S-Clarke

Life isn't an exact science, clubs and agents make things up. Injuries and knocks are made up at times, just as an excuse so they don't have to play/get injured. It might not be the case here, but as others have said...this guy never misses a game. Not friendlies, not cup games, not league games. Never misses them. Then all of a sudden on the back of interest he's missed two in a row. That's why it 'smells' a bit.

Yeah, that does 'smell' a bit to be honest. Let's see what happens.

I don't think it was just a case of us needing to pay Koeman the money, the club as a whole got full of it's self. Believed it's own hype, got carried away on the black box train. Thought we could unearth the next super star manager etc etc. We did have the ability in those days to spend decent money on players because we hadn't previously saddled ourselves with crap (And we had lots of good players already here who we were able to sell for big money). Sadly we then went on a campaign of messing up every.single.major transfer we made in that period. Boufal - failed, given away on a free. Hoedt - failed, given away on a free. Carillo - failed, given away on a free. Just there alone is around 45-50m of player we paid for...and didn't see a penny return financially or even on the pitch. That's what's killed us. Things have improved since in relation to Diallo, KWP, Ings, Adams etc...but significant damage was done in those proceeding years by Reed and co who really should be held accountable for gross negligence. I've always felt that Ralph is the right man but at the wrong time. Just think of the money we handed Mark Hughes, Puel, Pellegrino and look at the constraints a much better manager has to operate under. It's very frustrating. But again, that's all mistakes of the past.

I don't think we're up financial shit creek per-say, I just think we're struggling as are most clubs with the huge losses. I'd say the difference between Leeds, Villa and Everton to an extent is is that they have ownership to offset those losses slightly. We don't even have that. We have an owner with no ability to offset any of our losses, so we have no external investment what so ever bar TV Money, sponsorships and player trading. Those external payments have to service everything from stadium upkeep, staplewood costs, day to day business costs etc. For a club of our size...the only way we can really operate at this level is to have shit hot scouting and shit hot coaching, we cannot afford to make big mistakes and big gambles with transfers. Our ideal model means you can buy a player for £10m - sell him in 2 years for £50m etc. or Develop young players for 'free' and sell them for multi million pounds. We're not a massive club and without ownership investment then this is the model we have to follow in order to be 'successful' - but 3 or 4 horrific transfer windows have totally killed us dead. We cannot move. We just need to bide our time and see where we are in a couple of years, if our scouting has improved them we may be able to sell a Diallo, Salisu or Perrud for those big, big fees that will allow us to compete more. And we may even have new ownership, which is more important than some realise.

Strange career he's had, never really a premier league player if we're honest - very good at Championship level. Yet he's won the PL!

They're still busy spending that Grealish money then. We'll need a fair bit more than that, make it double.

The only bank we're going to be breaking is the piggy bank in the secretary's office.

That's code for ''we won't be buying another full back'' if I ever saw it!

Villa have been planning for his departure for weeks, they wouldn't be throwing around £30m (potentially) on Bailey if he was staying. They know he's off, they're just using the time to replace now.

What worries me is that we've heard this many a time from Ralph. ''We need more players'' ''We need more players at full back'' ''I need a right back'' and every time he's been left short because we don't have the money. Let's see how it pans out.

2nd half was great, we picked them apart. Tella was electric, as was Redmond. Don't think much, if anything, of Elyonoussi. Looked how I remembered him, not suited to our game in the slightest.

Agreed, it's been really good. Not biased, fair and really well researched for both clubs. Better than listening to Sky or BT Sport. On another note, Redmond has been unplayable - he's changed the game and opened it up. Elyonoussi was a little man lost out there for the time he was on.

I know it's just speculation, but that's so believable. I wouldn't have expected anything less from him. He's a totally flawed individual. A complete journeyman who will forever have an unfilled career in the sense of being a footballer, but I'm sure his bank balance and brands are strong.

I think last season was a fine example that their 'B Team' experiment was nothing short of a disaster. Much happier with more of a reserve team approach to be honest, might give some of the talented youngsters more of a chance to shine.

People calling for Svensson or Perry don't get the concept. As others, I read the post earlier this week and it's quite clear what the intention is. Sign a 'current' professional football player to play for the B Team. I'd say in the context we've done well to get Ollie in, someone who played quite regular in L1 last season - and this is just a B team player. That 'team' needed some added experience to it, the concept of 'reserve' football has been lost and I think there needs to be more of a hybrid model between experienced and 'up and coming' players in these 'B' teams. Otherwise you get in the mess we did last year. A squad full of underage players, 16's, 17 year olds, absolutely out of their depth with no experience around them.

The injuries and his fitness are the one big concern and worry about this 'possibility'. But we shouldn't turn our noses up to experience. That's what this squad lacks to be honest. It may not seem a sexy signing on the outset, but a lot can be said for a bit of old fashioned experience being added to a group. I don't think West Ham fans were doing cart wheels when Dawson signed, but he turned out to be excellent and added that knowhow and experience.

The only person who knows that is Yan himself. This is probably not the right place for that sort of speculation.

This is the sort of signing fans turn their noses up to, but then proclaim 6 months later that ''they wished we were Leicester'' ''We wish we were West Ham'' - who both have Jonny Evans and Craig Dawson shoring up their defence. I have no idea what the status is with his injuries, it seems chronic to me - or has it just been a case that he's lost his place? But as other's have said he would be our 'Johnny Evans' or 'Craig Dawson' - someone to add that bit of English league experience and knowhow to our ridiculously naive defence. Honestly, you'd struggle to make our defence worse than it was last year.

Milan seem the front runners. I'm sure we can compete with them. 😳 Chelsea play waiting game after ruling out flop's sale on specific terms (teamtalk.com)

Anyone fancy another #Ziyechwatch? Fully expect that the ship has long sailed in the respect of us, but Chelsea are seemingly open to loaning him out according to reports. Who knows what could happen if we suddenly sell Ings/Vestergaard.

Oh yeah for sure, the price tag will immediately raise everyone's expectations. It was certainly too much for him, 30-40m player tops in my opinion. This doesn't compare with the Carillo transfer though, as at least Pepe has done something for Arsenal, albeit only from a bit of last season. We basically opened the Kingsland concourse doors and threw £19m + whatever wages in the air.

It'll be interesting to see how he does, but there has been a talk of his 'attitude' being a problem for a few years now (i.e, he thought he'd made it etc). Talent and ability can only get you so far, if you have a shit attitude then you never really fulfil the technical promise you may have. Lemina is a fair example of that too.

Probably only from last season to be honest, last season was when he finally started to score goals and look a threat. Before that he has been a mess, close to being shipped out. He's not even come close to meeting the demands of that price tag, they've overpaid for him and then some.

Vlahovic would be an interesting replacement for Kane. Kind of similar in that sense that he'd still provide them that focal point up top and allow them to build off him. I think Ings would still come into the equation though, if I was Spurs I'd look for someone like Vlahovic and invest in the future but to cover the here and now I'd see what's out there in terms of proven PL - Ings, at £20-30m, no brainer for any club with a bit of money and a hole to fill up top. I think he'd be a player they'd sign if Kane did go, as technically they'd be down two players with Vinicius and Kane leaving. The Kane transfer will start a cascade, let's see if it happens.

To be fair to Palace they have no choice but to add to the squad, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to field an 11. I imagine they've saved enormous wages with the likes of Townsend, Sakho, Cahill, Van-Arnoholt all gone. That's probably given them this flexibility in attracting these players. They seem to be trying to make the right moves though, Olsie in particular is a great addition in light of Eze being out. Be interesting to see what else they do, as they're still a fair bit short.