TRon

I'd assumed this had already happened already tbh. I said in another thread that he's probably already fixed up to be staying with the Tonalis until he gets his own pad in Tynemouth.

We fooled them into thinking Pedro was our main target when we were after Elanga all along.

No news is good news far as I'm concerned. All the media big hitters reported this as moving towards acceptance yesterday, and Forest haven't told us to do one today...so I'd say we are more or less there now bar a few details.

I think he just found himself in acres of space in one game in particular. You could say he showed he still has good movement, don't think he looked particularly quick though.

What a miserable twat he is.

I agree with you actually. I was watching a podcast discussing Elanga, and all three of these guys was saying he wasn't worth more than £45m, if that. These are Newcastle fans as well. We paid £20m+ for Almiron back in the Ashley days, and supposedly over £40m for Joelinton who was barely known at the time. I think people are really out of touch.

I just assumed that £20-30m price tags meant they were unlikely to be dogshit. But who knows? The mackems might have to pay double just to persuade anyone to venture into the wastelands.

Is anyone else interested in buying him for that much?

Not that I think they will FWIW. Before anyone starts hurling abuse at me for doubting our scouts. I reckon they've spent big to secure players who are ok but most ambitious teams would not really consider.

Would make our recruitment team look like a right bunch of whoppers if any of them turn out to be good.

I would have thought DCL's injury record would rule him out tbh. It's not much better than Wilson's and we'd have to pay him a big wedge if he's coming on a free transfer.

Tonali and his missus might have offered to let him bunk at theirs while he's settling in and learning the lingo. If it's chinks of light you are looking for then it could be true.

That's usually what kills it stone dead tbf

Not much we can do about it. The players who are at the elite clubs cost mega money and are on huge wages. Without rich owners sinking their money into the squad - which we can't do because of PSR - there's no way to get those players at Newcastle in the short term.

Don't worry, Murphy will still be here. Maybe we can bring out the big guns for the Man U fixture.

I still think we might buy a no 10 type if there's one available of a decent quality.

He swerves in a surprisingly wicked first time cross as well. Think he is being seriously underrated by a few in general.

Pretty good tbf but my eyes were a bit crossed by the time I reached the bottom of the list.

https://youtu.be/VKxbu8-y4Ig

Plus it would be nice to hear of some of these better value transfer targets if they are out there. Would make us all feel a lot better about not getting Pedro, Mbuemo, Delap etc. For example, some podcaster mentioned Evan Guessand, a striker/wide man that Roma and Brighton are targeting at €25 million who he thought would be a great alternative to Pedro. No idea if he's any good, but if Brighton are in there, we probably should be as well.

Our reputation has nosedived in the last week or so.

The other options seem to have similar price tags and/or have just about every cartel club throwing their hats in the ring as well. Semenyo, Kudus, Mbuemo, Pedro etc. After that we are moving into unknown category, I mentioned this earlier. We'd probably be looking at the same players Forest, Bournemouth, Brighton etc are looking at to replace the overpriced PL players.

It was a tyre blowout as well, not much you can do to mitigate against that. I still remember a few years back being driven in a jeep in the Atlas mountains on a narrow road with no barriers, and thinking fuck me, a tyre blowout and that could be it. You can't wrap your head around it if you think about it too much.

That's the thing, all these players - and you can add Kudus to that list - are coming with huge fees mostly, and you have the top clubs all seemingly wanting a right sided forward. Even Chelsea who already have Madueke are rumoured to want Kudus. The only route as far as I can see it is to buy a relatively lesser known player who's not PL proven and hope he comes off. I thought Mitchell was supposed to source these type of players but he's gone now, so fuck knows what plan B is at the moment.

Absolutely this. When watching PSG in the CL final I was struck with how quick and precise all their passing was from back to front. You need players with technique for sure, but it's also about how the team can work as a unit to break down tight spaces, that can mean quick passing and movement, and pace is certainly an asset which helps.