captainhaircut

we could have got him last year. We bid more for Guehi than Trafford would have cost.

If we are negotiating for a small pool of players as Howe says then we can’t quibble over a few million here or there. We have to change up strategy and either pay the rate for the players we want and then fill squad places with loans/frees or take more gambles in the market.

This will hurt doubly when we sign Ramsdale.

There’s no way we sell him when we have no home grown players. sell Miley and we’d be limited to a 21 man European squad plus kids.

Man City are buying him to then immediately trade to us for Livramento…

in relation to the European squad? There’s no chance he goes in that. He can’t go on the list B because he doesn’t qualify as per the below and even if he could qualify as a club trained in future (which he can’t) that doesn’t help now as he hasn’t spent 3 years at the club. So he’d have to take a squad place on the list A but not as a club trained. Which there is almost zero chance of considering we had to leave Krafth out of our European squad last time. Unless he really is the Korean Mbappe…. “A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 2004 and has, since his 15th birthday, been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years, or a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year. Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.”

I think that refers to a player whose birthday is over a pre season period but yes confusing as hell.

We didn’t. A player has to be at a club for 3 years before their 21st birthday- so they need to sign before turn 18. Hall was just about to turn 19 when we signed him. This Korean lad won’t qualify either given he has been 18 for 4 months. Signings that do qualify are Shahar, Sanusi and Hernes plus anyone we signed really young like Mills or Alabi. “A "club-trained player" is a player who, between the ages of 15 (or the start of the season during which the player turns 15) and 21 (or the end of the season during which the player turns 21), and irrespective of the player's nationality and age, has been registered with the player's current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons (i.e. a period starting with the first official match of the relevant domestic championship and ending with the last official match of that relevant domestic championship) or of 36 months. In the context of this paragraph, the season immediately preceding a player’s 15th birthday may be counted if the player's birthday is after the last match of the relevant domestic championship but before or on 30 June (winter championships) or 31 December (summer championships), and the season immediately following the player's 21st birthday may be counted if the player's birthday is on or after 1 July (winter championships) or 1 January (summer championships) but before the first match of the relevant domestic championship.”

I never said sell Isak. I said let them have Ekitike and sign Sesko. statistically not much between Sesko and Ekitike.

We know we have a massive wedge for a striker now so if they get Ekitike, we can go get Sesko with a clear run now Arsenal have Gyokeres.

Feels like Liverpool are waiting for us to agree a deal so they can just match that deal without doing any of the hard work!

DCL for me.

neither is Delap and we tried to buy him. Fancy we will play a different system this season.

Sesko….

are you suggesting he does?

Ha, shows how much I know. Thought it was just a loan.

Interesting that White and Hernes were involved instead of J.Miley? Fairly sure Miley played last pre season a bit. think one of them might get kept around the squad to make up the homegrown champs league numbers.

https://archive.ph/kwA4f

Fancy we will sell one of Gordon or Barnes to make this work if it’s true. They both pretty much play solely from the left and Elanga, Joelinton and Osula can all play out there plus Isak, Willock and Ekitike (if true).

Not sure I hate this signing. I think we do need the ability to go beyond the press of some teams such as Bournemouth. For all Isak’s brilliance, he can go missing in some games if we don’t get it into and he certainly isn’t one to battle centre halves. The option of having a target man and having Isak play off him, could be very good either from the start of games or off the bench. Calvert-Lewin brings a real target man ability. It was only a year a bit ago that he dominated Van Dijk. His finishing has been an issue but Eddie would sort that. Would leave us more money to buy a top class centre back and centre mid…

No idea how we plan to balance the squad for the champs league. We need 4 academy players and we have one (Miley). So we’ll need to name a 22 man squad for the champs league effectively. Forster or Woodman on a free would have made loads of sense.

Can someone please help me with the details of the low blocks we suffer with? I missed a lot of games last year for multiple reasons but from what I can see, we lost 13 games last season and drew 6. A breakdown of the games we didn’t win: 3 x Brighton 2 x Bournemouth 2 x Liverpool 1 x Arsenal 2 x Man City 2 x Everton 2 x Fulham 1 x Chelsea 1 x Palace 1 x Villa 1 x West Ham 1 x Brentford Other than Everton x 2 and West Ham at home, did anyone play a low block? Everton away Isak was missing and at home he couldn’t move… I was at Craven Cottage and Fulham slapped us. At home, we were 1 nil up so we had control of that game. The rest of the sides don’t play low blocks at all. So maybe the issue isn’t low blocks at all? Maybe it’s just that we need more depth and options off the bench.

we absolutely can’t play the same football with Wilson as we do with Isak. Wilson’s overall game was woeful last year. His performance at home to Dortmund (even if we discount missing an absolute sitter) was horrible.

The latest rumour is that Eddie Howe is signing off the signing of a 5”9 striker in Jonathan David? No chance.

Kadioglu represented by the agency group of Howe and his nephew so he’ll definitely be on the list. We love buying players from them.