S-Clarke

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.

Had a look on their clients list the other day, only other notable people were Koeman and Danny and Daly Blind. VVD is easily their most valuable client. Not sure how extensive the list I saw was though..

It always will be if they continue to sell their centre backs, and play left backs at centre back, right backs at left back and wingers at right back. what the actual ****. It's so surreal it's like Wenger is purposely sabotaging the club.

I'd love us to find another Mane. We announced that one out of the blue, day before deadline day - no previous speculation. He came in with Toby iirc, both not expected 48 hrs before. I don't think Mane even officially came here until September, he had his medical done in germany by the former Bayern physio as a favour. Lots can happen in a short space as long as we have our ducks lined up.....

Ozil is a ****ing disgrace.

How many CB's do Stoke want? They're stockpiling them. Shawcross, Zouma, Martins-Indi and now Wimmer. All deserved first choice players at a club like stoke. Good luck keeping those guys happy!

I would think we're making him unavailable, it was MP's call to push him away from the first team training. I personally don't think VVD has ever refused to train or play, but his mind has never been on it - so a joint decision for the best interests of the club has been made I think.

Wenger does himself no favours. Stubborn old fool.

I don't think we ever fined him for refusing to play, I think this is more of a joint decision to pull him away from the first team setup. The supposed fine we issued was when he failed to do his contracted duties i.e the start of season photoshoots/sky sports bits etc.

He was pretty good, he did run out of steam a little though. We switched him and Davis in the 2nd half, so Lemina played part of the attacking 3 and he was quite a presence up there. He is a lot quicker than I thought he was to be honest. It doesn't usually take too long to tell if you have a 'player', he looks like the business to me.

They seem to think they're at the stage now where they should be competing with the likes of Chelsea and City. They'll never get satisfaction up there. Maybe they need to invent some new dugouts.

You're living in the past if you think new signings are solely down to a manager these days. It's something which was derided in the early-mid 00's, but it's crept in to the point where every single club now has a 'Recruitment Panel' of sorts. There's nothing stopping the manager making suggestions what so ever, but signings these days at all clubs are joint efforts by the scouting teams and coaching staff. When you think about how quickly managers chop and change jobs, it's probably a more sensible approach - fill a club with a managers signings and you're setting yourself up for a bit of a mess come the inevitable parting.