STM

If we are interested in Scalvini and potentially Diomande, it seems highly unlikely that we wouldn't still retain an interest in Tapsoba. Add Guehi in there and im more than happy with the standard they are looking at.

I think that's an iffy translation, reads like we've went in at 40/50m but their valuation far exceeds that.

Just a casual reminder of who Steve Nickson is, at 1.45 on this video. For those of you who are worried that nothing is going on. Steve Nickson isnt just a scout, hes someone who talks to players about the project, becomes the first person to make contact with the opposition camp and convinces them to join. Look at the way Sven greets Nickson, not like a new acquaintance but as someone he'd likely met multiple times before. Just because we've been potless for 18 months doesn't mean that him (and Andy Howe) haven't persistently been watching and talking to players. It's happening all the time. We know who's available, we know who we'd like, sometimes these players go elsewhere and sometimes it takes a little while to get the green light but provided we have the money and the motivation, it's going to happen. Behind the Paul Mitchell shenanigans, there's still some very smart people at work.

It's the posting of ones inner fears and then ending the post with, "i hope im wrong", which is the biggest giveaway.

"It's shite". *picture released of Sandro in the top* "It does look much better on the players".

So that's either Chelsea are going to sign him or Brighton/Pedro putting pressure on Newcastle.

12.30 kick off against Villa is quite kind though.

How many of you are looking at them going "that's tricky", "that's tough", "that's never easy" for every fixture It's hard not to do.

Also I echo the above, we are way more likely to do well against good sides in the first couple of games.

Not sure how anything can be a sickening start when we are one of the best sides in the league. For every so-called tough set of fixtures there must be an easy set. We beat Man Utd, Spurs and Arsenal away in the space of a week. We are capable of anything. A couple of signings wouldn't go amiss though.

Took Luke Edwards two minutes to pussy out.

Or the truth is somewhere in between. Nickson and Howe are actually doing the transfer stuff but Mitchell is still there in some capacity.

If we sign someone in the next few days, I think we might be able to join the dots together.

Well what I'm suggesting is looking at deals for players who are either out contract, low transfer fees or have something like a relegation release clause. The point being that without the transfer fee outlay, the wages become more affordable. There's a limit to this mind, I don't want us having Ashley Young type players who are still around at 40. I dont suspect Ross Barkley is causing Villa any problems financially, in fact I reckon that's what was so attractive about him in the first place. Ferguson used to have a canny knack of picking up an Owen or a Larsson and getting a couple of years use out of them before moving them on. Id also like to see us have more Lewis Hall typed deals. Spread costs around.

Absolutely nowt wrong with signing an older player if the finances work. In fact if you can get the odd bargain who can help with the squad effort, it will free up money for other areas and long term investments. I wanted Norgaard from Brentford because he would have been out of contract for this reason.

I agree. Waugh is a bit of a nerd but hes not a gobshite like Edwards or an old school hack like Hope. Waugh and Caulkin have no interest in transfer clickbait, or seriously diving deep into transfers, its not their thing. They will give you a long piece on someone's background story, whether its any good or not is entirely opinion but I do always laugh when I see people slag them off in the transfer thread. If you are going to Waugh for your transfer update, it's your own fault when you just see the same shit.

He 100% fits into the managers style. You often talk about data and numbers but never seem to mention how these numbers can change. What were Gordon's numbers at Everton? Im not talking goals/assists, I'm talking the other stuff. He's 23. I can only tell you what I see and I see someone with a bit of everything, power, pace, can hold up the ball, take on a man. I will concede that 60m is on the steep end but the potential there is massive. I could see him being an animal. If he signs, let's look at his data in 18/24 months. Make me that deal?

My guess is that we have more trust in Miley to play RCM in place of Bruno than we do in Willock to play LCM in place of Joelinton. Miley has shown the minimum hes capable of and Willock has shown the maximum.

I actually don't mind alot of your football takes but you will always gain people who think you are cunt if you keep including the bit in bold.

I don't think for a second we aren't looking at these players. They aren't in the public domain so much. Khusanov was 6 months ago. Last year we were linked with Thiaw, who wouldn't have been at a premium price. Forgive me if this isn't accurate, as its just quick maths but I think our average transfer fee is about 39m, which isn't including the likes of Karius etc. We get linked with way more 60m+ players than we actually sign.

@The College Dropout We wouldn't be playing JP as a number 9 here. You know that. He'd be a versatile forward player, who could do a number of jobs and would contribute way more than goals. It's easy discarding penalties because he wouldn't take them here, but it's interesting that you would include the projected extra goal contributions he would get from a) playing for a better team and b) having one of the best strikers in the world in the same team which made Murphy look like fucking Beckham You've said yourself what attributes he brings to the table, you've also said what Howe would do. He's 23. I agree that Cunha is a better player but he had a release clause, otherwise Wolves would have got 10/15m more for him IMO. JP is worth the 50/60 that i think we'd get him for.

Theres no way we spend 60+ on Elanga. That's daft paper talk. Same with JP for 70. Any club can ask for what they want. Southampton were quoted 100m for Dibling. Elanga is going to be closer to 50 IMO (which is still think is steep) and JP might reach 60. (That's if we sign them, which I'm still not convinced of) We spent 45m on Gordon and everyone said the same thing, he'd probably go for 70/80 now.

What market you want us shopping in Andy? Spend less money on higher risk players = more errors in the transfer market. More errors in transfers = worse team performances. Worse performance = worse results. Worse results = bye bye champions league football. Im not suggesting we need to spend 60m on every player FWIW but we've signed one player of that price to this point.