Shak

I would desperately love for the FMV rules to disappear, we sign a fuck off deal and can afford huge recruitment, big new deals for our top players and can just afford to keep this lad in a one man bomb squad for three years. Too much to ask?

@gbandit do you think I have a shot at Europe this year?

The very last section does raise the very important point that most big money signing CFs end up being a bit shite. Is taking a punt on a guy who will probably have been just about inside the top ten on our list of targets for the position this summer likely to yield good results? Can see why Howe might want to reintegrate him if at all possible.

Yeah I don’t think I really agree with the whole idea that we can’t give him a new deal and pay rise as it rewards his behaviour. The shite behaviour has never been about getting a pay rise, by all accounts we’ve been very keen to give him a new deal. He wants a move, so giving him a new deal isn’t caving to him or rewarding his behaviour, it’s us getting what we wanted. And the players aren’t thick, they’ll know if he’s the kind of player we’re immediately turning down £110m offers for then he should probably earn a decent bit more than most of them.

Just sign Jackson, feel like if it comes down to it he’ll just start dishing out slaps rather than any of this emo shite.

Are these housing chain style transfers a recent thing or do we just hear about them more now than we used to? It’s all so fucking tedious man. Liverpool can’t buy Isak because Newcastle need Wissa to replace him but we can’t get him because Brentford need a replacement for him before letting him go because the replacement they signed for him yesterday isn’t actually the replacement for Wissa he is the replacement for Mbeumo who they foolishly sold before signing his replacement because reasons and oh did I mention all these players are cunts?

Aye, he’s got the wrong end of the schtick there.

Probably accurate but I want Jackson as the Wilson replacement and am gonna be greedy on this one

The more I read up about Jackson the more I think Eddie would turn him into an absolute terror. Feels like it’s a deal that we could have got done by now as well as Chelsea just want rid by all accounts.

Aye I meant sign Jackson instead. Can’t get both with AFCON. Jackson and Isak as striker options this year (unless Isak is sold and we get a replacement of course)

Pivot to Nic Jackson. Probably not gonna cost a great deal more and at his age has a lot more potential to develop than Wissa does.

He hasn’t said that though, in fact he’s said absolutely nothing at any point throughout all of this. It’s all been reports from media that his agent has no doubt fed them. Not an accident I suspect and supports your overarching point, which is that Isak hasn’t closed the door completely and is weighing what his next move will be.

Cunha is a player that I feel I’d absolutely love if he played for my team.

Taking Eze off with the game in the balance was quite the call.

Turkey and Saudi close their transfer windows later than England, which is why I mentioned them specifically. He obviously will hold out for Liverpool as long as the window for them to sign him is open, but once that option is off the table and it’s Turkey/Saudi or go and fuck himself until January then we will see what he thinks.

Putting microphones on the refs for VAR. Who was in favour of that? I’ll bet literally nobody. How did it happen?

Bear in mind that that’s what he’s hoping for

Unreliable figures on the internet I’m sure but a quick google suggests getting 10m or so for a season long loan should be doable, then if they pay his wages too that’ll be another 6m saved. Could also try to outright sell him to Saudi, if the agent really has that much control over him and wants a payday. I know it might not be ideal as selling to a PIF club can’t be used in our squad cost noncery with UEFA.

I think the play from Isak and his agent is just to make it as toxic as possible to the point we let him leave. I think there’s a fair chance we’ll see him and his agent escalate the situation over the next week or so rather than keep quiet. Pretty shocking really that he seemingly has no qualms at all about the absolute shit he is putting his teammates through. Just a complete cunt. I’m very much of the opinion now that taking a significant financial hit to try and fuck him over as best we can is the move. Sign Wissa, then buy another striker at the deadline. After the deadline here passes, tell him is choice is train alone for the season or take a year long loan in Saudi or Turkey before their windows close.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re looking a lot more closely at him and trying to decide if we’re comfortable spending big on him as the Isak replacement. Of the remaining options, he seems like the most high upside option that might be able to develop into a top CF. He’s also a massive risk, given how raw he is, and I don’t think they ever expected to get this far down the list of striker targets and maybe haven’t done as much work on him as they did on the others we were after.

Save us Y2W!

If our PSR position allows it, signing two strikers now and launching him out on loan to Turkey or some shit for the year would be ideal. Next year’s three year rolling period PSR figure will still include the 23/24 figure, which by all accounts is a good number for us. If we can get away with adding (for example) Wissa and Aghehowa this summer without that pushing us into too much danger without an Isak sale, I’d love for us to be absolute cunts about it and tell him to take a loan somewhere shite (all due respect to Turkey) for a year and then sell him in July next year. Keeps the sale money on our books for another year, could come in handy in summer 2029.

I’d love to keep him as backup to Wissa for the season, to be honest. Give him 20 minutes at the end of each game to put himself in the shop window, let him start the cup games if it’s against weaker opposition.

I assume you meant right footers? But aye, does seem very hard to see Willock getting much game time considering his best position of LCM has Joelinton and Ramsey ahead of him. Barnes and Gordon at LW also means we’re quite stacked at the positions he would seem most likely to play. He did play a bit of RCM in our 22/23 season so maybe he could be tried there? I don’t know, feels like he’s very much 6th choice midfielder now in any case. Ideal scenario for me would be selling Willock and signing a young left footed player who could play RW or the RCM position. Think we’ll probably have to wait a year or so before we can do that though.

I don’t think we can afford to write Willock off, so only way I can see it is if we think we can find a buyer for him.