Gallowgate Toon

Fantastic pass that from Elanga.

I'd be very, very happy with a draw. Main glimmer is Gordon's best performance at CF, iirc, was when he played there against City at home. His energy was so useful when we were happier to accept sitting mid/low setting traps for breaks. I presume that'll be the plan today.

He's a good footballer, just not a good finisher. If he adds consistency there then he can be great.

It'd be a bit weird for them to let him go just before we play them, no?

Like this signing a lot. I think Willock may move this window.

This is absolutely embarrassing for him, tbh. All this effort but only one club is interested and even they aren't willing to meet the asking price despite offering more for an inferior player 2 months ago. Terribly advised but also, seemingly, a terrible person. What an idiot.

I'd offer him less but with a nice shiny release clause, the twat obvs a terrible idea for many reasons but he deserves very little for the way he's gone on. Great outcome for us if he signs something that gives everyone clarity, but I don't want any noise around it. No staged video or anything like that. Just quietly get on with it, we know how he really feels about us & where it's all going anyway.

He'd be a cracking addition, especially for his positional flexibility. Him + more of an enforcer and I think we'd have a very decent stable of midfielders.

This sounds bitter but I'd genuinely trust Barnes more than anyone else in our squad in a 1v1 situation.

Something seemingly happened in June. He went from saying in March/April that he loves the city and club to now wanting nothing to do with us. Totally get him wanting to go but it's a hell of a shift to do it this way. Bruno also referenced that he's going through some tough things in that bleary-eyed interview off the plane to Singapore. I did wonder if he has some underlying fitness issues that might be worse than he thought, but then he'd surely not pass a medical.

There were rumbles of Tonali being an overpay, I think some of the reviews around Bruno from SA correspondents were just 'decent' as well. A lot of people talk a lot of shit.

Amazing the difference in feel in this compared to April. Villa have been PSR neutered and the January risk backfired. We don't need any further comment If we get some signings in before though then I think momentum might start to shift towards us going into it. 2 good sides, almost always an entertaining one. Might be nice to have Thiaw to help handle Watkins who usually does a great job in giving out defence a torrid time. No chance with th Howe bedding in period, but still.

He was good in the Bunde, aye? Seems a defender well suited to PL football, per Dennis Wise.

Would swap Gordon and Barnes around for a bit.

He's an absolutely unbelievable replacement for Wilson, tbh.

We seemingly view Park as better developed than some of the other youngsters then...

So much for big bad Saudi as well, btw. Absolute load of kittens. Obviously, they are twats for many reasons, but the way people go on about Al-Rummayan you think he'd be threatening to break Isak's dad's legs over this. A player & his agent seem perfectly fine to take the piss. Wouldn't be at all shocked if there's some kind of KSA-FSG agreement here. They get Isak for a few years, they then sell him to KSA in line with Vision 2030 or whatever it is.

Feels like with the way this summer is going Chelsea would feasibly open up discussions with us while offering him a new contract for LESS WAGES just so Fab can say HE ONLY WANTS TO STAY AT CHELSEA to keep the humiliation going

Hope we get Wissa now, he makes loads of sense for us. Our best option for the season might be to try and go the PSG route - rapid, fluid forward line of little lads rather than a recognised striker. Keep the striker powder dry for next summer

Got to say, the striker pool is so poor that I think Jackson is comfortably in the top 10 list across the continent to replace Isak. He has some good attributes imo but his head may be the biggest blocker to it all - he goes on like an absolute knacker far too much. Not sure if he had the same disciplinary problems under Emery? Maybe playing for a shithouse club brought the worst out of him.

It's absolutely ridiculous that we let Longstaff leave without having his replacement signed up.

When does the strategy pivot happen? We've been very ambitious this window but been left with fuck all. The squad can not go into this season as is, it'd be completely unacceptable & negligent - something has to give. Don't want to hear anything further about 'small pools' after we've signed Ramsdale as well. We can start by laying down the law with Isak. Get your fucking boots on, lad. If you want out soon, you've got to do your bit.

The whole thing has been so fucking tedious.

Aye, perfect time to get some fucking momentum going into the season.

I get the general striker strategy intention, tbh - one striker with PL experience, one Euro option. The idea of plucking a domestic option feels very far away though, Wissa aside. If I could have my pick of other PL strikers I'd like to have here, I think Evanilson's style is perfect for Howe.