Gallowgate Toon

The thought of him doing his bloody celebration for them at SJP

I think Dibling's future lies centrally, either as an attacking 8 or 10. Would still go for him for a sensible fee.

I wonder who told paid him to say that, the cheeky cunt we had a very public release clause agreed for one of our best players last summer ffs.

This is where Howe's recent quotes about 'right player, right place' really worry me going into the final month. If we can't sign from the 'small pool', unless our plan is to throw away some of the comps, we're going to put our players at real risk of fatigue & injury. At some point, we might just have to accept bodies in the squad to protect our best players as a bare minimum.

If we're serious, we should be setting a timeline for the player. Even if it just brings Man U out faster, at least we'll have some clarity to just move on. Worst case scenario is leaving everything very, very late.

Feels a very coordinated message which has interestingly only just cropped up now. Wouldn't be surprise if Wissa's agent is doing the same from a tactical point, some very vague conversation being conveniently taken as a cast-iron guarantee. Even so, absolutely no right to just fuck off. If you don't like a contract, don't bloody sign it

We're probably chuffed we managed to have a bid accepted. Progress!

Have we just done City's dirty work here? Honestly, man.

He maybe needs to change his own tact too though. The strategy for this window so far has been poor, and he's about as in control of the process as he could be.

Our incoming activity so far is still the biggest thing fucking me off in all of this drama. Not saying Isak wouldn't be agitating to leave if we'd signed more players but being so shit at doing deals won't have helped. If we turn around at the end of the summer and say there was nobody else left or available in our 'small pool' then it'd be an absolute joke.

My head is absolutely gone today, like absolutely fuming with them all.

Club has ballsed up on a few fronts - contract, PSR, recruitment strategy... but this is a shit way to go from him as well, if this is true.

And they're asking more & more of fans. Tickets going up, merch lines every week, paying to watch some preseason streams Everyone's doing it, which is shite, but it means you have to back it up on your side as well.

The club can't have a singular strategy and if that doesn't work then the alternative is to do nothing. Bruno's end of season interview was as telling as Howe's. We need more players, we're going into a big campaign and need bodies. Whether you raise the ceiling, the floor, knock some walls out; whatever, the answer can't be go into the season with an even smaller squad. Our dithering is the worst part of it all, we don't seem to have an idea of when to move on.

Maybe more harmless than we think but all the more reason for the club to get its act together and stop dicking about when it comes to transfers. We don't seem to value the importance of momentum enough - absolutely ridiculous we're going into a potentially great season off the back of our best campaign in decades like this.

If PSR wasn't a thing then he'd easily be a very good addition, btw. Such a ridiculous mindset we've been forced into to consider resale value for every fucking signing.

SMOKING OUT SPURS.

Feels like we're not really learning from our mistakes this window, IF this is true.

Presumably he was on a 3-month notice so he could be Mitchell's legacy.

The market is clearly telling the club it needs to change. We're looking for rhyme & reason, but PSR has just heightened self-interest on the seller's side. We've also cornered ourselves by openly stating we have a small pool of targets. We either go for the players we really want at a higher price point but find aggressive ways to balance the books or we switch up the targeting strategy. We show absolutely no signs of doing the former. It's be negligent to send the current squad as it is into 4 comps so something is going to have to give pretty soon.

Speculation is going to happen regardless, tbh. It's lose-lose for Howe. If he played and he was shite, it'd be that he's no longer got the heart etc. If Howe says he's not quite there fitness-wise, plenty will still take that for maybe what it isn't.

Think it's wiser to judge those quotes in the context of a video rather than snippets. Ultimately, he's said he's confident he'll be here for the start of the season. I don't think Howe would say that willy-nilly.

Preseason of course but it just adds a tiny bit of extra negative momentum after a tricky week. Right now, we need TWO positives.

I really like him & his profile for the squad, as I really liked Pedro, but I'm quite relaxed about this. If this doesn't come off, we have good options left. The key bit is to keep Isak, there are multiple types of striker we could pair him with to get the best out of him when we want to play a 2. Isak-Wilson was a good pairing when it was rolled out (when Wilson was fit), it doesn't necessarily need to be a flexible 10/9-type player, Isak can do that role himself while playing with more of a target man.

Christ, the absolute shite that happens around transfers. Power move ffs