STM

We bid at least 40m for Maddison. There's money.

We've spent 150m quid since January, it's no wonder the budget might be a tad depleted. Imagine the takeover happened and we were sitting comfortable in the table, we may have only signed one player in January and spent 150m in this window. Noone would have bat an eyelid. I'd like to think there may be resources in January available too.

First game against City or Liverpool, I can see Howe springing that formation.

Cucurella is class to be fair, a proper modern full back and he will be class for Chelsea. He's also way better than Chillwell, who's injury prone anyway. However the fee is absolutely outrageous. Brighton will reinvest that into 3 other players at some point. It's now the model of the smaller clubs to fleece the likes of Chelsea and use it to build themselves. It's no surprise that Man City pulled out of a move mind. Jesus, that's a mind boggling sum for a left back.

I haven't met one NUFC fan who thinks we will even finish top 6. Virtually everyone i have heard has said 10th to 7th. I must be in very boring social circles.

Look at trigger over here.

We deserve a medal, we really do. I'm not even annoyed, I'm in awe.

Tell you what mind lads. Say what you want about us as fans but our ability to waffle on for over 100 pages for a player we aren't even close to signing and covering a range of topics whilst simultaneously falling out with each other on a regular basis is a sight to behold.

The key for us is.... Joelinton, again. With Joelinton in midfield we just stifle virtually every opposition we come up against and make it impossible for them to get a genuine foothold. Behind him, assuming we start Willock, Bruno will completely dictate the play against their midfield and we will dominate the ball. We might have to get used to being caught on the counter attack though. It used to be our trick but now we must be wary that a side with a couple of talented players frustrates us and hits us quickly. I'd like to make a point about Trippier who will now effectively play as a RW when we have the ball, allowing Almiron to drift central. Trippier must have only started half a dozen games for us, he's like the proverbial new signing and can offer us an incredible advantage. Forest will be well up for it but if we win the midfield battle, we win the game.

The one thing I will say, Foxedup seems so desperate to convince us that they aren't selling Maddison that I think he is very worried about losing Maddison. He might be right. He might be trying to convince himself more than us.

You could have said that about Bruno in January and Howe judged that spot on. It's hardly much of an issue. Botman will be our number 1 defender in the next few years at least. Of course some will cry like bairns when they don't get what they want.

Yeah I can see your point with valuations. I think that right now they want a "deal" and you think that if we want to be big boys we are going to have to pay the price to get the players we want? I totally agree, I just think 2 things, firstly you are 12 months early on that criticism. In 12 months we should have a big commercial operation in place, sponsorships etc, when this happens quibbling over 5 million or so will seem farcical. Right now, I think we have decided to be cute an concentrate on getting a good base of players in (which goes to your point about Burn), as well as getting those star players when their available for our price. My second point would be that even for the "top" clubs there is scope for stepping away when someone isn't at the value you have set or waiting 6 months before revisiting a target. It can look weak (see Cucarella) or it can look controlled. We are clearly trying to do the latter.

Yeah but he said team ethos. So I read that as the collective culture of our team. I don't know, but I see this heading down a slippery slope that I'm not comfortable with.

Can anyone tell me how they will line up? Formation and players?

I think he's suggesting that Cornet plays as an individual, rather than a team player. I don't think he's making assumptions on his personality but more on the type of player he is on the pitch.

I think you are being incredibly harsh on our transfer strategy. If we had signed Botman in January, he may (we can't know for sure) have cost us close to 50m on his own. Therefore if anything we have come out of it with an extra player in Burn, and a good player at that. On your previous point you said that we have an approach like Chelsea, which I believe is that you are suggesting that once we have missed out on our main target we have a scatter gun approach. Surely you don't think the Ekitike thing was preventable? He pretty much admitted he agreed to join us before PSG came in. Therefore if you accept that it was an unforseen situation, you have to cut them some slack for having to go back to the drawing board? Personally, I think they have looked at comparable players to Eikitike; young versatile forward players with great potential and found nobody who comes close in terms of valuation. Therefore they have switched tactics and are now looking at other profiles, I.e attacking players wide and central. My gut says they have decided against trying to sign an out and out striker, given our lack of links to one. This will annoy alot of people as its seen as a risk. Its only a risk this season. Not to their long term strategy. IMO they have two objectives; 1. Strengthen as much as they can and 2. Don't over pay for players based on their valuations.

The logic is that they rate Harrison higher. Whether he's worth twice as much is debatable. I'd say that he wasn't worth twice as much but then again we haven't signed either so clearly we don't agree with either valuation.

It's entirely unsurprising. I've always had Howe down as someone who prefers British based players. So long as they are as good as Maddison, I've got no issue with it However, if we want value, we will have to look abroad. For the money we have bid for Maddison, we could have signed Scamacca for example but then there's higher risk with signing players from other leagues. It's a balancing act that I'm sure they are aware of.

Ekitike was the plan IMO. That's been out of the window for a while now.

I think it's more likely that we spend 60m on two players than 50m on one. I don't think it's about a budget, just not going above a certain ceiling on one player.

I don't think for a second we only have 40m. I think we are only prepared to pay what believe a player is worth. I'm also certain the Maddison second bid was well in excess of 40m, even if it wasn't as high as 50m.

We were never going to go flying in with the third offer. We'd look incredibly desperate. We need them to know that our next bid is our final bid and that we aren't fucking about. Maddison needs to go knocking on the door.

I think this is what will happen. We won't leave the bid on the table though. We need time for a plan B. I've said 52/54m is the middle ground and I will stick by that. The Dubravka thing could be interesting too.

Yeah I agree with this.

Absolutely. I'm still convinced that a surprise target will emerge.