McCormick

The audacity, man . You unsettled him, lobbed in a laughable offer (what, almost a third off of his value ?) for a player who wasn’t even on the market, and now you're playing the victim because it got turned down? Unbelievable. And now you seriously expect us to come crawling back and graciously ask you to rejoin the table? Give me a fucking break.

Heard he sent signed cards to all his new Liverpool teammates apologizing for not being available for their game yesterday. Great lad, really.

Don’t think he’d have turned us down outright but I get the feeling he’d string us along until Liverpool or Chelsea come in. We might have got a whiff of that being the case so moved on quickly.

I think I’m actually starting to change my tune on the fee now. 40m euros sounds like a lot, but when you break down the actual numbers, it apparently comes to around 30m pounds plus 4m in add ons. Viewed that way, it’s not a terrible price. Someone like Tosin, who’s at a similar level imo, probably wouldn’t cost much less.

Liverpool just happen to be sniffing around huh? We know what’s happening here, again. Threatening to sign our targets to bully us into selling Isak. Shameless cunts.

Needs a “NSFW” in the thread title ffs

Ah, best keep our distance then. We're already the punchline of the summer; no need for another drawn-out saga ending with him at Bayern anyway.

Thought he was off to Bayern? If not then he’s the guy we need. Looks like the kind of striker Eddie would make in Fifa create a player.

Well, I’ve officially fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole. It’s the usual NUFC transfer cycle: cynicism, acceptance, cautious optimism, and now excitement. We’re back! After way too many highlight reels I’m starting to feel weirdly optimistic about this now. Didn’t realize he was that two footed either which is a nice touch.

Could just be about avoiding longer-term financial commitments. Keep the initial base wage lower on a 4-year deal, and then if things go well, we can extend later with a pay bump. Gives us more control and keeps the wage structure flexible.

Say what you want about the fee or the player (and I do have my reservations) but it looks like we’ve agreed a deal for someone we clearly targeted; and he actually wants to be here. That’s a win in my book.

Still a lot that can happen before the window shuts, so I’m not ready to give it a proper rating yet. But if things stay as they are and we end up getting Thiaw, a solid CM, and Wissa- on top of the lads we’ve already brought in- it definitely feels like we’re bringing a much deeper and more balanced squad to the new season.

Yeah, yeah Howe turns “water into wine”, which is kind of true but can we see what he turns wine into please? Also paying wine money for water is silly.

The fact that Howe elevates players isn’t an excuse to buy lesser talents though, especially for inflated money.

Fair. Like College Dropout said he’s far better in the air so that’s something. Talking myself into liking the deal now but having someone with a bit of recovery pace in our backline would be nice too, I guess. Disregarding the fee how mad are you, honestly, that you’re losing him? That usually says a lot.

Have a Milan supporting mate and he’s absolutely giddy we’re paying this much for him. Like him physically but don’t think he’s much better than Lloyd Kelly if I’m being honest. Edit: Thiaw that is, not my mate.

He’s all right but 35m is a wild overpayment.

Guaranteed if they knew we were interested too, Como’s offer wouldn’t have lasted a minute. Serie A clubs treat Premier League interest like a green light to charge whatever they want. Don’t think it’s massively on us here, Milan knows they can squeeze more cash out of us. That’s the game, plain and simple.

35-40m for Thiaw? Is this the “value from abroad” everyone was asking for? Could literally spend even a tiny bit more and get someone a lot more proven for the money imo.

Nah. If we say he’s for sale for 150m it just empowers those goons to put in a derisory 135m offer. If we say he’s not for sale then they have to match what we’re asking for. Time to remind everyone that he’s our player and he goes when it suits us.

I agree with most of this, but from what I’ve seen, he rarely strikes the ball cleanly. That’s not something you can effectively coach at this level; you’d just have to accept it, like we do with Gordon or Bruno, and hope he offers enough in other areas to make up for that flaw. It doesn’t help, like you said, that he’s very panicky in front of goal too.

He’s a decent player, but the whole situation is just painful. Not only will we be replacing Isak with a downgrade in Jackson, but we’ll have basically funded Chelsea’s move for Pedro- the striker we actually wanted- and will end up with the castoff he was brought in to replace. It sucks all around, man.

Jackson isn’t as bad as people are making out, but replacing a star like Isak with a meme-player your rival just upgraded on twice this summer? And paying through the nose? Brutal optics.

Watch how quickly we get this one done

Oh