KaKa

Still just 28 years old. Surprised by that. Between Tomori and Christensen we have two options that can come in straight away and improve our back line and go on to partner Botman over the next 5 years. Paying around £25 million for either would be great business.

Pep is so weird man. A number of their signings make no sense. Both Doku and Nunes are so ill suited to their style of play. They are really more high tempo players that are better in teams that transition from back to front quicker and can exploit open space. Nunes was so good at Sporting especially. Such a waste in that Man City side. Seen us linked here and there. Hope we can nick him for cheap off them at some point. Would give us a more robust and dynamic version of what Willock offers when he's on it.

That pass was so slick man. Incredible play from him.

My goodness this is tragic. I admire the fight he has to keep pushing to come back, but looks like his career might be coming to an end. His body just isn't holding up. All this just ensures we move on with his contract running down, and we don't get enticed into giving him a new deal, and so that will be a relief because it would be a huge mistake to do so.

With some of the stuff I've been reading I think it will be very disappointing if we can't make something happen in January to give the team a jolt. I already mentioned Tomori being ready to come back to England, and AC Milan apparently being ready to accommodate that as the new manager has him out of the first team currently. They are looking for £25 million. Also at AC Milan, they are making Chukwueze available for £20 million, and he could be available on an initial loan too. Pulisic has made the right wing his and is limiting his opportunities, and they think he's too valuable to be kept on the bench. Chukwueze is very much a Premier League player. If we have shown interest in the likes of Mbeumo and Madueke, he's very much in that mould and type of player. Worst case scenario getting a loan deal done at least, if nothing else is possible, should be looked at. Looks like there will be deals available. I really hope we can do something.

Oh boy ... If that is true it is such a mess man. It wouldn't really surprise me if he's unsettled though. His role and place in the team still seems pretty unclear. Hope it's just fabricated.

This guy isn't very smart at all. These are such minor costs in the grand scheme of things and it is killing him PR wise. I was reading that one of the disagreements Ashworth had with him was centred around reducing the size of staff for certain departments, which Ashworth thought was a bad idea for some of the teams he was overseeing.

This is back to front. Bakayoko is the cheaper signing.

Been doing some snooping around, to see what the chatter is. There's a chance the deal might be £65 million plus Matheus Nunes.

Yeah, that's true. Took us a while to realise too. Was valuable to us though as we had no structure and minimum staff after Ashley, and so he would have likely resolved a lot of that. Probably why we hired him. Pretty weird they wouldn't know in their position.

Where? Would like to give that a read or a listen. Minimum we should accept is £75 million IMO. Any idea what his value on the books is currently with him having got a new contract?

Yeah, it seems crazy ... but then we're talking about Ratcliffe here

I'm demanding £50 million right off the bat

The guy was unattached and available when they came bothering us for Ashworth. They are absolutely crackers if there's any truth to it

Really good speech to be fair, but no need for comparisons! Can see why the players give their all for him. The way he addressed Ben Mee, who is out of the team, in front of everyone was particularly impressive. Good manager.

They are a dangerous team and their style of play will threaten our defence if we keep playing Bruno deep. The thing that has let Ipswich down is their late game collapses. Once they start making subs there appears to be a big drop in quality that costs them.

Believe it or not, I've just seen an article saying they admire Paul Mitchell

The way they came steaming in for Ashworth man, and it's clear they didn't know what he actually does, from all the news circulating today

Yeah, for sure. I think if someone we like is available for a fair fee I'm sure we will. Hopefully that is the case. If we are looking for top quality for the first team though, it might prove difficult.

January tends to be for clubs that are in a position to pay over the odds in order to get a player they really like at a time clubs aren't as open to selling. Unless for some reason a player has been made available for some reason e.g. Gordon's palava at Everton. Or a player is looking to go out on loan as things aren't working out great at their current club. We aren't really in position to pay over the odds, and so we'd have to be really lucky with someone we like being made available for a good fee, or on loan. I'm not that optimistic. Think more business will start being done from the summer.

Yeah, I understand where you're coming from. I recognise the team/squad is unbalanced and things aren't perfect. Just think it's a big shame that it wasn't recognised from earlier on that we needed legs in the deeper midfield position, and also that we needed a more stable first team. Even with all our issues, these things would have made a big difference I believe. And because of how open the league is, we'd have been in a great place even if it still didn't look perfect all the time. As bad as things have been we're still just 5 points off still. Unfortunately, even now I'm concerned about what lineup we'll see next game. Doesn't seem problems are being recognised.

Yeah, seems an over reactionary rash decision. Ruud was looking like he would have been able to stabilise things until the summer.

I can't really go for this at all I'm afraid. Two things. Committing to a better suited midfielder (the best of which is Tonali at the minute) at the base of our midfield in front of the back four. Making a firm decision on who would start on the left and who would start on the right. If these decisions had been made with more confidence, and we played said team regularly as our agreed first team, I'm pretty certain we would have been a lot more convincing and consistent this season. And if so, we would have been right in the mix for European football at the minimum, with how the league has played out. Instead, we still don't even know what our first 11 is, and there's still a bunch of chopping and changing going on.