80

Let's see how it goes.

So pathetic. Do they share an agent or media team? Why do people bother with this shit.

From what I remember, I recall being dubious that he was the one behind any so called strike as Everton's board were behaving very badly at the time, were in deep PSR doodoo and so needed the sale, and needed to shift the fans' blame from themselves for selling their golden boy and their general mismanagement of the club. Ashley stuff, basically.

The chemistry bit is comical given the general agreement is they had none.

Botman seems to be quite cool with Isak forcibly breaking his contract. Given his injury record, I wonder if he'd be so relaxed about clubs having the same freedom when players stop being useful.

Never warmed to him personally. Hoping this whole experience is an educational moment for people that chill dudes aren't necessarily good people - the two get mixed up a lot.

One of the best bits of media the club have done. Felt much more natural. Really unusual to see a new signing talking about other teams and people from other clubs by name - unusual in a good way. Not going to get into the details of comparing and contrasting with Isak, but there seems to be a stark difference in how they look at things.

Love it. We're lucky to have such characters.

Yeah, concerns about this season have never been around the quality of our first eleven, or even our first sixteen thanks to recent signings. But in a pinch the established teams can throw on a generic 16 year-old who is substantially more dangerous than Willock. I didn't expect it to hit us this early, but here we are, shit things happen.

Yes, you have to look at the downstream effects.

Looks like we're gonna be very relieved we bought this boy.

Will be a laugh if he turns out to be the next Lewis Hall after all.

I don't want to keep defending him, but all daggers should be aimed at Isak tonight. Anything else is a distraction.

I'd enjoy him becoming a ghost of a player. 3 years unseen here then switch the CCTV off for his final training session with the lads.

Yes but landed at the wrong airport. Too much hassle to send a taxi down for him so just left him there in Teesside. Good luck to him. Best memory is his ironically unbreakable leg that got a Brentford player sent off early in our win there while he was first on loan with us in 22. Was a horror tackle straight on the shin but he went on to have a good game and I remember thinking how nice it was we had such a good lad playing for us who was so resilient too!

To be honest, we might be at the stage where even if he isn't he's acceptable. No one would really call Jacob Murphy a top 5 player, but we've made him one.

You get the same points in August as you do in May.

Different business with midfielders. Teams know we're not as desperate and there are more possible options.

I do agree with all that, but really the entire football transfer and employment system is wide open to being overthrown legally. Just about everyone has conspired not to kill the golden goose though. I could see Trafford just not having a strong enough reason to go against the flow.

Yeah that's my normal reading of it. Even putting the attractiveness of Man City aside, if he'd made it clear he'd wanted to join us for so long but we'd dicked around for 18 months failing to seal the deal, and upset his current owners with Mitchell's scabby conduct, while also having shitshow with other transfers and general boardroom mayhem going on, you could forgive him for making the more traditional choice.

I wasn't aware of that reporting - and I'd not normally believe it - but the whole thing sounds mental if true. Pretty sure that would be challengeable legally, but whether Trafford would have the wits and - very understandably - the desire to sink a couple of years of his career into that battle is another story.

Buy him with a cost price release clause for Bayern next summer, get us through some trouble.

I'm wary of reading too much into things, but it does feel a little bit pointed as a contrast to Isak