alexf

I think £40m would be a fair compromise maybe £35m+5m add ons if we achieve like Knockout round of CL or qualify for CL again would do it. Think he would be really useful squad addition. But yeah way summer has gone I'm not too hopeful and expect Spurs to come in and hijack. Fear any deal we hear about in the press is already doomed. I'm hoping we get some deals that are already agreed and medical sorted before the media get a sniff. Then I might believe it's happening.

There are plenty of great talents out there if scouted properly. Every Isak, Salah,Haaland etc didn't start out at the top. As many have said many times, we are trying to dine at the elite table but we aren't there yet, clearly, because we have too many restrictions holding us back. Wage limits, PSR rules etc. We need to find a compromise and target the less proven/established. Buying players before their break out seasons not after, like we used to. I don't see the need to scrap doing what got us to where we are. We have an Elite coach who is proven to get the best out of players and improve them. We have star like Isak, Tonali, Bruno. You drop a few players with strong potential into that group and you watch how they can rise above their previous levels. Just look at what it's done for Jacob Murphy for goodness sake.

Yeah feels like alot of the off field shit has held us back and dampened some of that early unstoppable force feeling we had post takeover. Last summer was a shit show and it's a damn miracle Howe was able to galvanise the squad and get us back into CL, let alone finally winning us that elusive trophy. Felt like he would be rewarded for some tough transfer dry spells with some much needed squad refresh his summer. And with a whole year for Mitchell to get his feet under the desk and to plan. I thought we were all set to smash out some deals early and even nab some bargains. But no. It appears Mitchell did the sum total of fuck all and worse than that, I guess robbed us of someone else being in place to do some planning and basically sabotaged us. So now here we are, relying on the same target list as last summer. Only this time the cartel clubs are snapping up all the players we wanted because they have unlimited funds in comparison to us from a PSR perspective. If we don't have a plan B and a back up list of secondary targets to atleast add some extra bodies, I fear it would take an even bigger miracle than last year just to keep us in the hunt at the top of the table. Would be such a shame to waste the momentum we should have had going into this year.

It's annoying that thanks to that cup win, Spurs are basically right back in the mix with the likes of us and Villa again next year. That's why I was quietly hoping they kept Ange and he had a shit start to the season and it messed up another year on the league for them. Suppose wait and see on Frank if he improves them but it would be hard not to based on last year and I imagine he won't be anywhere near as gung ho as Ange.

This is the thing. When we are deep into the season and have suspensions and injuries and you're needing to call on likes of Neave etc. This is where squad depth is important. Ok we tried and possibly failed to upgrade the starting 11 with our first choice targets. But there are 1000's of players out there, surely some would be below our first 11 but improve on the likes of Osula, Lascelles, the current version of Willock etc. We need those bodies. They don't have to be world beaters but if they can see out a game after Isak as done the business after 65-70 mins, or fill in for Tonali/Bruno/Joelinton occasionally to give them some rest then it will help keep our top players fresher and not run into the ground, which is exactly we struggled with in 23-24.

Result is meaningless. Although it did give me horrible flashforwards of some future champions league games when we have an injury hit, fatigued squad and we get thumped. Nothing new learnt. We know the squad depth is poor and always was. If we need to rely on the likes of Lascelles, White etc this season then we will be in trouble.

Looked offside and Schar clearly thought it was but no replay showed of it was.

All the fucking emoji's these guys use get on my nerves. Hard to take any of them seriously as "journalists"

If you did one of those for Isak it would be even worse if I remember his last few games correctly . Playing with the injury and everything he was skying and mistiming pretty much all his chances.

I would be perfectly happy with unfinished articles and younger less proven players, as long as we have Howe. He's proven to get the best out of players and improve many. The way we got Bruno, Botman, Hall, Livramento, Gordon, Isak etc. is because the cartel teams must not have believed or trusted they were at the level required and hesitated to rival our bids. But Howe has helped get the best out of all of them. Yes we paid big money for many of them, but all of their values have risen. (Botman's injury issues excluded)

The way this window has gone...I'm really surprised we seemingly had a free run at Tonali for example a few years ago. Surely one of the cartel would have been interested in him at the price we paid (not knowing about the gambling ban looming ofcourse). Whereas this summer every single player we go for we seem to be getting competition from someone financially better off than us (PSR wise)

A buy back would rely on the player to turn them down knowing he won't be first choice there and have to want to join us. Usually when that happens they seem to almost always choose the bigger club still. Seen it happen with Real Madrid and others a bunch of time. Almost always said player ends up rotting in reserves or loaned/sold immediately to another team. Not sure why players do it. Probably gets a large signing on fee or something to make it worth their while.

Remember hearing ours was 65m, no idea if theirs has been accepted.

Think it was reported that they have bid just over £70m.

But all accounts, that's what we did since Monday.

Jesus Christ Fabian, it's not Baywatch

You said that after he won us our first domestic trophy in 70 years?? you may need to reassess what taking forward means.

Think Edu went there to oversee all of Marinakis' multiple clubs. So it was for the big project allegedly.

I mean Mbeumo literally just picked them over us this summer if rumours are to be believed that we wanted him.

No.

He probably didn't expect to have to wear so many hats here like he used to in his early Bournemouth days. Probably expected us to be a little bit more organised and professional by nearly year 5 of the post takeover.

Standard for him.

Lol people thinking we are doing smokescreen and fake bids all over the shop to draw out other teams are coping way too hard and giving us far too much credit . We clearly wanted these players and unfortunately missed out. Also how does their theory work if we are sitting here with one signing. I suppose there is still time for our "real targets" to get signed

I take solace in the fact, despite them throwing all their wealth around, outside of maybe Haaland, none of them have a better striker than us.