STM

Olise is in the Tonali level of fantasy.... it really doesn't seem a doable transfer.... but what if....

Makes sense to me. If Chelsea get Olise, we get Madueke. Yes he's the poorer end of that bargain, but he's a cracking player and would probably cost 40/45m as opposed to 60. Before people get all misty eyed over Olise, don't allow that to make you think Madueke isn't a really good player. A bit raw perhaps, but really good.

Kelly will start over Hall. I know we've been through this though.

Training top looks lush on him.

Massively flawed logic. Someone likes player, does not = player is good.

If I was hiring the England manager, I'd have been in Potters ear by now. The job would be his in the summer. Not because he's a great manager. He's a good manager, a modern coach and a decent bloke... which makes him a significant upgrade on Southgate.

Minteh is nothing more than a potentially good player at this point and while that's great, "potentially good" isn't necessarily going to get us back into the champions league. While you can all sit here and say Minteh is 100% better than Miggy or Murphy, the reality is that there is no real substance behind that claim. Of course from a pure technical perspective, he looks the part but we are all grown ups here right? Football is about way more than just someone's technical skill level. We've seen countless talents fail to make the grade because their attitude or application is poor. I'm not saying for a second this applies to Minteh... I doubt even Howe truly knows. What is truly known, is that we need money from player trading and if we get someone come knocking with significant money, you can't blame the club in seeing the value in selling. If you were in their position and you KNEW that 25m for Minteh would finance two key signings... say a CB and a more established RW, are you saying you wouldn't do the deal? I'm just playing devil's advocate here, I've no idea about how good he is or can be but then I'm not the one who's neck is on the line if I make the incorrect call.

I'm struggling to run the sink never mind a bath.

Fwiw, he says that he thinks we WILL sell Minteh.

Not my favourite channel by any stretch but loads of transfer bits from Downie on here... Covers Kelly, Trafford, Dubravka, Minteh, Longstaff and more.

Aye but you won't be saying that when you don't sign the players you want because of tightarse ratface.

I genuinely think this may be the biggest crisis that the PL is having to face. Right now, it doesn't have the support of a few clubs but as soon as a West Ham or a Brighton reach that glass ceiling or an Everton in the future... they will sharp turn. Imagine reaching within touching distance of breaking into the top 4 say and that summer not only could you NOT spend but also you have to SELL your players in order not to get charged.... oh and guess who wants to buy your best players? It's dead simple, a club should be allow to lay down capital, in order to protect from future sanctions. If we want to spend beyond on our "means" (what a joke), fine, allow us to PAY for the right to do that. Allow us to pay a 10% football tax or whatever you want to call it, for every extra million that we want to spend over our FFP/PSR restriction. That money can get given to clubs further down the pyramid.

Personally I'm stoked that they aren't stumping up the cash. That would suggest they are a serious club.

I doubt we've firmed up our interests in our top targets. Once Kelly and Trafford are done and the Euros are over, we might see movement.

I think Man Utd have basically kicked this situation down the road. I suspect they have bigger fish to fry at an infrastructure level. Yes they could have chopped and changed, and they will at some point, but if they haven't got the person they want ready to come in, it makes sense. However the optics and their handling of this has been horrific. If they had just shown some balls pre cup final and said "we are sticking behind Eric, he's a great coach and he's dedicated to moving us forward", they'd have been fine. Essentially, they've now got a squad who hates the manager, a manager who knows he's probably going to be axed in the medium term, a manager who also knows the club have been looking to replace him, an executive who runs his mouth every twenty seconds, a sporting director who isn't allowed to work for them and doesn't know how to use email and a dozen very average players to shift.

Having a known injury history is fairly irrelevant if the injuries aren't related. If there was something obvious about his injury history that might have put us off, it would be unlikely to be at the medical phase. I'm sure our scouts and medical team will have checked over his injury record. The doctors are effectively checking to see if he's got any underlying health issues, like a heart erythema or a lung issue etc and the only reason they do that is money. They don't want to be paying millions in fees to find out he can't play because of a heart defect. However, I am interested to know at what point his medical history (the finer details of his injuries) is shared between clubs. You would think there has to be an agreement around that.

Bloody Nuffield. Those were the days.

This is what happens when you get an Everton fan as a Newcastle correspondent. Na, it's shit craic from noon like.

I imagine it will be closer to 5 than 10.

I suspect there will be one or two more exits than we had thought. Perhaps later in the window

Nowt new really. Just Fab being Fab.

Nobody knows how good this kid is. He's obviously talented but we have no idea how far he can take it. I'd like to think Eddie will have a look at him in training before making a judgement call. It's not even a priority issue of the summer, for me.

Very good. I predicted on this very forum that we would sign Owen at the start of the 2005 summer transfer window. I did a big long post basically detailing why we were his only option for a return to England. What a fucking disaster.