tajjuk

lol at Chaz Austin, is that an actual quote? Seems odd he used Hojberg and Valery's full names but said 'Chaz' unless he has been completely charmed by ol' Charlie, who from interviews and stuff does seem to be a bit of a charmer and popular with most people. £280 million spend or something the last the 3 windows, and they are 10th.

Everton are not very good, I mean neither are we but to be honest we were unlucky to lose against them away and that was under Hughes. I think we are a lot closer to them now. They seem a bit all over the place and I reckon if we can get the press going, as they like to play out from the back, we will get some joy I reckon. Hopefully Lemina, Bertrand and Ings will be fit, which together with Hojberg back could be a massive boost. Romeu is the only worry really, centre-backs never have to do that much running, but with no real alternative DM and him playing into extra time is a worry for how at it he'll be.

None of those players are their players, they are top prospects from Chelsea and Pool, Wilson has caps for Wales. Tomori and Mount are both England U21s. And all 3 probably have more senior appearances than our youngsters put together as all 3 of them have been on loan for the last 2 years.

What is a 'pep-jewel'?

Shame on Mepham, seems to sort of player we should be targeting, especially as £15 million doesn't sound that much for a highly rated Championship player these days. We seem to be sticking the European route, even though we end up paying those sort of fees anyway, like Hoedt was about that much, granted with Serie A experience with Lazio and international caps for Holland he probably had a higher pedigree but still.

Not mobile enough, which is why he has been dropped by Solksjaer in his revamped Man Utd team, he doesn't run enough and can't keep up with the pace of the game anymore.

2-3 seasons if he does a good job, maybe longer if he creates something special and wants to continue the project. He seems that sort of manager, seems to be loving the place already and really connecting with the fans so who knows. I mean he wanted to stay at Leipzig, despite being linked with Bayern, it was them not committing to him that actually made him leave as he had a year on his contract left and wanted to extend it but Leipzig were luke warm. I reckon if he does a good job and the board backs him, not with crazy money but decent money and they want to really keep him he might stay long term, seems to have that sort of character.

Yeh but considering they played mid week and Man Utd went to Dubai, Spurs absolutely battered them 2nd half, just the finishing was not good enough, they probably had 5-6 good chances and probably against any other keeper in the league they would have scored 1-2.

Still find the centre-back thing odd to be honest, yes ideally we need strengthening there long term, but right now I think Vestergaard, Bednerak, Stephens and Yoshida are good enough, with Jones there for injuries (presuming we ship Hoedt). I'd be more worried that are only real pacey attacking mid is basically Redmond, beyond him we have Armstrong, Moe who has done nothing and then we are either playing JWP there or one of the youngsters. Summer yes, we need CB, DM, AM, Striker, but priority right now would IMO be the AM, who can play Ralfs system and probably put Armstrong out of the side.

Not sure centre-back is a massive priority at the moment, would rather see someone in the attacking sense if we are going to make just one signing. Bednerak & Vestergaard have shown a new level since Ralf took over and Stephens/Yoshida have also been fairly solid. I suppose we are only a couple of injuries from Hoedt but still I think we'd be more in trouble if Redmond went down. In the summer yes, especially if we are going 3 CBs long term or Ralf has worries about our current ones in a two, but if funds are tight go for attacker IMO. I mean I watched Watford on MOTD and realised they are 'best of the rest' with a centre back pairing of Mariapa and Cathcart, who are average players at best

He's never going to be a complete midfield powerhouse, but he is technically very good, has a good passing game and of course crucially for Ralf pressing game he can run all day and works his socks off. He will always be a worry at being a bit lightweight against some of the more physical teams but is solid option to have IMO and looks like he could carve himself out a role in the centre-mid.

Lookman on loan with an agreed fee end of season, if that was the only in, with some of the others out, I think that would be pretty decent. I think we have shown today the squad is nowhere near as bad as it looked under the previous managers, almost everyone in the squad has raised their game. We probably had 5 guaranteed first teamers out today and still won. One good signing could be enough I reckon, like Ralf says to me it seems pointless to sign someone unless they are a long term improvement.

Can't see Long going anywhere now to be honest, whilst he should not be first choice, he is the kind of striker Ralph wants and will therefore I think always be a good option for him in the squad. Hopefully we can find a younger, upgrade Long.

People were (unsurprising on here) far too quick to write him off, he needed time to adjust to the league AND very importantly the team now has a proper set up and looks like an actual team not a bunch of individuals so we are now not exposing our centre-backs to basically defend on their own at times. It was very clear he had the attributes to be a good defender, and he was well rated in the Bundesliga, playing for a good team, but not every new player to the premier league adjusts straight away. You can see from the interview he knew he wasn't play well and obviously confidence is a big thing for all players and ralph has given him that. If we can find another centre back to compliment him and Bednerak then I think we will have a very solid back 3 or back two with 3 good centre-backs competing.

Dembele is class, he is a rare player because he is one of those deep midfielders that can break out from a press with his dribbling ability and strength, those sort of players are tough to find and are hugely valuable to teams set up like ours. Keita basically did that role for Leipzig under Ralf and those sort of players start counters because they win the ball back deep and then break out from the counter press to start attacks. Just shame his body is probably not quite up to it anymore but a massively under rated player I think. Don't think there is much issue, its probably not even the main scouting team doing it, probably being overseen by the academy people, the up front fee, wages etc. are probably not going to have any impact on first team signings. Just because we are in a bit of mess now doesn't mean we shouldn't be still building for the future, if there are highly rated young kids out there that we can identify and poach, its a way of helping us compete with the big boys.

I think it actually shows that Puel is good at setting up teams to counter other teams tactically if those teams are the ones expected to win and attack, he did that for us and showed it in the league cup run. But when the emphasis is on his team to win and break down other teams, his football is too slow, and it's too negative, Puel teams don't get enough players into the box, pass to sideways etc. He is basically a French Pulis, who just plays passing football instead of more direct, he knows how to get his teams hard to beat and defensively solid as a unit but doesn't know how to get them to win games against teams that do that to him, which is why fans get on his back because at home against bottom half teams they expect more and both us under him and now leicester haven't done that.

Shows what having a clear team shape and instructions can do to defenders, defending as team, everyone with their roles and the team actually playing as a unit. Said that was the issue under Hughes, not really the players, there was no way our squad was a bottom 3 premier league squad, maybe not challenging top 8 but it was solid mid table if they were managed properly and under Ralph they have shown that. No Lemina, Bertrand, Ings, Austin, Hojberg, but we still get a result, which in itself is amazing but it also shows the likes of JWP, Stephens, Cedric, Vestergaard etc. are nowhere near as bad as people were making out, they just needed a manager to get the team and them playing to their levels. What's that now, 10 points in 7 games? Including Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal in that run, stretch that over the season and it's around 50 points I believe which is solid mid table form.

Ok well presume he is a maybe seeing he has had the last two games off but seemed ok to play against Man City.

Doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere?

Where is Lemina? I am presuming Bertrand might make the bench if he has been back in training this week.

Well as mentioned above, Leicester signed Ward for £12 million, essentially as a number 2 and he was Liverpool's no. 3 keeper. Bravo cost City £17 million and he was already 33 at the time and was never going to be more than a stop gap and ultimately number 2. £20 million might be too much, but I'd expect £15 million maybe with add ons, its not a massive fee to the top 6. What tends to make me think its Spurs or Chelsea is Lloris seems to have got a bit more injury prone and bit more erratic lately, and for Chelsea, despite the fee Kepa Arrizabalaga is still a pretty young and inexperienced keeper so they might want a more experienced back up who is used to the league, so whilst he would move as no.2 he'd have a decent chance of possibly get some good runs for those teams. Plus the home grown thing. And as others have said it frees up wages and transfer funds to upgrade other areas of the team without really weakening us. Gunn is at least as good and probably is better, and he certainly has the ability to go on and become better in the long term. Despite his problems Forster is hardly a terrible PL back up keeper either and if he is proving harder to shift and attracts less funds, overall it makes sense to probably cash in on McCarthy whilst his stock is high. This of course depends if he wants to go, as others have said you can't see obvious number 1 spot available to him, so he'd have to be swayed about going as a number 2 maybe with a pay rise and opportunity to get champions league appearances etc. Essentially we have to be pragmatic, it's very clear that we need to at the very least free up wages/squad space to buy, if not fund transfers, and whilst in an ideal world it would be great to have two good keepers, most clubs don't, its tough to keep them happy and investment is needed elsewhere. We are not going to get relegated by having Gunn and Forster as our keepers, but we might get relegated if we don't have funds/ages to sign a CB, Striker and fast attacker and if we that means selling McCarthy it seems a no-brainer to me.

My guess if he did go it would be to one of the big clubs as a challenge to their first team keeper but also to fill a 'home grown' slot for the champions league as well. I am pretty sure Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal and Spurs all have no. 2 keepers who are foreign players, and all aside Arsenal (where Cech seems to have dropped to no. 2) are pretty dodgy if they have to be called on. They are Bravo, Mignolet, Romero, Cabballero, and Vorm. That is an mistake ridden collection of keepers right there (maybe harsh on Romero) I'd argue that McCarthy is probably as good as all those lot, or at least is probably a bit more solid and consistent (though might not have the ball playing ability of some of them that those managers like) and of course being English he can count as a homegrown player for their Champions League /Europe League squads in a position they have to use (because you have to have at least 2 keepers I think). I'd expect us to want at least £15-20 million though in the current market, considering his recent form, England call up and new contract. He was previously linked to Spurs and that move makes sense, considering I think Vorm is injury prone and supposedly has been offered on loan to Leeds just recently. And then Lloris has not been himself and it would leave Gazzaniga as Spur's main back up, and despite improved performances seems doubful he is good enough to be Spurs's no.2 I reckon if Spurs can free up that GK space that is where McCarthy might go. Other main option I reckon would be Chelsea.

Not really how transfers work though is it, players with one year left on their contract can go for way more than they were originally signed because they have played better, improved or shown they can perform at a different level. I'd presume that the club thought that signing a 24 year old Italian international from a good club like Napoli, that if we sold him on with 2+ years left on the contract and with transfer fee inflation we would actually make a profit from him, instead we are making a loss, but IMO not a bad loss. The value left on his contract is pretty irrelevant, you don't pay transfer fees to get a player for a certain number of years, you pay transfer fees to get him from another club, his wages are then what you pay him for his services.

That is simple market forces. PL clubs have lots of money, clubs across Europe outside the big boys do not have as much. So if we are selling these players to the Ajax's, Feyenoords, Sampdorias, Getafes, etc. we can't expect them to be shelling out £20 million for players we don't want and taking on their £50-60k a week wages. We have taken advantage of the draw of the PL finances, unfortunately it works both ways, we can't expect to flash our cash round Europe to draw these players often away from clubs actually better than us and then expect them to pay just as much to get them back when it doesn't work out. Look at Chelsea's deal for Pulisic, most of the English press has barely batted an eyelid over that deal, whereas in Germany people think Chelsea are crazy for paying so much for a player, especially not the finished article who was in and out of the Dortmund team. Germany's 2nd best team, Dortmund can't keep up with PL spending and the Bundesliga is probably richer than most of the other European leagues. If you can't sell to the likes of Barca, PSG, Real, Juve, Bayern, then you are not going to get massive fees from clubs round Europe, they just can't afford them.

£3.8 million loss then on the transfer, not terrible considering he has done very little in the last year or so and the market in Italy is not strong. I'd presume they are paying his wages as well, as hopefully are Rangers, so what like maybe £70k a week freed up from the wage bill as well? Hopefully this gives us room to move for a striker now.