Yorkie

Would be delighted with this dude at a fair but competitive price. If there's any truth to it and we end up gazumped by another big six club yet again, you'd expect that'll probably be the end of us chasing the more coveted PL attackers.

Obviously the biggest movers so far have been the cartel clubs. Plus Brighton doing their thing. Lowest movers so far have been Villa, Fulham and Wolves. Don't think any of them have made any major signing yet.

Well it's hardly uncommon that transfers happen between mid-June and the start of September.

Keen to see it on the lads. I didn't really like the last Castore green one but I did like how it incorporated both a black and white trim; thought that set it off really well, and obviously provides that NUFC continuity. With this one, I think the pattern is loads better (actually quite like it) but it's a pity they didn't do something similar with the trim.

People are absolutely scarred by last summer. I think we'll be feeling areet in due course when the bodies are in. We can sign players. Elanga is an absolutely mint signing and that happened just the other day.

There could be a player in Jackson tbf. He hadn't played much football before he was asked to lead the line for Chelsea as a 22/23-year-old. Certainly wouldn't be my first choice, and not any choice at the prices quoted, but I think you can afford most players at that club some grace.

Hilarious if City sign both Trafford and another keeper, like. Would fully believe they're making transfers just to stop us if so.

Why shouldn't we at least try and get the best players on the market? Reminder also that we have signed one of the league's most productive wingers. If we have to change tack now then so be it but I'm not gonna go after the club for chasing players who are all but guaranteed to improve us, rather than might improve us.

Why?

Welcome. What do you make of your chances this season?

Fair enough. Ultimately my view is that City's presence fucked this for us and I'm prepared to give our lads a break on that basis. I'll admit I'm quite tunnel-visioned with it all atm. (The tunnel):

We're basing our arguments on tidbits from journos and social media, so neither of us have definitive evidence, but the matter was apparently all but concluded at the end of June. Personal terms agreed with the player, see you soon shagger, all parties believe a deal would be done - all the local journos were saying it, not just Edwards. That's what we were hearing and reading then. Then it was like, well wtf's happening, then? Suddenly City's name is mentioned and that's that, game over. Just points to them waiting for them to come in as soon as they got wind of interest.

I couldn't disagree more, like. Literally everything points to that imo. My interpretation is that the deal was all but done, then Burnley got wind of City's interest and it was curtains from that moment. On values, I'm happy to trust Howe et al that there are good reasons for why we won't go beyond what we value a player. Though I think it's probably a moot point for the reason above. We could've matched City's offer and he'd still be on his way there.

Well we're making assumptions on either side of the argument because neither of us know the ins and outs. Why do you think we've voluntarily decided to walk away/not increase our price? Is it just stupidity? Are the decision makers just braindead? Why is it so implausible to you that we've had the rug pulled from under us?

That's not true though. Whether you put a little or a lot of weight into the argument about the cartel clubs/PSR, it's clearly a factor. Man City have literally got first refusal here. Even if we put down the same transfer fee, they're going to trump us on wages.

Bloody shitshow is what is is. If they're not using silly fonts they're hiring divvies for fixture voxpops.

Are we doing this?

No, something has gone wrong in the transfer market so it's only right to question the competence of our people, the rigged system which gives all the power to a very small number of clubs shouldn't be considered.

Yeah. I get why we've gone for certain players but given they're not happening, I'd sooner see us grow a legend than revert to the likes of DCL just because they've got PL experience.

Obviously taking absolutely nothing at face value from bollocks tweets but I assume that's the calibre of striker we're going to be chasing now. Gambles in the 30 mill range.

It's just Irish.

Our refusal to be held to ransom will hopefully do us a favour here. It'll get easier trade the longer the window goes on, too. Not ideal - we wanted them early - but what's crucial is that we get them at some point.

Is this a serious comment? Both Pedro and Ekitike would have been our most expensive signings ever. Elanga is second, isn't he?

I'd be very surprised if we didn't sign more players. The issue here is the inability to get our top targets, not any target. Elanga (already seemingly forgotten about) notwithstanding. Clearly last summer we took the view that we'd rather sign no one than sign the wrong one, but we'd be cutting out nose off to spite our face by applying that mantra this time. The squad is far, far too small to survive a European campaign. A few dopamine hits are just around the corner I'm sure.

We have aspirations of consolidating our place as a Champions League team whilst competing for domestic silverware. Our top transfer targets are based on that premise and defined as low risk-high reward, because we can't afford to squander our resources. So we're courting some of the best players on the market because that's what we need to elevate us. Brighton etc's aspirations and policy are totally different; it delivers them stability and an outside chance of the European places. Good for them but that's not what we're after. I'm not saying we shouldn't cast the net further, ever. Clearly our signings are going to be those way down our list of targets. We're talking about our first choices here.