a1ex2001

Lol note I said SHOULD! And then referenced the fact all our record transfers like Guido turn out shite because we have done so badly at buying expensive players in recent years. Surely we are due some luck with a few that turn out to be good business!

Because the cost of a transfer should at least be some indication of quality even if our recent business hasn’t always demonstrated this! At least we won’t be breaking our transfer record this summer as that is normally a disaster!

Agree I assume in the background we have been sounding clubs and players out about potential deals so should Che leave then we will be able to move reasonably quickly for a replacement. If Che goes and we don’t replace him with proven quality then I would say our shot at promotion this season is over, we look so much better when he’s on the pitch and if he keeps getting goals his confidence level will shoot up and the quality in our midfield could see him the leagues top scorer.

Lol and the dodgy was it Chilean midfielder Harry signed and never played!

Have they actually released him? He had another two years to run on his contract so that would have cost them a fortune as it would need to be paid in full and obviously no transfer or load fee if he goes to Saudi then. Impressed if they have just written all that cash off. In response to the OP no not in a million years would I want to see him in a saints shirt (or hopefully any other professional clubs) the lad has crossed a line that I hope he will ever come back from he may have dodged jail time but I don’t think he will save his career.

How many medicals is he having lol He doesn’t seem exactly desperate to join up does he!

The problem is they got lucky recently as we did for a while when selling all our best players. The luck will run out and they will sign some flops before landing up at the wrong end of the league again. No club can consistently sell all there best players and replace them.

Still not got over that dodgy curry he had on the weekend? I guess the move to a better club his agent promised would materialise if he was on the verge of joining us never materialised! Could Downes be our mega exciting last minute of the transfer window loan signing?

I'd agree, he's well spoken and has always come across as reasonably sharp combined with a decent career and the inevitable recognition he has from the way he exploded onto the scene with the world cup call up. I would have kept him for another season for me he showed enough in the second half of last season when he was playing regularly to suggest that he was more than capable of doing a job at this level the first team has already featured several player who didn't get close to his level last season so it seems a shame for him to retire when he could have bookended his career with a championship winners medal following our inevitable promotion!

I’ve got to the point where I don’t think he is going to sign this has dragged on too long. Who is the next cab off the rank?

Reads like a very reasonable and well thought out approach to 'living with COVID' much like we do with other seasonal viruses, I'm sure we will continue to vaccinate the elderly and vulnerable and monitor for new strains just as we do with flu and over time it will no longer be news worthy as it will just be another part of the yearly cycle. Hardly worth posting about even now and give it a couple of years nobody will talk about COVID and vaccines it will just be there.

Not my analysis it’s the FT you are disagreeing with thought it made a nice change from discussing the governments hard right position on immigration to look at something else they are hard right on, we could always throw in the banning of peaceful protest if you want another classic hard right feature or the continuing use of ‘othering’ to dodge the blame for being utterly incompetent. You keep pretending they are centrists if it makes you feel better but they are demonstrably not.

Centrist, or financially the most right wing government in the developed world you decide? That’s ignoring the litany of other right wing policies as well. If the government goes far enough right the centre lands up in a ridiculous place which leaves us with Labours worrying lurch in the same direction. https://twitter.com/RichardJMurphy/status/1575766938411831297?s=20

Our current government are centrists this really is a post for the ages! Either you are standing so far to the right that you polish your jack boots nightly or you are deluded (maybe both) any government that has Suella Braverman in one of it’s most senior posts will never ever be centrist as centrists could never tolerate her extreme right wing views! She is just one example I could list countless others who hold or have held senior government posts. If you look at the rhetoric and policy coming out of the current shambles and see centrist you need to seriously re calibrate your world views.

Still lack the firepower of a real goal scorer which I think will hamper them. I’m expecting some decent football though and a much better showing than last year. Their squad is massive though so maybe we should be tapping them up for some super star loans…

The country of origin which is known for huge numbers? our rate of deportation is appallingly low compared to some other similar countries. The first key would be actually processing applications and making decisions which we basically don’t do. The Government love this ‘problem’ it is a total distraction from on going abject failures, rank corruption and cronyism. It has absolutely nothing to do with any of the major problems and challenges facing this country yet it is plastered all over the news like it is the biggest single issue facing the country. It shouldn’t even be in Rishi’s too 5 let alone seemingly top of his list. What do people think will actually get better in the country if we ‘stop the boats’? The NHS will still be broken, the housing market will still be broken, the economy will still be broken and the rich will carry on getting richer while they laugh at you and feed you someone else to blame.

Ah so it’s the civil services fault now? Congrats on swallowing the latest Tory bait. The Civil service is yet another convenient ‘other’ to blame while once again the government Rob you blind. The rate of processing is appalling and the backlog has got worse year on year, this isn’t a recent problem. Despite the masses of vitriol and excuses from our government nothing has changed instead we just see Rwanda, barges, tents and noddy slogans like ‘stop the boats’. How are the public so blind and gullible? I’ve never voted labour in my life and think the inability of the current opposition to actually offer a genuine alternative on this issue is embarrassing. It would be nice if one of our major parties wasn’t chasing the lowest common denominator on this.

The government don’t want to ‘stop the boats’ they are the latest in a long list of ‘others’ that they blame for their failings. They used to like blaming the EU but then we left an everything got worse not better so a new ‘other’ was needed to distract the simple minded while they line their pockets. The government could ‘stop the boats’ tomorrow by opening asylum processing facilities in France they choose not to. They could process the thousands of asylum seekers rotting in hotels they choose not to. They could actually deport some failed asylum seekers and again they choose not to. One day people will wake up and realise the people crossing the channel in small boats aren’t the ones doing them over and notice the rich guys running off with the sacks of cash laughing at them for being so gullible.

Armstrong scored a bucket load last time he played at this level and Mara is good enough to get goals to would be great if we got a couple of really good strikers in but I don’t see us doing more than replacing Adams if he goes. Personally I’d keep Adams his value as a striker out weighs any fee we are likely to get this summer after we pay his sell on clause.

Maybe they got to the city and realised it really wasn’t worth it. Must be a nightmare as a footballer uprooting your family often without a lot of choice of destination. I’d take him back even at 33 if he was anything close to the player we had back in the day sadly he went from French international to washed up in about 6 months at united.

40 was never what we were going to get that was just the headline number I was realistically hoping for mid 30’s but if we have got most of the 30m upfront then it probably balances out. Of course we need to sell any club that gets relegated does and most publicly say they don’t. Finances have to be balanced and players who don’t want to stick around will always be moved on surely everyone knew this was coming and wasn’t expecting the board to announce a full list of players we wanted to get shot of and who wanted to leave and stay etc

If it is 30m guaranteed then I don't think it is the end of the world in terms of fee, I'd hoped it would be higher and maybe the actual deal will be it is very rare the real numbers get published these days and most really big fees seem to include plenty of clauses that will likely never be met. I think realistically given the lack of competition for his signature and his age etc the best we were ever going to get was a deal up to mid £30m's which is why we were publicly asking for £40m

It’s his fault we have a left back playing centre half!

Did someone say feel good factor…… There was no need to put out such an awful side, reminds me of when Harry sent a team of kids out to get slaughtered last time we got relegated. Getting embarrassed by a league two side benefits nobody.

Agreed if he stays and we get promoted it will be worth way more than any transfer fee we get this summer.