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It's not the first time he's said things in a similar vein to this. I actually thought he came across well in this full interview, but it's clear he has a certain way of seeing things - https://true-faith.co.uk/translated-interview-rmc-sport-speak-to-allan-saint-maximin-part-3/

No way mate. Would result in Shola's immediate firing. The new club is not the old club

Oh sure, I found the Trippier deal amazing. No complaints if it is £25m ultimately. Would rather have him than Digne! Going back to my original point, if I had to I still think I'd swap Maxi for Trippier even if the latter was 'only' worth £25m. Because it looks like he will contribute so much both on and off the pitch. The £25m-£50m bracket people are putting Saint Maximin in can buy a LOT of player.

I think it's critical. Hence Klopp talking about mentality monsters and such. It's what separates the winners from the losers at the top end. The sooner the right culture is built the better, because if losers and nutters get entrenched in your club's early successes, it's a tricky situation trying to move them on while not losing the position you've already attained. Going back to Robson, we had a great squad under him, but it wasn't quite great enough, especially mentally. But switching Dyer, Jenas, Robert and several others for players of similar technical skill but higher quality mindsets was a big challenge. The club overall (meaning all the stakeholders, like Freddie Shepherd etc.) didn't have the quality to manage it, and we fell away instead.

Haven't seen that widely reported but fair enough if true. I find it hard to believe Atletico would halve the amount of money they would make on the sale due to our own fuck up in getting relegated though... But that's up to them, I suppose...

As far as I know, Trippier was widely reported as being £10-15m and Targett's deal would be £15m, with no mention made of any loan fees and whether the fee was figured into the deal or separate.

Who says?

Would you buy him for £40m? Is there no player in the world that you could buy for £35m that you would rather have..? Considering that's Bruno money. Those are ultimately the kind of questions to ask... Bearing in mind Trippier and Targett between them would cost little more than £25m... Like with most things right now, I'm happy to back whatever Howe and the club think is the right choice.

I will say, in Maxi's defence, journalists are often complete shits about chopping and changing an interviewee's answers to create a story. It would be interesting to hear the audio of the interview and see how it matches up with the published transcript. That said, I have seen him say things not a million miles away from this in a previous lengthy French interview, so I'm guessing there's no smoke without fire.

Not a fan of the thread worthiness fetish.

The thing with Wood is you can say what you like about the signing, so long as you come up with a plausible alternative from that time. I haven't heard many, but would be happy to.

I don't see many people as being fit to judge Eddie Howe just now... I'm raising an eyebrow, but more than happy to just sit back and watch how all this plays out. Nothing more required.

Sounds like Gee-ma-rang-sh to me.

Alternatively, it means there are no excuses he can give about lack of support from fans when he's going through a hard time. This one's on him. If a flag display causes him to blow up, then he was always a ticking time bomb.

That's not a bad shout if Howe can see value in a player in a similar predicament. A Harry Maguire, say (not literally him, but you get the idea). It is difficult to settle on his value, it's in the eye of the beholder. He's living in football's uncanny valley. Can he make the crossing? I don't think so, but I hope he does.

I keep hearing talk about big money for him. I imagine we'd do well to get £25m for him, forget £50m as some have said.

Pretty much the last man on the pitch we should have had concerns about today.

He was much worse when he moved out left from up front. I didn't hate his performance as much as many others apparently did, for what it's worth. I thought he was trying to put in a decent shift in the first half. He was pressing and things. But there was no sense that he was going to inspire the team to something more.

The thing is... it's not really a risk any more... We have the capacity to buy the left wing's answer to Guimaraes now, and I don't really doubt that we would soon enough.

Very much for this spirit. The club has disgraced itself at times, particularly under Ashley obviously, but we should be aspiring to treat people who've done us great service with as much dignity as possible.

There are no stupid questions, but that is a pretty stupid question. It's like asking about peddling Keegan for Terry Venables in 1993. Poisonous.

If he doesn't block a valuable squad place, I'd quite like to keep him on. Maybe I'm wrong but I think he would be happy to play backup/support act for as long as he can on our journey, while coming on highly motivated and physically prepared when we do need him as cover. I think Miggy feels the pain of being firmly on the back burner a lot more, which I don't blame him for, but isn't ideal in the great scheme of things. I saw an interview with Murphy recently and thought he was surprisingly intelligent and well-considered, which is also handy. He seems like the sort who will already be thinking about his post-playing career.

I'm all for ambition, there's no point in limiting what we can achieve. But we should be aware our games will probably be very different next season, and probably very frustrating. The majority of teams will set out to park the bus against us, particularly at SJP. It may take us a season or two to adjust to that and consistently break teams down. It's what separates the men from the boys.

Bellamy became the most intelligent and modern forward we had in the early 2000s... Fitness to play was an issue, though.

Didn't think signing the best full back we've had in a decade (allowing for Trippier's broken foot) would be so controversial.