Shak

Absolutely suss as fuck, this.

Much depends on what the plan is for Joelinton. If we see him primarily playing LW then I guess in theory you have him and ASM for that spot and Gordon and Almiron on the RW. With Murphy the 5th winger and Isak also being able to play there. Add another CM and have Bruno, Tonali, Longstaff, Willock and the new player competing for this spots. So without an addition I suppose we do have the bodies in terms of wide men... I just don't know if there are enough goals in that group.

Saw PSG loosely linked with João Felix today. Hadn't heard anything about him this summer, strange considering he seems nailed on to leave. We were linked with him a bit a few months ago, huge questions over transfer fee and wages obviously but he's the kind of player I'd love us to get. A winger who has pace and can beat people but is also capable of picking a pass.

If they need money and are convinced Guler is going to be a star, could be a handy way to make 50m profit flogging Raphinha to us and getting Guler? Man, Raphinha would be a dream signing. Think he's the only RW target I've seen mentioned that ticks every single box.

I wonder if we want to see if we can tempt Guler before making any more big moves? Seems the competition for him is insane but you'd like to think we have a shot, simply because of the fact that if he's as good as people reckon he'll be a first team starter really quickly. Gonna be harder to get the opportunities at pretty much everywhere else, you'd think? Unless he's good enough that he'll be able to displace someone like Saka or Raphinha quickly enough... in which case best of luck to him yeah

Will be nice for him not having to work midweek very often next season.

The fact that we're spending decent money on a backup full back makes me feel like our budget is actually far bigger than anyone expects.

Or in that time we moved beyond him being the best addition we could make, is a nice way of thinking about it.

I meant the type of player. I'd expect a left back who can get forward and do on the left for us what Trippier does on the other side. If we go into the season with Burn the first choice LB I'll be stunned.

Watching some of the disability FA Cup finals on BT Sport 1. The goalkeepers in blind football not being blind seems really fucking harsh on the outfield players

Signing someone to be an upgrade on Burn rather than a proper out and out back would be interesting and frankly a bit of a surprise to me. Not necessarily against the idea of having a LB who becomes more of a third CB when we're in possession, just don't expect that to be the route we go.

Jesus there's a blast from the past

Who's the AM/winger version of Tonali? A player we've had a couple of links to but nothing major. An elite option for the position that has everything Howe wants in terms of work rate and quality. I'd say it's probably Kvaratskhelia. Christ, can you imagine?

Aye, I remember us being linked with Chiesa soon after the takeover... I wonder if similar to Isak he's on the long term list. I remember in January there were conflicting reports about why Maddison didn't end up here. He seemed nailed on going into the WC, everyone thought he'd join us once the window opened. Some said Leicester started to play hardball with the price, others said Maddison decided to wait for the summer and see if a better option came along. If it's the latter and he ends up at a club with no European football at all instead of playing for us in the CL it'd be pretty funny.

Wouldn't be surprised if we bring in a different winger/AM and then maybe come back to Maddison later in the window on top of that. Maybe late in the window we move on ASM/Miggy and bring Maddison in? Leicester will have to sell him eventually.

Massive festival on in Roskilde, starts this weekend. Maybe Tonali is the end of our transfer business and they're off to celebrate by getting absolutely fucked for a week?

Imagine getting those two

Another potential reason we may not be so keen on Maddison if this guy is a bit of a free kick dynamo?

More the reactions than the words but I should have seen the issue with the GIF, aye

Don't think I've ever seen net salary mentioned so much

Feels like we've spent the last few weeks getting a feel on the price tag and gauging interest of lots of players. Then as soon as the international fixtures ended we've decided it's go time. Gonna be a hectic couple of weeks, I reckon.

Nice video that, cheers. As the season went on last year I became more and more against the idea of moving Bruno from the #6 role. It's just so important to how we play having him as the base, dictating our passing. Thought adding a more traditional DM to push Bruno up would be a mistake given what we'd likely lose from that position. Watching Tonali though, if this guy is the new #6 I no longer have those concerns. Looks very smooth on the ball. Honestly, he looks like he'd be dynamite as a #8 too. Wouldn't be surprised to see him and Bruno swapping positions at times to keep opponents guessing. I'd guess this ultimately knocks Longstaff out of our strongest eleven but he'll still play an awful lot in the spot he was last year with either Bruno or Tonali as the #6.

Some people are just dickheads, basically. @Milanista makes some of the most well considered, thoughtful posts of anyone on this forum but for some I suspect it's as simple as not wanting to hear from a fan of another team. He deserves some ribbing for his post of course but I'd hope he focuses on the posters who appreciate his posts rather than the few dickheads having a go at him. Having said that...

Fucking hell Maddison being the fallback option is quite the thought.