Rich

Am I right in thinking we can only register 25 players (not including any players under 21?) Yes, but U21s don't count towards this total. But the only U21s anywhere near first team reckoning are Woodman and Armstrong (hypothetically in the latter's case). Merino and Aarons? Good shout, Merino is technically "U21" but Aarons isn't. Makes that signing look even better. Players born on or after January 1st 1996 for 2017/18 season.

Błaszczykowski in the back pocket. If you didn't need to look that up then I tip my hat to you sir.

Elliot Manquillo Lejeune Clark Dummett Hayden Shelvey Ritchie Perez Atsu Mitrovic Darlow Gamez Lascelles Mbemba Colback Diame Merino Murphy De Jong Aarons Gayle + Woodman and Yedlin for the 24 players who currently make up our senior squad and aren't sure to be sold. Interesting to see the Perez/Mitrovic and De Jong/Gayle thing persisting.

Should get to see Colback at LB

Am I right in thinking we can only register 25 players (not including any players under 21?) Yes, but U21s don't count towards this total. But the only U21s anywhere near first team reckoning are Woodman and Armstrong (hypothetically in the latter's case).

We're currently at 35 players who would need a squad place, provided Toney is indeed off to Wigan.

This lot are absolutely fucked.

Rafa saying he's nowhere near up to speed currently, so think he only starts if Hayden or Shelvey (...or Colback) are absent.

Just to give some reason for my apparent optimism: We took 12 points from 18 in our last six games in the Premier League under Benitez and these were the players that started (all 4-2-3-1, of course): Darlow; Janmaat, Taylor, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Wijnaldum; Mitrovic (Beat Spurs 5-1) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Wijnaldum; Cisse (Drew 0-0 with Villa) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Wijnaldum; Cisse (Beat Palace 1-0) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Perez; Cisse (Drew 2-2 with Liverpool) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Perez; Cisse (Drew 1-1 with Man City) Darlow; Anita, Lascelles, Mbemba, Dummett; Tiote, Colback; Townsend, Sissoko, Wijnaldum; Cisse (Beat Swansea 3-0) Currently this seems to be the consensus on our starting team, with some business still to be done: Elliot; Yedlin, Lejeune/Lascelles, Clark, Dummett; Hayden/Merino, Shelvey; Ritchie, Diame/Perez/De Jong, Murphy; Gayle In my opinion we're only noticeably weaker on the flanks and in the number ten role. Elliot's a slight improvement on Darlow in goal. Yedlin is a good upgrade on Anita at right-back, the centre-backs are much of a muchness but have improved with experience from those games and Lejuene/Clark is probably a better pairing, Dummett kicked on a little last season and should benefit from that. Tiote was excellent in that run of matches but he was lumbered with Colback, so I think that zone has been improved upon with Hayden/Merino and Shelvey being revitalised. Ritchie is probably a slightly poorer man's Townsend but is our talisman, none of our current number 10's can touch Sissoko from that time, Murphy's an unknown quantity but it's probably a stretch to assume he'd be better than Wijnaldum from the get-go (at home, at least). Gayle is significantly better than the version of Cisse who featured back then. Most importantly, Rafa's now had almost 18 months to implement his ideas rather than the month he'd had before the run began.

Still too early to say but my range is 8th-14th currently.

Still hopeful we'll get Reina. Think he'd be ideal for us.

If Caballero and Abraham were the first choices for those positions (maybe second in Caballero's case) then it gives you an idea of the sort of budget he's operating with and the sort of players we'll be going for. Time to pull a couple of rabbits out of a couple of hats, Rafa.

"On the way" apparently, although I've received two emails so I'm probably getting a couple...

Splendidly copied from today's Evening Standard.

I'm not sure we were in such a great position to attract players last summer, especially on the scale that Rafa clearly thought we had to. Jury's still out on Gamez, but it appears that Lazaar was a busted flush.

Why not? I've never seen him or Lazaar so hard to draw a conclusion really, but if he's ahead of Haidara it's not really saying much. We really need to buy some quality in these areas, it's the only answer in the long term. His attitude seems excellent and he was obviously a Rafa buy, but the bloke was barely trusted to play in the league below, so it's difficult to know whether he's up to the task in the Premier League. I just find his situation an interesting one really, and was keen to get others' thoughts. There's no mention of him in Hardy's book on Rafa, but a bit from Douglas': EDIT: The reason I got to thinking about him was because I noticed that he was the outfield player with the fewest minutes so far in pre-season, discounting the ones who are clearly surplus to requirements (Krul, Haidara, Riviere, etc.) and those who have been injured (Lascelles, Ritchie, etc.)

I think so, going by the website. No clue when the deadline is, mind. Finally caved in to paying the train fares? Nothing showing as available to purchase on the website when logged in now. Not sure whether a bug or not on sale.

Dragging this one up from the depths of page five. Very little news about a potential transfer out for Gamez and he's ahead of Haidara and Lazaar in the pecking order. Do we reckon he's staying?

This is top banana.

Merino was Marca as first source: http://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2017/07/26/5978931c268e3ecd278b4577.html

Another one, given that I'm wiling away the minutes until home time... On the goalkeeper front, it seems like Rafa's out there looking for something none of our current set can offer - namely big match experience and the ability to come out quickly and sweep up in behind the defence with confidence and authority. If there's anything in the Karnezis link it continues the theme on from Reina and Caballero in that regard.

I think he knows, but Ritchie had the position nailed down for most of last season. Did you not think he was significantly better when able to play down the right? I can't really remember, I'm sure you've got a point. I do think it's good that a lot of our wingers are flexible like that. I think Murphy could ever play more centrally. He was, in my opinion at least, he also won Player of the Tournament in AFCON 2015 playing on the right for Ghana. He doesn't look as natural on the left, although he has played there plenty throughout his career. Ritchie also looks significantly worse on that side to me, for what it's worth. Top and bottom of it, I and others still want a LW to come in because we currently have Aarons as the only true natural in that position and we know he can't be relied upon fitness-wise. There's also nothing to say he's good enough (he was fairly ineffective at the start of last season, for instance, though the team took time to find their feet). I dare say Murphy will become a great player for that spot in time, but as of now he's still someone who has shown his best on the right rather than the left.

I think he knows, but Ritchie had the position nailed down for most of last season. Did you not think he was significantly better when able to play down the right?

Atsu's a right winger.