Rich

No reason to keep him, though. He's wank.

Not at all, given he's behind Targett, Dummett, and Manquillo for the LB spot.

We had all this with Bruno, as well. Any time there's a vacuum it gets filled with negativity/doubt.

Aye: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jesse-lingard/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/141660 (middle of the page on the right, there's a full breakdown of where he's started).

As it looks likely to be, for me: Goalkeepers: Dubravka, Darlow, Gillespie Defenders: Trippier, Manquillo, Krafth, Schär, Lascelles, Burn, Fernandez, Dummett, Targett Midfielders: Fraser, Murphy, Willock, S. Longstaff, Guimarães, Shelvey, Joelinton, Saint-Maximin, Almiron, Ritchie Forwards: Wilson, Wood, Gayle De-register/loan/sell: Woodman, Clark, Lewis, M. Longstaff, Hayden, Hendrick.

TRon, are you okay?

I don’t think Howe rates Lewis at all, sadly. Chucking Dummett in half-fit and then picking Manquillo over him at Leeds looked like the death knell to me. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him out on loan if this goes through.

He’s been playing CB for Brighton all season, man: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/dan-burn/leistungsdaten/spieler/134270. Also played more at CB than LB last season.

I am shocked by this take. It’s bang average, but addresses an area of need and means we can go back in for a priority target in summer without too much of a short-term hit to the finances.

I love karma, me.

Still trying for Lingard and you can’t rule out a second centre-back the way this morning has unfolded. Reims were giving it the Lille/Sevilla treatment earlier in the window, but have seemingly relented. Surely at least one more situation like that to unfold? We bid £90M+ for Carlos, Botman, and Digne and have ended up with Burn and Targett (<£20M) in their place by the looks of it. The funds are there to force some hands.

Can’t win. People would be moaning if we’d let players go before replacing them. They’ll either be shifted or de-registered. Who cares?

Paul Catterson is going to be absolutely shattered tonight mind.

Should be a regional holiday henceforth.

It’ll be nearer £150M by the end of the day.

Mercy.

People just love to be miserable, man, fuck ‘em. Dropping £25M+ on one of the most exciting young forwards in Europe, who also happens to be bang in form.

I LOVE THIS GAME

Thought we were only after Targett and Nketiah, @Penn, you clueless knacker.

Clark’s the obvious one, if Burn completes. The others are dependent on the remaining business, you’d think. Gillespie, if a GK. Krafth, if a LB. Gayle, if a forward. Ritchie and Hayden the other two potential ones, based on recent minutes when others have been fit.

Debuchy is sad.

Aye, it hasn’t just been Ashley January transfer windows that have been trash/non-events. 03/04 Bridges (loan) 04/05 Babayaro, Boumsomg, Faye 05/06 Onyewu (loan) — 02/03 Woodgate was the only decent one under Shepherd and Co (and the first January transfer window ever).

Might’ve had COVID or something prior? Got dropped for Young at LB against us the following week, but had clearly got back into things before Digne came. If Rafa rated him, he’s probably decent.

Just checked, he got hooked at half time “While the new boys didn’t impress, it was one longer-serving player who had a particularly awful game – Matt Targett. The left-back certainly wasn’t helped by Ashley Young seemingly allergic to doing his defensive duties and tracking back, but Watford’s Ismaila Sarr took him to the cleaners with his combination of pace and trickery. As per Sofascore, the English ace lost all five duels in which he was involved and made no tackles or interceptions whatsoever. He also lost the ball on eight separate occasions and couldn’t find his passing radar either, completing just 79% of his passes. Such were his struggles that Smith actually decided to take him off at half-time and spare his blushes, but some journalists didn’t spare the 25-year-old in their assessments of the match. The Birmingham Mail’s Ashley Preece claimed that Targett was “all over the shop” as Emmanuel Dennis opened the scoring for the home side, with the left-back’s nemesis on the day Sarr playing a big part for the goal. Writing on Twitter, The Athletic’s Gregg Evans said: “Feeling a little bit for Matt Targett here. 14 mins in and Sarr is causing him all sorts of problems. Hard to watch. #WatfordFC #AVFC.” Hopefully he was just a bit rusty back then…