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Confiscate his hard drive too!

Joelinton was out for a prolonged period, that isn't likely to happen again. He's the only CM who is difficult to swap out, Joe Willock is the best fit replacement. You could argue he didn't shine last season, but he's done well previously in that role. In any case, he could be sold and we could use that money to buy a midfielder.

Problem is 4-5 players of the required level is more than we can afford and does that keep our stars? Finishing 5th? I think not. We really have to watch out, those sharks in Madrid are snipers and have been engineering free transfers for top notch players for too long. We have to get used to some squad turnover. I'm really concerned we are asleep at the wheel when it comes to the macro side of things.

Assuming we sign Pedro, Trafford and Elanga, I’m guessing a CB would come from the continent

Yeah, will see us right for a good few years going forward. Speculate to accumulate and all that. Then there’s the squad camaraderie and cohesion for the long term too. All good. I like what they are trying to do.

They’ll clap him off the bus first

In a none psr world I keep pope, in the real world I'm sorry I don't need 10 goal keepers.

It does actually have that stripe on it, it's just hidden (see Joelinton7's post)

Precisely. I think this is our approach. I dont think we care so much about the size of the fee but the depth of the investment. All of the obvious targets are of a similar age: Elanga, Pedro, even Scalvini.

Good

When he eventually replaces Pickford in the England team, the RTG fume will be on Fender levels.

Exactly as it has with Tino and Lewis.

Best out of the 3 IMO.

I think we'd be rather cheeky to expect a fee for Dubravka, after we begged him to stay. Im sure we'd let him go wherever he liked without much fuss. He will be fondly remembered.

It’s all about the trefoil Marra.

We don't know the fee yet but if its 30m, that's not alot for someone who could be your number 1 goalkeeper for the next decade and potentially be England's goalkeeper too. If you look at it this way, we are getting our long term goalkeeper, rather than spending multiple fees on other goalkeepers who are here for a few years and the gone again. It might be frustrating that it eats into this year's coffers but it will save us money in the long run.

Bit disappointed with this, after all the hype. Surely that 97/98 kit was all about the stripe? In fairness, we've had some lush ones in recent seasons so a blip was due.

Absolutely. I don't want us to become a Brighton / City team. I love our direct style of play But I thought Martinez when we played Villa away was immense. Baited our press, nice clean passes to Rogers/Watkins and our shape and subsequently defense got ripped apart Add this to our game with our pace merchants and we are laughing We extended Dubs by 1 year didn't we? Hope we can get a fee from Saudi for him

Yeah think we keep Popey and move Dubs. The Greek is just meh!

Aye there's no black in the collar as far as I can tell...

Think Dubravka will be off, hopefully to Saudi for £25m

Explain - I cannot see this.

Keeping Pope is pivotal to us moving up another level. Same as Pedro possibly signing as it means the squad depth is significantly improving. Bring it on

Surely we’d have had to re-negotiate terms. So it does indicate he’s fully wanting to come here still. Fab being briefed for two updates in a day on this could mean club/agents are confident something will be confirmed soon.