swansea have got a bit of money to play with now, around £2.5m sell-on from the James deal and £2.5m for the left back they sold to Burnley. I reckon we'll get around the 4-5m mark for him. Good value, he only has 1 year left. I don't think he'll ever make it at this level and I don't think Ralph has ever been totally struck by him. Not sure if it leaves us light or not, probably not. We have Armstrong, Adams, Broja, Theo, Tella who can all play that central role. You could probably include long as well, but I don't want to.

If we can get a decent fee for Obafemi that may allow us a little more room re: a loan fee.... Ah, I'm glad there's something to follow in the closing hours. Albeit incredibly far fetched.

'Apparently' Weston McKinnie has been offered out to clubs, Burnley one of the clubs in particular. It will be a loan deal. Ticks a lot of boxes for us. 1) we were interested before, 2) it's a loan....3) it's a midfielder 4) if Burnley can potentially afford it... If Burnley get him on loan and we don't then that would be a bit perplexing. Could be one of those classic twitterphere non-rumours though.

It's newcastle. They're trying.

Not sure what she's moaning about, another of those ultra needy women by the looks of it. You can't even tell the difference.

Wiltshire training with Como. Low end Serie B club. Nice place though, I'd happily live there. Apparently Dennis Wise is their technical director so that's how he's ended up there.

Agreed, he's got himself a gig on TalkSport as well now for being some sort of Transfer source. Frauds everywhere.

Sky have ruined it. Their coverage of the entire Mbappe thing says it all really ''Sky Sports news UNDERSTANDS that Real Madrid will not be moving for Mbappe in this window'' 10 mins later... ''Sky sports news UNDERSTANDS that there may be a chance that Real Madrid increase their office for Mbappe'' They have no idea what they're on about, bogus sources all over the shop to create drama and viewers. Their two 'ITK' transfer people are nothing more than twitter followers (SuperSaint - you could have their job!)

I guess that gives us another option wide right, as well as right back. We made the mistake last window of loaning out players at the last min, thus leaving us with no cover. Think we've learnt our lessons. We've got enough in front of Valery in that he shouldn't be required that often, but it's nice to have further options beyond the obvious, otherwise we'd have to pull apart midfield and shoe-horn again. And we don't have enough in midfield to weaken that area. This is also probably an admission that we're not getting that number 6.

The McCarthy chat is boring already. We've got him this season, he is our number 1 for this season. There is nothing we can do about it. Do we really have to deal with this debate after every goal conceded? ''It was his fault'' or every save he makes ''It wasn't that good'' or ''McCarthy is in the team???'' on every squad announcement?

It's happening. He's having a medical at the mo, guaranteed fee is more around £25m apparently with the rest in add-ons. Sheer lunacy. £15m is the absolute max I'd pay for him, and that would be including add-ons. Leeds fans are of the same belief, they're all a bit gobsmacked that they've turned down Internationals such as Rodrigo De Paul as £20m was too much - yet they're about to splash £30m on this load of averagness.

Yep, agreed. It's baffled me this year. I thought this would be the year there was a little bit of leveling out, not as much movement - clubs proclaiming massive losses due to no fans etc. Yet, somehow...we've had the most expensive ever British transfer, closely followed by the 2nd most expensive British transfer ever, Ronaldo rejoining Man Utd and being paid more than anyoen else in the league. Then almost unheard of under the Gold/Sullivan era....West Ham spending just under £60m without selling. All very odd. Everton have behaved like I'd have expected a lot of clubs to behave.

I think we were ruled out of that one yesterday. I don't expect any permanent signings, I think we're done. Keeping our powder dry until the summer so we can actually buy a goalkeeper when we have a bit of wage free and no need to sell first.

That is a crazy fee for him, they could get much better value looking at someone like Doku. Obviously they've held a long standing interest in him after Swansea's shitshow back in 2019. But that is just too much money. Sometimes, when you see fees like that being batted around on bog standard average players, you kind of appreciate our approach.