STM

While all of that is true, it's still not as important as making sure we have; 1. More creativity from wide areas 2. Someone for when Wilson is inevitably injured 3. A progressive centre back (which will help towards controlling the game). I'd like a DM or an AM and I think we might see someone towards the end of the window. If the right player becomes available, like Bruno did, I could see us moving. Something I think people forget, there's a good chance we have a budget set aside for January too, it might be a case of kicking that particular can down the road.

Leeds have rejected Arsenal's bid for Raphinha. I hope Leeds take these cunts to the cleaners for him. Surely Man United should be all over this deal? He would provide balance for Sancho on the other side.

Tell you what mind, he has the skin of a Rhino the amount of shit that he manages to brush off. Part of me wants to believe he is a genius, like some Alan Partridge style comedy character.

Me neither or its certainly not considered a priority yet. It's GK, CB, RW, for sure. Then plenty of hints towards a ST. Beyond that, it will be wheeling and dealing time. If we make a sizable sale on someone, we might look at a CM. My guess would be a loan with a view to a permanent for a position like that.

What's with that? Has he genuinely got something wrong with him? I don't want to knock the lad if he does. I'm fairly sure he keeps saying Dan AshFORD as well. Also, someone might want to tell him the training ground is under construction so a medical might be taking place elsewhere.

We won't be giving them away.

Well there is talk of us recouping the 10m we are paying for Pope with the sale of Darlow and Woodman.

Looking on a Burnley forum, which is always a great way of judging a potential signing, they seem to think he was one of the best keepers they have ever had and are disappointed at the fee.

Has there been any mention at all of a fee? Would be really interested to see what we fetched. 3m?

Using all of our monitoring equipment on Botman and Ekitike.

Dan's dusted down the fax machine, give it some fresh ink and put some paper in. Let's get this baby working.

Solid deal. Will be nice to get the transfer juices flowing.

Dubravka is 6ft 1 and Pope 6ft 3, from what I read.

Pickford actually defies all logic for England... and Harry Maguire for that matter.

This is a great piece of advice thanks. Me and my lad often analyse his game afterwards, I'm going to be careful in the future not to go into too much depth.

I know Ryder is saying more of what we want to hear but I'd wager that he's got better contacts at NUFC than Luke Edwards. Ryder is so Anal with his reporting that I'd be surprised if he ever made anything up.

Absolutely. Pickford has better distribution but Pope is less erratic. The one thing about Pope... there can't be many bigger goalkeepers in the league. He always seems an absolute giant. Very commanding in the box. Edit: I just had a little look and he's not the tallest keeper,at 6ft 3, in the league but he seems taller than most. He's certainly taller than Dubravka, who might actually be one of the shorter keepers.

Actually Romano never said we are ready to submit a bid. He said have "arrived" at a fee of... Basically it's guesswork again. Lots of vague bullshit going around.

He's proven and an international. I know what I mean.

There are so many reasons why this is good deal for where we are at. Again we have gone for a proven international with plenty of experience.

Did they group you and your team together, caravans wise. They did with us and we had a little play park between the caravans, it was great fun for them. Would recommend the whole thing to anybody. Who was the celebrity guest? We had Dominic Matteo.

He's a left footer and most of his best games are on the left wing, his style is very much Gareth Bale, pacey running, hard shooting type. They play 231. He crosses the ball like an adult, proper zingers across the box, same with corners but his teammates can't get on the end of them, which is understandable at that age. He's also very good with his right foot. We had a pen shootout comp and he had a fractured left foot (we didn't know at the time), so he took them with his right foot and won it. Well done on the flamingoland tournament. We went in May and got spanked in each game. We got the tournament trophy like, fair play award or whatever. Was a great weekend. How about your lad?

Second paragraph describes my lad to a tee. Scored 5 one week, came off crying the next, scored 3 the next, can't get a touch the next and so on. He gets his head down very quickly. If he misses and easy chance or someone clatters into him etc. Although he is getting better. Have taken him along to another training session on Thursdays with older boys and rougher boys and he's holding his own, which is great.

I'd love any advice about how to improve a 9 year old too. If there are any coaches out there. His shooting and dribbling are very good but I'd like him to learn how to work the ball in tighter spaces and get his head up. Ideally with a view to moving more central.

My boy was in Tynedale Mini league U9s last year. Our club has around 22 players this age, so it takes 2 teams and 3 coaches, of which I am one. We have a real range of abilities, some of them just need a ball at their feet and treat it like any out of school club. Others have a real passion for it and take it semi seriously. We have 2 girls amongst them and neither of them are what I would consider our worst players. One in particular has great feet but loses concentration alot but she will be cracking when she moves across to girls footy. I know this is cringey parent stuff but my lad is doing really well. Got top goalscorer and most player of the matches awards at end of season. Consistently one of the best 2 players in our team. Cracking left footer, plays wide/forward. I do worry that we as coaches might hold some of our players back when they get to certain level. I wish there was a way they could get more quality coaching at this age, to push them as far as they can go.