TRon

It's not terrible, and it's not CL quality either despite us qualifiying through brilliant team leadership. I think we have to rein in our expectations a little bit, maintaining CL qualification is going to be a tall order when the Hallowed Six clubs are financially structured and aided by FFP to beat us to the best players. We'll get there, will just take a bit of time, I think everyone got caught up in the storm because we got into the CL this time.

We definitely need a CB with some pace to give us that insurance and allow us to push up with less fear of getting caught upfield.

I don't think it's out of the question tbh. Di Canio was talking about how he'd be a great signing for us, and I thought that was a bit random. No smoke without fire?

We don't need to, we've still got Schar who will be good for at least one more season. We'll look to identify the next Guehi and buy him for £7m then get him ready for 2024.

For us it's not about being more attractive than Liverpool or Tottenham, it's about identifying the best and hungriest young talent across the world. The one's who will bust a gut to find their way over here, not necessarily some star struck Ekiteke type who wants to hang with the big boys for selfies.

Liverpool are still a massive club tbf, not one which is on the way down run by Ashley's bald twin.

Emery strikes me as being a bit like Eddie Howe, he knows he won't be able to buy the creme de la creme players because they'll go to the Hallowed 6, but he knows how to coach a team, and he knows how to recruit players to fit that plan. He's not going to win the title, but he'll be able to aim for Europe every season just because he's better at that than most of his rivals.

It felt even more like that last summer when Liverpool were buying Nunez and Luiz and we were struggling to buy Ekiteke. For us to compete with royalty football clubs, we have to be really smart with our recruitment. It feels like Tonali might turn out to be another Isak type inspired signing, it just depends how many more rabbits we can pull out of the hat.

It's a shit club unless they are paying you £195k a week.

Still think he's got loads of potential, but the remaining question around him will be, can he produce the extra polish and finishing acumen that the really top players do? He's got the pace, he's got the tenacity, now we just need to see if he's got the end product which makes teams fear you.

Yeah one of my doubts about him was he doesn't look the quickest for a wide/AM. But he is quality on the ball so he could definitely work well in some set ups. Not convinced he'd work in ours though.

This is the thing for me. We already have wide options both left and right if hard running, pace and a good ethic are the criteria. You could add Willock and Gordon to those two, probably Joelinton as well. What we are really missing is someone who has that extra bit of nous and who can strike the ball well, to give you the goals and assists which will take us to the next level.

That's been my stance for a while now, but it only makes sense if we go on to bring someone in who will provide the bullets. I've loved watching Miggy and Willock having great seasons last time round, but we do need to go up a level in those areas to maintain our progress.

We'd probably get that for Krafth if we do get Livrimento in. Krafth is only 28-29 I believe, so still should fetch some sort of fee.

There was a decent article in the Athletic today, that Bruno doesn't actually do that well when pushed further forward, and it may actually be Tonali who plays in the number 8 position. The theory being that Bruno gets more time to pick out the passes when he's playing deeper, and Tonali is quite used to operating further up the pitch. In reality they are both box to box so I would think the situation would be quite fluid. But we do still need someone as part of the attack who will provide the absolute quality end product from the right side. You could argue the left side as well tbh, if you consider Isak's main role to be the striker.

The only interest I have left in Maddison is if he's not the answer, then who will provide a similar role? Whatever else his shortcomings, he does have quality in the final third. So now I'm intrigued as to who we'll go for if we've let him go to Spurs. Not seeing many similar types we've gone for, other than a couple of teenagers who have been mentioned, but they are more future prospects than players who will be ready for CL football in the coming season.

I've only seen one video of him and he doesn't really look like a wide player tbh, seems more the Tonali type who can drop wide when he needs to, but is still more just a central AM. I'm not even convinced we are still after Szob at this point.

I mean, we were clearly interested in him at the right price and the right terms. Once the wage demands crept way above our current ceiling we probably stepped back.

Yep, about all you can say at this point. Good deal for Spurs, but not one we can match just yet.

I read that Maddison's demands were similar to what Bruno's next contract is expected to be, so if that was true, I figured if we would pay it to Bruno, we'd probably go that high for Maddison as well. If you know better and Bruno's is significantly less than the £178k/wk that Maddison't asking for, then fair enough. Was just going off the initial report.

Thanks but I'm not watching that when there's a £30m difference in valuations. Looks like it's going nowhere unless Southampton actually want to get the deal done.

I'll bet Levy is desperate to sell if he can get a fee north of £70m. All the talk of keeping him is shite I reckon, not with a year left on his contract.

I doubt the wages would have stopped us buying him. For good players that's par for the course now. More likely he preferred Spurs, or maybe we just didn't think it was a good deal for someone who'll be 27 soon.

I don't think they're wild takes though. He's a fantastic footballer, but there are doubts about his workrate, and whether he would fit our style of play. Most people have voiced those concerns for months, got nothing to do with him going to Spurs.

Yeah I think we have to look at Ashby as a cheap punt, clearly he's not ready to throw into the mix. Doesn't mean it was a bad signing, just not the answer.