STM

I'm struggling to run the sink never mind a bath.

Fwiw, he says that he thinks we WILL sell Minteh.

Not my favourite channel by any stretch but loads of transfer bits from Downie on here... Covers Kelly, Trafford, Dubravka, Minteh, Longstaff and more.

Aye but you won't be saying that when you don't sign the players you want because of tightarse ratface.

I genuinely think this may be the biggest crisis that the PL is having to face. Right now, it doesn't have the support of a few clubs but as soon as a West Ham or a Brighton reach that glass ceiling or an Everton in the future... they will sharp turn. Imagine reaching within touching distance of breaking into the top 4 say and that summer not only could you NOT spend but also you have to SELL your players in order not to get charged.... oh and guess who wants to buy your best players? It's dead simple, a club should be allow to lay down capital, in order to protect from future sanctions. If we want to spend beyond on our "means" (what a joke), fine, allow us to PAY for the right to do that. Allow us to pay a 10% football tax or whatever you want to call it, for every extra million that we want to spend over our FFP/PSR restriction. That money can get given to clubs further down the pyramid.

Personally I'm stoked that they aren't stumping up the cash. That would suggest they are a serious club.

I doubt we've firmed up our interests in our top targets. Once Kelly and Trafford are done and the Euros are over, we might see movement.

I think Man Utd have basically kicked this situation down the road. I suspect they have bigger fish to fry at an infrastructure level. Yes they could have chopped and changed, and they will at some point, but if they haven't got the person they want ready to come in, it makes sense. However the optics and their handling of this has been horrific. If they had just shown some balls pre cup final and said "we are sticking behind Eric, he's a great coach and he's dedicated to moving us forward", they'd have been fine. Essentially, they've now got a squad who hates the manager, a manager who knows he's probably going to be axed in the medium term, a manager who also knows the club have been looking to replace him, an executive who runs his mouth every twenty seconds, a sporting director who isn't allowed to work for them and doesn't know how to use email and a dozen very average players to shift.

Having a known injury history is fairly irrelevant if the injuries aren't related. If there was something obvious about his injury history that might have put us off, it would be unlikely to be at the medical phase. I'm sure our scouts and medical team will have checked over his injury record. The doctors are effectively checking to see if he's got any underlying health issues, like a heart erythema or a lung issue etc and the only reason they do that is money. They don't want to be paying millions in fees to find out he can't play because of a heart defect. However, I am interested to know at what point his medical history (the finer details of his injuries) is shared between clubs. You would think there has to be an agreement around that.

Bloody Nuffield. Those were the days.

This is what happens when you get an Everton fan as a Newcastle correspondent. Na, it's shit craic from noon like.

I imagine it will be closer to 5 than 10.

I suspect there will be one or two more exits than we had thought. Perhaps later in the window

Nowt new really. Just Fab being Fab.

Nobody knows how good this kid is. He's obviously talented but we have no idea how far he can take it. I'd like to think Eddie will have a look at him in training before making a judgement call. It's not even a priority issue of the summer, for me.

Very good. I predicted on this very forum that we would sign Owen at the start of the 2005 summer transfer window. I did a big long post basically detailing why we were his only option for a return to England. What a fucking disaster.

Probably accidentally ccd Rob Dawson at ESPN.

I'd love us to sign him. Just not sure it will happen.

Also, medicals haven't been "booked" in about 20 years. We do everything ourselves now.

Is he reliable though?

I doubt we will sign either MGW or DCL. Signing a quality right winger who could potentially step in upfront would save us alot of heartache.

If we sign Kelly, I'd reckon our back 4 come the first game will be: Trippier Schar Burn Kelly Perhaps by the end of the season we might see: Tino Schar Botman Hall Of course I'd like to see us go big on another CB to compete with Schar but we will have to see what happens with our budget.

You don't need to convince me on Hall. You need to convince me that Eddie Howe won't value experience over youth. My point about Gordon is that his stats were shocking, until Eddie got hold of him. Show me Kelly's stats in 6 months time and we will see what they look like. I'm just surprised anyone thinks that Eddie is now "all in" on Hall after a, in fairness, very good spell. In order to aid Halls development he will be brought in and out of the team. Like every good manager does with youngsters. It's about trust. Does Eddie Howe absolutely 100% trust Hall yet? We will see come August.