S-Clarke

He is a talented player, when Watford signed him he was seen as a bit of a wonderkid. It's true that his form has dipped up and down quite a lot, he hasn't really hit the hights they hoped he would when they signed him - but last season was his most fruitful for sure. Like you I was massively impressed by him at SMS, the best player on the pitch that day. He's your typical ''play anywhere across the front'' attacking winger. There's a player in there, but still lots of rawness. Only has a year left on his contract so potentially not crazy money.

The loans will be where our big, side quality improving signings come from IMO. But we'll need to be patient and wait until the back end of August.

He's on somewhere between £120-135k per week apparently. We'd need him to drop that by 60-70% before he's affordable to us, which he obviously won't do. I can't see WHU subsidising any wage that much either.

Many people thought Fonte wouldn't handle the step up the PL, and that Jos was the better fit. Total opposite happened there. It's not really fair throwing the ''only Championship quality'' rug over players who have never, ever had the opportunity to prove themselves any higher. Wood, Edwards, THB, Will Smallbone, Stewart etc all full under that hat. It's probably more fair to say ''Unproven players'' rather than ''Championship standard''.

How refreshing are Turkey to watch, they have been an absolute joy in this tournament. They're the story.

It was a hard watch again, it wasn't as bad as the previous - but it couldn't have been worse, so that's nothing to laud about like the pundits are doing for some reason. The normal in-game performance is still very poor. Not getting the best out of our best players, and leaving the substitutes as a reaction rather than being proactive about it. We were lucky it went to penalties. In fact we're lucky we even got out of the groups, overall we're just plain dull and lucky in this tournament. We're still stinking it out in my eyes. Penalties were utterly faultless though, cannot beat a bit of ecstasy from a pen shoot out win! But let's not allow that to mask the horrendous performance, yet again, against sub par opposition in the main.

Trash game, I'd say worst of the tournament, but I've watched England's games. If anyone deserved it on open play, it was probably Portugal. France just sat in and waited for the pens, horrific display by them. Spain will wallop them.

Ronaldo manages that team in all honesty. Martinez isn't strong enough to overhaul that. Bit of a pointless manager all told. Ruined Belgium's greatest chances, now putting the knife into Portugals.

Close...

Yeah maybe, they'll miss those 3. I still rate them though. Neither Portugal or France have impressed me yet, I think Spain could still be better than either of those even minus 3 players.

for £2.5-3m, you cannot really complain about it. Is he going to be better than Lyanco? I'd be utterly flabbergasted if he isn't. That's all that matters really, he adds depth to the squad. Another young English player too - a really strong British core through the side. THB, Edwards, Wood, Taylor, KWP, Downes (hopefully), Smallbone, Armstrong - and then a sprinkling of young English talent in Edozie, Charles etc. I think we've sorted out the back 4 area - now need to see some focus on the attack, that's what will keep us up at the end of the day. We'll concede goals whoever plays at the back for us, so we just need to make sure we're potent enough down the flanks and up top (We're nowhere near good enough at the mo). Excited to see who is up next, we seem to be moving rapidly.

Spain just about edged that I think, Germany had their moments but Spain had more prolonged periods of control. Their name is all over it already IMO. Cannot see past Spain. They're a very tidy team, lots of experienced winners in that side. I hope Pedri isn't too badly injured, really rate him.

I look at it as Perraud failed miserably at this level for a few seasons with us, awful LB. We've now got a proper PL proven left back in the door for £0. Lyanco and DCC were horrendous for us. Lyanco was just a pointless hot head, could not defend for toffee as he was too wound up 110% of the time. Not a PL player by any stretch. DCC's attitude stunk. He could have been decent, lots and lots of experience behind him, but he was another almighty dropped bollock for us. We're not going to miss any of those 3, we've just sold them all combined for £12m and the replacements leave us £6m net. I cannot argue with that all, the club seem to have their head screwed on this window. I like the fact that we're building a really strong British core. Just need to make a decent return on Mara and Sulemana, replace those with better and we're laughing.

Huh? You've seemingly looked at that pic with Downes, JWP and Ings in the same picture (day 1 of pre-season training) and have come to the conclusion that it means he's settled there. Whereas the pictures of KWP back in training, day 1, is a totally different situation. Ok then.

I want to say I agree with you............but I have a horrible nagging feeling that new contracts for McCarthy and Adams would equal ''we've got our ST and GK positions sorted'' internally at the club. Just nagging in my mind, because they've done it before. Losing Che will at least force us to get a striker.

Diamond Edwards was highly regarded, I remember he featured in pre-season under Ralph a few years back. Got a nasty injury in that pre-season though which was probably the end of it for him here. Shame really, I think he could make a career at the lower levels though.

I guess it's now a case of just how many points they'll get deducted. 10-15 was the feeling a few months back. They're down before a ball is kicked if we're honest. Makes it a little easier for us, one less place to worry about.

I do agree, I think like you say both need a fresh start. Need some fresh blood up top. Not sure I can deal with another season of him missing sitters.

Lavia on loan isn't as far fetched as it could be. The guy hasn't played for a year really, they've just signed another CM (and are trying to sign another, go figure), so his game time will be limited. After such a long lay off he will need games to build himself up again, we'd be a pretty ideal place for that to happen you have to say. Familiar surroundings, guaranteed game time, he's known around the place etc. He seemed a well grounded kid. JWP feels a little far fetched to me due to the wages. I can't see WHU letting us have both Downes and JWP and I'm not sure we could afford that either.

Not the Echo reporting it, just some nonsense Man Utd social media twitter/website/nonsense page. Defo not going to be going after players like him, wages alone make him completely unattainable for us at this time. He's a signing for a few years down the line if we're still in the PL.

I've probably seen/heard of him a little more than most, as I know someone quite well who is an avid posh fan. He raved about him ever since they signed him, I've seen him a few times and you can see why. A proper silky CB, moves with the ball effortsly, very technical - totally wasted in L1. He is one of those players who is good enough to do that double jump of leagues. I think we'll see a fair bit of him in the PL. I'm a big fan of him, it just needed someone to take that punt and a £3m punt is nothing in this day and age - glad it's us, I can assure you we've stolen a march on a few others with this one. He had scouts from Spurs, Brighton, Leipzig watching him last season to name just a few.

He's honestly a really talented young defender, think John Stones when he was nabbed from Barnsley. I think Edwards is a little older, but it's the most similar comparison I can think of in terms of the rise and type of player. He will go right to the top. Having two exciting young English CB's at the club is a really healthy situation to be in. I've always been a big fan of Ronnie Edwards, appreciate I've probably seen a bit more of him/heard more about him than others on here - but to nab him is really good for us.

They've got the benefit by not being as constrained by FFP, in the sense of us with our stupid £130m window a couple of years back hanging over us - and Leicester's with their shitty financial situation at the moment. So they can move a bit more freely as far as I can tell.

Ipswich have bid for both Greaves @ Philogene at Hull. £20m double bid, but apparently Hull are looking for £40m combined. Somewhere in the middle to be met I guess.

That was a great game, knew that one would be the pick of the knockouts. Austria have been great, so have Turkey. That save was just unreal in the last second. Drama.