STM

Be shocked if we don't have a couple lined up.

Jeez, straight into the patronising stuff. What I'm saying is that Howe being in the lower divisions and with a restricted budget is going to have influenced where he signed players from... Mate.

We don't know if he does or doesn't, what I do know is that we can't use Bournemouth as any sort of evidence, it's like apples and oranges compared to NUFC. I wonder if Klopp had a preference for German players when manager of Mainz? If I were to take a guess, I'd say Howe likes the idea of KNOWING what he's getting from an incoming player, rather than taking a punt but then I'd wager most managers are the same. Of course being domestic base gives that extra security in that regard.

Making stuff up again. That first paragraph is nothing but guesswork. In fact, guesswork is doing it some favours. I can only assume you have an agenda, its the only reason why someone would make something up to suit a certain narrative.

I don't even think that's true though. The Eddie Howe I know is well aware of alot European talent. Might help that his Nephew is a scout mind.

The key is a mix. We've been down the "French day" route, ultimately you end up with a soulless team of players who don't understand the culture of the club and have far less investment in how things pan out for the team, largely because if things go tits up they can just call their agent and do a body swerve back home. On the other hand, we don't want a Steve Bruce or Kevin Nolan style "lads" culture, where by as long as you are a "good honest pro" or whatever you will get a game. Do your research, are they a good player? are they a good character? are the committed for the medium term, at least? Try and find value in the foreign market but also don't be afraid to splash on good young English players. You can't go far wrong.

The way I see it, its win-win. Scenario 1: Trippier leaves, we probably get something like 12-16m for him, plus a tonne of wages off our books for a 33 (34 soon) year old and that gives a fair amount of FFP wriggle room. Scenario 2: He stays, probably doesn't leave us at all in the summer (for Bayern it will be now or never IMO) and we've still got a great player with loads of experience in the squad.

I'm presuming this is satire?

And that's a perfectly fair point. No issue with anyone saying perhaps we could have let's say gone for a RW rather than Barnes who plays mainly on the LW but I'd mitigate that by saying Howe and Co had no idea that Murphy would miss 3 months or that Barnes himself would have such an outrageous injury. Same with Tonali, perhaps there's an argument to say an orthodox DM would have been a better shout. My point was more aimed towards the "Howe wants British cloggers" brigade. Which there's absolutely no substance to other than supposition, conjecture and the odd article which talks about him wanting PL experience. We've signed 12 players, 7 of which have come from domestic clubs. Added to that Howe couldn't believe his luck when he was told he could get Tonali (that's words from his mouth). Some are talking absolute shite on this topic and it's tedious.

I know the clubs strategy.... its to sign quality players. Pope Isak Bruno Botman Livramento Trippier Tonali Gordon Barnes (I'm sure will come good in time) Burn (value for money at the very least)... Hall (hard to tell how it will work out but I could see what they were trying) Wood (A bit of a plank but it was clearly a short term fix) It begs belief that there is any doubt in our transfer strategy, after the years of shite we've been served up. Could we have tried to do something different around the Lewis Hall deal? Perhaps but even if it goes wrong, that's a decent strike rate on signings. We've had a tough season with injuries. That's it. That's what this is all about. Give us half the injuries and none of us having this discussion. (Not aimed at you Pablo).

We have a very good right back ready to go. From a personality point of view, how long do we want to keep him to be around the place as a good egg? I'm not saying you don't have a valid point but if we are targeting players of Tonali calibre (or potential), the personalities and mentalities come with it. Bruno, Botman, Isak and hopefully Tonali are all players we should be able to trust in big games. Sentimentality can cost. I'm not saying I WANT him to go, but I can see the merit in the arguement. I won't be disappointed either way.

Making stuff up.

It's mindless agenda driven nonsense. Aside for Lewis Hall (who could still yet be a good player for us) our identifying talent and getting them has been exemplary.

Well done for making a load of shit up and overreacting to it.

Very much looks like we are going to be busy at the end of this window.

Totally agree, in many ways its the sort of pragmatism we've lacked for years.

Think a big transfer is coming. Trippier will go but we will get a proper player in.

His relationship with the fans is fine. Apart from one divvy who apologised. Talk about an over reaction.

Reckon we will get 20m, and it will be a cracking deal for us. We might even go and get 2 players.

He's mates with Kane and could play for several more years at Bayern.

Aye, good luck with that.

It's pure pragmatism from us. He's 33 we need to juice our FFP. We might even make a profit on him. We also need to think about the future and not just the here and now.

If we allow Trippier to leave and don't bring in another body in I will scratch my head mind. Livramento will have to step up and then we are going to have to find a new left back soonish too.

I think Armstrong COULD have been PL good, if he'd be caught by the right people at the right time. Full respect to the lad for carving out a decent career though. Nice to see him do well.

I think Gordon could be one of 4/5 attackers. Isak is a star. Barnes we will see but ultimately we need a couple more and not just decent ones, proper stars.