ponsaelius

I don't think we'll keep Gillespie as third choice. Howe doesn't trust him enough to be that high in the pecking order IMO. He's out of contract this summer + he is not club HG.

Clark is out of contract. The other two I'd imagine another subsidised loan or paid off. Hayden had an agreed fee based on promotion. His injury problems perhaps make it unlikely they will buy for the agreed fee I reckon

FC Sudtirol beat Bari 1-0 in the play off semi final in Serie B. Still got a second leg to play and if through then they'll play either Parma or Cagliari in the final. That would be up there with the Luton story if they got up. Tiny club in German speaking part of Italy near Austrian border. Stadium only holds 5500, only came up from Serie C last season.

If you look at it that pot 1 is the 6 top champions + Europa and CL winners then it seems less unfair. IE that the 7th best league only gets a place in pot 1 through clearing (a bit like 7th getting a European place in England once the cups have been won by top 6 clubs). But in reality it is nearly always going to be the case that the CL winners have enough coefficient to be in pot 1 anyway.

Aye were both in the same group in Europa a few years back. While both fall in the MK Dons category for me in terms of opponent, they're probably up there near the top in cities I'd like to visit out of the potential draws. I've been lucky enough to already visit most of the cities in pots 1-3.

Miggy's goal Vs Fulham is probably the best, but there's something about it which means it just doesn't do it for me aesthetically. I voted for Maxi Vs Wolves.

Haaland and Mane are the exceptions but there's been quite a few Red Bull flops to the PL now. Both of those had an intimediary step before they went to a top PL club rather than direct. Keita and Werner at the expensive end. Leeds have had a nightmare with them - Augustin, Adams, Aaronsen, Wober etc. Not really a hit amongst them. Patson Daka at Leicester, Hwang at Wolves. All cost far more than their output. Minamino was on the cheap cos of a buyout clause but wasn't much cop either. RB clubs have a pretty distinct style of play and recruitment model that gives a platform for players to thrive but have enough money behind them that means asking for big £££ when they sell.

A creative attacking midfielder who can play wide, #10 and in a midfield 3 against weaker sides does sort of make sense. It's a profile we don't really have. Particularly if they can also shoot from distance and take set pieces. I don't watch much Germany football so don't know a huge amount about the Hungarian but from what I have seen he seems a bit more robust and physical than Maddison and more likely to adapt to our style of play. But Maddison has the advantage of already being PL proven.

Better wages?

150 million would be about what I expected. That should definitely get four quality players if spent effectively. Don't think we will actively try to sell any key players but also think the club would definitely be tempted to cash in on some if a team came and offered decent money for the likes of Maxi/Miggy/Murphy etc.

Yeah exactly The 20 million euros Spurs paid for Bentancur wasn't massively undervalued at the time, to be honest. He had been shite for Juve for a while and had definitely depreciated in value up to that point. Probably slightly under value but not hugely. I would definitely say Kulusevski being the more expensive of the two was reasonable.

Tbh as dodgy as that is, and annoying for any previous club, it's basically completely impossible to mitigate against or challenge legally. Unless it's extremely obvious like giving one away for free/nominal cost.

Delighted he got the goal. Still not convinced by him and agree with the above that he might end up like a flexible jack of all trades.

Hope Sheff Wed go up after all the shit Darren Moore got.

There's a very decent Messi World Cup documentary on iPlayer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mp3x

It's felt like Bazunu let everything in for most of the season too. All of the bottom on three can blame poor goalkeeping for a lot of their problems IMO.

Basically unless we sign a home grown goalkeeper we will almost certainly be naming a 23 man CL squad (With Longstaff and Dummett as the CG players). 22 if Dummett goes. Anderson will be on the B list until the following season so doesn't get named.

As said, you don't actually need to name 4 CG players. You can just leave the spots empty and have a smaller A list squad. Napoli had 3 at the start of the season (Husiak, Gaetano and Zanoli) so named a 24 man squad. Zanoli went out on loan in January in a swap for a more experienced player (Berezynski) and so they named a 23 man squad for the second half of the season. The CG player requirements really are less of an issue when you can call up as many U21s as you like. Especially as you start building a quality youth/reserve set up.

But you don't need to register him anyway for CL. He would be on the B list until he's 21 along with Anderson (you can have as many of them as you want). If you don't have the 4 CG players you just name fewer players. For example Napoli only named 23 players in their January squad as they only had two home grown players. But you can still call up any U21 player you like as long as you name them on the limitless B list.

Pot one is the Champions of the 7 best ranked leagues + Europa winner. 2-4 are ranked on the club's coefficient scores

Yeah obviously he's HG as he was at Carlisle. But we're fine on that (and will likely remain as such) - it's the club grown players we're short on.

He was but left at 16. UEFA's HG rules are based around being at a club for at least three years between 15 and 21.

Gillespie isn't HG.

Love the lad and he's fine as a squad player going forward next year, but he's defo one you'd consider selling if a club came in with a decent offer. He will be next to useless once his pace starts to go.

Humming and barring about switching over to the relegation games like. Kinda annoyed we're still playing for something here tbh