oldtype

Assuming we get all the players we’re supposedly getting and sort out the Isak situation, the degree to which our squad is upgraded will be pretty transformative imo. For the first time since the takeover, we might have the depth of an actual top six team, instead of having to keep everything together with duct tape and crazy glue.

I’m now legitimately wondering if it would be worth it to sell Trippier or loan out Miley. Crazy the difference a week and a couple of signings makes.

You put it this way, once Wissa comes in and we sort out the Isak situation however it gets sorted, there's not even that much scope to improve the bench. Of course there will be injuries, but which out of those nine players can we afford to leave out of the matchday squad entirely when everyone is fit?

There’s also limits to how much we can increase the numbers. We’re butting up pretty close to the 25-person squad limit as it is.

Not much of a distinction between floor raisers and ceiling raisers in our situation. Our first team is very good. Having better squad players lets us rotate more effectively throughout a busy season and ensures that the first team is not overworked and performing to the best of their ability. It’s the next best thing after buying players who are clearly better than the first teamers, which is hard to do because, again, ours are quite good.

Between Ramsdale, Thiaw, and this guy, we definitely seem to have a type in terms of buying the dip on players who were very highly rated two years ago before running into some adversity.

Could be the Willock injury forcing us to be more aggressive with CM signings. We might just be done with him.

Seems like folks at the club believe that injuries are down to luck as long as it's not an obvious chronic condition, so players with an "injury prone" reputation are typically undervalued. I agree that makes sense on paper, but it does feel like tempting fate a bit.

I trust the club's ability to identify targets enough that if we are buying him, I'll assume there's a good reason. I trust the club's ability to negotiate prices maybe a little bit less but oh well. If he comes in and contributes it doesn't really matter.

Wow that's a lot of money but okay.

If the definition of "purple" is someone who immediately improves the first team squad relative to what we had before, then Elanga 100% qualifies. Beyond that we don't have any glaring holes in the first XI so it's difficult to find a player that could improve us and would not be prohibitively expensive. I could see us making a really ambitious signing at CM if we did sell Isak and had cash to burn, but otherwise most of our PSR headroom this season needed to go to strengthening the squad.

Fans will always want the younger player with more upside. But yeah, maybe we have enough money left over that we're trying to bin Willock and get two more rotation CMs.

Bro is doing everything he can to sink my "he's just a cog in the transfer team who's been made a scapegoat for our transfer window failures" theory

We're looking for a 4th midfielder here, all he needs to be is relatively healthy and competent. (I understand there may be some doubt about the "relatively healthy" part mind )

My concern is that by putting this in the media, he's burning bridges with the fans to the point where it may create a negative atmosphere if he's back. What I was hoping for was that everyone would keep their mouth shut for three more weeks and he'd be quietly reintegrated and we could all pretend that none of this ever happened. Clearly not an option anymore. Or maybe he just comes backs, scores a goal, and all will be forgiven for a season. Who knows.

After the escalation today I'm wiling to at least consider the possibility that it may be more trouble than it's worth to reintegrate him. We should still hold firm on our asking price, of course.

This is hardly a groundbreaking opinion, but Wor Flags should always stay positive and focus on supporting our players imo. More powerful that way.

It's a tough situation. If best we can do is getting a second player at or around Wissa's level, I'd really rather just save the money for later.

Yes, and then our top four? five? striker targets all went somewhere else.

That's the case for all of the "Isak replacements" out there at this point. The reality is there are probably no "Isak replacements" left on the market.

It would be a very disappointing outcome, but I could see us focus on strengthening other positions for the remainder of August, bring in only Wissa to replace Isak, sign DCL, and muddle through with Wissa/DCL/Osula until January. There is really just nothing left on the top-tier striker market at this point and clearly we're not all that happy with the options we have. If an Isak sale is unavoidable, suffering for half a season might be better than plunking down 50-70m on someone we haven't vetted and don't actually want.

In retrospect it kind of feels like the club’s plan for the summer the whole time was to sell Isak, replace him with a top young striker, get a new starting RW, and fill out the squad otherwise. That changed when we got gazumped on most of our striker targets and I think that’s when we decided we didn’t want to sell Isak anymore, thus causing him to go on strike. Definitely don’t think we learned that Isak wanted to leave for the first time when it got reported in the media. So while it’s true that we’ve had to reorient our summer on the fly, it might actually be in the opposite direction from what you would assume based on media reports.

At this point I’d really just like them to pay the 150 (or 135 with addons or whatever the club deems sufficient) to get this done, if only so we can stop having this shit shoveled into our mouths by Romano etc. Feels like we’re being waterboarded with tweets.

I typically stay away from football YouTube so I have no idea what these journalists actually look like. Wandered my way into one Craig Hope video by mistake, and now I’ll continue staying away from football YouTube forever.

Two CMs would be a bit excessive IMO. Want Miley to get some actual playing time and however many games we get from Willock is probably adequate for a sixth choice. Hall (and Targett, I guess) is around if we need emergency cover. Only reason we’d want to bring in two is if we’ve sold Isaac and have 70m to splurge on someone good enough to replace Joelinton.