afar

Centre mid of Diame and Colback is never going to win us anything, gonna have to hope that we never see that combination when the real action starts.

I think he knows, but Ritchie had the position nailed down for most of last season. Did you not think he was significantly better when able to play down the right? I hear where you are coming from, Rafa certainly employed him on the Right more than the left but he's a natural left footed, left winger. Rafa seems to like his wide men to cut in onto their favoured foot. he would have loved Ginola

I have no clue why we need to strengthen LW more we already have three natural left wingers in Atsu, Aarons and Murphy plus the left footed Ritchie of course. For me it's: #10 > Striker > Sort out the GK situation > Upgrade LB > Luxury another DM. Rafa could throw a curve ball here and change he's preset tactic to move to a flatter central 3, which you would assume would be Hayden, Shelvey and Merino. If that's the case then we would need to focus more on CM and look at different types of strikers that are adept at bringing others into play. I doubt that happens though, I think he still wants his striker to be a pacey, poacher type which puts the onus on the 10 to link the play, that's why I'm still shocked we've not addressed that area of the team.

Aye. It's why the whole 'other clubs haven't made many transfers' argument doesn't wash. We're in a different situation to other clubs. Was it ever realistic that we would sign nine players? Still time yet. Absolutely over a month before the window slams shut, I think the final number will be around 8 or 9. The one thing I will say though is how many of those are automatic starers, as of right now, Murphy and Lejunne are the closest to being in rafa's first choice 11, both have a bit of competition to get past though. But the bulk of our first 11 is pretty much the same as last year.

To be totally fair to them cheesy chips are lush. Poutine is virtually the national dish here in Canada, which is essentially just cheesy chips with added gravy.

We've never to my knowledge agreed to that in previous deals, I doubt with Dortmund we would make an exception. We don't even agree to sell on clauses under Ashley.

Still concerned about the number 10 position personally, it was my top priority for upgrading at the start of the window, and we've barely been linked with anyone. I don't have enough faith in Perez, De jong and Diame to see us right in a crucial role in a Rafa team.

Seems odd we are still being linked with wingers according to the Ronny Gill. I would have thought Ritchie, Atsu, Aarons and Murphy is sufficient cover, unless Rafa sees one of that quartet as a number 10.

Right now, I think it is about them getting bodies in more than anything else. The problem is though that their base squad is dubious in quality to say the least. FFS they were easily the worst team in the PL last season, if you look at the previous season as a guideline for what they need and should expect: Aston Villa were easily the worst team that year, they spent a bunch of money, hired a manager who had won the champions league and had had previous promotion to the PL on his CV. And that only got them mid table despite changing that manager halfway through the season with one that has almost unparalleled track record in getting teams into the PL. If we use that as a comparison (and you probably can't to be honest, but it's fun to think of it) they are really going to struggle.

If this goes through we are down to two senior strikers, not that this guy was someone we could rely on anyway. We need to buy, obviously, since we are effectively only 15 million in the hole this summer from all our deals, part of me thinks we are saving the bulk of our budget for a striker, wouldn't surprise me if we suddenly bid 20 million plus on a front man, if we sell Mitro we'll need at least two probably not both in that price bracket though. Ideally I think Rafa's plan going into the summer was to run with Gayle as number one, replace Mitro with a better fit player on a permanent deal, and augment the group with a loan (Abraham). I don't know how much he planned on spending up front, but he would have been aware that it is usually a position you pay a premium for. Right now, if three is the magic number for senior strikers, he's got just one that fits his scheme, and that one is coming back of an injury plagued season. Getting rid of Riviere is a huge part of what he needs to do. Probably the same can be said of either or both of Diame and De Jong at the number 10 position, and why we haven't seen much movement on either roles. We have the numbers just not the quality.

Highlights up on the official web site: https://www.nufc.co.uk/nufc-tv Fernandez does look like a player based on this.

The biggest red flag you need that this is complete horseshit is not that Rafa wouldn't stand for it but the obvious logic that we've just sold one striker and loaned out another, we are left with 2 senior strikers at the club, one of which does not suit the style of play we play and the other is coming back off a season where he missed almost half through injury. We need at least one more striker. no way in hell Rafa would have sanctioned either the Murphy sale or the Armstrong loan had he not been given assurances a replacement would be purchased.

Scored, hit the post and just headed a chance over, according to the ronny gill he's been the best player.

Why would he stay in Ireland when the rest of the squad came home ?

Hello darkness my old friend... Thanks, I can't get that song out of my mind now !!

Really? Surprised by that, I always thought that Wilshire was a cut above players like McCarthy (when fit). Just me personally. I feel McCarthy is exactly what we need and I think Wilshire would come here to let his career die. I don't like either option, personally would rather us take a punt on a talent from another league, we've got more than enough British lads in the squad. For what we would have to pay for either, we could get a really good prospect on the continent.

I thought they said it was a 5 year deal for Murphy? Yes they did.

Seems like a fit lad, think he'll be able to perform into his late 30's. Great move for everyone.

Lets face it we are both interested in each other, and rightly so because it's one of the oldest football rivalries. A hate for Sunderland is part of what makes it fun to be a nufc fan, and I would expect it to be the same in reverse for them. It's only natural to want to debate the merits of our lot and the shit of theirs. It's really not that "cool" to be above that sort of thing, even though some people think it is.

We've also got Mike Ashley in charge of the purse strings ! Also we need much more than a Gayle back up, we need someone who is capable of replacing his goals, not another Mitro or Murphy, to get that kind of player you probably need to break the club transfer record and expect the player to compete with Gayle for the starting job. We also need a proper number 10, 50 million for Sigudson, obviously we won't go there but he's kind of the level of player we absolutely need. People on here complain about Shelvey and Hayden not being PL standard, we got to find at least back ups for them or make do with Colback and Saivet. Honestly the minimum we need before we should be looking at a GK is 3 players and if we did it properly they would cost around this much , a striker for 20 million, number 10 for 25 million and rotational CM for around 15 million. That's 60 million on top of net spend of around 16 million so far. Lets hope we can sell some of this deadwood for ridiculous prices because Ashley has no history of that level of investment. I think the whole reason Rafa has been pushing so hard to get Reina in is, he thinks he'll be a cheap way to upgrade that role. If the Reina deal doesn't go through, I honestly don't see where we could go without significant investment that will get us someone that fits the description you came up with.

If he does sell got a feeling it will come out of the blue, may have been long in the process but only comes to light weeks or even days before it actually happens. We'll see, he's certainly set the club up to be easily saleable should he wish to offload.

I get where you're coming from on the GK situation, however with funds obviously limited we need to be prioritising where to allocate them. I'm surprised more fuss isn't being made over the striker situation, number 10 and CM. A long term injury to Gayle and/or Shelvey has us completely f***ed and we've just got no one in our current squad that can effectively fill the number 10 role at the PL level. Those need to be prioritises for me, if we still have money left (which I doubt, unless they've gone for bargain basement types) then absolutely upgrade the keeper, look for the all rounder that you guys perfectly that described we need.

They had an article yesterday on Jacob Murphy signing which was just a cut and paste of the interview on the official site. I guess they need to fill the column inches somehow.

I think that's a fair point, but I would extend that averageness to the bulk of the PL too, outside the top 7 teams in the country the rest of us are pretty meh really.

So Boro are buying Randolph and Reading are going for the Mackem, suddenly the market for Darlow has disappeared. Should have taken the 5 Million imo, since Rafa obviously doesn't rate him.