HarvSFC

Can draw some comparison. Aribo is prone to over hitting one of his skills and looking as though he’s not in total control, which he can get away with in Scotland, whether he can get away with it in the Premier League where space and time aren’t given is going to be the question. Whereas, Djenepo doesn’t know what he’s doing with his feet himself. Djenepo also misses large parts of seasons, whereas I believe Aribo played the most football of any professional footballer last season, so he’ll be as reliable as JWP. But, as I said yesterday, £10m is a good price and worth taking the gamble. Have to watch out for that contract, though with him running down both his Charlton and Rangers contracts.

I knew Odsonne Edouard would find it a lot more difficult in the Premier League and said as much last summer when we were linked with him and Armstrong to replace Ings. I did say I would prefer Armstrong at the time, but a year later and neither would have been much better than the other. Aribo's a bit more of a difficult one. He has the skills, but I don't think he's always in control and given the lack of time and space in the Premier League, those skills may not come off as much down here as they do in Scotland. He's not particularly pacey either and isn't a playmaker like Tadic. But, at £10m, that's a fair price these days and may be a gamble worth taking. Although, I would rather see an electric forward like Mane/Pre-injury Rodriguez come in.

Gone to work with Wade Elliott, who is now the manager of Cheltenham.

Gareth Bale's sell on clause.

Musiala was here for a year too, good job he didn't amount to anything, really. Player trading at youth level, especially with Chelsea and Man City hoovering up all the talent is a lot more common than when we were bringing through the likes of Bridge, Walcott, Bale, Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw and JWP, who had been in the setup for years, unfortunately.

Both are more defensive midfielders, than attacking. Downes played 4 matches at centre-back for Swansea last season, according to Transfermarkt. From clips Lavia looks to be the more physical, Romeu/Wanyama type, while Downes looks to be the more technical JWP/Schneiderlin type. Who knows how interested we actually were in Downes, as unlike with Lavia there hasn't been any notable reported movements from us made towards him, just our name alongside many other Premier League clubs linked and now he's going to Palace shortly after, so could be that it was simply a use of the media to speed that deal up so that Swansea could then bring in Allen, or if it was a case of it being between Lavia or Downes for us. 🤷‍♂️

"The manager wants a small squad." No manager in football wants a small squad, leaving them with a lack of options and having to turn to the likes of N'Lundulu, Ramsay and Tyreke Johnson at Premier League level.

He has only got two stars, so probably not suitable.

Imagine if McCarthy, or Forster had conceded these two goals at Premier League level...

JWP and Salisu the two first team players in the kit launch. That means they’re staying, right?

Good to see we have some pull once again and looks like we beat Leeds to the signing of Lavia. As I said earlier in the week, I'm all for the Colwill signing. Southampton lad, impressed in the Championship at Huddersfield last season, isn't the finished article and will make mistakes at this level, but the starting blocks are impressive. Guehi and Tomori both left Chelsea last summer and have come on leaps and bounds. If we lose Tyler Dibling, it's a shame, but it's a move for the money and £6k-a-week is a senior first 11 League One players wage. We also now seem to be targeting some of the best youth prospects in the country, who are more career focussed, than money, otherwise they wouldn't leave Man City or Chelsea for us and we could find better than Dibling in the coming windows.

Even when Dan Sheldon leaves, he can’t get away.

Wilson’s like an excited 5 foot child when it comes to transfers. Ramsey and Diallo being the most recent costly disappointments.

A bit more on the Rooney situation, his agent was linked to Kirchner.

Him and Garner were the standout midfielders from the play-offs. I like the idea of Collwill as well, should Bednarek + one of Stephens/Lyanco go this summer. Unfortunately, we were a year too late on Guehi, but he’s progressed magnificently after leaving Chelsea for Palace in a year.

Never really heard of Downes, but Swansea fans rate him and think he has the ability to step up to the Premier League.

It'll be interesting to see how Rooney gets on without Liam Rosenior, who was his highly rated assistant at Derby. Nobody expected Rooney to be a good manager, because he's as dim as they come alongside his off pitch activities. However, he did well at a club with no expectations and he could be a surprise. But, then it could also be another Paul Ince/Ray Mathias situation.

Both Livramento and Bella-Kotchap highlighted in their signing interviews that they had had good conversations with the manager before signing, . Livramento, as we know, looked nailed on to go to Brighton at the time also. So, can't be that bad. 🤷‍♂️

If the Watford link is true, perhaps we can include Armstrong in a deal for Dennis.

Last summer it looked like we had missed out on Brandon Williams, if reports were true. He ended up at newly promoted Norwich, got relegated and we ended up with a much better player in Tino Livramento. Hopefully, it's a repeat scenario.

JWP's skillset is irreplaceable for us. World-class free-kick taker, meaning they're always a threat and saw him finish as our top scorer. Ever reliable, never misses a game and never hides away and he won us the game against Tottenham away last season with two quality assists, showing that he's capable and it's perhaps the lower quality forwards which are the issue. Additionally, we've seen in years gone by, Tottenham pissing up the Bale money, us pissing up the VvD money and most recently Aston Villa pissing up the Grealish money and regressing, despite netting £100m and making good signings on paper with reports a year later of them looking to sell Ings and Buendia, while Bailey was also disappointing. So, there'd be a huge risk and we'd need to replace 10 goals, which aren't going to come from anybody else currently in the squad, so the new signings would need to be a success. Of course £75m would be a massive windfall for us, but in the long run we could end up losing £100m+ if we weren't to get the signings right and lost our Premier League status, so that's the gamble.

He lasted 38 matches at Stoke, one Premier League season, won 6 matches, drew 15 and lost 17, spending relatively big money on dross like Afobe, Woods, Batth and Vokes. I'd avoid him at the moment. He's the main man at Luton and it works for him and he's got them punching well above their weight, but he was well out of his depth at Stoke. There's definitely better out there and our manager's one of them.

I remember in my teenage years being on the BBC 606 forum. I think the poster's username was 'RocketSwain' and he would pretend to be itk each transfer window and I was fully sold on believing him and thinking we were signing Matt Holland, Sam Sodje, Wade Elliott, Brian Stock and Sam Vokes every summer. Elliott's now the favourite to take over at Cheltenham, so give it a few years and the cycle can recommence.

If we can hold onto JWP, KWP and Salisu this summer with the help of selling players such as Bednarek, then I'm all for it.