Shak

Is it not likely that Willock is seen as one of the six that he wants to have for the season? We’re presently down to four with his injury but I don’t think we will be able to just write him off as a squad option for the whole year. I would expect it will be one midfielder brought in.

Your fury and hatred for Isak is invigorating stuff

Aye it’s a handy scapegoat if the move doesn’t happen and we need to reintegrate him into the squad, allows Isak to save face to some extent with teammates and fans. Ultimately though he has to give his agent his blessing to do all of this.

Don’t massively disagree with T-Swizz , really. The Isak drama is such a dark cloud over everything. Start of the summer I’d have been delighted with Elanga and Wissa being added. Was fully prepared for the backup striker to be DCL so Wissa is much better. Elanga wouldn't have been my first choice RW but it seems to be what Howe wanted and I’ll back his choice. Ramsdale and Thiaw weren’t top of anyone’s lists but they’re long held targets that fit in with what has served us well in the past, buying the dip on players that we obviously rate. Do wish we’d buy a versatile AM type though, someone who can play LCM for us but also be an option out wide. A not fucked version of Willock, basically.

@George Bailey I know you’ll have been itching to hear back. Struggled to get involved for long periods of the match, quite isolated up front and the service was poor. Did bag a first half hat-trick, though. 6/10. Excellent.

I’m off to watch him live in action tonight, will report back.

I think Thiaw would be a bit underwhelming, feel like a ready to go first choice RCB was needed this summer and he seems to be a bit raw. Outside of that it would be OK aside from the fact that the Isak situation has created a horrible feeling around the club.

Ramos seems a good player but I’m always a bit wary of players for whom joining us would be a clear step down, which going from PSG to us clearly is. Obviously depends on the mentality of the individual players but in a vacuum the lad Aghehowa from Porto seems like the type of deal we should be pursuing next. In the meantime, Isak should be very much being told he’s going nowhere any time soon and needs to sort himself out and be on the pitch at Villa park in ten days. We can revisit him leaving at the end of the month if we have managed to bring in a suitable replacement.

I mean all things considered you’d think Leipzig would prefer our 80+10 bid to Man Utd’s 75+10. Pretty sure ours is more.

Move away, not today, Sesko lady.

Would be an interesting time to make the move like, forcing Liverpool to pay now rather than get him for free in a year would be spiteful but could also be something that factors into the Isak issue. From Guehi’s POV though you’d assume he’ll just wait a year and get a massive signing bonus and higher wages.

It was us who wanted to buy a Goalkeeper off of them.

As much as emotionally I don’t want to see us cave and let Isak go to Liverpool, rationally I do wonder what exactly the point of putting our foot down and forcing him to stay for another year is. Damage is done in terms of his relationship with his teammates you’d imagine, a huge part of our success the last couple of years has been the incredible atmosphere at the club and I can’t see a starting CF with one foot out the door for a season being great for that. If we think Sesko or someone else we can land this summer is the long term replacement and we can get a price for Isak we think is fair, bite the bullet and do it. Ideally we’d sign Sesko and be willing to have him and Isak on the books for the year if our price for Isak isn’t met. If they meet it in time for us to then go out and get Wissa, so be it. If not, we wait a year and see if there are other options next summer.

Well that and the fact that we haven’t had a bid accepted yet.

Aye, I hope this will be our stance. Give us what we want for Isak and he can go, so long as it happens in time for us to get Wissa (or someone of that level) in as a replacement. Signing Sesko means Isak is gonna go eventually, but if there’s a year overlap that’s great for us so they can pay what we want or wait.

Are you more or less certain of this than you were that we wouldn’t sell Longstaff this summer?

Would be very exciting. He’s obviously a downgrade on Isak but will be one that we can feel excited about working with Eddie. I reckon it’d give us some good flexibility regarding how we deal with Isak over the next few weeks. Tell them to meet a price tag we feel comfortable with or we’ll keep them both for the year. If they meet our valuation we can push for Wissa or someone in that range.

“Newcastle would you like to present your rebuttal?”

I just hope they don’t insist with an important offer, we’ll be in trouble then.

Aye thats the profile we need from two strikers signings. One experienced that we know will be solid straight away. One young with huge potential that we hope can develop into a top class CF.

A loan with option to buy on a talented keeper with plenty of question marks over him in isolation makes sense. Use the funds earmarked for GK to strengthen elsewhere, get Ramsdale in on essentially a year long trial. It's just another drop in the big pint of piss that has been this transfer window, though.

It would be very appropriate if we are really shit at negotiating sales too and end up accepting the lower end of the prices mooted.

Does seem like it would be ideal to sell Isak next summer when we’ll hopefully not be the complete mess we appear to be in terms of recruitment at the moment. If we want to play hardball with him he’s not in the best spot, three years left on his deal means he will probably just have to sack up and get on with it this year. I’d be quite tempted to just insist he’s going nowhere this summer and not offer him any sort of improved deal in the meantime. Sell him next summer, don’t think the market for him is going anywhere. The counterpoint is that Eddie probably doesn’t want an unhappy player in the squad and if he really likes Sesko as the replacement and we can get it done now then maybe just make the move and get it over with.

Aye, I don’t disagree. I hope we tell Liverpool to get fucked and very much encourage the Saudi interest.