Cronky

I liked this bit. There's no-one better than Eddie at boosting a player's confidence and concentration. Whether he's dealing with a talented or an average player, he gets them playing at or close to their peak.

Maybe he can teach him to smile in return. Is that David Moyes looking in through the window, by the way?

Yeah, that's what struck me on Tuesday. He shifts the ball quickly. His forward runs are also difficult to track because he has good pace, so he's not going to be limited to the more defensive role, which is what I had assumed at first.

The basic figure of £25m is lower than I'd have thought, but that may be explained by his fitness issues. There may be quite hefty add-ons for appearances. The wealth of our owners has led to speculation about a big spend, but every sober-minded calculation of our financial position that I've seen, has indicated that our actual budget is around the £75m mark. I don't think Eddie is bluffing to keep the fees down. Trading in ASM seems sensible to me. He's the one player we have at the moment that is both expendable and who attracts interest.

On the plus side, Gordon was playing like I'd seen him play for Everton, with a bit of confidence and pace. He made a big difference. Tonali showed what he had to offer. Bruno stank the place out tonight, but he should be able to combine well with him. Liked the look of Miley too. At times, I didn't think we shifted the ball forwards quickly enough when the opportunity was there. The press didn't work well, but I guess that's all down to pre-season fitness. We seemed to pull out of a few challenges, but that's only sensible. Glad we actually won in the end.

I've seen a fair bit of him, and he never seems to play in a positive manner and make anything happen. When the ball comes towards him, his entire body language signals that he's going to knock it backwards. For all our possession, we haven't created that many chances. We don't seem to have enough trickery around the box.

I wouldn't be surprised if ASM is not at all keen on the move. This is a player who not so long ago had the stated ambition of winning the Ballon D'Or. Now at 26, he faces being shunted into the Elephants' Graveyard. I can imagine that his ego would much prefer to go to Italy.

I don't know about this. North American sports operate within closed shops - you don't get a Bournemouth rising through the leagues and automatically displacing another team when they get to a certain position. They also don't have to face competition from other countries, where a Real Madrid can pay much higher salaries and take away the best players. If you were starting off with a blank sheet, I could maybe see how it would work, but I don't think it would suit our current situation of large inequality but large mobility. There was a salary cap and retain and transfer system until the sixties. Since then, there has been a growth in inequality, which FFP has been brought in to redress. The plus point of the overall development is that the quality of the product is far more entertaining than it was.

I suspect that ultimately this is what Man City are banking on. They may well succeed, because judges are human and they like to make their presence felt. It would be a sad day though. Sport is an artificial world in which the participants agree to abide by a set of rules to ensure mutual fair play within that world. If a participant doesn't want to abide by those rules, they should leave the game.

I don't think Rice will fit well into Arsenal's style, and I think he's overrated anyway. This may come back to haunt me, but I think he'll flop.

I'm in favour too. It's not perfect, in that it's difficult to break into the circle of those who are already rich, but if there was no FFP, then one single club would dominate. Also, FFP is not just about the top of the Premiership. It's there to protect all 92 clubs from reckless owners who overspend and then abandon ship when they end up in a position of insolvency. Leeds have still not recovered from the Ridsdale era. FFP would work a lot better if the income gaps generated by TV money between the CL clubs and the rest of the Premiership, and between the Premiership and the Championship, could be shortened. The current situation puts pressure on owners to take risks.

It's only mid-July. No need to press the panic button just yet. The Barnes link will probably go through, and if we were to add strength to the LB and CB positions that would leave us in good shape I reckon. Any more signings to that might lead to issues in integrating the newcomers. If we can just do that, I'd be optimistic of another top four finish, despite the European commitments. Eddie is worth an extra 25 points to us each season.

Maybe I'm wrong but I have the impression that this player's stock has diminished over the last year or so.

I'd prefer a LB, to boost our attacking options as much as defensive. Any time the ball goes near Dan Burn I start to worry now.

That's Tynemouth, isn't it?

I think he's quite a shy character who doesn't find the PR bit easy, and he may take a bit of time to settle. But on the flip side, there's some fierce determination in there and when that comes out he'll do really well for us.

Yeah, the problem - if you can call it that - is that we went from relegation fodder to Champions League level in one bound. Normally, there would be a much longer transition period, during which the squad could be steadily upgraded by trading upwards on players as we went. As per during the earlier Keegan years, when players like Ruel Fox and Scott Sellars were brought in and then discarded as the team evolved. It's all down to our manager. I hope our Saudi owners realise what we've got and don't take it for granted.

Disasi looks impressive, and I don't think he'd be anyone's understudy. I hope we land a new LB as well. How we got away with conceding so few goals with a back four lacking in pace I don't know, but it's an area that can be improved.

I think Rob M is talking complete crap.

I think there's a delay because Leicester would like to start an auction, but the player has made it clear that, of all the candidates, we're the only one he's interested in. We then feel we can afford to bid low and wait.

And also, how badly Barnes wants to come here rather than West Ham. As we've seen with Maddison, the player's wishes carry some weight.

Pleased for the lad, but he really needs to do a lot of work on his first touch. More than I thought. And what a good player Colwill is. Surely will get a large number of full England caps in the future. Trafford looks a certainty for the future too. Spain will be disappointed to lose, but those two really carried us through.

A bit more than alright, shirley?

I wasn't sure at first, but the more I find out about this signing, the more I like it. Eddie seems to want to create a high-energy, versatile midfield with all rounders rather than specialists, and he fits that pattern. We also seem to zero in on players whose careers have dipped a bit after a promising start, (eg Isak, Gordon) snapping them up while the bigger clubs are focused on those who are currently in the limelight. Yeah, it all smells right, this.

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