TRon

I actually think Tonali will still be here next season. I think we would let him go if we get a very good offer, but I don't know that we will, at least not in time for us to buy a replacement. Agree with @duo that selling Gordon will be enough from our side, any other sales of our top players would have to be on our terms and I can see Man U trying to lowball us. Not sure there are any other interested parties.

The first reply to that post.

I still find it hard to get excited about any plans for Leazes Park. It's the obvious site and I would love it, but I still remember John Hall giving up on it after all the opposition to it.

That's surprising considering how ordinary Anderson looked for us. But then he plays in a different formation for both Forest and England so probably gets more time on the ball than in a Howe team.

It's fine. We get the same horrified reaction every time we move away from the traditional stripes, but it's fine for a change. Can't wait to see what it looks like in action personally.

Osula another example of buy low sell high. Much younger and less rated than Wissa, but we could easily double our money on him now with Wissa looking like he's going to be an expensive liability.

Why are we comparing Man City's spending ability with ours? Did I miss something?

Let's hope that Ross Wilson has been appointed for the right reasons then. I don't know much about him tbf but he needs to be clear on direction and how we intend to build a team for the next few years regardless of who is the manager.

Anderson excelled on his loan spell at Bristol Rovers and immediately following his move to Forest. The only place he struggled was here, and that was because he didn't really fit the 4-3-3 system we were using at the time as he ended up playing wide where he wasn't great. For all Eddie loved him as a player, he couldn't really play him where he would excel.

I think that was a direct result of Howe's fall out with Mitchell. There is no way he would have sanctioned the sort of signings we made last summer. Ultimately though, we won a cup and got into the CL so the ownership backed Howe in that stand off, and Mitchell backed out. You could argue Mitchell was a bad appointment, but there is no exact science here. I'm not sure how much football knowledge we have in the boardroom and that is a concern.

A bit like the Ramos link for me. Journalists know we need a striker so just throwing names out there. I don't see how that fits our buying model at all, unless we get good money for Woltemade/Wissa and can somehow persuade high profile players to take a step down.

Well if you listen to Howe, he is still making noises that we will see the best of Woltemade next season. Not sure he's saying that with a straight face, but if we sell it would presumably be for a significant loss. I'm not sure I see that happening either.

That's great if everything falls in place. Smart signings, great coaching and competent leadership from the top. If you don't have all those then it can easily turn into the shitshow we saw last summer which can set you back two years.

Yep. We really need to get away from this "we'll fix this later down the line" mentality. It cost us Anderson and Minteh already, and while it looked fabulous for Chelsea two years ago, if they continue to slide, it will come back to bite them on the arse.

Most defenders are tbh, I think it only becomes a problem when it happens on a regular basis. I have sometimes felt that Thiaw loses his man every once in a while but honestly the whole team doesn't seem that well organised defensively so hard to judge anyone at the moment.

Well we might need to sell a player or two just to fund their replacements.

Sell to buy I would have thought, although we could always buy first then sell later depending on what SCR enforcement allows.

Possibly. I always thought with him coming from Arsenal he was from London, but whatever, I don't think he ever really felt at home here.

Pretty sure we were linked with him last year as well and I think I remember reading he would rather stay at PSG even if he wasn't playing that much. Just sounded like journalists fishing for a story with Isak leaving.

We paid £69m for Woltemade. I'm not even sure he's a better striker and that's not even Gordon's position.

Probably the same way Liverpool agreed terms with Isak while he was a Newcastle player.

He's worth at least that much given the prices of PL players these days. He's a successful England international, done really well in the UCL as well this season which must have bumped up the fee a bit. I think we are looking for a quick sale otherwise if we held on we could probably bump the price up a bit if Liverpool or Arsenal came in.

FWIW I think the board will stick with Howe based on the previous seasons as well. Personally I think it is just kicking the can down the road. The top sides play possession football, we don't, and I don't think we have done that even last season. I think we have probably gone as far as we can playing the way we do, and we had to really get last summer right if we wanted to either replicate it, or move in a different direction. I don't see much evidence of us moving in a different direction anyway.

They'll make it on reflection over the whole season I imagine.