AyeDubbleYoo

Agree he might be a bit expensive but we keep saying we should sign the next big things before they become the next big things.

Dunno, he's getting loads of money, he's still young, working with the best manager and one of the best GKs in the world, club he obviously wanted to play for etc. Great if not, obviously.

Think I'd rather go with Wolte behind Osula but if Eddie thinks Wissa is ready then fair enough.

Would like him but I assumed he would be happy to stay at Man City as backup and they would be happy to keep him.

Not sure we should assess our transfer strategy based on that tweet TBH.

He’s a good player but it won’t look good to sign him.

I just prefer to pay when I want, I suppose.

I signed up to auto renewal just now because I’m terrified buying a new one just after mine expires won’t count as ‘continuous’ membership. Usually prefer to renew manually.

Yeah, they’re not listed anywhere on the site, just purchases and tickets.

Famously top decision makers.

Treat em mean, keep em keen.

No manager who wants to further their career should go there. If you just want a quick payoff, maybe.

Two stupid opinions don’t make a good one

We were owned by Mike Ashley for most of recent memory.

Just as worried about his brain.

Probably not having a chest x-ray.

I always thought Jones should’ve been booted on day one but mainly because he agreed to work for Mike Ashley

Hard one to answer for sure. I would personally like to see Eddie show some ruthlessness and change his assistant to someone with new ideas, but who knows just how much benefit he gets from Mad Dog.

Hmm yeah, really I was just saying that we did go for people with potential to be elite. Initially. They just didn't want to sign for us. Agree on the point of getting in earlier, but that's a slightly separate question. You seemed to be saying we were trying for a lower level of player than we actually were. Even Woltemade was very highly rated and wanted by Bayern.

I think we actually pivoted to fairly elite players, but they all went elsewhere. I'd say our biggest failing was really being a bit naive about how attractive we would be to signings, given our trophy and CL football. Then we had a catch-up job on our hands to find alternatives. And we should never be able to discuss the transfer strategy without mentioning Isak either.

Nah, but they were meant to be better than, say, Murphy and Longstaff.

Hopefully they’ve made a decision on Howe already, and we’re already getting close to deals with the first couple of signings. I expect a fairly rough end to the season but I hope the decision isn’t based too much on that.

Correct, said this loads. And also the approach is quite similar to a club like Wolves who are about to finish bottom. They've actually made some signings that look pretty exciting on the surface.

I think when Howe says we have a small pool of players to choose from he's trying to say we are careful and selective in our signings. Of course last summer is the exception. Like I keep saying, there's every reason to expect a more strategic summer this time around. We have never had the full setup in place like we do now, and I'm sure everyone has had to take their medicine over how disastrous last summer was. Even if Howe wanted a similar profile of signing to the exclusion of all else (which I don't believe he would anyway), he doesn't have the argument to make now. We've been through the southern spreadsheet club argument before, I guess the difference now is that we might have moderated our ambitions (and been burned by last summer) to the point that those types of signings are now becoming pretty much essential. My ideal would still be a combination of the two strategies though, young promising risks with the odd star signing on top. Like we've argued before, if survival with the odd Euro flirt is your aim then you can get by on cheaper players. Especially if you have a dodgy multi club arrangement or that kind of thing.

Would personally go, for now. A GK Tripps Thiaw Botman Hall Bruno Tonali Elanga Woltemade Ramsey Osula What I'm most interested in is if we do see anything more experimental over the remaining games.