STM

Nice work "Josh".

Aye. Let's hope they give him a win.

Also agree with this. It's why Ratface at Man Utd letting it be known that all their players are for sale is so bizarre. Its a quick way to demoralise your entire squad AND lose bargaining power. Howe will always say he wants to keep players, right up until the point we sell them.

Totally agree. Been banging this drum for a while. He does a really good job of suckering me back in when he's fit and starts scoring goals but the smart, sensible thing to do is cash in.... However, if we aren't getting decent money for him, there's no point selling.

Ramsdale cost Arsenal 24m and they can't ask for that back because he's not progressed there. I suspect they actually want rid because they don't want to end up paying the add ons for someone they don't see as first choice. If Raya gets injured and Ramsdale plays, they might have to pay up to another 7m. If they get an opportunity to cash in for anything north of 15m, I can understand them doing it.

Pope won't be going anywhere this season. Tosin, Ramsdale and Kelly potentially in for peanuts, wasn't this the squad depth improvements people people were asking for? Dummett = Tosin Targett = Kelly Dubravka = Ramsdale

Since you have a problem, could you throw a Newcastle badge on there and a Sela one.

Think that's a cuteism. His name is Lewis Miley, they just call him Lewie, probably started from calling him Lew.... But yes it is confusing when the names Louis and Louie exist.

Once last hurrah from Callum. Get us the goals that get us into Europe.

It might not be factual, but it feels like goalkeepers don't peak until they are 30, Ramsdale is 26. Also, worth baring in mind that Ramsdale and Pope know each other and are probably mates, they certainly have connections, even outside the England setup. Even though the competition might be tough, I'd wager that they would enjoy working with each other in training.

Bless you.

15m would be a bargain, largely because we could sell him for most of that in a couple of years time if it didn't work. Something smells off about this rumour mind, it's got guesswork written all over it.

Has he been playing? Genuine question, I've not been following his progress.

He has to be absolutely shite.... or absolutely mint, in between doesn't exist. The reality is that he is a very good PL goalkeeper, a significant upgrade on Dubravka, a recent England International and someone who we could improve. If we are being quoted less than 20m, it's hardly any wonder we are interested in him. That's not to say he hasn't had his shakey moments but fuck me....

Ramsdale is pretty much the same standard as Pope, give or take a few attributes either way. However, he's significantly younger. If we signed Ramsdale he wouldn't improve our starting 11, or at least not right away but he's still got growth in him, especially under Howe. It's worth remembering that for all Arteta has done a good job at Arsenal, he's not got a good record with keepers. He let one of the best keepers in the world sign for Villa, a competant keeper in Leno leave, replaced them with a young, raw, Ramsdale and binned him off at the first sign of bother, for Raya who's not exactly Buffon himself. It wouldn't be where I'd be looking at spending my money though. Popes a good keeper and our next keeper should be significantly better with his feet.

This disproves your point .... since Newcastle is, you know, in England.

I think what is meant is that he probably didn't want to leave until the season is over. Even to a DoF it might feel like leaving before the job is done. Also Palace have had an upsurge, so you can understand if he'd like to see the season out. He's interested in the job because he's interviewed for it numerous times. Of course he's also well within his rights to change his mind

We are well capable of rocking up in the sunshine and smashing these out the park. Don't do it for Europe though. Do it because its a game of football and we want to win anyway.

I watched that overlap pod. I found the whole footballing discussion really engaging but yes Andy Cole comes across as someone who gets huffy quickly. Even his son didn't seem to like him. He's just comes across, cold, impersonal and hard to talk to. The bloke was an absolute goal machine like.

Classic one for the future. The problem with summer spending is that everyone, myself included, focuses on how it will effect the upcoming season and not the next 4/5.

I think we might get hung up on the "used to get played in CM" stuff. Ultimately at some point you need to concentrate on one position and own it. I can absolutely see him slotting into that midfield role later in his career though, he needs more experience on the pitch though. Midfield is a different animal.

Would be really interested to see how that looked. Did he find he couldn't do the drills? Was he not fit enough? Did he not look interested or concentrate enough?

At one point last night it felt like Bruno and Hall were the only ones on the same wavelength footballing wise. For a 19 year old he doesn't look like he knows how to give the ball away, or at least he's heading in the direction which suggests he's going to be that "press proof" type. His passing, shooting, crossing technique is outstanding. He's nowhere near polished defensively, positionally etc but I'm already at the stage where I can take that.. to an extent, because of what his all around game gives to the rest of the team... and of course he can improve on the job. I hope Howe and his team do everything on their power to convince Hall of the sacrifices he needs to make, that's my only worry. He seems quite a relaxed character, who perhaps doesn't like the hard side of training. Not a critique, just different. If he can go into this summer with the same attitude Gordon had last season, he could be in the England team by next season.

I can't remember the last game where we controlled the game. We've battered teams but I've not seen us control a game for a while. The two are different. Sometime our quality has seen us score for fun without actually looking fully in control like last season.

How much you want to bet that he starts vs Brentford? And if he does, my point stands.