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We have a big sell on clause for Elanga, so I'd imagine Forest will inflate the price even more due to that.

We play with 3 midfielders. You only need 1 player of 3 to get injured, suspended or need a rest to play. We will play 3x a week, every week from September to January excluding international breaks. That's loads of starts and minutes of the bench for another CM. I like the idea of signing a JP/Cunha/Alvarez type. Could drop a CM and play as a 10. Or play instead of Isak in our current setup.

Elanga would be interesting as it would seemingly be a commitment to playing a right footed player on the right you’d imagine, Elanga becoming first choice with Murphy his backup. I did feel at times last year we were a 4-3-3/4-4-1-1 hybrid with Joelinton almost serving as the wide left option while Gordon/Barnes were almost playing just off Isak. You could see it in our defensive shape quite well, operated as two banks of four with our LW having a lot less responsibility than Murphy had. I’d personally prefer to stick with the 4-3-3 and buy a left footed player for the RW but just a thought.

Whilst the information above is of course relevant, the eye test definitely matters. He commands his area very well and there is no metric for that as far as I can see. I could be being lazy here. Sanchez is top of save % but by all accounts Chelsea want a new GK? Pope has won us much, much more points than he has cost us. He's not near the best about but he's absolutely fine for where we are right now. Should we look to improve? If the right deal is there absolutely. But it shouldn't be our #1 priority this summer IMO, but I trust the people paid millions a year to know a lot more than me!

If we balanced getting Anthony Elanga with someone like Joao Pedro, then I wouldn't mind it as we'd be adding more technical ability in the middle of the pitch to coincide our pace merchants out wide Knowing us though it would be Elanga and DCL 😂

Problem with the CM depth is that Howe doesnt trust them so we are changing formation and system becauase of that, and I dont think anyone wants to see another fatigued midfield with Luton players running us down.

I'm convinced it'll be him, and we'll overpay massively for him. As I've said on other threads, he's an upgrade on Murphy but he's not the player we need if we want to address the issues we've seen all season, imo.

I'm sure we will be very interested in him but I think it will be tough to do, the asking price will be high. Forest aren't easy to deal with as we found out with what they gave us for Anderson.

Think the problem we have getting depth in midfield is going to be similar to what we have getting a back up striker for Isak. The cost to sign anyone close to that level will be massive and convincing anyone under that level to join knowing they'll be second choice is hard.

Still can't shake the feeling that Elanga will be our right wing signing. We were interested in him last summer. He's very Eddie Howe (dangerous in transitions, can go on his left or right, etc) Elanga has said Isak has already spoke to him about the move. It's not the most exciting name, but I think Howe would elevate his game.

Tonali, Bruno & Joelinton will be running on empty later in the season if we dont address the CM situation.

A Scholar and a gentleman as always

Data's not everything but think using it for Goalkeeping performance is fair: Save% Pope is 9th GA per 90 he's 7th Playing time is 14th Saves he's 13th Pass completed % he's 17th Number of defensive actions outside of the box he's 2nd Here's a link if anyone wants to look for more positive data for Pope - https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/keepersadv/Premier-League-Stats Attempted to be balanced as possible, but I'm not seeing anything to suggest he's this top class keeper in other areas to accept his woefulness with his feet. Sure eye test also matters, but we are likely to be biased in that regard and the data here matters in my opinion. We are a top 6 team, we want to be CL most seasons, I'm not seeing anything in the data except his ability as a sweeper keeper, which I'd agree he's very good at, to suggest we should continue with Pope as our #1.

Wages will be a problem if he doesnt succeed there.

Sorry, didn't think.

This will confuse the Scousers. Give a player stick for walking away out of contract, yet the club say Diaz isn't for sale but won't give him a new deal? Works both ways.

Damn that might be it. Really does look like a “Laters Eddie la, I’m off to maccies” message.

So he wasn’t saying he’s been eating a few burgers?

Can anyone share this in full for those of us without accounts?

Would have him quickly, good player. Clearly an eye for goal. Could do with diving less.

Hope they holdout for at least £70m!

🖤🤍 “The goal highlighted Cheick and his personality to a tee. I can still see him wheeling away all aggressive before he broke into that enormous smile, which illuminated the whole stadium and became an iconic moment in Newcastle's recent history."

Grim af on here these days like. Can't even say "fish supper" 😉

He looks like he smells really nice

I think its more likely they know they're controversial owners and they don't want to ruffle any feathers. Which to be honest, I understand, and to me personally exploiting loopholes feels a bit dirty. (Don't go back and check my previous posts, i'm sure ive said the opposite in the past )