Matt

PSR circle jerk maybe?

Likely will never happen due to the international break. By the time Eddie is back in front of the press it will be old news (at least that's how he will treat it).

I'm racking my brains but I don't remember the last time a player held out this long from even training with a team. I'm not sure how we 'get him' to play, and if he did, would he not just threaten to play badly? It's a dismal situation but one which only comes about when the player is question is an absolute scumbag. Look, we're never going to know exactly what has gone on, but I think the club has sacrificed a reasonable chunk of change to prevent the standoff blowing up even further. Gerard was of course one case where he was strongly persuaded by non-football actors to stay put.

But then you're at the point where we're playing for £15m or so on a fee with the possibility of him holding out. Something happened during that meeting that changes the scenario completely.

I think we can draw some conclusions given the turn of events since the meeting last Monday. Now whether he would have really sat on his arse until next year is up for debate, but it's pretty obvious that was his position in those discussions.

We didn't play Isak as an out-and-out striker when he first joined and I can similar for NW, which even more underlines the need for a body through the door tomorrow.

There is one buyer out there and the club have taken a view that's the best they are getting. If it was truly that cheap there would be more interest- but while there are plenty of clubs who can drop £50-60 on a player, very few are in the £100m+ league. If Isak was unhappy but still playing and training, this deal probably wouldn't have happened at all.

He's 34 next summer.

I don't, on the basis of the entirety of his time at the club.

Football operates on a very short memory cycle.

They'll make enough on his Liverpool contract to cover those 10 times over.

Harsh reality is that Liverpool want him, but don't absolutely need him. They could walk away and try again in January, then next summer and still probably win the league. There were no other bidders around so Isak's behaviour worked towards only one outcome.

Agreed. This is the second summer in a row where the upstairs appointments (or lack of them) have fucked our recruitment and a lot of this mess is self-inflicted, but the primary issue here is Isak's behaviour. Clearly the execs thought they could reason with him over time, but they were wrong.

That assumes the player has the same lack of integrity and professionalism as shown here by Isak.

Maybe Isak's got the ol' shin splints?

Good luck finding one of them.

No-one knows exactly what Isak said at the meeting last week- but it was enough for us to accept he was a goner and make the move for Woltemade and also so a change in tone in Howe's comments. That was the end of the road. So do we replace Isak tomorrow? Either way there's an empty locker, because to me it seems he was happy to keep dragging this out until January or beyond.

Rennes were down to 9 men after 11 mins of their game today, not sure I've seen two red cards so early in a top flight game.

Got very sunburnt watching West Auckland beat Garforth 3-2 in a very good game with three excellent goals and two okay ones. Fair value for ten quid.

The prospect of him going to Anfield makes a move to Old Trafford seem a minor annoyance by comparison.

Wayne Quinn still takes some beating.

I’m probably in a minority but I thought Ki was a really tidy player for us and was sad to see him go.

That’s a great result for them.

Its the opposite in non-league. Loads of great trips out there, bookended with some pints near New Street Station.

Heard he was a bit of a jerky (sorry bad translation joke)