Unbelievable

Aye, seems pretty made up Florian Thauvin ‏@FlorianThauvin 1h1 hour ago C'est officiel maintenant ce sera avec le numéro 10 que je porterai fièrement nos couleurs la saison prochaine ???? @OM_Officiel

I just can't get my head around this deal at all. We better have a properly good winger lined up FFS

Well, half of it won't happen.

deal makes no sense whatsoever whether you liked Sammy as a player or not.

Transfer window open/financial period closed for a full week today. Another two straws clutched in vain.

He wasn't even a regular for Vitesse. Quite a spectacular fall from grace from those early Chelsea cup displays.

Wasn't sadly A propos of Dutch NUFC fans, a couple of Dutch blokes run a Dutch fansite on nufc.nl. It's the most cringeworthy thing ever.

We're not getting Wijnaldum FFS

Dear God no, not good Dutch players

It's amazing how much this gets said. It just isn't true. We didn't control games that season at all. We just scored goals at the right time, sat deep and kept it tight at the back. The Tiote-Cabaye partnership played a key part in keeping it tight at the back though. They were fantastic together, often against a midfield 3 too. Since when does "controlling the midfield" only refer to the offensive side of the game?

With respect I'd disagree. They're two different players. If argue that Cabaye was a hell of lot more capable of providing a killer ball or a goal than Carrick. Carrick is consistent in breaking up play and putting the ball to a more creative player but Cabaye is definitely more of an attacking force. I'd argue with anyone who thinks Carrick "controlled" a game. He may have disrupted another teams attack but he's never pulled the strings like Cabaye.

How much have they paid Hull for him? £4.5m allegedly, club record. Good deal for Derby. Wouldn't have minded him here.

Nailed it

How much have they paid Hull for him?

Mike Ashley nearly gets a stroke contemplating spending double figures on a player. What makes you think someone like Bacca for upwards of 20m isn't way, way out of our self imposed contraints? Don't get me wrong, I do agree with you that this is what should be done, but this club has made it abundantly clear they want more English players and they don't seem to want to spend the going rate (which is usually higher for English players). It's a recipe for disaster.

I'm not suggesting 10m isn't the top end of the Championship market. I was merely illustrating the point that nowadays 15m will not get you a striker who scored 18 goals in the PL last season, last year of contract or not.

I'm sure everybody would triggs, but even abroad teams are wising up to the riches in the Premier League and not letting their best players go for a pittance. I mean, look at what Man U paid PSV for Depay.

Van Persie was probably the best player in the PL when he went to Man Utd and that was only 20m with one year left. Austin is mainly a poacher who has had one season in the PL. 15m is still a lot of money anywhere outside England and we could get a lot better player for that price from abroad That was also years ago, prices continue to inflate, and the english player premium still exists today It was about 3 years ago. They can't have inflated that much. We could get basically any player in La Liga outside of the top five for 15m and similar or less wages than we would have to pay Austin Well, it's not far fetched imo to suggest transfer fees in general may have increased by 50% in that time. Nowadays 10m gets you a promising youngster or a good player from the Championship, not a number 9 who has just scored 18 in his debut season in the Premier League.

Van Persie was probably the best player in the PL when he went to Man Utd and that was only 20m with one year left. Austin is mainly a poacher who has had one season in the PL. 15m is still a lot of money anywhere outside England and we could get a lot better player for that price from abroad That was also years ago, prices continue to inflate, and the english player premium still exists today Exactly. Add to that Van Persie was also quite a bit older, meaning his value was only ever going to decrease during the course of his time with Man United. Those who think QPR will not get 15m for Austin need a reality check imo. TV money is ever increasing, as is the importance of investing to stay in the Premier League. This is something which everybody from Leicester to Watford seem to realise, but seems sadly lost on wor Mike. We simply need to spend big to stand still, let alone progress, or we will get sucked in the relegation battle again and come out the wrong side of it (again) sooner rather than later.