TRon

Yeah you have to think there will be CL clubs in for him when push comes to shove. But hey, we can dream.

For me if we only make one more signing I would throw everything at Diabe to make it happen. He is a genuine matchwinner, his goals and assists stats are fantastic.

Aye that struck gold with me as well.

Fraser's been with us for two seasons and barely done anything. If you put that down to injuries then I'd say someone who has a terrible injury record over two seasons isn't someone you want to be relying on. It's the same argument as needing an alternative for Wilson, and his fitness record for us is better if anything.

That's a bit of a short sighted way of looking at it though. Those two signings make us immediately stronger, and when you get the chance to sign top players you have to do it. I'd be amazed if we don't bring in some upgrades in forward positions as well before the window closes, budget or no budget.

I never picked up on Tielmans being slow tbh, always thought he looked class every time I watched him. I guess people outside of Newcastle must think that of Shelvey as well though.

Nah it wasn't that, he didn't agree with some aspects of it, but he was happy enough with us being a football club again. I think he posted his picture on here recently, maybe he wamts to go incognito again.

Yeah he is. Hope he comes back, he's one of the more knowledgable posters.

I don't know much about Broja, but any forward we buy really needs to be a finisher. We already have options like Almiron, Murphy and Fraser if we want hard working pacy lads who will inevitably produce weak end product. I'd be worried about spending significant money on someone who might turn out to be another Nicholas Bendtner. That said, other people probably know a lot more about Broja for me, if they reckon he's the real deal then fair enough. A loan deal would certainly be a good option.

Has a very decent goals pedigree. At 28 would provide genuine competition for Wilson, although couldn't see either striker being willing to play second fiddle. But that's how it works at the top clubs, you have to earn the right to the shirt.

Being streaky in front of goal isn't one of them tbh.

The price is high, but it depends if he fits our profile. He's only 24 so got lots of room to grow. If we aren't spending on Ekiteke then maybe we could reallocate those funds to strengthen other areas if the opportunity arises.

Yep. I've said as much previously, while our midfield isn't perfect, it's functional but we desperately need some genuine quality options up front.

It's strange because we've got two potential deep lying midfielders in Bruno and Shelvey, but neither are really physically imposing, they are much better at ball playing than ball winning. Then we've got Joelinton to provide the physicality but he's not so accomplished on the ball. Then we've got Willock who is decent at pressing, can pick up the odd goal, but isn't reliable to protect the ball. Lots of midfielders with some quality, but arguably on Bruno who can do a bit of everything. Maybe you could include Joelinton in that bracket given his pitch coverage and midfield breaking qualities.

Tbf to Ashworth and Howe, the noises coming out of the club last week were that this deal was more or less dead. I think we've more or less said that was our final offer and the only way this deal was getting resurrected was if the Ekiteke camp came to us. Seems like that's not going to happen and no doubt we'll already be making moves on other targets regardless of the player's position.

Yeah, I was underwhelmed originally when his name cropped up, but maybe some of us need to take a step back and accept that it's about improving the team at this stage, not buying CL players. Sarr would be a significant upgrade on Murphy and Fraser, and he's a good fit for where we are now.

Probably similar to the reports coming out of Italy that Botman only wanted to play for Milan. Diaby might prefer a CL club all things being equal, but it might be those clubs can't meet the selling price. If we are the only club who can meet the terms, I wouldn't be that surprised if he said yes.

He gets slagged off on here a lot as well, but he's a proven and very effective PL striker. Not that many around.

He always looks good when I watch him, but that's not often tbf. I get the feeling he's not a consistent performer, can be the only reason why Spurs are prepared to sell. He looks like a right sided striker from what I've seen, maybe his assists stats aren't so great?

Wood was a desperation buy, and it could be argued he paid off despite being massively overpriced. It's not really a fair comparison.

And he can spot a pass and release it early. I could see him getting a lot of assists. Looks like he has some football intelligence, I'm wondering if that might not be a big factor in why we have chased his signature persistently.

I would be happy to move on to someone like him if we are done with Ekiteke, but I still think we will leave the door open long enough for his agent to come back with a deal. He's a long term target and I think it's for good reason. No problem at all holding off bringing someone else in for another week if we think we can still get our primary target.

All of those can do a job (sort of) individually, but you never really see them combine well effectively, e.g win the ball then move the ball up the field in unison with quick one twos. Shelvey's just not capable of it, he can pick the ball up, then ping it forward but he stops there. Joelinton and Willock attempt to do it, but can be loose in possession. Longstaff is more of the same. Bruno stands out a mile in this regard. It's not urgent by any means, but we will need better footballers in possession if we want to challenge the top 6.

I was expecting them to implode somewhat following the departure of Abramovich, but I guess the fallout might take a year or two. Should still happen at some point though, so patience needed.

It's not about being happy, in reality on Bruno is the genuine class midfielder out of those on our books, the rest could all be upgraded. But I would have thought a DM was even more important than someone like Paqueta who would be more of an AM. Unless we are prepared to play Bruno in a deeper role like he played previously with Paqueta. I just don't know if we'll be able to buy in all the players we need in one transfer window. If Paqueta is available though, it would seem a great chance to bring in a genuine upgrade player.