Pilko

TalkSport (yes, I know) already saying Wissa's preferred choice would be Spurs

It's difficult, because I'd rather we were challenging for these sorts of top players than breezing to sign inferior players that nobody else is bothered about signing. But, it feels like as soon as our interest is made public some other fucking club piles in and suddenly we were never even a realistic prospect for the player.

We're class at making bids for players who have fuck all intention of joining us like.

Best guess: £35m opening bid for Wissa rejected Spurs get involved £45m plus clauses bid accepted Man U mega bid for Mbuemo accepted Brentford pull out of Wissa sale We then learn he only wanted Spurs anyway

Please let this be the last time we expend energy on trying to sign this bloke.

If we don't get Ekitike now it will feel a tad disappointing. There's only so much getting excited about us chasing top players that never seemed that arsed about joining us that can happen before it starts to get a bit annoying. Retaining Isak is definitely the priority, of course, but it would be nice to win one of these competitive situations against the cartel lot for a change.

Indykaila FFS cwarr07 reporting that Ekitike is sharing bunk beds with Tranquillo Barnetta at Jesmond Dene House will be next.

I think Liverpool are worried Ekitike is too much of a high spend and aren't willing to back a big bid like we are. Their number one target will be Isak and the links with Watkins, Mateta etc make a lot of sense as they'll make do with one of those lads for a year before getting Isak next summer if we're digging our heels in. Therefore, they're pretending to have an interest in Ekitike to both force the price we pay up and to try and force our hand to buy Isak's replacement, as they know either way (sell now or sell next summer) we're unlikely to want to enter the market for his replacement with £150m or so in our pocket, as we'll end up paying an inflated fee for someone inferior. The only risk for them is Isak signs a new deal after we get Ekitike. But, you'd imagine he'll have been sounded out over the move and might have given it a 'Marc Guehi' straight bat from last summer - i.e. willing to do the move but not going to agitate for it.

Fair enough, I do think he was key that year but as you say it's been debated before.

He was an absolutely key part of a side that finished fourth only two years ago.

£120m, get tae fuck. Might get you his left leg.

I'll be really sad to see Sean go but it's 100% the right time. No league start since December means the writing is on the wall a bit. Glad that we've got a good fee and he's going somewhere I think he'll thrive - into a midfield where he'll need to get through tons of work, be disciplined as fuck and spoil against the bigger teams. He'll do class for them. A really nice story that he broke through under Rafa, experienced hard times under Bruce both on a team and personal level, but remained to be a cornerstone of the side that first finished fourth and made the cup final and also remained to lift the first trophy. A real grafter who played well above his levels for a while before we went and signed some big hitting midfielders and was a huge part of the early new era. A very successful graduate of the academy to play well over 200 times for the club and also fetch a decent fee at a good time, hope he becomes a crowd fave at Leeds. He'll be remembered fondly and should get a good appreciative reception whenever he returns to SJP. Stick a couple past the sad mackem bastards for us Sean and really hope the move works out. You've been class.

It future proofs against it massively. If we sell Isak this summer or next summer, we have a high-level replacement already in situ without the issue of teams knowing we've got £150m+ in our sky rocket to spend and them all hoisting the prices up for inferior players. If indeed he decides to stay because of this great show of ambition then that can only be a good thing.

Is it just me but after the slowest progress summer ever this is developing at a rate of knots

The pace this is suddenly developing at we seem to be hitting our stride. Love it.

This ref is a fucking joke, happy to wave yellows like confetti early and then ignore loads of similar offences for the same players time and time again because he doesn't fancy sending them off.

If someone gets a red card here would it carry over to their league season? I only ask as I feel like PSG's entire team look like they want to deck the nearest Chelsea player.

The fuck are PSG playing at here? They've been absolutely chod.

For fucks sake man.

Urgh The thick lad with the shite hair 1-0 All booting off afterwards as well

Wasn't this meant to kick off about ten minutes ago?

It's not like the Yanks need an excuse to wheel it out now, is it?

Can we have a repeat of the performance and result last time PSG took the field in a final, please.