S-Clarke

Knee ligament injury, no idea on severity.

Newcastle reserves fwiw.

He's playing in the championship for Brighton, who are no great shakes, whilst performing well against Newcastle reserves. He was dire at WHU, awful at Sunderland, and that's why no one else took a punt on him at EPL level.

Blimey, what makes you think transfers are so straight forward? Do you expect it to be confirmed within a day or 2 of it being in the media?? You need to remember that it's not the clubs speaking to the media, it's usually journalists and leaks from the agents. The articles in the media aren't necessarily a decent gauge to judge the progress of the transfer on. You can see the interest, that's for sure, but you can't judge the progress by the articles that are released. Put it this way, if we were to sign Astori on On Monday - but out of the blue with none of these articles or tweets, I imagine most people would commend the club on their quickness, but realistically even though we'd have not read about it, it would have probably been going on for weeks behind the scenes.

Not sure he's ever been decent.

Have you been involved in multimillion pound transfer deals before? There's no way anyone can portray it in such a simple way unless they've been involved in some way or another. There is so much that goes on between both parties, it really isn't as straight forward as agreeing a fee and paying the money as it is on football manager. Plus, if we did move on as we couldn't agree, that would open a whole new negative debate.

Any reason? This has been going on for, what, 4 days? We all know what the Italian media are like and how they love a good story, and also how much ends up being lost in translation.

Quite excited by this one, it must be said.

Probably. I'd heard of him before we were linked. But in this day and age, managers don't know every single target. The scouts are paid to do that work, they bring back the reports and videos and then the management decide if it's a good option. It's not something done on a snap judgement either, I'd imagine this has been a good years worth of scouting.

What a nutcase.

Cole probably won't be too bad if he gets some games under his belt, one of Englands better players when he was fit and confident. But Chamakh, I agree. What does he do? Awful player in my eyes. Not sure if he's a loan signing or not for them.

It's another Cortese signing ffs!!!!!!

1 of many.

Fair enough I guess. A loyal lad!

Very strong Italian source, who broke the Ramirez deal in the summer.

To be honest, this is following exactly the same lines as the Ramirez deal. There's only 1 winner here, and it's us. They need the money, we're the only club offering the money, and the players wants to join. They can try and haggle but at the end of the day, they'll accept what we offer at the end of the day. It's all playing the game as well, happens all over the world during every transfer window. Quite fun really.

Didn't really happen for him there did it? Shame. If I'm honest he's a squad player at Championship level, no more than that. Probably a starter for a lower championship side.

Doubt we'd make such a radical change at this stage, and also as the current tactical setup seems to be working much better.

Agreed. We'd look pretty good in CB if this guy comes. 2 Internationals in Astori and Yoshida, and 2 solid pro's in Fonte and Jos. Not really going to get a better 4 CB's for a club in our position.

Immediately, neither. But I think he'd probably replace Yoshida when the opportunity arose. I think Fonte is a massive part of the spine, and has been for the last 3 years - obviously he's captain as well. So if any of the CB's were to be dropped, Yoshida is probably the first one. Harsh, I agree - which Is why I don't think he'll walk into the team straight away. (if we get him, obviously)

Thought that was the case. We're too slow as a nation when it comes to identifying these cross-nationality players. He'd walk into the national team at the mo.

Good old Nicola driving a hard bargain, as usual.

Jeez, for a player of his ability that's a bloody decent club to find yourself at.

Ah, very handy player. Good signing for Spurs. What's the deal with him anyway? He's a german international isn't he? but has an english parent?

Don't even joke! Christ, that would be awful. But to be honest, I reckon we'll have a decent 2nd half and be more comfortable than people anticipate.