S-Clarke

12:29 We referenced Southampton a moment ago, and what they need. Well, media in Belgium are reporting that midfielder Jordy Clasie is about to join Club Brugge on loan. More on that when we get it.

I think Inter were focusing on Balde at Lazio, but he now seems to be heading to Monaco. So makes sense that they're back in, similar sort of player, although nowhere near as proven.

He happily signed a 6 year contract a year ago. He will just have to suck it up.

Leicester are going to have a mini meltdown of their own if they sell Drinkwater, Mahrez, Vardy and swap Gray for townsend....

I personally can't see a scenario where we can let him go now, with less than 48 hours. The fee becomes irrelevant, as it's more to do with the principal. If we stick to our guns and he's still here then we have taken the lead on the situation. If we let him go with 48 hours left, and unbelievably to Liverpool, then we just come across as weak and it makes our report of Liverpool tapping him up look like nothing more than a petty whine. Would be hard for anyone to take us seriously. To me, there is no benefit to letting him go now. As I said, the fee is irrelevant. We're not going to reinvest any of that in 48 hours. I'm inclined to believe Jono though, as I 'think' I know who he is - but let's wait and see.

Drinkwater hands in transfer request. Going to be a very interesting couple of days. So many 'big' issues unresolved for so many clubs all over Europe. Sanchez, Mahrez, Mbape, Lemar, Coutinho, Virgil, Drinkwater, Evans......+ more i can't think of right now. This is right up sky's street.

I reckon that will still get done. £50m is an insane offer when the player has 12 months left on his contract.

Yep

Fund all what? Jay for 15, Burke for around 15. (they are up to fee's) Gibbs will be 4m ish, Zhang for £5m (no idea who he is tbf) They've not spent any more than us. £15m on Hoedt, £18m on Lemina, £6m on Jan Bednarek

To be fair, I don't think anyone has ever gone to the detail they have. In terms of finding out the plane, what the interior looks like, and what sort of car picks him up. Slightly sad, given that fact that obviously no one else in the entire world will ever fly on that plane.

I might phone up talk sport and give my opinion on the Coutinho situation.

All he's done is give his opinion on the matter.

They do make me laugh. They still fail to understand that we hold the contract, we can chose who we sell him to, whether that's for more or less than them. Nothing legal about it, stupid dimwits.

He mentioned Vietto before.

Their new Steve Sidwell.

Yeah, has been very hush hush. Would be interesting to hear what RB fans make of it..!

Now, seeing as LFC have been prepared to 'wait' for Ketia and have seemingly respected RB's stance that they're not selling this year, they've already tied up next summers transfer for him. Does anyone think LFC may play a similar approach with VVD as we enter the close of the window? For me, it's an incredibly dangerous move. On one hand you keep the player for another year, but on the other hand you know that he's going to be making sure he's not getting crocked during the season....and there will always be questions around commitment...

Sell on fee is a sell on fee, it's what was agreed when we transferred him and that's written in it's own contract. The only time it would come under question is if the club went into new ownership as part of administration etc.

Davo is better in the three in attack, as opposed to the two central. He's got a good eye for a pass, good close control. He is definitely a position we need to try and evolve within the next year or so though. One of the better players at the w/e.

Vietto is a funny one, Athletic Madrid have all but told him he's free to go - he wants regular games, which he won't get there. He was linked to Sampdoria, but that never materialized. I don't think clubs are willing to pay what they want, as the window comes to an end I think they'll be open to loan deals. That's what I think we're hanging on for

Barca have handled this so poorly to be honest. Dembele is going to be a top player, but I wouldn't put him int he Neymar/Messi/Ronaldo bracket - don't think he'll get there. That's why they overpaid, just because they felt they needed to. To be fair, they had been tracking him for a while but more as an addition. He's not going to replace Neymar at all. They'd have been better off going after Dybala or even biting the bullet and resigning Sanchez.

But what about Ziyech?

Doesn't surprise me, West Ham wanted to ship out Snodgrass and Fonte at the start of the window - they've already got rid of one. The club made the right call on Fonte, no matter how unpopular it was at the time. It would have been mental to give him more than 2 years, but seemingly WHU are mental and were the only ones willing to offer it. He should have taken our offer, played in our first team and helped with the development of Stephens etc - then continued his plans to go into coaching with Kelvin Davis. Bit of a dumb arse move Jose.

If they're going for Lemar, they're planning for life without Coutinho...

The numbers WBA dropped in the media are around £30m. He'll end up going for around that price I'd have thought. Got to try and accept that £30m these days is what a £10m signing used to be.