S-Clarke

I think we just need to accept that as the going rate for half decent players now, not much we can do about it. Football has changed so much in the last 2 seasons. £25m gets you a decent player, if he's english and young then the sell on potential is greater - and the fee will be greater.

I think VAR has worked well so far in the world cup. It's the pundits who are making the drama out of it.

Loved that game, one of the best end to end football matches I've seen in a tournament since Euro 2004. (Ceczh's/Holland)

Not sure if they look that good, or if it's Iran who are simply terrible. They do have some nice attacking players though, so they do carry a threat for sure. Getting out of a group with Spain and Portugal is a tough ask though.

They're just playing on the fact that it's already known, so it'll be a bit of a tounge in cheek reveal I think.

Is he your boyfriend or something?

A nice laid out fixture list I think. More ballance than last season for sure. A decent start and a chance to pickup points early doors. December is geared up to be our usual null-points period, but we could get some blockbuster results over that time - maybe. Always like a home game to start and end the season, - and boxing day. So all good for me.

The club see survival as justification that this squad is good enough - IMO. Given how long they took to sack MPe and how slow they have been to bring in additions (not now, but in January and the summer too), it does suggest that they do have a slightly increased view of our squad than we do on the outside. We'll see articles bigging up Stephens during pre-season I'd expect. Good lad, but he is nowhere near a PL centre back and someone at the club needs to show some balls and realise that. How we have gone from finishing 5th/6th to where we are now is nothing other than club incompetence and a belief internally that we are better than anyone else, and we will always be better than anyone else. Money shouldn't be an issue. We are in the richest league in the world, we have bumper TV monies, we recieved the largest fee in the world for a CB. There is no reason why we shouldn't be going out into the market and spending £25/30m on players, as we see the likes of Burnley, Everton, Wolves and WHU start to do. Arrogance rules by the sounds of it and that is one of the reasons why my season ticket money is still in my back pocket. I had hoped that last season was a huge wakeup call and a re-adjustment for everyone after the last two disasterous seasons, but the early signs is that nothing is changing any time soon.

They always seem to win the 'transfer windows' and 'rumour mills', but very rarely take this through to the season. They're a funny club and there are still huge issues internally there - it's still wouldn't take much to have fans pouring onto the pitch again as last season. They're a tad fragile. I always avoid making predicitions on how teams will do based on players they are 'linked to' or trying to sign.

In my opinion the club wrongly believe we have a good squad, and the selection of Bedernark in the world cup squad justifies their position. I'm sure the club will be looking at Bedernak, Hoedt, Stephens and Yoshida and thinking it's enough. That's also not forgetting the car crash in attack. We genuinely seem very underprepared for transfers these days, which was alarmingly shown up in January with the single signing of Carrillo for a ridiculous fee.

wrong thread.

I wonder if he will be able to afford shin pads once he gets a big money move.

We should have been all over Diop.

Would be cool to get some of them, but bigger clubs will be sniffing. Wages will be the order of the day here. I think Rui will join Wolves.

Pretty much.

There was apparently another which was pretty close, not sure who it was though.

Pretty early this year Alpine. Fair play.

Sounds like more waffle from SM. They were doing a big server upgrade last summer ready for the new season, which then actually didn't happen until January onwards. And then they went to bitcoin.

What an load of absolute bull**** that is.

Are you ITK?

Marcelo Tejera, that was a dodgy agents deal if there ever was one. Came on loan from a South American club. then we had Sarmiento, who also came on loan from a South American club and never played. I think he was actually Tejera's replacement.

Not sure you can say Carceces did a job, he played 1 game away at a relegated Boro! Guly had technically come from Italy, so we didn't grab him from South America - he'd already settled in Europe. At the end of the day, the risk of a dud is far greater when you buy from that area - it's not just us who have noticed either. The most natural step for talented South American's is via a league such as Portugal’s, not as demanding, they can acclimatise in a different culture for a couple of years and then they'll get sniffed by the bigger clubs. Getting an unknown south American to do a job for us is a very high risk, hence why I thought it was sensible we didn't bother shopping over there. Even Liverpool tried it with a guy called Allen, Chelsea with Nathan and Kenedy, Utd with Fabio and Rafiana

I'm personally of the opinion that Morgan would walk into our side. We nearly got relegated with that midfield last year. Hoj talks a good game but lacks mobility and strength, Romeu was absolutely diabolical last season. Lemina and Morgan would be a great pairing in my opinion. One of the reason's we've regressed is because we failed to correctly replace both Morgan and Wanyama.

Surprised more teams weren't all over Evans at that price - it's apparently two instalments of £1.75m. For a club struggling with a leader at the back I'm also surprised we didn't have a sniff. I assume we're calm and relaxed about the situation though. I know it's crazy to think, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised for the club to think CB is covered and assume that Bedernak, Hoedt, Yoshida and Stephens are enough, with Alfie Jones as the 5th.

He's clearly a talented player, but he's a youtube player if I've ever seen one...! Needs to impact himself more when things aren't going too well, there seems to be certain weaknesses in his game that really show through in a struggling side. In reality, with his ability, he should have stood out like a sore thumb last year (and to be fair, he did in a few games).