Kimbo

At least wait until they hire Southgate to laugh at them.

I rate Alvarez pretty highly. Worse players have gone for more money than him, I can think of one that’s still at Man City. Also although he’s seen as a backup, he started 31 league games for them last year, I think unlike Jesus he’ll be a big miss.

I was hoping he would go and play in his native Scotland.

40-45 gets you someone like Thiaw, who might be talented but is less of a sure thing.

Premier League Winners: Arsenal Runners Up: Man City 3rd-6th: Liverpool, Newcastle, Tottenham, Villa Relegation: Southampton, Ipswich, Forest Overachievers: Fulham Underperformers: Man Utd Top Goal Scorer: Haaland Break Out Year: Hall Season to Forget: Grealish PFA Player of the Year: Haaland Manager of the Year: Whoever wins the league First manager to quit/be sacked: Ten Haag Championship Winners: Burnley Runners Up: Leeds Play-Offs: WBA Newcastle United Where will we finish?: 4th Top Goalscorer: Isak Top Assister: Gordon Season to forget: Longstaff Will Howe be manager at the end of the season?: Yes FA Cup: Man City League Cup: Man City Europe La Liga winner: Real Madrid Serie A winner: Inter Bundesliga winner: Bayern European Competitions Champions League winner: Real Madrid Europa League winner: Real Sociedad Conference League Winner: Fiorentina General World Player of the Year: Vinicius Jr

Have any of the north east journalists had anything to say about Gordon? It seems like it’s just a load of noise from Liverpool and it’s getting ignored here.

There’s certain premiums involved which make it a huge fee. From our point of view the one that makes it worth it is the high probability of success. Considering we can’t afford to miss with our signings like the ESL clubs can, we probably think it’s worth overpaying for a sure thing. A player like Thiaw might have a high ceiling and look better value, but it could go either way really.

It is a massive price, but it’s possible that no big money RW is doable this summer so they’ve decided to go all in on a sure thing at CB.

The idea of Livramento, Guehi, Botman, Hall as our back line for the next 10 years is

Well that is one reason. Also I’m struggling to see realistic options that we haven’t (presumably) already decided not to go after (like Chiesa). My suspicion has always been that our finances would be more restrained this summer, and it looks like we won’t be able to shift Almiron or Wilson to help things. Right now all we’re getting is rumours of us trying to sell one of our best players on the cheap to a rival, so optimism is running dry. Hopefully I’m wrong.

I’m pretty resigned to not getting a RW or senior ST at this point, now I’m mainly hoping we don’t lose any purples and bring in a first team CB.

In that case I would say fair enough and look for another target.

He looked really bad at the euros. Overweight and old.

3.5 years for a big money signing would be comically incompetent, there’s no way it can be true. It would be proof that Ashworth is shite though.

Don’t forget we would’ve got a decent stop gap until Botman is back fit though for a mere £45m.

I’d like Mbeumo, but I’m not sure what’s happening at Brentford. It seems unlikely they would sell both him and Toney, and it’s Toney they need to sell, but nothing is happening with him.

So we decided to sell our best players at cut price deals, and then thought last minute “hold on, maybe sell Minteh and Anderson instead”. None of it makes sense, but Liverpool fans will gobble it up.

We should’ve tried throwing Livramento in as a sweetener, to get this incredible and believable deal over the line.

Problem with him is his wages, he’s on 100k a week. Same issue they’re having with Ramsdale probably.

I think he’s very good if you want a midfielder of that type. Someone that is all energy and box to box, plus he never seems to get injured. We need more technical ability added to our team though so wouldn’t make sense to me.

It speaks volumes that no one wants him. He’s got 2 more years here and it looks likely that he’ll see out his contract.

If we didn’t sell Minteh we would’ve been deducted points, maybe 10.

I’d be surprised if Ruddy ever plays a competitive game for us.

Our team looks for the raw materials. Some of our best signings were coming off poor form or poor seasons. If players like Gordon and Isak were playing at their best they would have been out of reach for us.

Defies belief considering his wages.