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Controlling the world is a bit of a stretch from controlling their own intelligence assets, though.

I agree with everything you say except I think even if Eddie thought he was that good, it looks like he'd probably be sold. Just seems to be the situation we're in, and the alternative appears to be losing great players who are already integral to our squad.

People inventing valuations out of thin air e.g. "there's no way he's worth £40m, £25m sounds about right". But if the conversation started at £25m, I guarantee half those people would say "there's no way he's worth £25m, £17m sounds about right". People whose opinion is entirely directed by the framing of an issue.

Now that we can take Calvert off the table, if that's legit, it is a heck of a deal. I don't like selling him in the slightest, but it's a very justifiable decision and a massive vindication of whoever was responsible for us signing him. It gives us scope to sign ten new potential Mintehs, if you think of it that way.

It's a good point and one of the weird things about PSR. I agree Eddie looks pretty perfect for Minteh's career given his profile, and it's not just a club being forced to lose a player they want but a player being forced to leave a manager who could help make his career. Transfers going badly can break a kid's career.

Good morning

In a marketplace where your moves are being scrutinised and learned from by your competitors, it's exactly how business (sometimes) works. Happens in politics all the time - want something to not be spoken about, give the press something else to chew on or they'll get hungry. Not saying that's definitely the case here, but I think we're much happier letting some pursuits be known about than others.

We've really got a thing for left sided centre backs right now.

My mind went there too but the tweet is from April, so false alarm.

Fuck's sake.

Well, we're not going to be playing more than one game a week for almost all of next season, so just on that basis he'd be quite suitable...

Assuming there wasn't some sort of trick involved like them buying Longstaff for £50m, would anyone here defend buying him for over £30m? I truly don't think that'll happen, but want to see who'll put themselves above the parapet.

If he misses most of next season then he's probably cooked, yes, but we're not there yet. He's had a long summer off, hopefully he's put work in and is raring to go next month.

Doesn't seem to be confirmed Anderson is the player being offered? Maybe someone's heard it's a Geordie midfielder and made assumptions... I'd be disappointed if it was him, but if it was, it'll be Howe's judgement so I'll go with it. I would expect most people on here to be highly pleased with it judging by his thread. Can't really comment on Kilman. From what I've seen I've liked him and he seems well respected in the game. Could easily picture him being a good signing for us therefore. Superficially it might be like Pope - not an obvious move for our summer but one that looks very important in retrospect. We don't know how dark things are for Botman currently. I'm surprised at people flying off the handle so quickly after today, and I say that as someone who's made queasy by the idea of signing Calvert - I'm firmly against him. All the same, I recommend waiting until we sign them before we actually start griping, and ideally waiting until the whole window is concluded to see what the masterplan is.

Swapping Dominic Calvert for Yankubu Minteh. Looking forward to waking up from this dream.

I don't know, ask Omar Berrada.

It's a bit simplistic seeing it this way, but I think Hall is more of the natural successor to Trippier in the team, albeit that implies mirroring over the structure of the team from right to left.

What you like and what you get are two different things, mister.

Every splinter he gets in his arse at this tournament puts another million on his value.

Bring Richie in on a dayrate to make a phonecall and keep his head straight...

He's been shown up as a dickhead a few times lately, so not too concerned.

Will begin his slow metamorphosis into Steve Bruce.

Genuinely shocked people seem to be surprised.

Broken nose. Must be getting old, first head injury that's actually cracked something.

Yes, he was pretty humble about it on his overlap interview, saying he's not very vocal in the dressing room, but he's clearly growing in stature all the time and helps to lead by example.