STM

Welcome to 2022 football. 14 years of hibernation takes a while to shake off.

So it would be reasonable to assume that our 100m budget would be spread on 3 players; Ekitike 30m, Botman 30m and DCL 40m being the strongest links. After that we have to get creative with outgoings and loan deals etc.

Just to chime in on the Lukaku debate somewhat. The reason he's failed at Chelsea has nowt to do with playing style but more to do with that he's actually not THAT good. He was a donkey for Man Utd. The last time he looked a quality player in this league was for Everton a LONG time ago. His numbers for Inter Milan are absolutely worthless in the context of the PL. I was shocked that Chelsea paid so much for a player that was relatively average for Man Utd, a comparable club.

DCL is a 40/45m pound striker (provided he has no long term injury issues). We sold Andy Caroll to Liverpool for 35m in 2010? off the back of half a season. We signed Joelinton for 40m, and Chris Wood (who's shite) for 25m because he's a striker. For every other position 50m is mega money, but not for a striker. Strikers come at a premium. 50m would be steep for DCL but only slightly above his value. Thankfully, I'm confident that our club already knows how much they are going to spend on a front man and have provisioned accordingly. If Everton do want 50m, you can bet your bollocks we could get a deal done for 38m +add ons, which would be a fair price IMO.

Its all very, very quiet on the transfer front.

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Ah that makes sense. Although, I highly doubt it will prevent him getting the money he wants. He certainly won't be getting 90k. It's a good move for him TBF.

Aye but how much will he want? He's earned his right to a big contract and I'm sure there are clubs abroad who would be prepared to pay his wage.

Puts all the "why isn't it done yet?", stuff into perspective, when you see all the financial complications.

I'm surprised by how much you rate Arsenal and yet don't rate us. This the Arsenal side we absolutely battered at SJP? Who couldn't create a thing? I'd fancy Bruno to find a pass to Jesus, before any of the Arsenal midfield. We won't sign Jesus because he will be looking for 200k a week and that's where we can't yet go.

The likes of Spurs, Bayern, Liverpool, City etc all making moves help us. It starts the international flow of money. There's a knock on affect, with players from them clubs becoming available, allowing other clubs to make their moves and so on. We aren't competing with the CL teams this year, so let them take the lion share of transfers and get the ball rolling for others. Hopefully somewhere along the line, one of the big money transfers across Europe helps us make our moves.

FWIW there is very little evidence that Toney is a tosspot. An idiot perhaps but not a bad lad.

Cringey as fuck how quick people are to say "fuck them, move on". Firstly because we don't know which parts of the media reporting are true and secondly, even if x player hasn't made his mind up yet, why should we rush them and potentially put them off the move? We aren't trying to sign these lads because they might be good in August, we are trying to sign them because they could potentially send us into a new era of success over the length of their contracts. What if Botman turns out as good as Van Dijk? Is he worth waiting until August 31st or whatever the deadline is? Just calm the fuck down, go and have a beer or whatever and let Ashworth (who is an absolute boss at this stuff) get on with his job.

Interestingly, Pope has the same agent as JWP who we were linked with yesterday and perhaps more Interestingly the same agent as Dean Henderson. Any chance that the papers know which agents we are talking to but don't know which players or even more likely that specific agencies are leaking stuff to the media. Seems weird that we have been linked with 3 players from the same management recently. Edit: Also Clark and Shelvey are part of the same management group. If there is a clause, we will know about it.

I quite like Dubravka, I really do, and I defended him loads when he was getting shit last season but he's not as good as Pope. Anyone thinking that Pope will come here to sit on the bench are off their tits. He would be our number 1.

Got this weird feeling when I see other clubs making their moves. Normally I'm utterly jealous and raging at the fat man but this year I've got this feeling of "don't worry it's coming". Can't wait to see who we have up our sleeves.

Like i say, Darlow the other way would make so much sense. Wouldn't be surprised if that was being discussed, especially since he was supposedly discussed as part of any Henderson deal.

I suspect Dubravka could be allowed to leave if Pope comes in, even if Darlow goes. Finding a number 2 wouldn't be hard. Ben Foster please.

They are similar, both good shot stoppers, both pretty average with their feet but where Pope excels is his command of the box, ignoring his mistake at SJP. Would be a super solid move.

10m for Pope would be the perfect bridge between where we are and where are going. Having a core of British players is crucial IMO and Pope is Englands number 2/3. He's already PL proven. Decent value at 10m. Half the price Henderson was touted for. Nice to think that if we had a 20m budget for a keeper that 10m has been saved for another area. Not that it works that way I'm sure.

He's also better than Dubravka.

Pope is a good keeper, although not the progressive keeper that I'd have assumed we might target. Reading between the lines, does Ashworth believe he can do a cheaper deal for Pope than what we might have paid for Henderson. I wonder if Darlow could go the other way. He'd be perfect for them. Burnley can't afford to turn down money. They need to rebuild. Somewhere around the 15 million mark would be a fair deal IMO.

Genuinely think we will pull someone of real quality out of the bag under the radar.

From what we have seen of our ownership, Howe and Ashworth, they aren't the sort to hang onto a deal unless they thought there was a solid chance of it happening. I just don't buy the "Botman doesn't want to sign for us" stuff. He was outrageously flirting with us in January. That doesn't mean to say that he's not really interested in Milan. I genuinely believe there is alot of over thinking, guesswork and false reporting going on. I suspect neither us nor Milan have agreed a deal with Lille, but that we are far closer in our evaluation. I also think that there is no "hold up", just that transfer hasn't happened yet. After all, doesn't that mean there is a hold up in all of our negotiations that are going on with clubs at the moment (and there will be lots)? Remember when we sign Bruno and it was reported that we had agreed a deal but in actual fact we had only agreed the outline. I don't even think we are at this stage yet, it's just that in Botmans case, everyone knows of our interest. In short, it's no different to any other transfer, except this one is being played out in public. Should Newcastle have turned away from Shearer because he house hunted in Manchester and had conversations with Fergie?

The reason our side was so functional in the second half of the season was because of the "odd parts". Each of our midfielders all offers something different and work well as a unit. Shelvey: Quarterback Longstaff: Box to box Joelinton: Ball winner, water carrier, legend. Willock: Advanced runner Bruno: All of the above The only one we are missing is the hardest one to find. Someone like Coutinho, Bruno Fernandez, Bernardo Silva type. An assist/goal merchant, someone to open doors in the final third and break teams down. Edit: Actually, we are missing a traditional DM but Bruno and Joelinton win a lot of possession for us.