STM

Mate, Botman has been eye fucking us since January. I don't blame him for admiring AC Milan but if he goes there he will have 6 big games a year. The rest will be shite.

We aren't trying to sign him for now anyway, his injury won't make a jot of difference. If anything, it might be a reminder to him that careers can be cut short and to take opportunities when the come.

Yeah and Staveley name checked him too right? There's clearly a good relationship with Botman and us. That's why I call bullshit on the refusing to join us stuff. He quite entitled to allow all parties state their intent before making a choice.

I do fully expect a signing that noone was expecting, like Bruno was. I have no idea who though.

It does seem weird how all the Italian outlets are reporting that he wants to move to Milan, either they are being told fables from Milans side or they have an agenda against British clubs. I'm 100% certain that our side will have done their research and won't be lying or without reason for being confident of getting him. Like I said yesterday, it seems like he's given Milan a deadline and the deadline is coming to pass.

Anyone else sick of a window that hasn't opened yet?

Worst case scenario for next season, we have the squad that put in a class performance against Arsenal and provided top 4 form since January.

No there aren't. They are shite.

I can see a scenario where Botman would take a lower wage to play for Milan. The problem is, every time Milan get close to agreeing a fee, we will just better their transfer offer, whether that be in the structure or the final fee. We could probably out muscle their agents fees too. It can't be under estimated how much influence Botmans representatives have on the deal too. If we have offered them a fair wedge to get the deal done, he won't be going to Milan.

Is nowt to do with merely picking decent players. Klopp has created a fantastic team. Take Jota and stick him in Man Uniteds first team for the past 2 seasons and see if he was a good signing. It's so easy to integrate talented players into an already thriving environment. Nunez only has to be half decent to score a bag full for Liverpool.

Reading between the lines. We've offered Lille more money and we've offered Botman a higher wage. Milan, have insisted to Botmans camp that they are interested and are trying to do a deal with Lille. However Milan simply can't match the fee or promise the wages. Botman and his team have been waiting to see if Milan can stump up for him, as he'd naturally be keen to talk to them. However, Botman has told us that he will join us and had told us that in january, but is giving Milan extra time to see if they can come up with something Milan have ran out of time. BTW, I don't blame him one bit for holding out for Milan but I suspect Milan are actually looking for a cheap deal.

Make sweet love to me.

In a couple of years, when this current Villa project fails, all the media will do their best to blame their recruitment for the failure and not giving Stevie G a proper chance. Coutinho will look like a mercenary, Digne a liability and Carlos a flop. None of this will be true, its just the workings of a shite manager.

It's not representative of Villas fanbase though. Every club has Twitter morons. Villa are doing their thing and we are doing ours. They have made some decent signings and good luck to them. We have Eddie.

The whole paragraph about Ekitike is all over the place. What Luke is actually trying to say is, "I swear the budget is only 60m, honest!".

Someone post the torygraph article so I don't have to click.

Tell you what else annoys me. When people talk about our January window they refer to Targett as "solid" or "dependable" and whilst he is those things, he so much more than that. He's actually a fucking class defender. I didn't see it being a problem for Maldini when he played left back. (Not comparing, so don't try that one). Before people say, "yes but the modern game", well yes but the "modern game" is in constant change. Right now it may well be the de rigueur position to have flying full backs but its not the be all and end all. When we are sitting 3rd and struggling to break the glass ceiling, we can discuss and upgrade on Matt Targett.

We were never signing Nunez. On Tarkowski... out of the frying pan into the fire. He's going to be massively exposed under Frank Lampard. He'd have been great at Wolves or somewhere that plays with a structure.

You what's a massive plus for me... he's not a crock. I know it sounds daft but I'm sick to fuck of having decent players who play only half the season. Touch wood, I'm fairly confident we will get 30 PL games out of him this season.

Yes, but there actually job is for information not to come right out of the blue? How did their sources not already know that Eddie had him lined up 3 weeks ago? Hardly out of the blue.

Yep. Ultimately, they know very little until a day or two before a transfer might happen.

2m loan fee +13m today, 15m total. Bargain.

Just shows that NUFC have done a great job at plugging the leaks. Nobody got wind of Hayden heading to Norwich, nobody knew that the Fun88 deal has been cut short and nobody knew that Targett was still ON. All those reports of Renan Lodi? According to Targett, Eddie told him he wanted to sign him before the last game of the season and given what we know about Howe, he wouldn't have done that if there was any chance of us signing someone else. They know fuck all. We might have enquired about Lodi, prior to the end of the season, but clearly that's as far as it went.

He absolutely mullered Brentfords fullback when he was paired up with Fraser. Personally, I've no issue with a left back being an absolute boss defender, and only occasionally delivering the goods in attack. Can't wait until we are playing away in Europe and I don't have to worry about getting done by some mint right winger.

Want.