Kanji

Good to have you back Rich, man. Excellent post - won't quote as it's long as fuck

I'm pretty much aligned with you - I'd say left wing, #10, striker and goalkeeper are my main areas of concern. I'd then say center midfield, left back and right back cover after that.

that's awesome man, didn't know that. love reading that. Hope this one gets through, I do really like we're signing a player of his skill set and from what I've read and seen in the U21 cup matches and videos and such he looks the type of player who will improve our squad and hopefully develop into a good player under Rafa.

Gonna run out of fuel before they make it. maybe end up in space

wtf

okay thanks for that

Or structure the payments accordingly with the timing of cash flow ins. not fucking rocket science.

What the fuck was Fun88 for as a commercial partner then? sponsors also fund transfers and cash flow too ffs.

I'd not get my hopes up that the reason we're not doing deals is because we're at a stand-still due to a takeover or cash investment and a quiet period during some heavy due diligence. The far too obvious answer is we're being tight as fuck with the money and Lee is having difficulty getting these deals done with that fixer fella also breathing down on him. Again, one of those things I'd rather be wrong and some investment comes in and the unnecessary road blocks are moved. These guys are guilt until proven innocent in my mind, and will be until Ashley fucks off.

That weirdo Lee asking Rafa about transfers in front of adoring little academy kids

Rafa hardly going to be negative in front of those children at the academy event.

So I assume you think Charnley f***ed up the deal for whatever reason? The club messing up a minimal cost deal as you said and knowingly pissing of the manager in the process doesn't sound to me like the most logical explanation for him ending up in Swansea. And without knowing any real facts about the situation it really requires you to make some pretty big assumptions to end up with that result. But like I said, maybe I'm being naive. Maybe Charnley intentionally f***ed it up to p*ss Rafa off or maybe he went to the Bahamas and didnt bother answering his phone. And then invented a story about Clement tp protect himself. Maybe. All I know is that there are Stevel Seagal films with more realistic scripts. I made a ton of assumptions, as many of us are, and yes - I firmly believe Charnley did fuck up the deal. If it's being reported that Rafa had the deal agreed and felt like it was sorted, and he ends up at Swansea - then the man in charge of actually doing the logistics either a) couldn't get things in order to close the deal b) stalled on the decision making for whatever reason and lost the deal or c) is out of his depth Not at all out of line in my thinking based on past dealings. The club's transfer dealings looks sluggish and completely out of touch. I'd love to be wrong and see a handful of new signings but...

Precisely. That said, if things were so bad Rafa wouldn't be here. It's not like he didn't get a glimpse into what they're like in January and this is all coming as some sort of surprise to him. He stayed on with assurances, unless/until he walks we can only assume things are still acceptable behind the scenes. Between the highs and lows of the news, this is where my head is too.

Regardless where Rafa felt he was in the pecking order, I assume he saw the massive potential in Abraham on top of a minimal cost deal (1m pounds) to get it sorted out and finally the personal time and capital he spent on getting the player convinced we were the right destination. I assume the Clement thing was an excuse made up by Charnley.

Trying so hard to not get fucking angry right now

Quite frankly my optimism when we were linked with far better players and it being on the back of Rafa not taking time off, the transfer budget rumors, etc has pretty much dissipated. I'm starting to get a little worried about these long drawn out processes, targets getting linked, somehow us being priced out, etc. Not good, man. Hopefully some movement this week on some quality so I can get excited again.

Craig Hope dropping the hammer of thor on every link we talked about this morning in the chronicle.

Sounds like Puma is going to launch 37 some odd away kits that are all dark color kits this Wednesday. Hope our 3rd kit is an awesome anniversary kit type fueled design http://www.footyheadlines.com/2017/07/puma-to-make-biggest-ever-kit-launch-this-week.html

Murphy looks exactly like the player we should be signing from lower leagues and developing into a really good squad player.

I dig it

Some of these players we are linked with are so underwhelming

When I heard of this appointment I immediately thought it was Our very own Rod Stewart and I was pretty pumped.

love when people counter Hatem as our #10 they have to immediately go right back to when he wasn't that strong there when he played for us under Pardew. a team that solely relied on magic and 1 or 2 players playing out of their skin to win matches.