Rich

He's the one true Schärminator.

And one has the choice of and probably prefers Arsenal or Dortmund to us, which is fair enough.

Jacqueanory

He’ll be quality for them and would surely mean Gallagher stays put.

He was canny at WBA too, tbf, and was in the World Cup squad. He’s also not on strike.

That it’s now very unlikely.

Downie’s now “outside the training ground”, i.e. in the car park at the stadium, talking about the Berge deal .

Got Sky Sports News on for the first time since last January. It’s absolutely woeful. Miles behind on most stories, awful “analysis” from Lee Hendrie and David Prutton, plus the joys of a Gary Neville impersonator at 8 in the morning. Harrison Ashby’s a centre back apparently.

Howay the lads!

Jesus, you are desperate. (He’s knackered.)

His pinned Tweet is his Lodi “exclusive” from August. Absolute chancer.

Would Gravenberch do for you, then?

I know what you’re saying. I just think he’d plug the Shelvey hole/improve on Shelvey and leave us able to sign a marquee midfielder in the summer. Thought he was the best player on the pitch in the 1-1 with them up here and he did well in the cup, too. Big bastard, left-footed (don’t have that option in CM) and scores shitpingers (also lacking this in CM currently).

Late move for Billing, anyone? 18 months left on his deal, some rumoured interest from us last January from admittedly poor sources, and Howe’s obviously signed him before. Could be a Burn/Targett safe bet sort of signing, if none of our other options are available. Bournemouth have got Hamed Traoré joining tomorrow for £20M+, who’s a left-footed CM capable of playing LM/AM and more signings seemingly on the way, so they might be open to it despite him being a regular. Loan with obligation to buy at around £15M would probably do it?

Howe has said quite unequivocally that Anderson wouldn’t be going anywhere this window, to be fair.

It’s been covered about five times today. It’s “nominal”, which usually means sub-£1M.

Different ball game now, though. Different player, too.

New Miggy could easily play in one of the wide CM slots if needed, IMO. However, it would be nice if we managed to add a natural CM. We ideally needed one before the Shelvey bid came in.

Do we reckon there's any sort of informal initiation process for someone like Gordon? Not talking about the pre-match song, more like trying to rattle him in training with some heavy tackles, etc.

"A colon is not normally followed by a capital letter in British usage, though American usage often prefers to use a capital." And for good reason, Mike.

I'm sure you used to be switched on.