TRon

Worst goalkeeping on both sides I've ever seen in a penalty shoot out.

Yep, this is no slight on Howe Jr or Nickson, it's not their fault they are filling in on an unfamiliar role, but it is a specialist role for a reason.

But it's only because we bought Isak when he had a high ceiling that we could sell him now and buy those two proven PL strikers with lower ceilings. You can't just dismiss it because it will count down the line.

If they knock back £60m then they just don't want to sell him.

He could well be tbf, I don't follow Italian football, just assumed he was a bigshot on account of the ludicrous wages.

I know his wages have ruled him out, but given we are being quoted increasingly higher prices for fairly ordinary players, would there not be some sort of deal worth looking at with Vlahovic? He's available for £30m so that should give us some room with the wages, and he's a genuinely top rated striker.

This guy gets it.

Good, will give him some match sharpness for when he returns to the fold in September.

I did say in a couple of years if he's banging the goals in. A 27yr old striker who is scoring consistently in the Premier should still fetch a decent price. Not £60m obviously but that's because he'd be 2 years older, and we'd have had the benefit for those two years.

We wouldn't even be considering him if he couldn't.

Exactly what I said at the top of the previous page.

Yeah there's still high potential with this one to get your money back after a couple of years if he bangs the goals in.

It'll be him or Wissa, whichever club blinks first.

I think that could actually work out, but it would then rule out Isak putting his head down and actually playing another season. We'd have to be convinced that he's definitely not playing for us again before we bought two strikers. I wonder if Rueben put that to him over that meeting they had? Basically you aren't moving to Liverpool, your choice is us or Saudi Arabia.

Who's the £60m clobber you are referring to?

Don't think there's much option now but to pay over the odds, that's the position we have left ourselves in. 5 days to go I don't really see where we pivot from here.

It's probably why Mitchell described our transfer strategy as not fit for purpose. I'm assuming he was talking from a PSR angle obviously. We aren't Wolves, we need players who are ready for CL football. We've generally done well in building up to now, but the last two summers have been poor, and the Wilson replacement saga has been abysmal.

What if Wolves or Brentford are steadfast and refuse to let JSL or Wissa go? It would be pretty hard to convince them at this stage in the window unless we pay their asking price, assuming they have set one. Is that what we should do ultimately?

Who's to say Liverpool will even offer £130m? They only offered £110m so far, I have a feeling they might think we ain't paying more than £120m max. If that.

You would like to think a DOF would be more experienced in doing deals, getting them set up earlier, having better contacts etc. Nothing wrong with the players we have chased, but we have spent far too long going down blind alleys after players who we should have been aware were the cartel clubs were in for as well. You don't want to be scrabbling about throwing higher and higher bids for players you didn't really want in the first place because time is running out. I mean if a DOF isn't ahead of the game there, then what's the point of one?

I do believe this is the club's position, and it's the best one for our season IMO.

You'd like to that that's why we would be bringing in a top DOF (again).

I'd put money on it that Isak does in fact play for us again if he's still here when the window shuts.

Just if it's not affecting PSR we should be using PIF wealth to pay up front if that gets deals done for less money overall. Clubs would surely prefer to have the money in one go rather than spread over a longer period of time.