STM

And that's a perfectly fair point. No issue with anyone saying perhaps we could have let's say gone for a RW rather than Barnes who plays mainly on the LW but I'd mitigate that by saying Howe and Co had no idea that Murphy would miss 3 months or that Barnes himself would have such an outrageous injury. Same with Tonali, perhaps there's an argument to say an orthodox DM would have been a better shout. My point was more aimed towards the "Howe wants British cloggers" brigade. Which there's absolutely no substance to other than supposition, conjecture and the odd article which talks about him wanting PL experience. We've signed 12 players, 7 of which have come from domestic clubs. Added to that Howe couldn't believe his luck when he was told he could get Tonali (that's words from his mouth). Some are talking absolute shite on this topic and it's tedious.

I know the clubs strategy.... its to sign quality players. Pope Isak Bruno Botman Livramento Trippier Tonali Gordon Barnes (I'm sure will come good in time) Burn (value for money at the very least)... Hall (hard to tell how it will work out but I could see what they were trying) Wood (A bit of a plank but it was clearly a short term fix) It begs belief that there is any doubt in our transfer strategy, after the years of shite we've been served up. Could we have tried to do something different around the Lewis Hall deal? Perhaps but even if it goes wrong, that's a decent strike rate on signings. We've had a tough season with injuries. That's it. That's what this is all about. Give us half the injuries and none of us having this discussion. (Not aimed at you Pablo).

We have a very good right back ready to go. From a personality point of view, how long do we want to keep him to be around the place as a good egg? I'm not saying you don't have a valid point but if we are targeting players of Tonali calibre (or potential), the personalities and mentalities come with it. Bruno, Botman, Isak and hopefully Tonali are all players we should be able to trust in big games. Sentimentality can cost. I'm not saying I WANT him to go, but I can see the merit in the arguement. I won't be disappointed either way.

Making stuff up.

It's mindless agenda driven nonsense. Aside for Lewis Hall (who could still yet be a good player for us) our identifying talent and getting them has been exemplary.

Well done for making a load of shit up and overreacting to it.

Very much looks like we are going to be busy at the end of this window.

Totally agree, in many ways its the sort of pragmatism we've lacked for years.

Think a big transfer is coming. Trippier will go but we will get a proper player in.

His relationship with the fans is fine. Apart from one divvy who apologised. Talk about an over reaction.

Reckon we will get 20m, and it will be a cracking deal for us. We might even go and get 2 players.

He's mates with Kane and could play for several more years at Bayern.

Aye, good luck with that.

It's pure pragmatism from us. He's 33 we need to juice our FFP. We might even make a profit on him. We also need to think about the future and not just the here and now.

If we allow Trippier to leave and don't bring in another body in I will scratch my head mind. Livramento will have to step up and then we are going to have to find a new left back soonish too.

I think Armstrong COULD have been PL good, if he'd be caught by the right people at the right time. Full respect to the lad for carving out a decent career though. Nice to see him do well.

I think Gordon could be one of 4/5 attackers. Isak is a star. Barnes we will see but ultimately we need a couple more and not just decent ones, proper stars.

I presume we are talking CM here? Our defence has very good technical ability, Schar, Botman and Tripper. Bruno is fantastic technically. Liverpool won the league without any technical players in CM or at least nowhere near the level of Man City's CM. What made the difference for them is that they had Salah, Mane and Firmino as front 3, which guaranteed them 50 goals a season. In short, yes good technical players are preferable but it's not absolutely essential. What is essential is that we have CMs who can do the high intensity stuff, since that's Howe style. If you want tika-taka we've got the wrong man anyway. If we can find players who can do both, well... Anyway, I'd like to see how we fair with another star on the right hand side first and an Isak who players more games. Sometimes the solution to problems is far simpler, we need more players who can score goals. Liverpool have Salah, Nunez, Gakpo, Jota and Diaz.... we have Isak, Gordon (who's a work in progress) and Wilson who can't stay fit. Get two more quality attacking players in, get Barnes back up to speed and our CM "issues" won't seem so much an issue.

His age must be a factor in our thoughts. I'd be surprised if it happened but if it meant getting a quality signing elsewhere...

Trippier for Kimmich.

He should pretty much be on par with our top earner like.

Really likeable player. Hoping that him leaving gets us some very small wriggle room. Every penny counts. Although Hayden being back will offset that somewhat.

On Broja/50m, of course Chelsea would ask more than a players worth. Isn't that what every club does? They might get 40, they'd be pleased with that. To an Everton, a Forest, a Brentford (as a Toney replacement) he'd possibly be worth that. He's a good player, who's chronically been mismanaged by Chelsea and obviously had some injuries. He's not for us anyway, so it's by the by.

I agree with the @The College Dropout in the idea that we need to be able to have that string to our bow, r.e players who can keep the ball and kill a game through possession. It has many benefits, fitness/fatigue being a good point. I'm not sure this window is the one and it might not even be the summer. I can totally understand why Howe might look at this Ederson and think "another Joelinton would be bloody handy", even if that comparison isn't quite correct. As Howe himself points out, it is possible to play and succeed with the fast action approach, Liverpool being a good example, it's not easy though. It's also important to remember that we aren't a bad technical side either, our possession stats are quite decent or certainly were. We might be in bad form but we are a good side that needs some fine tuning.

Will be interested to see if we get this done.