Parsley

Caulkin reckons that this mystery midfielder might be a loan recall rather than a new signing. Saivet would be my guess.

VFL Bochum have bid £19m. Burnley bid now rejected.

Not a chance they'll be able to get close to £13 million for Townsend if they keep him until the summer. I think (hope) they'll budge eventually.

Means nowt really. Carroll fee was agreed at about 5.30pm, and he still had time to travel to Liverpool and undergo a medical. Pretty certain Townsend could easily be withdrawn from their squad and a medical happen if a deal can be sorted right up to the teams being submitted to the ref. Aye, it's not an issue.

I'm not saying he's been 'screwed over'. I just don't buy for one second that we failed to sign players purely for reasons out of our control - at best we've decided it's 'too expensive'. We've chose not to sign them and it's looking like the news coming out at the start of the window is true. Mike Ashley has form for this so I'm not sure why people find the concept so hard to believe. From Caulkin: Rafa has pushed for 2 additions and wanted them. That's of greater concern to me. yeah, but Benitez hasn't been trying for what he would consider bad signings. I think he should have been backed. I know because I've been told. Hopefully things will settle down - January is always a tense month. (other bloke "I'm speculating that's the case. And that the "backing" would also have to come from MA. Not sure tbh.") has been an issue. Rafa has worked hard on transfers, permanents & loans. Anyway, let's see how next 24hrs plays out ... (other bloke "any reason why we aren't just buying Townsend now and saving ourselves £2m?") well I suppose the club would say that's an expensive outlay if they don't go up. But aye, maybe I'm just a mentalist. In terms of the players that Rafa has targeted though, I think this is a bit unfair. Cleverley - Went to a PL club Cairney - Quoted £20 million McCarthy - Not for sale according to Kenwright Loftus-Cheek - Staying at Chelsea according to Conte Delph - Looks like he'll be staying put at City I get what you're saying, and if Townsend doesn't come off then I'll be inclined to agree with you, but our failure in the transfer market owes more to the type of player we're looking at than anything else. And there's little point in burdening Rafa with players that he doesn't rate, regardless of whether we're short in certain areas.

Lansbury's also allegedly on around £40,000 a week at Villa, Hourihane on £28,000. Those are huge wages for Championship players who aren't particularly young and have no PL experience.

Anyways, we have tabled a loan fee according to Miles Starforth: http://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/newcastle-table-loan-offer-for-andros-townsend-1-8362329

Villa have also lost 2 CMs this window as well mind.

Thats the problem though when you have Carr and Chanley before you. They get nothing done. He must have been a fool to believe it in the first place, either that or he understands the difficulties in negotiations in January. I dont actually think we need anyone. If it was so so bad we have plenty we could recall from loans. Carr and Charnley are not the issue here. Charnley certainly didn't seem to have any issues brokering our 12 odd signings in the summer like.

Particularly so on this occasion IMO; I reckon Ashley's too proud to concede making a net loss on Townsend.

https://twitter.com/CaulkinTheTimes/status/826102086693695488 https://twitter.com/CaulkinTheTimes/status/826108716357410817 https://twitter.com/CaulkinTheTimes/status/826112273634693122

Deal being held up by Palace's insistence that we pay a loan fee on top of the £13 million in the summer according to Mr Ryder. http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/what-holding-up-deal-andros-12528362

Hanley linked with a loan move to Wolves. Can't see for the life of me why Rafa would let him and Mbemba both go.

So because Wolves etc beat us at SJP, does that mean they are certainties to beat us when we play them at home..? Not at all, everyone knows that a new game is a new game ; Leeds have improved since we played them, they have a manager who is relatively new to them and they appear to be responding to him...just as NUFC did when Rafa took over but it took a few weeks to get going. And just what is our 'worst'.? Losing at home to Blackburn or winning against the odds at Preston ? Too much viewing things through B&W specs and not enough cool thinking - if we lose to Brighton and Reading the bookies will soon change their tune so people have to remain practical - my view is that we are NOT certainties for automatic promotion IF we get injuries to key players and haven't signed anyone to cover. If Brighton suddenly lose Dunk, Knockaert and Murray to injuries/suspensions, do you think that they will also struggle to stay in the automatic promotion spots?

Personally can't wait for Lee Ryder to gleefully rubbish this later this evening.

http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/why-swansea-city-should-do-everything-in-their-power-to-keep-hold-of-modou-barrow/story-30082732-detail/story.html

Montero until the end of the season would be an excellent bit of business. Plays on the left as well. Still in talks for Townsend according to the same guy, and are prepared to wait until the summer to sign him permanently.

Sure he'd be a handful at this level like. You're confident we're effectively 3 months away from being a PL team again, though. Shouldn't we be looking at players capable of doing it at that level? There will surely be better players available to us in the summer if we get promoted though - and at less of a premium. In that sense, a decent loan signing or two might be more prudent than paying extortionate fees for average PL players. As much as I like Townsend for instance, £15 million or so in the summer with PL status secured should easily get someone better. Suggest someone better for that price, then. Can't think of any of the top of my head at the moment like. West Brom signed Chadli for less than £15 million in the summer though; Payet went to West Ham for £11 million or so. Saints signed Boufal for £15 million who, despite an inauspicious start, was one of the best players in France last season. Tadic moved for only £11 million 2 seasons ago. It's hardly unreasonable to suggest that we could do better than Townsend for a similar fee IMO. Edit: Shaqiri at Stoke as well

Sure he'd be a handful at this level like. You're confident we're effectively 3 months away from being a PL team again, though. Shouldn't we be looking at players capable of doing it at that level? There will surely be better players available to us in the summer if we get promoted though - and at less of a premium. In that sense, a decent loan signing or two might be more prudent than paying extortionate fees for average PL players. As much as I like Townsend for instance, £15 million or so in the summer with PL status secured should easily get someone better.

Suspect that this is our fallback if Townsend falls through.

Gaston Ramirez said to be unhappy at Boro. Suspect he'll have more lucrative options in the PL but he'd be a great fit here as a no. 10.

Reading losing.

That's a red card. Awful tackle.