TRon

We can forget about a fee for him now, we really needed to shift him this window for any hope of that. Let's just hope he stays fit enough to fire us into the CL, then any loss in fees will be a drop in the ocean.

Have to say I'm happy that we didn't bid more than £50m. Yes it will probably creep up more than that, but I was never that sold on us paying the £65m that Palace are allegedly asking. Guehi has some great attributes, but he's not fantastic in the air, and for all he did have a good Euros, he also got caught napping a couple of times as well. I'm sure there's every chance he'll become a a very good defender, but it's not like he's proven in every department already.

We also have to realise that if we are keeping these players around for whatever reason, that does come at a cost of selling others who we might prefer to keep instead.

I think you can always gauge a players worth roughly by how much interest there is in him, and what sort of clubs want to buy him.

I agree, he's a fine squad player, so is Miggy, so is Murphy. IMO Anderson and Minteh were even better squad players as they were younger so had a higher ceiling as well, but we had to sell them for PSR reasons. If we could keep everyone and just buy without selling, that would be ideal. The only reason we have to contemplate selling Longstaff is because selling is the only way we are currently allowed to bring top players in. That said, no one deserves abuse, Longstaff has been a stalwart performer for Newcastle down the years.

Just seems to be the way the cards keep falling every time. Tbf it's probably going to be a big spend, and we always seem to have some other position which is just that much more critical.

We thought that for the last 4 windows so don't be too shocked if we go another one with Miggy and Murphy sharing duties.

Same with Wilson, could probably have got some sort of fee for both this summer if they hadn't got injured. Just bad luck really, but at least it means we've still potentially got two world class strikers, fitness allowing.

Great. A thread specifically designed to put you in a worse mood.

I think he'll be a good signing, but will probably mean we don't get a RW which means we'll still have one area where we aren't top class. I can't see us spending big on two positions in one window.

Yep, I was hoping to use Wilson's sale as a chance to buy a higher grade striker as no 2, but that would have been expensive. This is not the worst alternative by a long way. Two top class strikers to share the main duties, and a big mobile back up just in case.

We didn't even have a 3rd option last two seasons. I really don't see how this addition can be seen as a bad thing.

I did say in my first post in this thread I would be wary of getting too excited about this deal because his agent might be using us to negotiate a fee then when Liverpool step in at the right price, he fucks off there. Not saying that's going to happen, but just let's not put all our eggs in one basket.

Guehi if we can get the deal done, like others have said, he's already proven. But if it falls through would be more than happy with Thiaw as I feel we've done our homework on him and he'll be a good addition. Just think he might not be quite as good as Guehi, therefore the extra money would be well spent.

Feels like City get a lot of stick for playing really good football, but it's a great analogy.

They had 7 previously, that didn't stop them buying an 8th.

The downside is that Boehly could easily come in and bid for Guehi just on a whim. Not sure how that would work with the 20% sell on fee they are due if he goes elsewhere, but Chelsea always seem to find a way to bring in another centre back.

I don't think anyone's paying £70m, my main concern is that Liverpool, or a club similar could match our valuation and if he ends up going elsewhere, we miss out on other targets that are within reach. I can understand why we are going in hard though, I guess we must think it's a pivotal signing.

Someone made a good point on TTR that while Guehi is obviously class, he was a bit concerned that the Euros might have inflated his value. Was he looking as fantastic playing against PL sides or were there one or two question marks, hence none of the cartel clubs attempting to sign him?

Tonali seems to be more of an action man right sided midfielder than purely central. Lots of fast movement and quick passing rather than puttting the foot on the ball and dictating from the centre.

If the second half of the friendly today was anything to go by couldn't really argue with that.

Come on lads, the forum needs TCD to remind everyone else how surface level their football knowledge is.

I think we are at different stages here, I'm not expecting us to buy a CL player right now, but I want us to buy one with CL potential. I get what you are saying, but would I be happy with Miggy and Murphy going into this campaign. No, not really.

It's a growing process. We overachieved for a number of reasons when we qualifed for the CL a year ago, but the cartel teams are improving year on year, they aren't going to sit on their hands either. So we have to keep improving, and that means in the positions we don't have CL standard players, we have to try and acquire them. Assuming we are aiming for CL football, of course if we aren't then we can plod away.

So is your point we don't need to improve our RW and that Miggy and Murphy are good enough?