Segun Oluwaniyi

The guy is thirty, not deceased. It is an incredible bargain in this market.

It looks to me that this will be a solid side that is difficult to beat. Teams of this nature generally survive, so I am optimistic going forward. It is imperative that Murphy and whoever else Ashley can scrap together funds for hit the ground running because they don't look particularly dangerous or cohesive going forward and I understand that this was the case last season as well.

It is worrisome that the player who is ostensibly the main creative force in the side has consistently flattered to deceived at Premier League level, and is an idiot.

Matic hasn't played well for Chelsea since he got a red card after Burnley tried to break his leg in the title season, so I'm not surprised they discarded him and went for Bagayoko as an upgrade. Selling him to a direct rival is just bizarre, though.

I would bring on Mitrovic for Perez, as he could at least compete for the scraps of the long balls (and Perez has been ineffective), but unfortunately injury has limited the ability to change the match with subs.

Do we have any other defenders available that are not already on the pitch?

Sissoko seems scared to do anything since he went to Spurs, as though he is worried to make a mistake. I don't understand it, for all you can say about his time at NUFC, he consistently imposed himself on matches.

As a whole, NUFC still sorely lack physicality in their front six. It is quite lightweight, and can be a problem in this league.

Sissoko was standing alone on the penalty spot there. Good break from Spurs, fortunate defending.

These are both average players imo, similar in quality to the collection of random players that Watford has managed to assemble the past two seasons en route to survival. It is interesting to see them target more English players with experience in the league, though. The club definitely needs stability after changing managers for eight consecutive seasons.

Frankly, I'd much prefer an American style model where clubs were allowed to make transfers anytime from July 1 to February 1, rather than go in the other direction.

A football career is pretty short to be fair. Aye, tbf he's only getting 30 years of the average person's annual salary each week. I mean football has been f***ed for a few years now, but this is beyond ridiculous. Why are you so interested in the content of this man's accounts? All over the world, people are making more than this by sitting on money from previous generations and wanton corruption. Neymar is one of the best footballers in the world, why should he not be paid on par with the best bankers, actors, or musicians in the world? Which musician gets 750k a week for 5 years like? The income stream is not as consistent obviously, but the overall value of the contract will be ~200 million correct? This is not some outrageous sum for a top musician with multiple interests to make over the same time frame, and these people will not have their main income stream immediately cease to exist in 10 to 15 years.

A football career is pretty short to be fair. Aye, tbf he's only getting 30 years of the average person's annual salary each week. I mean football has been f***ed for a few years now, but this is beyond ridiculous. Why are you so interested in the content of this man's accounts? All over the world, people are making more than this by sitting on money from previous generations, wanton corruption, and/or shrewd investment. Neymar is one of the best footballers in the world, why should he not be paid on par with the best bankers, actors, or musicians in the world?

The super rich clubs are generally in a class of their own, tbh. The secondary fodder in Ligue 1 will generally be competitive and combative enough to make things vaguely interesting, especially with several teams having money to spend again. What else is really important? Who cares what part of Europe he plays in? The matches will be televised worldwide. It is not as though people will unable to watch him play. I think he'll be a brilliant signing, but I rate the boy very highly, obviously. There's a lot of risk involved to break for such a big outlay on a 20 year old who has never started consistently other than a few months in 2016. Leicester have gathered together a quite talented, but odd and mismatched group of players. Their team does not really fit together particularly well imo, and I'm not sure how Kelechi will fit in with Vardy, whether Maguire will improve a back four that is barely adequate, if Gray or Musa are ready to seriously contribute, and how the Mahrez situation will be resolved. I think they are the team that has the most variability of where they might finish this season.

Somewhere between 13th and 18th. If I had to pick one position in particular it would be 15th.

This is the type of signing NUFC has continually made for several seasosn since Hughton promoted them the first time. The difference is that the manager (and the recruitment apparatus by extension) has engendered trust among the supporters. I don't recall seeing Merino play, but I am looking forward to seeing what he has to offer.

We've signed 2 players with virtually no experience of top level football and another who did OK in Spain. Stop exaggerating. The summer's been an abject failure so far. If you are judging what has been accomplished on July 25th with the criteria of what you expect from the window in its entirety, then of course it is a failure. The squad clearly needs to strengthen in a variety of areas, but there will also clearly be more signings. Only the most ardent of pessimists can really believe we are fully done. In my view, we've made two good deals and one mediocre one thus far, and need three to four more to be satisfactory. My real disappointment, is that it seems the club seemingly need to sell in order to buy, a financial reality that is worrying when competing in the richest league in the history of world football.

Barely got a look in at Stoke last year despite them having pretty rubbish strikers Proven in the League looked outstanding at times first time round for Swansea. Could do worse The last time he looked good was three years ago and he's barely done anything since. We could do better Aye I know we could do better. There's pipe dreams like Batshuayi whereas in the real world we're getting Rolan. Whenever I have seen Bony for the past couple of seasons, he has looked like a player that already made his money and no longer cares about football. No motivation.

I don't understand this mindset, he isn't moving to Anzhi or China. France is still a major league, PSG is a massive club that will definitely challenge in Europe (it baffles me that someone thinks a club that is already competitive in the CL with struggle after adding Neymar), Paris is one of the premier world cities, and Neymar is allowed to shoulder more responsibility as a leader while still getting world class cheques. I think it is a good move for him. If he doesn't desire to play second or third fiddle his whole career, what other clubs do you propose?

Moses has excelled in that role, but I do not believe you can just put any random attacking player in this position and expect them to do the same. Why would Cheslea not just buy a wingback if they wished to replace Moses? I think Oxlade-Chamberlain would be competing with Willian, Pedro, Fabregas, and Bakayoko to play in the centre or as part of the front three. His versatility could be useful, tbf.

Average is the last word I would use for Balo. He generally vacillates between being brilliant and actively detrimental to the team with little space in between.

Wilshire would be a rubbish signing and is overrated in terms of his talent (from when he was actually a productive footballer, rather than a highly paid absentee/Bournemouth substitute) because of his nationality. I have no interest in him.

I really do not see how Cameroon is hosting this thing in 2019, tbh. It will Morocco, who forfeited 2015 because of Ebola outbreak. They were struggling badly to prepare for a 16 team tournament, and now suddenly have a 24 team one with 20 more matches. This is all so haphazard, we have already started qualifying for a tournament that was meant to have 16 teams. At least Naija will likely qualify now. I don't think rain in West Africa in June will be too much of an issue, the pitches are usually rubbish anyway, but the excessive heat in the North could be. This decision has nothing to do with weather though, it is entirely to placate European-based players and clubs.

They have had MRI testing in the u-17 tournaments since 2008 or so and since then Nigeria has won both the 2013 and 2015 u-17 titles. In fact, I believe they are tested before both the African and World level events so that players like Wilfried Ndidi who passed once can still be barred from competing. Maybe your hypothesis is that the NFF, which recently was unable to find funds to fly the players to the Olympics or provide match balls for a senior-level international, is using new age technological advances to defeat these measures, I don't know. Fwiw, they have also have had plenty of success at u-20, Olympic, and senior level since the mid-90's, with good players worldwide. This is not Sri Lanka winning youth tournaments. Well success in U-20 can be achieved using age cheating too. There is a clear and obvious disparity between the dominance of Nigerian U17 sides and the failures of the senior side in comparison. Now, maybe the 2013 and 2015 winning sides are going to lead onto a new golden generation for the Super Eagles. However I'd argue that what is more likely is that the vast majority of the players will disappear off the face of the earth and Nigeria will continue the recent joy of failing to qualify for the 2015 and 2017 major international tournaments. http://www.eurosport.com/football/nigerian-u17-team-wiped-out-as-all-but-two-players-fail-age-test_sto5707677/story.shtml Failures for 2015 and 2017 are irrelevant when compared with a victory in 2013 and consistent success in the tournaments previous to this. Nigeria has underachieved of course, but they have been at five of the past six World Cups and to the second round thrice, so the idea that they are a disaster at world level is laughable. Our players also do quite well abroad. Nigerian football is extractive (no serious local league or infrastructure) and corrupt and will probably fail until this not the case, but what does that have to do with Kelechi Iheanacho? He is clearly the age he states, and you are talking rubbish. Fwiw, the boys from 2013 are already doing quite well abroad, probably better than their Mexican or Swiss counterparts before them. All of this may be true, but again you're ignoring the point that Nigeria goes from being THE dominant force in world football at youth level - to being a top 30/40 team at full international level. There is quite clearly something amiss there, more than simply a lack of infrastructure and solid local league. What's to say Iheanacho is the age he's saying he is? I bet a google search would return a load of Nigerian bloggers speculating that he's older. Simply can't take anything for granted considering track record. He has passed several scientific third party tests proving as much. Adam Armstrong hasn't passed a single one, so it is my position to now foolish speculate that he was born in Brunei in the year 1976. I have a better case than you do for Iheanacho. Most teams just cannot deal with the physicality of our players at youth level. This is why 2013 excited me much more than 2015, Kelechi's side played great football, 2015 just ran past and pushed through less physical sides. Nigeria is still one of the fastest and strongest at senior level, but more is required there and we lack often lack the technique and more crucially organisation of the top tier sides, in addition to the issues previously stated. This is just my opinion though, anyone with knowledge on the matter can form their own.

I supposed he may have become accustomed to the English way of life and the large wages available to players in the country. It is surprising to see him settle for this as he has been in the national side before and was considered a fairly good prospect before his misadventures at this club. I wish him well anyway. He didn't have the physicality to affect matches in this league and NUFC's style of play, but he seemed a decent teammate at least.