macphisto

There are much better dining, shopping, and entertainment options in London plus other differences. An important point is if he has a lass as they'd much rather be in London, all things being equal.

The blue looks good on Newcastle's Samba

Coutinho, where did he do well after Liverpool? You mean his initial loan at Villa from Barcelona? The club talks about trying to use more data in their recruitment and it's instances like Grealish where it should be used as it would raise so many red flags. It's not just about using data to identify certain characteristics in a player but to also help in decision making.

We're really scraping the barrel for examples if we're using Rashford. I don't see many teams going for him after his loan spell which says it all. Best examples I can think of would be Cantona or Dennis Bergkamp who did well over here but that was where they didn't settle in another league or had problems.

None of them left a club where they weren't getting a game at their peak playing age, not remotely like Grealish. All those players moved on when they were young to make their name or were playing for the team they left.

13 appearances for Chelsea and left at 23 is not quite similar to Grealish who is nearly 30 and has over 200 appearances.

Can you name a similar profile of a player, in their peak years, not getting game time at a top team who has moved on elsewhere to do well?

Different scenario as Cole was sold to upgrade to Ferdinand in the same position. Selling Barnes would be weakening our left side with either no replacement or a worse player.

I'd be gutted if we did sell Barnes and not Willock. Not sure we'd get much for the latter but he's the type we should be shifting instead of Barnes.

We're always going to have PSR problems where they'll be low and highs regarding transfer Windows until our income dramatically increases.

I immediately think of Officers Club for that sales gimmick but that wasn't related to Ashley.

I'd like us to go for either a free or pay a low transfer fee for a 30ish year old back up in midfield; a Jorginho or Trippier (equivalent to Trippier) type signing just to do a job for a season or two before we really invest in that area. Possibly send out Miley on loan to really see what he's got at the same time.

You don't let a take it or leave it offer run to the last few days of the transfer window. The "leave it" part means you leave it to move on to your next target. It's not that much of a grand conspiracy, there's not many moving parts. Two clubs, one player.

So we both agree that we had no money due to PSR? How could we buy a player knowing we'd have to sell a significant player before the PSR deadline the following summer? The player we earmarked to sell could easily have been injured or out of form to command a decent fee. I don't for one minute suspect Howe would agree to go through what we did last year and the turmoil it caused within the call when we had to sell; you could argue Gordon hasn't been the same since then.

It's not about finding the next global star, though you could argue Isak fits that bill even though we paid a sizable fee. It's about finding players to suit the team and make it better. From buying the right players to fight relegation to players for the future and Champions League football, we have not put a foot wrong. A good scouting team is not about finding gems, it's about getting the big transfers right which is also the case for Liverpool and why they're champions.