TRon

I know a lot of people really hate Sterling, but he does score goals in some pretty big games. And while he does miss chances, it's a bit daft to say he can't finish, he's produced some pretty lethal finishes down the years.

A striker who misses chances eh? That's unforgivable.

He'll cement them as a regular top 4 team again sadly.

Good signing for Arsenal then. I thought he was around 29 tbh, he seems to have been at City for ages.

Must admit I always rated Jesus really highly and thought he wasn't getting enough minutes in his early days at City. He's a genuine world class goalscorer in my book. I suppose the only question would be whether he's slightly past his best years.

I don't think that's being greedy at all. If we got our two major targets who I consider to be Ekiteke and Botman, that would be significant improvement. Pope and Targett are good solid additions. Anything on top of that is gravy as far as I'm concerned. Now it doesn't have to be Botman and Ekiteke, but if we are moving down the list then I want to see similar potential, or players who are maybe older but can do the job better right now.

Well that depends if the second choice signs for someone else while we are hanging about waiting for the go ahead from Botman. But the club will obviously try to get their first choice as long as we believe it's doable. I still think we'll sign Botman FWIW, I think if Milan were realistic buyers he'd have told us no thanks by now. Seems like the only way he goes there is if his club accept a worse deal.

Naw I just read the tagline tbh. I was under the impression that if a player really wanted a move he could tell his agent to make it happen, but I guess that is a bit naive.

Well it could be the agent's fees or the player himself is holding out. It doesn't really say in the article.

Honestly don't think there's many better dribblers than Maxi in Europe, maybe even the world, it's his decision making which is his weak point, along with his lack of defensive discipline. At that level those things matter. It will be interesting to see if they improve with better players in front of him next season, but his international coach doesn't seem to think he's capable of it.

First thought that came to my mind as well

He does, and I say that as someone who's defended him mostly, he's got a lot of good attributes. We need someone with his qualities such as physicality, work rate and mobility, but a little more cultured on the ball if we want to progress to the next level. That would be some midfielder mind.

I think Howe himself would be worried if we started next season with the same squad.

Also one of the reasons we need good ball players from the back from CB's to full backs. Just look at the difference Trippier made when he first arrived. Really anyone who is prone to giving the ball away needs to be replaced.

I'm sure, but what I'm suggesting is that he will want to see us move on significantly from last season in the coming one, and for that we will need some significant improvement in the squad this summer. We probably won't repeat last season's 2nd half form with the current bunch.

Yeah I really like him as well. I can understand why we are reluctant to give up on him, I think he could develop into a really hot property pretty quickly. It's actually significant that he thinks he might be able to attract a CL club as well, he clearly fancies himself.

I don't think that means he'll want to wait until he's retired. Like I said, it's just common sense he'll want us to be challenging for the spots below the CL in the coming season, maybe a shot at the UEFA cup competition.

Yep. And Trippier is 31, he might not expect to be challenging for CL this season, but he'll want to be part of a side that is on it's way in the next couple of years, and that would mean challenging for a European spot at least. It's just common sense even if we don't see any direct quotes.

Agree, but we don't want to be strung along to the extent we lose out on alternatives should he decide he wants to hang around in France for another year. Hopefully the club are in tune with what the kid wants. When we were chasing Carlos in January it was clear he wanted to come, it was his club holding onto him. With Ekiteke there's always been this suspicion that he is reluctant to come here if there's any chance of an alternative, probably on the continent somewhere.

Absolutely. You are spot on in your following post as well, players like Trippier and Bruno didn't come here to work our way up from 11th to 9th next season. We need an injection of genuine quality in at least three key areas of the pitch, and you would expect this summer's activity to be a level up on January's which was emergency mode.

We could have had him but seems like we are all in for Botman. I hope he actually turns out to be the better player. Assuming he does eventually end up here.

Yeah I have always thought he is one of our better quality players. He's not outstanding, but he is a reliable enough shot stopper, and quite commanding of his box IMO. It would take a very good keeper to make a significant improvement.

He's 31 or something close, and they wanted £40m for him. You can understand why we thought nah, we'll try for Ekiteke instead. Even if we don't get him, I'm sure we'll find someone willing to sell a quality 30 yr old striker for a not too stupid fee. We are going to have to accept we'll pay a bit extra for the next year or two.

This.

But the best strikers who are proven are choosing clubs who are already in the CL - see Darwin Nunez for example. there may be older strikers who can do the job for a couple of years, someone in their early 30's say, but we'll still have to pay the Newcastle tax even on those.