TRon

Do people on here think he's actually still in charge of negotiating transfers and contracts? Would there not be a chance of conflict of interests given he must have some other job in mind if he's leaving at the end of the month.

Agree. People are quick to rebrand him as a LB because he performed well there, but given a run at RB he would be even better in that position.

Where would he fit in a Howe formation? He's got plenty of quality, but lacks in so many other metrics. As a #10 is the only position I could see him working.

Wrong. The Premier league world supremacy revolves around money, the only way you can compete is by having more of it, and being allowed to spend it.

It's difficult to believe any move happens while a cartel club is also in the reckoning. They can always outbid us as happened with Mbuemo. But we can only keep working on these deals and hope the cards fall our way.

I think that is the club's position as well tbf, Romano seems to be saying the same thing. City want to buy him but we are pricing him out of a move.

Think that's the same for a lot of our players tbh. Someone asked in another thread if we would be looking to shift Barnes...the answer is not particularly, but if we can get good money, then we can use that to strengthen other areas of the pitch which are weaker.

Tino is one of our best players IMO, I think he would be difficult to replace, but I said earlier every player has his price. No one wants to lose their best players, but while we are hamstrung with PSR, the only way to improve incrementally is to sell players at a big profit and then trust your scouting network to replace them. This is no different to Isak. Who would want to lose him, but there's always a price where you can do a deal and make enough money to buy a replacement.

Nice take. I'm sold, get him in.

That's the one I can't get my head around. He does seem like a bit of a dickhead.

I'm assuming he's based it on Pep being a big fan. There must be some leak from their end.

That's all there is to it.

There's nothing really wrong with it tbh. Tino is sensational, it's not a surprise if Pep wants him. City might well have put the feelers out to see if we could be tempted to do a deal, because let's face it, everyone has a price, you just have to go to eye-watering levels if you want to sway a club who don't want to sell. Romano's said we won't budge on a price, and if it's around £100m then it's effectively telling them to fuck off and stop wasting our time.

I'm sure he could for £100m or so.

It's essential we are qualifying for back to back CL campaigns to be taken seriously as a big club. Other teams have qualified after a fantastic season, but they quickly get forgotten about if they don't follow that up. It has to be worth spending big this time to ensure it, even if we do end up spending tomorrow's money today. Especially with Man City looking likely to take the PL to the cleaners for their restrictive practices.

Same here but you can't really argue it's not worked for us. Look at what we spent on Burn, Targett, Trippier and Chris Wood in that first season. All overspending really, but in the long term it definitely paid off, even if it didn't reflect in the balance sheets.

They are perfectly entitled to spend their money on their own league rather than European teams tbh, whether it will be a success or not is not really for us to worry about. I just wish they would stop chucking money at PL players which seems to be benefitting all our rivals far more than us.

You certainly wouldn't fancy coming up against it.

Is he a really small 18 year old or something? It doesn't seem that young, would it not be worthwhile giving him a squad place and letting him loose in some cup games for us?

I"m assuming most on here watched the CL final. That was a masterclass in passing football but done to a purpose. PSG were great at retaining the ball at the back and evading the press, then launching devastating counter attacks. They also had players with enough craft and ability to hold the ball when trying to break down a packed defence. That's what we should be aiming for, not tiki taki football for the sake of it.

No one likes selling a star player, but in a scenario like this I would be on board. Just look at what Villa achieved after selling Grealish, or Liverpool after Coutinho.

Quite a statement that. But I can see why, I am always really worried about him when we play Brighton.

For that I reckon we need to look outside the English market, or our PL proven strategy. Those players cost a fortune, we'd be better paying big money for top talent on the continent or South America.