TRon

We do seem to be running into this issue with players we are chasing. Burnley also have a sell on fee which is inflating the fee they are asking. I guess it just comes down to which player still ends up being better value. Even with the inflated fee Elanga might not cost any more than Semenyo.

We could pay him his current wage for another 3 years if we wanted to. I wonder if they are aware of this?

It's kind of funny that every single PL forward we've been linked to has been quoted at £60-70m. Even the goalie is apparently £40m now.

I don't know how the PSR cycle works but I guess if we got all of our top targets we could maybe overspend this summer and then not spend the following?

Might revisit the thread in 12 months time to see how he's getting on at whichever league he's been farmed out to.

I already said Elanga carries the ball better as well. Whatever metric Murphy is on a par with probably isn't that much of a factor as long as Elanga is improving us.

Elanga is faster and more explosive. I reckon he'll be better technically as well as it turns out, I know Murphy can strike the ball nicely, but his first touch is often bad, and he doesn't carry the ball well.

He just has to have a higher technical ability than Murphy tbh.

I always assumed we wanted both.

That's where I'm at. I get that he isn't Lamine Yamal, but given we can't buy that type of player yet, Howe would probably like to go for explosive pace and an eye for a goal as an alternative.

He's clearly not rated that highly by our scouts. Can't say I thought much of him in the two games up here either.

There was talk they were now valuing him at £70m so we've gone back with £45m. It's a negotiating process from here.

Well they asked for a ridiculous amount so yeah.

I'd much rather we paid our top players top money. There's only probably a couple who would command it anyway, the rest are replaceable.

Might be a good idea to go for that Diomande they are looking at as a replacement for Guehi if we are likely to face competition from Liverpool for Guehi's signature.

Yeah. Like a collection of 5 min appearances is enough to make a judgement.

Yes, I did mention paying double their wages was the key factor. It's also why the cartel clubs are trying to ensure PIF are prevented from doing that, let's be honest.

A lot of those negative scenarios can be guarded against by making a signing like Pedro. Not only someone who can play alongside Isak, but someone who can potentially fill in if we end up selling in a year's time.

We actually have to overperform season on season to qualify for the CL. The big clubs not only have more spending power, but they can hit us with a double whammy by using it to sign the players we need to close the gap. We already lost Delap and probably Cunha and Mbuemo to direct competitors. If you believe the rumours we might lose Pedro and Trafford to them as well.

But it does show that being a massive club is relative. Liverpool are a major city so always had potential to be a big club because of their catchment area. Paris would be similar I imagine for the same reason, and also the international awareness being France's premier city.

I heard that Liverpool weren't really considered a big team until Shankly's era, then they had massive success in the league and in Europe and that cemented them as legends across the world. How much of that is true I don't know.

I doubt it's true tbh.

I think the ethnic mix of Paris now as compared to a few decades ago might have changed that historical view a bit though. Those with African or north African heritage tend to follow football ahead of other sports so I don't really see PSG becoming a small time club again. But if Le Pen grabs power who knows. They might re-nationalise the French league and start using Parc de Princes to sell goats and pigs in the not too distant future.

Agree with this. While I understand Trafford is worth paying a bit extra for being battle hardened in English football, I saw us linked with Lucas Chevalier as an alternative. He looks like he's going to be a top GK as well, if we can get him for significantly less and his club are easier to deal with, I wouldn't be unhappy with seeing him here.