Toon Saint

Not sure why it wasn't done months ago, but great news nonetheless.

Don't think it is as simple as that. Ralph's credibility rests on keeping him, and he has been pretty categorical on the issue. Might see a similar situation with Modric at Spurs. He starts the season a bit miffed, maybe missing the first game or two with 'his head not being in the right place', but once the transfer window closes he knuckles down, with a broad agreement that should we get once more decent season out of him, he is free to go.

Romanian Badman called Florin? Would hope this doesn't mean an end to the Rojo pursuit though. Rojo/Florin/Yoshi/Fonte as defensive options would actually be decent depth at CB* *Based on a 2 minute youtube clip of Florin.

Just opened that in a crowded gym. Cheers Timothy.

30% owned by Peñarol I believe.

Spend some facking money!

Hope Koeman says that to the players to inspire them.

Lallana and Chambers both had their medicals at Liverpool and Arsenal before terms of the deals were finalised. The fact that Les is out in Portugal suggests an urgency to get this transfer done, so wouldn't be surprised if we got him back to Staplewood for the medical before sorting out any loose-ends - certainly sounds like we are nearing an agreement. Bound to be tricky though with third-party ownership involved. Can Ulrich van Gobbel please report to Transfer Rumours thread with flight times please? Thank you.

The only thing I've ever seen mentioned was a reference to Luke Shaw's agent trying to insert a clause into his contract whereby he could leave if Cortese left. Think that was in a Ben Smith article on BBC website though, so might well just be Cortese blowing his own trumpet. Not sure it actually ended up being formalised in the contract, funnily enough.

Bang on. Nail on head. Really can't see Cortese, of all people, ceding that much power to a youngster and the potential buying club by allowing such a clause to be inserted.

I'm not convinced he will come this transfer window, personally. I think Burnley will be willing to lose him for free next summer if he scores the goals that keep them in the Premier League. Plus he seems too much of a decent chap to force a move should we bid an amount Burnley aren't happy with.

If we have sent a delegation over to Portugal then Rojo looks like the one we are most urgently pursuing and the best bet for tomorrow IMO. Would really be an impressive signing and would allay a lot fears both in the dressing room and among supporters. Get it done Les! Now that we've finally sorted out 'bad boy' Dani's future, I'm hoping the pace will start to pick up with our own signings. Ings, Forster, Belhanda, Redmond, and VvD to follow please.

I agree with most of that, though I think outside perception of the club isn't at all great at the moment. Even if he isn't familiar with the players that have left he is probably familiar with the narrative of the club as one in crisis. Hopefully Les can reassure him, and as you say, some extra dosh in his pocket and a chance to impress in the EPL may well be enough to do that anyway. I think he'd be the first signing that the media would actually sit up and take note of, so would be absolutely brilliant if we could land him. Should also make landing subsequent targets easier as it will start to turn that media-led narrative back in our favour.

Darren Lewis ‏@MirrorDarren 4m Tottenham have had an offer accepted for PSV winger Memphis Depay. Nacer Chadli set to go the other way. More @mirrorfootball Boo!

Spurs are already in for the Argentinian CB at Villarreal and have just signed a different CB from Sporting (Dier). They don't look to be interested, and neither do any of the teams that finished above us last season either, at the moment anyway. Think that we will agree a fee, but then its convincing the player. Don't know how attractive a proposition we will look to a lot of players, currently.

Ha, out by 26 euro. We are entering into the murky waters of third party ownership with this deal - Sporting only own 25 % of the players rights and the rest is owned by an investment company - so imagine this will take time even if we are getting closer to their asking price. Probably another reason why Les has led the 'delegation' out to Portugal. It would be a massive signing if we can pull it off, and the football media might start to back-peddle with their apocalyptic predictions just a little.

No longer talking about a 'difficult financial situation' then? Funny that.

£9.5m is 12m euro.

If we kept steaming in with £16m offers for players then they'd ask for £25m surely? £9.5m is hardly an insignificant fee - we paid £1m less for Lovren!

Is that what we should be looking for though, squad padding? Taider seems decent enough to challenge for the first-team but don't really get the logic if Schelotto comes in. We need to keep the squad on their toes by signing quality, not a player destined to warm the bench. I like your new avatar though Jeff, snap! Thanks for the cheeky add on twitter as well. Does this mean you are following me now?

Uncle Les must have been sufficiently encouraged to fly over to Portugal to get the deal done. These things take time - as it did with Tadic & Pelle - though you get the sense that we'll be facing tougher competition for his signature this time around. If we manage to bring in Taider, Rojo and Forster this week then we'll start to resemble a decent team again. Get Belhanda, another striker (Ings?), and Vlarr in on top of those, and we'll certainly have better depth than last season. Whether we'll have better quality or not, time will tell.

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Juxtaposing Ralph with Cortese made for painful listening.

The centre-backs came in two by two, hurrah! hurrah! When you say a 'ready made pairing' do you mean that they have never played together before? Or have they been getting it on outside of football? Shame to hear about Fonte and Lovren splitting up. Long distance relationships are hard.