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Thank you. I don't get it either. If we make it into the Europa League at a minimum, I even think David would consider it too. That year both Wilson and Isak were fit, Howe rotated them and also played them both at times, and we weren't even in Europe! And they were both doing so well. I really miss the old school Prem when it felt like every team had multiple strikers on their books.

Quansah over the last year for what it's worth. Didn't realise his passing was that good.

Quansah would be no different from the approach we took with Gordon, Hall and Livramento. Very much the same sort of thinking. More than happy to let them do their thing.

Ah, okay. Interesting. They make it sound like it's down to Quansah, and there's an agreement in place already! Cheers

Anyone read the full article? That bit at the start mentions details on what we'd offer. Seems oddly specific. Any other interesting details in there?

He will be going there to join up with Bellingham, Caicedo, Gordon and Zubimendi who they all signed previously.

Yeah, likely why the fee they are asking for is so decent.

Just seen Sporting are going to be asking £30 million for Trincao. Think someone is going to get an incredible deal there if he moves. Only 25 still but much more experienced and seasoned now, and has been so good at Sporting. This is the kind of deal we should be looking at in order to really improve the team at great value, to allow us to make a number of other moves.

Look at that picture man ... That win and the implications will have impacted the players so much. Easy to forget that before Newcastle things were quite inconsistent for Isak despite having always been a very highly rated prospect. It's all come together at Newcastle. Joining the club made him the star he is now. On top of that the club has a lot of talent in the first team and plays a style that allows him to flourish. There is also the ambition to continue to build on the team going forward and improve further. This will be back on track from this summer now we are better navigating PSR. He is apparently going to be offered a lucrative contract as the lead man in the team. Now imagine leaving to join Arsenal or Liverpool in spite of all that, just because they are a "big club" and have more "legacy". When the reality is there's really no guarantees of anything going forward for anyone other than Man City, who are overpowering everyone with the crazy money they have from their dodgy sponsorship deals. Personally, I think he'd be nuts to join an Arsenal or Liverpool this summer. And I'd seriously be questioning the guys intelligence if he pushed for that.

God, I can't wait for the summer. These people really think Mike Ashley is still in charge.

Depends on what they would have done with that £200 million. He's had an amazing season no doubt, and it's worked out with them winning the title, but seeing him leave on a free would still be absolutely sickening I imagine.

Yeah, I have no sympathy whatsoever. They should have looked to sell him last summer. If they end up losing Salah, VDV and Trent for nothing this summer that would be extraordinarily poor from them due to the value those players have had recently. What was that Saudi bid they turned down for Salah again £200 million?! Crazy. Looking forward to the summer, should be very interesting.

Getting no money for him is absolutely brutal. What's his value ordinarily? Probably around £65 million or more? Ooooooof!!!

But in their minds they actually think they will be signing Isak to replace Salah, as one of the moves. The state of that team if those three leave man. But still it makes sense to them. Isak the Salah "replacement". The delusion out here is crazy.

I'm not surprised to hear this. If he stays in the Prem he is going to stay at Newcastle. The pull that his agent will be thinking of will be regarding Barca who are looking to replace Lewandowski. Particularly because the wages on offer will be massive too. If it ends up being a move to Barca for the price we're after. Fair enough IMO. The likes of Liverpool and Arsenal have no chance I reckon.

Think Hendo is fine as an alternative to Rice, for someone to sit in midfield. Replace him with Wharton once he gets back up to speed down the line.

Lovely feet from Eze. Great goal.

Great goal. Lovely play just then.

Yeah, you can see they're both not as used to going on the outside. Early in the half still though. Let's see.

He's switched them to the more traditional style.

England look a lot more threatening with two direct wingers going at fullbacks. Also think Lewis Skelly has been really good inverting from left back, allowing both Jude and Rogers to get forward. I'm liking this setup today.

I'm not even against going big on the odd players, provided it makes sense within whatever budget we have, and so it doesn't come at the expense of strengthening the team/squad in other areas. This is the key thing for me.

We are still at the early stages of smaller clubs now being able to attract higher calibre managers and also now having the infrastructure behind the scenes to identify and scout players all over the globe. We are going to increasingly see these clubs start to embarrass the so called bigger clubs going forward. Especially those throwing hundreds of millions at them for players they signed for a tenth of that. Thereby building those clubs up further. I really hope we continue to build up our scouting and recruitment and get better and better at identifying players we like within a budget that allows us to build up our squad to challenge long term. If we fall into the trap of just spending much more money on players we have waited on other clubs to discover first, it's not going to go well at all IMO. Finding good players at a value suited to the club building a strong squad, doesn't mean just buying inexperienced kids either, neither does it mean these players will need years to adjust. These are always assumptions that are made when these sorts of things are discussed.

Typical "top club" glazer.

City have Haaland. They will not go for him. As for the others, their teams are not that much better than ours for him to push to leave for footballing reasons, no chance. This kind of thinking is typical of what we see from the media and the refs week in and week out. Always fawning over these clubs.