TRon

Hopefully all of these bids are smokescreens. We'll all be stunned into silence when Wilson unveils some unknown gems from South America who will take the Premier by storm next season.

Did Bellamy play out wide? He was more of a striker for us who pulled wide when needed.

The £100m price tag might be a slight issue.

I'm not trying to be facetious here, but if we are bidding £20m+ for an 18yr old then we must really rate him. Obviously would be better to get someone who is ready but then we've been down that road last season and we ended up with Elanga and Wissa. To be clear, it doesn't have to be this kid, but we've done the selling part with Gordon which was all well and good. The tricky part will be getting players in and that's how Ross Wilson will be judged.

Great. Let's go with him then.

Yeah. We've got a PL proven £55m superstar in Elanga ready and waiting to deliver. Fuck this kid.

Just suggests to me that they have better recruitment than we do, and have had for a while. Looks like Wilson still has some catching up to do.

They have a DOF who clearly knows their business and is well established. We are still playing catch up.

I think it's probably just that tbh. They had already agreed terms from what it sounds like and we tried to hijack the deal. I'm sure if it was the other way round he'd come here and tell Brighton to do one.

I don't believe the rumour for a second anyway. A million miles away from the new recruitment model which we are supposed to be implementing under Wilson.

Got that prized PL experience though....

That was the one game we didn't want to win.

Could be going for a while tbf. I am desperate for some concrete rumours so it's a toss up between coming in here and reading half-hearted pasta alliterations or reading absolute shite regurgitated from X. Tough call tbh.

Couldn't have put it better. I think the players attitude as the season has spoken volumes. They were still putting in the effort, but the belief was lacking, and not many of them looked like they had really bought into what Howe was wanting. Stories of the best players looking to move on would never have been taken seriously a couple of years ago. Can we turn it around with some fresh blood? Maybe. I can understand why it was the safe option after success over the past few years, but I think the football itself is the problem now, and I saw very little over last season to make me think Howe will do much differently.

I think the interest is genuine, he definitely fits the profile Wilson is supposed to be looking at. Only issue is whether cartel clubs or Chelsea have also been alerted and that is probably why we are being cagey about it.

I think fans are just desperate to make some sort of excuses for last season, Howe is immensely popular because of what he's achieved before in previous seasons. Everyone kept hoping it was just a bad start/fatigue/bedding in problems/lack of training on the ground due to the fixture list etc. Finally when we had a clear run of fixtures after being knocked out of the CL we would see what we could do with time on the training pitch. Then when it still produced the same turgid crap, it has to be because we've got nothing to play for. Sometimes the simple answer is the right one. We have played bad football most of the season and it's reflected in the table at the end of it. I'm not sure that will change next season either personally, but that's based on what I've seen this season and the fact we are going again hoping it will get better.

What is the hindsight we are talking about here?

Let Chelsea have the RW hopefuls they can only dream of our options.

We just need to sign players first and then open the threads

It's not just one thing, it's a culmination of how things have panned out. He was fantastic for most of the season but his form has dipped. Our football has been disjointed and Howe himself used those words, and that doesn't do a footballer like him any favours. I'm just running through a few things which might lead to these rumours that he's considering his future. That's not to say they are true, but it's not impossible his agent is trying to turn his head.

See above.

And losing his England spot in the world cup as a result.

It's not accepting 7-10th bracket, it's accepting the reality of the situation and making the best of it. We can offer a path to the first team for the best youngsters in the world that the cartel clubs can't. We buy them up and in the not too distant future we will have at least some of the best players on our books.

He's not, but I can imagine he wasn't that happy at losing his England spot for the world cup and he might feel what happened at Newcastle affected that.

Possession for it's own sake is useless. But even having the ability to keep possession instead of sending the ball into touch Anthony Elanga-style is worth quite a lot.