Shak

This feels like the right guy for us in terms of playing style, seems like he'll be able to play as DM and let Bruno push forward. Not sure we'll get it done but feels more real than Barella ever did.

Wouldn't be surprised if we signed both of them and moved on ASM.

He'll surely want to play in the Champions League at some point and our big selling point IMO is that we guarantee that. We're in it this year and if he comes to Newcastle he'll be a key piece in a CL team straight away. Spurs will probably get into the CL at some point over the next few years but there's no guarantee. It's gonna be competitive as fuck for those 5 spots in the coming years and Postecoglou is a complete unknown at this level. If he fails who knows what will happen to them and when they'll be back there. Hopefully we get this done. Think this saga has been going on for so long that people have started to forget what a genuinely quality player he is, he'd be a great addition.

They probably do have a bit of a surplus of CMs with Bellingham, Camavinga, Tchouameni and Valverde there so maybe one will leave. As has been said though, I'd expect our wage structure takes us out of the running for any of them.

Is he not going to be a starter for Madrid with Bellingham going there or something? Seems very, very unlikely

We've been after him for a year, would be pretty mental if we've just now realised that he's not a great fit for any spot in the formation Eddie wants to play

Just saw this. So pleased for the guy, genuinely beaming here

"Say to his face" I mean, he's a CB. Clear as day. Can do a job at LB and his ability to cover there as well as being Botman's backup is going to be a great asset for years to come. Hopefully we only see him there in emergencies going forward.

It depends on Howe how feels about Targett, for me. Burn did a commendable job at LB given his skillset but I wouldn't say he was good by any means. The fact that Targett didn't manage to take the job back doesn't fill me with confidence about him going forward. If it was just a fitness thing or aversion to changing something that was working and Howe likes Targett... I'd be OK with no big name LB signing. A young player that can backup Targett (with Burn being the emergency LB option) would be the minimum though, can't go into next season with Burn and Targett the only left footed defenders in the squad.

I think it would just be so needlessly stupid to not bring in a LB though, I'd struggle to not be annoyed

Aye, Caicedo seems to be off to Chelsea too if you want to count them as a team that we can't compete with.

Real Madrid Barcelona Bayern PSG Man City Man United Arsenal Liverpool A few others you can certainly make a case for but that's a list of clubs that I would say we can't really compete with in terms of transfer fee and wages. Barella is obviously a top quality player but there are lots of other good options out there for teams looking for CMs. Real have gone for Bellingham, Arsenal clearly want Rice, Liverpool got MacAllister and seem to be closing in on Thuram and Kone. Yes there's a chance someone comes in for Barella but it's quite possible the really top teams either don't need a CM this window or else prefer different options for one reason or another.

£65m might get it done? Be interesting to see what we do, if we really like him. There's no waiting it out like we did with Maddison, who had a year less on his contract. Price isn't likely to come down for Barella.

Feels like Arsenal should be after Osimhen, have they been linked at all?

Just don't get a top player like Kim wanting to move to the Bundesliga in his prime tbh, is there really that much glory in helping Bayern win their 10th title in a row?

Italian lads do tend to be a bit more dependent on their mammies than most nationalities, must be said

I'm not sure about the whole idea of talks being made public having a massively adverse effect on a potential deal. Surely if he is available Inter and his agent will have made sure to get the word out there to the top clubs around Europe? They're not going to leave lots of money on the table to keep negotiations secret just so that we think they're sound. Yes, there are clubs out there that can blow us out of the water on wages and transfer fee if they want this guy. However, that's ultimately a small number of clubs and if we do get him I think it'll be because those clubs either didn't need a CM this summer or else they had other targets they preferred for one reason or another.

Well I guess that's it, folks.

If we're going to drop trou and sign some Napoli lad it should probably be Kvaratskhelia tbh.

In a minority here I suspect but if they want Klaus in exchange they can fuck off IMO.

On a family holiday with in laws and checking my phone before a walk after dinner was a terrible choice. Gonna get myself in trouble

Anyway, could study for weeks and I wouldn't beat my first attempt of 37. Some world class absolute guessing from the pictures

LOSER

One selling point for us if we're really after Guler is that the right side of a front three looks his ideal position and there's a pretty clear path to being first choice for us in that position pretty quickly. Would love to see it happen, he just looks like a really fun player to watch.

Maybe he went there on his holidays and had a cracking time.