The Prophet

At this point, it's more of a shock if Chelsea aren't interested in a player. It does seem that he's their back up to Ekitike though.

He's been saying the same thing for around a fortnight.

Aye, looking at some fag packet maths, it seems like we'd need a sale or two to fund Pedro and Elanga.

Thought the reports at the time were that we wanted both. Can't really remember though.

Wasn't he more or less signed, before he joined Brighton, but we pulled out when Watford started dicking around with the fee? Shame, would have cost around half the price.

I wonder if there's also an element of his agent angling for better terms?

Chelsea just buying City academy products?

Forest are probably having this exact discussion about Elanga.

There's not a single bit of useful information in that Tweet, but he's still pushing it. Wonder who's payroll he's on in this case.

Fair. McGrath isn't terrible or out, just a bit hit and miss. Wondered if anyone had backed it.

Anyone other than Mike McGrath report this?

If Chelsea seem more interested in Ekitike who's a very similar profile.

Edward wasn't wrong about a small pool of players was he?

That's what I mean, it doesn't happen very often. Poor finishing or decision making tend to be much bigger issues in the final third.

Can only think of West Ham and Everton (both at home), where we struggled against a low block last season. Our xG, goals scored, etc were generally fine across the season as a whole.

I agree that we need more ability and composure on the ball. I think Botman and Hall coming back into the team, with Trafford and a RCB coming in should help our control. Fingers crossed we see more of Miley in the midfield too. With that in mind, I don't mind our front three being a bit more direct. Elanga plays more narrow than Murphy, which would allow Tino to overlap more, while his ability to go both ways means he's not as one dimensional either. I think we might be going for something like that early Klopp-Liverpool style. Ironically they bought a lot of PL proven players too.

What I'm saying is that he has back-to-back seasons of 14+ goal contributions at the highest level. That kind of pedigree won't come cheap, we'd have to be prepared to gamble. Even some of the other names mentioned in here Dibling, Semenyo, Akliouche, Gittens, etc. You're looking at circa £45 million+ and some of those names are arguably a poorer fit or are more rough around the edges.

The questions about his price are fair enough, but I doubt you're going to get a winger with that kind of output for much less.

Probably too one footed and a bit slow for what Howe is looking for, but a lovely footballer for sure.

His pace and ability to deliver the ball off both feet gives him an extra dimension to Murphy. We don't need to reinvevt the wheel in the forward line.

Someone's been on FBRef again.

Pretty much exactly where I'm at.

While you've got Paul on the blower, can you ask him who are CB target is?

£60 million.